Dr Yi YANG recognised as one of the MIT Technology Review's Innovators Under 35 (China)

We are proud to announce that Dr Yi YANG from the Department of Physics has been selected as one of the 2022 Innovators Under 35 (China) by the MIT Technology Review, under the category of ‘Inventors’. This prestigious program recognises outstanding young innovators who are making significant contributions to their respective fields, and Dr Yang's selection is a testament to his exceptional research in the field of nanophotonics and optical physics.

Dr Yang's academic journey began at Peking University, where he obtained his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in 2011 and 2014, respectively. He went on to complete his PhD degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2019, where he continued to work as a Postdoctoral Researcher before joining HKU as an Assistant Professor in 2022.

Dr Yang's research interests are focused on free-electron-light interaction and synthetic gauge fields, and his past work includes a general framework that incorporates nonclassical optical responses at the extreme nanoscale, synthesis and observation of non-Abelian gauge fields in real space, an upper limit to spontaneous free-electron radiation in arbitrary photonic environments, and the observation of enhanced free-electron-light interaction from photonic flatbands.