HKIAS Appoints Distinguished Scholar in Neutron Scattering as Executive Director

The Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study (HKIAS) is pleased to announce that Professor Xun-Li Wang, currently Head and Chair Professor of the Department of  Physics of the City University of Hong Kong (CityU), has been appointed as the Executive  Director of the HKIAS, effective from 1 August 2022. 

Professor Wang specialises in neutron and synchrotron scattering studies of advanced materials. He has maintained an active research portfolio. His current research interests include structure and dynamics in metallic glass, deformation behaviours in high entropy alloys, and magneto-elastic coupling in magnetic shape memory alloys. 

Professor Wang received his BS from Peking University and PhD from Iowa State University,  both in Physics. Before joining CityU in 2012, Professor Wang worked at the Oak Ridge  National Laboratory in the US, rising through the ranks to Distinguished Staff Member. He is an elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), American Association for the  Advancement of Science (AAAS), Neutron Scattering Society of America (NSSA), and a  recipient of the Croucher Senior Research Fellowship. 

While in Hong Kong, Professor Wang has dedicated his efforts to establishing Hong Kong as an international hub for neutron scattering research. With support from The Croucher  Foundation, he started the biennial Croucher Summer Course on Neutron Scattering. He was also instrumental in launching the Gordon Research Conference series on Neutron  Scattering, serving as the inaugural Chair in 2015. In addition, he and Professor Hesheng  Chen of the Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, co-founded a  joint laboratory on neutron scattering. The joint laboratory has received financial support from The Croucher Foundation, Hong Kong’s Research Grants Council, and the Chinese  Academy of Sciences. In 2020, Professor Wang helped establish the Guangdong HongKong-Macau Joint Laboratory on Neutron Scattering, serving as the Executive  Director in Hong Kong.  

In 2022, the President of the CityU, Professor Way Kuo, initiated the HK Tech Forum, with  Professor Wang acting as the chief coordinator. Comprised of six forums, the HK Tech  Forum series aims to provide a dynamic platform for examining innovative strategies and  approaches to major challenges in science and technology. The HKIAS is the host of the  HK Tech Forum series. 

Over the years, the Department of Physics, led by Professor Wang, has had close ties to the HKIAS. Faculties in the Department of Physics and Senior Fellows in HKIAS enjoyed extensive interactions and collaborations. The Institute also sponsored two workshops held by the Department of Physics in 2018 and 2019 respectively. In 2021, the HKIAS and the  Department of Physics joined hands and organised the “HKIAS Rising Distinguished  Lecture Series on Physics”. Furthermore, Professor Wang gave a talk in the “HKIAS  Distinguished Lecture Series on Physics”. 

Professor Kuo remarked, “With his distinguished research accomplishments and academic experience, I have confidence that Professor Wang will lead HKIAS to new heights”.

Please find Professor Wang’s profile here. 

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About Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study (HKIAS) 

The Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study (HKIAS), which was launched on 22  November 2015, aspires to be an international centre of excellence for the advancement of technology and innovation by bringing together an interdisciplinary team of world-renowned scholars and researchers, including Nobel laureates and academicians, to contribute to the solutions of pressing real-world problems. Conferences, symposiums, workshops, and lectures will be organized to facilitate the exchange of ideas among academic communities locally, regionally, and internationally. 

For upcoming lectures, please click here.