Biography
Dr. Ying Lia Li (Lia) completed her combined undergraduate and master’s degree in physics at Imperial College before working at BAE Systems. Between 2012-2016 she pursued a Ph.D. at University College London developing optical sensors and exploring macroscopic quantum state preparation. Her work involves coupling optical resonances in microresonators to mechanical motion to sense displacement over 1000x smaller than a single atom. In 2016 she was selected for the Nature/Entrepreneur First Innovation Forum in Quantum Technologies. After completing her PhD, she was awarded an EPSRC Postdoctoral Fellowship, the prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Fellowship and an executive fellowship in entrepreneurship from Bristol University’s Quantum Technology Enterprise Centre. Since 2016 she’s been focused on commercializing optomechanical inertial sensors after completing successful field-trials of a hand-fabricated accelerometer funded by Dstl. Lia founded Zero Point Motion in 2020 and will transition to full-time CEO in 2022 after raising investment. Lia was awarded the 2021 Institute of Physics Clifford Paterson Medal and Prize.