Congratulations to Assistant Professor Xueyang Song for being awarded the prestigious 2025 Croucher Tak Wah Mak Innovation Award 2025 by the Croucher Foundation in recognition of her groundbreaking research in theoretical condensed matter physics.
Established in 2012, the Croucher Innovation Awards aim to identify and provide substantial support to a small number of exceptionally talented “rising stars” in science and engineering disciplines at a formative stage of their careers. Recipients are selected or their distinguished doctoral and post-doctoral work, internationally competitive research achievements, and high-impact contributions to their field.
Prof. Song's research focuses on "decoding" quantum materials – substances with bizarre properties like superconductivity and the ability to make particles behave as fractions of themselves. Specializing in quantum materials like frustrated quantum magnets, fractional quantum Hall states, and exotic superconductors, Prof. Song investigates emergent phenomena such as fractionalization and gauge structures. Her research employs cutting-edge frameworks of symmetry, anomaly, and topology to decode physical properties and phase transitions in advanced materials, particularly in 2D systems (e.g., Moiré system). By combining formal theoretical tools, analytical models with computational simulations, she bridges fundamental physics with real-world applications, including energy-efficient materials and novel devices.
Prof. Song joined HKUST as an Assistant Professor of Physics in 2023. Her passion for physics emerged during high school, where she competed in the 14th Asian Physics Olympiad (APhO) and earned a gold medal. She pursued her undergraduate studies at Peking University, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree, before advancing to Harvard University for her PhD in physics. Prior to joining HKUST as a faculty member, Prof. Song honed her research skills as a Moore postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Press Releases:
HKUST: Croucher Innovation Award 2025
Croucher Foundation: Innovation Awards 2025