Zhang Shoucheng
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Shoucheng Zhang (; February 15, 1963 – December 1, 2018) was a Chinese-American physicist who was the JG Jackson and CJ Wood professor of
physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
at
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
. He was a
condensed matter Condensed matter physics is the field of physics that deals with the macroscopic and microscopic physical properties of matter, especially the solid and liquid phases, that arise from electromagnetic forces between atoms and electrons. More gen ...
theorist known for his work on
topological insulator A topological insulator is a material whose interior behaves as an electrical insulator while its surface behaves as an electrical conductor, meaning that electrons can only move along the surface of the material. A topological insulator is an ...
s, the
quantum Hall effect The quantum Hall effect (or integer quantum Hall effect) is a quantized version of the Hall effect which is observed in two-dimensional electron systems subjected to low temperatures and strong magnetic fields, in which the Hall resistance exhi ...
, the
quantum spin Hall effect The quantum spin Hall state is a state of matter proposed to exist in special, two-dimensional semiconductors that have a quantized spin-Hall conductance and a vanishing charge-Hall conductance. The quantum spin Hall state of matter is the cousin o ...
,
spintronics Spintronics (a portmanteau meaning spin transport electronics), also known as spin electronics, is the study of the intrinsic spin of the electron and its associated magnetic moment, in addition to its fundamental electronic charge, in solid-st ...
, and
high-temperature superconductivity High-temperature superconductivity (high-c or HTS) is superconductivity in materials with a critical temperature (the temperature below which the material behaves as a superconductor) above , the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. They are "high- ...
. According to the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
:
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 the
venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...
firm Danhua Capital.


Biography

Zhang was born in
Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...
, China in 1963. He was accepted by
Fudan University Fudan University (FDU) is a public university, national public university in Yangpu, Shanghai, Yangpu, Shanghai, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education (China), Ministry of Education and is co-funded with the Shanghai Municipal ...
in 1978 at the age of 15, and went abroad in 1980 to study at the
Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public university, public research university in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in West Berlin in 1948 with American support during the early Cold War period a ...
in
West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...
, where he received his B.S. degree in 1983. He then pursued his graduate studies at
Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...
(then referred to as
State University of New York, Stony Brook State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...
). At Stony Brook, he initially studied supergravity (and earned his Ph.D. in 1987) with his advisor
Peter van Nieuwenhuizen Peter van Nieuwenhuizen (; born October 26, 1938) is a Dutch theoretical physicist. He is a distinguished Professor at Stony Brook University in the United States. Widely known for his contributions to String theory, Supersymmetry, Supergrav ...
, before turning to condensed matter on the advice of his personal hero, Nobel laureate
Chen-Ning Yang Yang Chen-Ning or Chen-Ning Yang (; born 1 October 1922), also known as C. N. Yang or by the English name Frank Yang, is a Chinese theoretical physicist who made significant contributions to statistical mechanics, integrable systems, gauge the ...
. In the final year at Stony Brook, he switched to condensed matter physics under the supervision of
Steven Kivelson Steven Allan Kivelson (born May 13, 1954) is an American theoretical physicist known for several major contributions to condensed matter physics. He is the Prabhu Goel Family Professor at Stanford University. Before joining Stanford in 2004, he w ...
. 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 of
Applied Physics Applied physics is the application of physics to solve scientific or engineering problems. It is usually considered a bridge or a connection between physics and engineering. "Applied" is distinguished from "pure" by a subtle combination of fac ...
and Professor of
Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
at Stanford University. In 2007, the "
quantum spin Hall effect The quantum spin Hall state is a state of matter proposed to exist in special, two-dimensional semiconductors that have a quantized spin-Hall conductance and a vanishing charge-Hall conductance. The quantum spin Hall state of matter is the cousin o ...
" discovered by Zhang was named one of the "Top Ten Important Scientific Breakthroughs in the World" by ''Science Magazine''. In 2010, he was named the J. G. Jackson and C. J. Wood Professor in Physics. In 2009, Zhang was chosen to be a part of an expert panel for the Thousand Talents Program. In 2013, Zhang created Danhua Capital, a
venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...
firm, which raised $434.5 million across two funds. Danhua Capital's major investors include state-owned Beijing government enterprise Zhongguancun Development Group (ZDG), which has been linked to the Chinese technology transfer program
Made in China 2025 Made in China 2025 (MIC25, MIC 2025, or MIC2025; )Made in China 2025
. CSIS, June 1, 20 ...
. He also served as an independent non-executive director at Lenovo Group and at Meitu. 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. 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 with depression."


