Eugene John "Gene" Mele is a professor of
physics at the
University of Pennsylvania, where he researches quantum electric phenomena in condensed matter.
Biography
Mele graduated from
Saint Joseph's University
Saint Joseph's University (SJU or St. Joe's) is a private Jesuit university in Philadelphia and Lower Merion, Pennsylvania. The university was founded by the Society of Jesus in 1851 as Saint Joseph's College. Saint Joseph's is the seventh olde ...
in 1972 and obtained a Ph.D. in physics from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1978. After working as a research assistant at the
Xerox Research Center in
Webster, New York, he was appointed assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania in 1981 and promoted to full professor in 1989. Since 2014 he has also been visiting faculty at
Loughborough University
Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for post-nominals) is a public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university since 1966, but it dates back to 1909, when L ...
in the United Kingdom.
Research
Together with
Charles Kane, he predicted the
quantum spin Hall effect in graphene which later was called time-reversal invariant
topological insulator for the corresponding two dimensional structures. The existence of
quantum spin Hall effect has since been experimentally verified in HgTe quantum wells, and the prospect of applications for these old materials (predicted by others) has stimulated new research interest.
Honours and awards
Mele and Kane were awarded the 2019
Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.
and the 2018
BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences. They had previously received the
Benjamin Franklin Medal of the
Franklin Institute in 2015, with
Shoucheng Zhang
Shoucheng Zhang (; February 15, 1963 – December 1, 2018) was a Chinese-American physicist who was the JG Jackson and CJ Wood professor of physics at Stanford University. He was a condensed matter theorist known for his work on topological ins ...
,
and the
European Physical Society Condensed Matter Division Europhysics Prize in 2010 with Zhang,
Hartmut Buhmann
Hartmut is a given name. Notable people with the name include:
*Hartmut of Saint Gall (died 905), Benedictine abbot
*Hartmut Bagger (born 1938), retired German general of the Bundeswehr
*Hartmut Becker (born 1938), German actor
* Hartmut Boockmann ...
, and
Laurens Molenkamp
Laurens W. Molenkamp (born 4 August 1956) is a professor of physics and Chair of Experimental Physics at the University of Würzburg. He is known for his work on semiconductor structures and topological insulators.[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 k ...]
in 2001.
[ ] He was elected to The National Academy of Sciences in 2019.
Further reading
*
*Hasan, M. Zahid; Kane, Charles L. (2010).
"Topological Insulator". ''
Reviews of Modern Physics''. 82 (4): 3045–3067.
arXiv:1002.3895.
Bibcode:2010RvMP...82.3045H.
doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.82.3045
References
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
MIT Department of Physics alumni
20th-century American physicists
21st-century American physicists
Condensed matter physicists
University of Pennsylvania faculty
Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Fellows of the American Physical Society
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