Dr. Xiao-Gang Wen stands as a preeminent theoretical physicist whose pioneering work has reshaped our understanding of quantum matter. He currently serves as the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a position he has held since 2004. Born in Xi'an, China in 1961, Wen earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Science and Technology of China in 1982 before coming to the United States through the CUSPEA program organized by Professor T. D. Lee. He completed his doctoral studies at Princeton University in 1987 under the supervision of Edward Witten, initially focusing on superstring theory before transitioning to condensed matter physics during his postdoctoral work with Robert Schrieffer, Frank Wilczek, and Anthony Zee at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Dr. Wen's most groundbreaking contribution to physics was his introduction of the concept of topological order in 1989, which fundamentally transformed condensed matter theory by describing a new class of quantum matter states beyond Landau's symmetry-breaking paradigm. His seminal work revealed that topologically ordered states contain non-trivial boundary excitations, leading to his development of chiral Luttinger theory for these boundary states, which may enable ideal conduction channels with potential device applications. He further advanced the field by proposing non-Abelian quantum Hall states, which contain emergent particles with exotic statistics that generalize the conventional Bose and Fermi statistics. This theoretical framework has generated over 67,000 citations and earned him the prestigious Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize in 2017 for theories of topological order and its consequences in a broad range of physical systems.
As a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 2018, Dr. Wen continues to shape the theoretical physics landscape through his dual appointments at MIT and as Distinguished Visiting Research Chair at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. His influential book Quantum Field Theory of Many-body Systems From the Origin of Sound to an Origin of Light and Electrons has become a standard reference in the field, guiding generations of theoretical physicists. Currently, Wen is pioneering research in higher category theories for algebraic higher symmetry and categorical symmetry, exploring their connections to symmetry-enriched topological orders from a holographic perspective. His ongoing work promises to further deepen our understanding of quantum phases of matter and may provide crucial insights for future quantum computing applications through the manipulation of topologically protected states.
