News & Events - 1003

The HKUST Department of Physics is thrilled to announce that Prof. Hoi Chun (Adrian) Po and Prof. Haruki Watanabe have received the prestigious 2026 Frontiers of Science Award (FSA) in Condensed Matter Physics. Awarded by the International Congress for Basic Science (ICBS), this global honor recognizes their groundbreaking collaborative research on symmetry-based indicators. Their elegant mathematical frameworks have fundamentally revolutionized how physicists systematically predict and discover novel topological quantum materials. The awards will be formally presented at the ICBS congress in Beijing this August. Link for Frontiers of Science Award (FSA) Read more

Congratulations to Assistant Professor Jue Wang for being awarded the prestigious Croucher Tak Wah Mak Innovation Award 2026 by the Croucher Foundation in recognition of his groundbreaking research in experimental 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. As an experimental condensed matter physicist working on low-dimensional materials and strongly correlated phenomena, Prof. Wang aims to realize novel quantum matters, deepen our understanding of them, and unlock their potential in the ongoing quantum revolution. To achieve these goals, he leads the development and application of a variety of optical spectroscopies and techniques, especially those using ultrafast lasers, together with nanofabrication of electronic devices, electrical measurements, and low-temperature techniques capable of cooling down electrons down to the 10 mK range. https://physics.hkust.edu.hk/people/jue-wang-wangjue Prof. Wang joined HKUST as an Assistant Professor of Physics in 2025. He received a B.S. degree from Peking University in 2014, and a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 2020, advised by Professor Xiaoyang Zhu. Prior to joining HKUST, he was a Harvard Quantum Initiative Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University, co-advised by Professor Philip Kim and Professor Hongkun Park.    Press releases: HKUST: Croucher Innovation Award 2026 Croucher Foundation: Innovation Awards 2026 Read more

The HKUST Department of Physics is proud to announce that Chair Prof. LAW Kam Tuen of the Department of Physics has been named a “New Cornerstone Investigator“ by the Tencent-funded New Cornerstone Science Foundation. Prof. Law is among 35 distinguished scientists selected this year from across the nation and the sole honoree from Hong Kong.   University Press Releases: HKUST Prof. LAW Kam-Tuen Named “New Cornerstone Investigator” – Hong Kong’s Only Honoree this Year 科大羅錦團教授獲選「新基石研究員」　成為本年度香港地區唯一獲選者 科大罗锦团教授获选「新基石研究员」　成为本年度香港地区唯一获选者 Read more

The HKUST Department of Physics is proud to announce the award of the Future Science Prize by the Future Science Prize Foundation to our colleague, Prof. Xi DAI, which he shared equally with Prof. Zhong FANG (Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences) and Prof. Hong DING (Tsung-Dao Lee Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University), “for their contributions to the computational prediction and experimental realization of topological electronic materials.”   University Press Releases: HKUST Scholar Prof. DAI Xi Awarded 2025 Future Science Prize – China’s Nobel Equivalent 香港科大學者戴希教授問鼎有「中國諾貝爾獎」之稱的2025未來科學大獎   Future Science Prize: https://www.futureprize.org/en/laureates/list.html Read more

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   Read more

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Congratulations to Prof. Che Ting Chan, Prof. Jensen Li, and Prof. Bei Zeng of the Department of Physics for important recognition of their research achievements. Prof. Che Ting Chan was elected Member of the Hong Kong Academy of Sciences (ASHK). The ASHK was founded in 2015 with the purpose to promote the development, advancement, and teaching of science and technology in Hong Kong, to educate and inform the public on issues pertaining to science and technology, and to foster Hong Kong as a centre of scientific excellence. Elected Membership in the Academy represents the highest academic honour in the field of science and technology that Hong Kong peers can bestow. Prof. Jensen Li was elected Member of the Hong Kong Young Academy of Sciences (YASHK). Established as a chapter of the ASHK in 2018, the YASHK is comprised of members in their early and mid-career who contribute jointly with the ASHK to the advancement and promotion of science and technology in Hong Kong. Prof. Bei Zeng was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS). Prof. Zeng was nominated for this prestigious Fellowship by the Division of Quantum Information, which cited her “For pioneering work and contributions in quantum information science (QIS), including error correction and fault-tolerance, many-body entanglement, quantum tomography, quantum marginals, and QIS applications in quantum matter, and for her long-term contribution to QIS services and education.” The APS Fellowship Program was established to recognize members who have made exceptional contributions to the physics enterprise through outstanding research, leadership or service, or application of physics to science and technology. Each year, no more than 0.5% of the total APS membership is elected for Fellowship after a rigorous and competitive review process.  Read more

Congratulations to Prof. Gyu-Boong Jo, Prof. Jiannong Wang, and Prof. Jingdi Zhang (left to right) in the Department of Physics for important recognition of their research achievements. Associate Prof. Gyu-Boong Jo has been named an RGC Research Fellow by the Hong Kong Research Grant Committee (RGC) in recognition of his outstanding academic and research achievements. Prof. Jo’s selection for the Fellowship was made in support of his cutting-edge work titled “Emulating New Quantum Matter using an Atomic Quantum Simulator with Ultracold Atoms”, in which he controls an ensemble of atoms in a quantum simulator to tackle intractable problems in quantum science.  Chair Prof. Jiannong Wang, who currently serves as the Head of the Department, was elected Fellow of the Physical Society of Hong Kong. The citation for this prestigious honor recognized Prof. Wang “for her groundbreaking discoveries and exploration of semiconductor heterostructures and quantum materials”. Assistant Prof. Jingdi Zhang has been selected to be a recipient of a 2021 NSFC Excellent Young Scientists Scheme (Hong Kong and Macau) Award by the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC). This award recognizes Prof. Zhang as one of the most prominent and promising young scientists in Hong Kong and Macau for his innovative use of state-of-the-art time- and energy-resolved ultrafast terahertz spectroscopy to study ultrafast non-equilibrium dynamics in quantum materials by means of light-matter interaction. Read more

 Prof Tao Liu was awarded 2016 School of Science Research Award.   Read more

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