Scientific achievements

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. This prediction was soon confirmed experimentally, launching worldwide research activities. Subsequently, his group predicted numerous novel topological states of matter and topological effects, including the Bi2Se3 family of 3D
topological insulator A topological insulator is a material whose interior behaves as an electrical insulator while its surface behaves as an electrical conductor, meaning that electrons can only move along the surface of the material. A topological insulator is an ...
s, the topological magneto-electric effect, the quantum anomalous Hall effect in
magnetic topological insulator In physics, magnetic topological insulators are three dimensional magnetic materials with a non-trivial topological index protected by a symmetry other than time-reversal. This type of material conducts electricity on its outer surface, but its ...
s, time-reversal invariant topological superconductors, and the realization of a chiral topological superconductor and of chiral
Majorana fermion In particle physics a Majorana fermion (, uploaded 19 April 2013, retrieved 5 October 2014; and also based on the pronunciation of physicist's name.) or Majorana particle is a fermion that is its own antiparticle. They were hypothesised by E ...
s using the quantum 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 In mathematics, the Chern–Simons forms are certain secondary characteristic classes. The theory is named for Shiing-Shen Chern and James Harris Simons, co-authors of a 1974 paper entitled "Characteristic Forms and Geometric Invariants," from whic ...
) quantum field theoretic description of the novel properties of fractional quantum Hall liquids, 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 of
high-temperature superconductivity High-temperature superconductivity (high-c or HTS) is superconductivity in materials with a critical temperature (the temperature below which the material behaves as a superconductor) above , the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. They are "high- ...
based on an extended symmetry principle. 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 at
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
wrote three theoretical papers where they successfully showed how to test
Ettore Majorana Ettore Majorana ( ,, uploaded 19 April 2013, retrieved 14 December 2019 ; 5 August 1906 – disappeared 25 March 1938) was an Italian theoretical physicist who worked on neutrino masses. Majorana was a supporter of Italian Fascism and a member of ...
's theory of
Majorana fermion In particle physics a Majorana fermion (, uploaded 19 April 2013, retrieved 5 October 2014; and also based on the pronunciation of physicist's name.) or Majorana particle is a fermion that is its own antiparticle. They were hypothesised by E ...
, or what had previously been only a scientific hypothesis that a particle can be its own
antiparticle In particle physics, every type of particle of "ordinary" matter (as opposed to antimatter) is associated with an antiparticle with the same mass but with opposite physical charges (such as electric charge). For example, the antiparticle of the ...
, without the need of external forces having the same mass with the opposite charge of the electron.


Honors and awards

Zhang was a fellow of the
American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...
and a fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
. He received the
Guggenheim fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...
in 2007, the Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize in 2009, the
Europhysics Prize The EPS CMD Europhysics Prize is awarded since 1975 by the Condensed Matter Division of the European Physical Society, in recognition of recent work (completed in the 5 years preceding the attribution of the award) by one or more individuals, for s ...
in 2010, the
Oliver Buckley Prize The Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize is an annual award given by the American Physical Society "to recognize and encourage outstanding theoretical or experimental contributions to condensed matter physics." It was endowed by AT&T Bell Labor ...
in 2012, the
Dirac Medal The Dirac Medal or Dirac prize can refer to different awards named in honour of the physics Nobel Laureate Paul Dirac. * Dirac Medal (ICTP), awarded by the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste * Dirac Medal (IOP), awar ...
and Prize in 2012, the Physics Frontiers Prize in 2013, the "Nobel-class" Citation Laureates by Thomson Reuters in 2014, and the Benjamin Franklin Medal in 2015. He was identified as one of the top candidates for the Nobel Prize by Thomson Reuters in 2014. He was elected as a member of the US
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
in 2015. *Fellow,
American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...
*Fellow,
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
*
Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon individuals who have demonstrated d ...
, 2007 *Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize, 2009 *
Europhysics Prize The EPS CMD Europhysics Prize is awarded since 1975 by the Condensed Matter Division of the European Physical Society, in recognition of recent work (completed in the 5 years preceding the attribution of the award) by one or more individuals, for s ...
, 2010 *
Oliver Buckley Prize The Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize is an annual award given by the American Physical Society "to recognize and encourage outstanding theoretical or experimental contributions to condensed matter physics." It was endowed by AT&T Bell Labor ...
, 2012 *
Dirac Medal The Dirac Medal or Dirac prize can refer to different awards named in honour of the physics Nobel Laureate Paul Dirac. * Dirac Medal (ICTP), awarded by the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste * Dirac Medal (IOP), awar ...
of the ICTP, 2012 *Physics Frontier Prize, 2013 *"Nobel-class" Citation Laureates by Thomson Reuters, 2014 *Benjamin Franklin Medal, 2015 *Member,
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(NAS) *Foreign Member,
Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS; ) is the national academy for natural sciences and the highest consultancy for science and technology of the People's Republic of China. It is the world's largest research organization, with 106 research i ...


Selected publications

*"Quantum spin hall effect in
HgTe Mercury telluride (HgTe) is a binary chemical compound of mercury and tellurium. It is a semi-metal related to the II-VI group of semiconductor materials. Alternative names are mercuric telluride and mercury(II) telluride. HgTe occurs in nature ...
quantum well theoretically predicted" *"Quantum spin hall effect in
HgTe Mercury telluride (HgTe) is a binary chemical compound of mercury and tellurium. It is a semi-metal related to the II-VI group of semiconductor materials. Alternative names are mercuric telluride and mercury(II) telluride. HgTe occurs in nature ...
quantum well experimentally demonstrated" *" Topological field theory of time-reversal invariant insulators" *"Topological insulators in Bi2Se3, Bi2Te3 and Sb2Te3" *Topological insulators and superconductors". ''
Reviews of Modern Physics ''Reviews of Modern Physics'' (often abbreviated RMP) is a quarterly Peer review, peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Physical Society. It was established in 1929 and the current editor-in-chief is Michael Thoennessen. The jo ...
''


References


External links


Former Stanford profile page of Shoucheng Zhang (via Archive.org)Former Stanford web page of S.C.Zhang Group (via Archive.org)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zhang, Shoucheng 1963 births 2018 suicides 2018 deaths American physicists Chinese emigrants to the United States Foreign members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Free University of Berlin alumni Fudan University alumni Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Physicists from Shanghai Stanford University Department of Physics faculty Stony Brook University alumni Academic staff of Tsinghua University Educators from Shanghai Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize winners Suicides in California Fellows of the American Physical Society Benjamin Franklin Medal (Franklin Institute) laureates