In Memoriam

ICTP was saddened to learn of the passing of Shoucheng Zhang, a theoretical physicist and professor at Stanford University. Zhang's research on the quantum physics of many interacting electrons led to the predictions of new phenomena and exotic states of matter.

According to an obituary prepared by Stanford University, Zhang studied supergravity as a graduate student but shifted his research focus to the problem presented by the fractional quantum Hall effect because he felt there was a greater likelihood that it could be experimentally confirmed within his lifetime.

Zhang was a passionate contributor and visitor to ICTP, and shared the centre's 2012 Dirac Medal with Duncan Haldane and Charles Kane for their important contributions to condensed matter physics, including their independent work preparing and opening the field of two and three dimensional topological insulators. Their research and the physical implications of the concepts and theories they developed have been instrumental to exciting recent developments in this new area of experimental and theoretical condensed matter physics.

A video of Zhang's Dirac lecture is available on ICTP's YouTube page (Zhang's talk starts at @ 2:09:00).