Shoucheng Zhang | |
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| Born | (1963-02-15)February 15, 1963 Shanghai, China |
| Died | December 1, 2018(2018-12-01) (aged 55) |
| Alma mater | Fudan University Freie Universität Berlin Stony Brook University (PhD) |
| Known for | Quantum spin Hall effect Topological insulators Field theory ofquantum Hall effect SO(5) theory ofhigh-temperature superconductivity |
| Awards | Europhysics Prize (2010) Oliver Buckley Prize (2012) Dirac Medal of the ICTP (2012) Physics Frontiers Prize in Fundamental Physics (2013) Franklin Medal (2015) NAS (2015) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | Stanford University Fudan University |
| Doctoral advisor | Peter van Nieuwenhuizen |
Shoucheng Zhang (Chinese:张首晟; February 15, 1963 – December 1, 2018) was a Chinese-American physicist who was the JG Jackson and CJ Wood professor ofphysics atStanford University. He was acondensed matter theorist known for his work ontopological insulators, thequantum Hall effect, thequantum spin Hall effect,spintronics, andhigh-temperature superconductivity. According to theNational Academy of Sciences:[1]
He discovered a new state of matter called topological insulator in which electrons can conduct along the edge without dissipation, enabling a new generation of electronic devices with much lower power consumption. For this ground breaking work he received numerous international awards, including the Buckley Prize, the Dirac Medal and Prize, the Europhysics Prize, the Physics Frontiers Prize and the Benjamin Franklin Medal.
Zhang founded theventure capital firmDanhua Capital.[2]
Zhang was born inShanghai, China in 1963. He was accepted byFudan University in 1978 at the age of 15, and went abroad in 1980 to study at theFree University of Berlin inWest Berlin, where he received his B.S. degree in 1983. He then pursued his graduate studies atStony Brook University (then referred to asState University of New York, Stony Brook). At Stony Brook, he initially studied supergravity (and earned his Ph.D. in 1987) with his advisorPeter van Nieuwenhuizen, before turning to condensed matter on the advice of his personal hero, Nobel laureateChen-Ning Yang. In the final year at Stony Brook, he switched to condensed matter physics under the supervision ofSteven Kivelson.
Zhang was a postdoctoral Fellow at ITP in Santa Barbara from 1987 to 1989. He then joined IBM Almaden Research Center as a Research Staff Member from 1989 to 1993. Thereafter, he joined Stanford University as assistant professor of physics. Beginning in 2004, he concurrently held (by courtesy appointment) titles of Professor ofApplied Physics and Professor ofElectrical Engineering at Stanford University. In 2007, the "quantum spin Hall effect" discovered by Zhang was named one of the "Top Ten Important Scientific Breakthroughs in the World" byScience Magazine. In 2010, he was named the J. G. Jackson and C. J. Wood Professor in Physics.[3]
In 2009, Zhang was chosen to be a part of an expert panel for theThousand Talents Program. In 2013, Zhang created Danhua Capital, aventure capital firm, which raised $434.5 million across two funds.[2] Danhua Capital's major investors include state-owned Beijing government enterprise Zhongguancun Development Group (ZDG), which has been linked to the Chinese technology transfer programMade in China 2025.[4] He also served as an independent non-executive director at Lenovo Group and at Meitu.[5]
Zhang's wife Barbara is a software engineer at IBM. They met in kindergarten, in Shanghai. Together they have two children, a son Brian and a daughter Stephanie.[6]
Zhang died in San Francisco on December 1, 2018, at the age of 55, in an apparent suicide. His family said in a statement that he died "after fighting a battle withdepression."[7][8][9]
Zhang was one of the founders of the field of topological insulators. He made one of the first theoretical proposals of the quantum spin Hall effect. Soon after the initial theoretical proposal, his group theoretically predicted the first realistic quantum spin Hall material in HgTe quantum wells.[10] This prediction was soon confirmed experimentally,[11] launching worldwide research activities. Subsequently, his group predicted numerous novel topological states of matter and topological effects, including theBi2Se3 family of 3Dtopological insulators,[12] the topological magneto-electric effect,[13] the quantum anomalous Hall effect inmagnetic topological insulators, time-reversal invariant topological superconductors, and the realization of a chiral topological superconductor and of chiralMajorana fermions using thequantum anomalous Hall state in proximity with a superconductor. Most of these predicted properties have now been experimentally observed.
Earlier, Zhang also made significant contributions to other areas of physics. He and collaborators derived a topological (Chern–Simons form) quantum field theoretic description of the novel properties of fractional quantum Hall liquids,[14] and proposed a global phase diagram for the quantum Hall states with many features that have had since been experimentally observed. He generalized the theory of fractional quantum Hall effect to higher dimensions and related it to fundamental particle physics. He also proposed an influential theory ofhigh-temperature superconductivity based on an extended symmetry principle.[15]
In early 2000, Zhang and collaborators revitalized the field of spintronics by proposing an intrinsic spin Hall effect and relating it to geometrical phases in quantum mechanics. This proposal stimulated extensive theoretical and experimental work, and also contributed to later developments concerning the quantum spin Hall effect and topological insulators more generally.
Between the years 2010–2015, Zhang and his group of physicists atStanford University wrote three theoretical papers where they successfully showed how to testEttore Majorana's theory ofMajorana fermion, or what had previously been only a scientific hypothesis that a particle can be its ownantiparticle, without the need of external forces having the same mass with the opposite charge of the electron.[16]
Zhang was a fellow of theAmerican Physical Society and a fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received theGuggenheim fellowship in 2007, the Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize in 2009, theEurophysics Prize in 2010,[17] theOliver Buckley Prize in 2012, theDirac Medal and Prize in 2012, the Physics Frontiers Prize in 2013, the "Nobel-class" Citation Laureates by Thomson Reuters in 2014,[18] and theBenjamin Franklin Medal in 2015. He was identified as one of the top candidates for the Nobel Prize by Thomson Reuters in 2014.[19] He was elected as a member of the USNational Academy of Sciences in 2015.
Zhang's wife Barbara, whom he has known since kindergarten, is a software engineer at IBM.
Five physicists who brought us the quantum spin-Hall effect and topological insulators have been awarded this year's Europhysics Prize from the European Physical Society's condensed-matter division. The winners are Shoucheng Zhang of Stanford University; Charles Kane and Eugene Mele of the University of Pennsylvania; and Hartmut Buhmann and Laurens Molenkamp of Würzburg University in Germany.
For the theoretical prediction and experimental observation of the quantum spin Hall effect, opening the field of topological insulators.
The three condensed matter physicists, F. Duncan M. Haldane (Princeton University, USA), Charles L. Kane (University of Pennsylvania, USA) and Shoucheng Zhang (Stanford University, USA), whose research paved the way for advancing knowledge about topological insulators were presented their Dirac Medals at an award ceremony held on 4 July 2013 at ICTP.
2013 Physics Frontiers Prize in Fundamental Physics: For the theoretical prediction and experimental discovery of topological insulators
Citation: With Charles Kane and Eugene Mele, for their groundbreaking theoretical contributions leading to the discovery of a new class of materials called topological insulators, and for their prediction of specific compounds exhibiting the novel properties expected of these new materials.
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