On June 29, UT Austin’s Trull Centennial Professor Niu Qian delivered an engaging lecture titled “Topology and Geometry of Bloch Electrons” at SUSTech.

Professor Niu gave an “inside look” of the topological Chern numbers, not only from his personal perspective, but also concentrating on its physical content, the Berry curvatures, to see how such topological and geometrical concepts have transformed our view of solid state physics. Niu also introduced topological insulator theories and their impacts on condensed matter physics.

Moreover, Professor Niu said the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics was a grant celebration of our understanding of topological phases and transition, part of which dates back to pioneering work of David Thouless and his collaborators when he became a graduate student of Thouless 36 years ago. Niu expressed his gratitude to be able to witness and  participate in the development of this topological theory of Chern insulators at the beginning of his career. He also recalled his memorable experience of studying at Peking University in his youth.

About the speaker:

Professor Niu Qian, a leading Chinese figure in the international physics academia, has been a professor at the University of Texas at Austin since 1990. As a fellow of the American Physics Society, he has received awards and fellowships including the Trull Centennial Fellowship, Blumberg Fellowship, NIST Precision Measurement Award, and Outstanding Overseas Young Scientist (awarded by the Natural Science Foundation of China).