On June 24, Qikun XUE, President of the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), Professor of Tsinghua University, and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), was honored with the China’s State Preeminent Science and Technology Award for 2023.

Professor XUE is an experimental physicist with an international reputation in the field of condensed matter physics. He is one of the outstanding scientists who has achieved major international leading scientific breakthroughs in basic research in China since the reform and opening up.

 He developed an ultra-high vacuum interconnected system combining molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), and angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). These experimental technologies have greatly advanced the controlled preparation and characterization of quantum materials at the atomic scale.

His research team made two groundbreaking scientific discoveries in the quantum anomalous Hall effect and interface high-temperature superconductivity. The experimental discovery of the quantum anomalous Hall effect in topological insulators is a milestone in condensed matter physics, and the discovery of high-temperature superconductivity at the heterojunction interface has opened new avenues for research. Both achievements have had a profound impact on the international academic community.

Qikun XUE has been invited twice by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to present special reports at the Nobel Forum and has received numerous accolades, including the National Natural Science Award in 2018, the Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Physics Prize in 2024 (The physicist is the first Chinese citizen to receive the Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Physics Prize in its 70-year history), and the Fritz London Memorial Prize in 2022.

His research team continues to achieve new milestones in studying the quantum anomalous Hall effect and high-temperature superconductivity, and keeps a leading role in the research of these two areas.

Qing HU, Professor of the School of Environmental Science and Engineering (ESE) at SUSTech, was honored with the first prize of the State Technological Invention Award.

This recognition was for her groundbreaking project titled “Key Technologies and Applications for Groundwater Pollution Prevention and Control in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region”.

In addition to her role as a professor at the School of ESE, Qing HU serves as the Director of the Engineering Innovation Center (Beijing) of SUSTech and is a state council special allowance expert.

Throughout her career, she has garnered numerous prestigious accolades, including the National Science and Technology Progress Award (2017), the Beijing Science and Technology Award (2022), and the Prize of Environmental Protection Science and Technology Award of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (2023).