Achievement in Asia Award (Robert T. Poe Prize)

Professor Wen-Hao Chang (Department of Electrophysics, National Chiao Tung University,  Hsinchu, Taiwan) is the winner of the 2018 OCPA Achievement in Asia Award (Robert T. Poe Prize) given by the International Organization of Chinese Physicists and Astronomers (OCPA).

The OCPA Achievement in Asia Award (Robert T. Poe Prize) is awarded annually to a Chinese physicist/astronomer or a team working in Asia in recognition of their outstanding achievements in physics and astronomy. The Award carries a total cash prize of US$2,000 and a certificate citing the awardee's accomplishments in research.

The citation for Wen-Hao Chang:  For his significant contributions to the research of light-matter interactions in low-dimensional and layered semiconductors.

BIO: Dr. Chang is currently a distinguished professor of physics at National Chiao Tung University (NCTU), Taiwan. He received his BS (‘94), MS (‘96) and PhD (‘01) degrees in Physics from National Central University (NCU), Taiwan. After his postdoctoral research at NCU, he joined the Department of Electrophysics at NCTU as an assistant professor in 2005 and became a full professor since 2012. His research interests include light-matter interactions in semiconductor nanostructures, nanophotonics/plasmonics hybrid systems, and 2D layered materials. He has authored and co-authored more than 100 journal papers and received citation more than 5,600 times with an h index of 33, according to Google Scholar. He was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award (2010, 2018) from NCTU, the Ta-Yu Wu Memorial Award (2010) and the Distinguished Research Award (2018) from the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), and the Academic Award (2018) from the Sun Yat-Sen Academic and Cultural Foundation. Dr. Chang served as the Convener of Physics Division in MOST during 2016-2018 and is currently the Editor of Chinese Journal of Physics and the Editorial Board Members of Scientific Report.

The winner was selected by the following panel of physicists (in alphabetical order):

• Che Ting Chan (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)
• Cheng Chin (University of Chicago)
• Ting-Kuo Lee (Academic Sinica)
• Zhengming Sheng (Shang Jiao Tong University)
• Jie Meng (Peking University),
• Dongping Zhong (Ohio State University)

Outstanding Young Researcher Award (Macronix Prize)

Professor Cui-zu Chang (Department of Physics, Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania, USA) is the winner of the 2018 OCPA Outstanding Young Researcher Award (Macronix Prize) given by the International Organization of Chinese Physicists and Astronomers (OCPA).

The Outstanding Young Researcher Award (Macronix Prize) is given annually to one to two physicist(s) and/or astronomer(s) of Chinese ethnicity working in North America, Europe, or other regions outside Asia, to encourage and recognize the young researcher’s contributions in physics or astronomy. The award to each recipient will carry a cash prize of U.S. $2000, thanks to the generous support of the Macronix Education Foundation, an education program of Macronix International Co., LTD. 

The Citation for Cui-Zu Chang:  For his pioneering observation of the quantum anomalous Hall effect in magnetic topological insulators.

BIO: Dr. Chang is an assistant professor in the Department of Physics at the Pennsylvania State University. Chang received his Ph.D. in Physics from Tsinghua University in 2013. Before joining Penn State, he did 4-year postdoctoral work at MIT. Chang is a world-leading expert in the molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth of quantum materials. Chang was the first to realize the quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect in 2013 by developing MBE growth of a magnetically doped topological insulator (specifically, Cr-doped (Bi,Sb)2Te3) thin film. In addition, Chang has played a crucial role in the discovery and understanding of a variety of other important physical phenomena such as the axion insulator state in quantum materials. His recent interests include the pursuit of high temperature and high Chern number QAH insulators and the exploration of Majorana physics in the QAH-superconductor hybrid structures. Selected awards include Gordon and Betty Moore EPiQS Materials Synthesis Investigator Award (2019), NSF CAREER Award (2019), Macronix Prize (2019), ARO-Young Investigator Program Award (2018), Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (2018), IUPAP Young Scientist Prize (2016), and Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation Award (2013).

The winner was selected by the following panel of physicists (in alphabetical order):

• Cheng Chin (University of Chicago)
• Xiangdong Ji (University of Maryland)
• Lu J Sham (UC San Diego)
• Yuen Ron Shen(UC Berkeley)
• Hui Zhai (Tsinghua University)
• Dongping Zhong (Ohio State)

Outstanding Dissertation Award (ODA)

The OCPA Outstanding Dissertation Award is given to four winners:

Chaojie ZHANG (University of California Los Angeles, graduated from Tsinghua University)

Zhelin Zhang (Tsung-Dao Lee Institute, graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

Jing Li (Los Alamos National Laboratory, graduated from Pennsylvania State University)

Shaowei Li (UC Berkeley, graduated from UC Irvine)

The winners were selected by the following panel of physicists (in alphabetical order):

• Cheng Chin (University of Chicago)
• Xingjiang ZHOU (Chinese Academy of Sciences)
• Dongping Zhong (Ohio State University)

Report prepared by Cheng Chin, 10/2019