HKIAS Appoints Distinguished Scholar in Neutron Scatting as Executive Director

1 August 2022

Professor Xun-Li Wang

The Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study (HKIAS) is pleased to announce that Professor Xun-Li Wang, currently Head and Chair Professor of the Department of Physics of the City University of Hong Kong (CityU), has been appointed as the Executive Director of the HKIAS, effective from 1 August 2022.

Professor Wang specialises in neutron and synchrotron scattering studies of advanced materials. He has maintained an active research portfolio. His current research interests include structure and dynamics in metallic glass, deformation behaviours in high entropy alloys, and magneto-elastic coupling in magnetic shape memory alloys.

Professor Wang received his BS from Peking University and PhD from Iowa State University, both in Physics. Before joining CityU in 2012, Professor Wang worked at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the US, rising through the ranks to Distinguished Staff Member. He is an elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Neutron Scattering Society of America (NSSA), and a recipient of the Croucher Senior Research Fellowship.

While in Hong Kong, Professor Wang has dedicated his efforts to establishing Hong Kong as an international hub for neutron scattering research. With the support from The Croucher Foundation, he started the biennial Croucher Summer Course on Neutron Scattering. He was also instrumental in launching the Gordon Research Conference series on Neutron Scattering, serving as the inaugural Chair in 2015. In addition, he and Professor Hesheng Chen of the Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, co-founded a joint laboratory on neutron scattering. The joint laboratory has received financial support from The Croucher Foundation, Hong Kong's Research Grants Council, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2020, Professor Wang helped establish the Guangdong-HongKong-Macau Joint Laboratory on Neutron Scattering, serving as the Executive Director in Hong Kong.

In 2022, the President of the CityU, Professor Way Kuo, initiated the HK Tech Forum, with Professor Wang acting as the chief coordinator. Comprised of six forums, the HK Tech Forum series aims to provide a dynamic platform for examining innovative strategies and approaches to major challenges in science and technology. The HKIAS is the host of the HK Tech Forum series.

Over the years, the Department of Physics, led by Professor Wang, has had close ties to the HKIAS. Faculties in the Department of Physics and Senior Fellows in HKIAS enjoyed extensive interactions and collaborations. The Institute also sponsored two workshops held by the Department of Physics in 2018 and 2019 respectively. In 2021, the HKIAS and the Department of Physics joined hands and organised the “HKIAS Rising Star Lecture - Physics”. Furthermore, Professor Wang gave a talk with titled “Structure and Dynamics of Metallic Glass – Atomistic Insights from Neutron and Synchrotron Scattering Experiments” in a Distinguished Lecture.

Professor Kuo remarked, “With his distinguished research accomplishments and academic experience, I have confidence that Professor Wang will lead HKIAS to new heights”.

Please find Professor Wang’s profile here.

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