The American Physical Society (APS), on Oct 24, announced that Xue Qikun, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, professor at Tsinghua University, and president of the Southern University of Science and Technology, was awarded this year's Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Physics Prize.

The Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Physics Prize, acknowledged as the highest honor in condensed matter physics, was awarded to a physicist of Chinese nationality for the first time since its inception in 1953.

Xue and Ashvin Vishwanath from Harvard University were awarded the prize for their "groundbreaking theoretical and experimental studies on the collective electronic properties of materials that reflect topological aspects of their band structure." Xue's primary achievements include experimental research on topological insulators and the innovative breakthrough of experimentally discovering the quantum anomalous Hall effect in a magnetic topological insulator.

Xue received his BSc degree from Shandong University in 1984, and earned his PhD in condensed matter physics from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in 1994. He became a professor at the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in 1999, and then moved to Tsinghua University in 2005, where he still works as a professor in the Department of Physics.

Since 2008, the research team led by Xue has made significant advancements in the experimental research on topological insulators, which features the quantum anomalous Hall effect as one of the major scientific goals. By the end of 2012, his team had experimentally discovered the quantum anomalous Hall effect for the first time, which was published in Science in March 2013. This is an important physical effect that the Chinese scientists independently observed throughout their experiments, as well as a significant scientific discovery for fundamental research worldwide.

Source: Official website of Tsinghua University, APS