Xue Qikun works in the lab. Courtesy of Southern University of Science and Technology
XUE QIKUN, president of the Southern University of Science and Technology, has won the 2024 Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Physics Prize, the American Physical Society announced Tuesday.
This is the first time that a Chinese physicist has received the award since 1953. The award is widely recognized as the highest international accolade in the field of condensed matter physics.
As China’s first winner of the award, Xue is highly regarded by the international physics community for his contributions to the field of topological insulators and his work on the quantum anomalous Hall effect.
Xue, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a professor at Tsinghua University, shared the honor with Ashvin Vishwanath, a professor at Harvard University, for their pioneering theoretical and experimental research on the collective electronic properties of materials with topological aspects in their band structure.
Xue and his team were the first to achieve the groundbreaking experimental observation of the quantum anomalous Hall effect in 2012. Their findings were published in the journal Science in 2013, marking a milestone in the field of condensed matter physics.
Looking ahead, Xue expressed his commitment to continue pushing the boundaries of scientific exploration. He said, “Our immediate goal is to replicate the quantum anomalous Hall effect at liquid nitrogen temperatures, and our more ambitious aspiration is to observe this quantum phenomenon at room temperature.”
Xue was quoted as telling Shenzhen Economic Daily that Shenzhen has a very strong foundation in high-tech industries, and his team’s achievements are expected to contribute to the city’s industrial development.
At the same time, he hopes that Shenzhen can pay more attention to basic research to generate more original scientific breakthroughs, positioning Shenzhen at the forefront of scientific and technological innovation. (Shenzhen Daily)
