Yihang Zeng joins the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Purdue University
2025-01-13
The Department of Physics and Astronomy at Purdue University welcomes a new faculty member, Yihang Zeng, as Assistant Professor. Zeng will teach PHYS 272H Electric and Magnetic Interactions in spring 2025.
Zeng is fascinated by the idea of breaking down materials into incredibly thin layers, down to just as thin as an atom. This is called two-dimensional materials. “In doing so, we create artificial materials that exhibit physical phenomena beyond the current understanding in physics,” says Zeng. “We investigate these mysterious phenomena by looking at how they evolve with variables and try to come up with clues to the mystery. Our effort largely originates from curiosity about nature but can have practical consequences. For example, some of these phenomena are useful for building faster computers, energy-saving electronics, etc. Please contact me if this interests you and if you'd like to join our team.”
Prior to joining Purdue, Zeng acquired a B.S. in physics from Peking University in 2015. Zeng then earned a Ph.D. in physics from Columbia University in 2021 under the guidance of Cory Dean. Between 2021 and 2024, Zeng was a postdoc at Cornell with advisors Kin Fai Mak and Jie Shan. Now, Zeng is excited to be part of a “strong physics program” here at Purdue University.
Zeng grew up in Guangzhou which is a large city in South China. Zeng describes that “it’s totally different from West Lafayette.” Zeng likes sports, including basketball, badminton, ping-pong, tennis, volleyball, rock climbing, and weightlifting.
About the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Purdue University
Purdue Department of Physics and Astronomy has a rich and long history dating back to 1904. Our faculty and students are exploring nature at all length scales, from the subatomic to the macroscopic and everything in between. With an excellent and diverse community of faculty, postdocs, and students who are pushing new scientific frontiers, we offer a dynamic learning environment, an inclusive research community, and an engaging network of scholars.
Physics and Astronomy is one of the seven departments within the Purdue University College of Science. World-class research is performed in astrophysics, atomic and molecular optics, accelerator mass spectrometry, biophysics, condensed matter physics, quantum information science, particle and nuclear physics. Our state-of-the-art facilities are in the Physics Building, but our researchers also engage in interdisciplinary work at Discovery Park District at Purdue, particularly the Birck Nanotechnology Center and the Bindley Bioscience Center. We also participate in global research including at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, many national laboratories (such as Argonne National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Fermilab, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Stanford Linear Accelerator, etc.), the James Webb Space Telescope, and several observatories around the world.
Written by: David Siple, Communications Specialist for the Physics and Astronomy Department at Purdue University