Yi Yang, Ph.D.

2023 AYS Fellow - Physical Science

Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, The University of Hong Kong

Research areas: Optical physics and photonics

Award Citation: The AYSF Committee acknowledges his contribution to development of a unified mesoscopic framework for nanoscale electromagnetic phenomena and would like to support his further exploration of light-matter interaction at the interface among nano-photonics, condensed matter physics, and quantum optics.

Bio: Dr. Yi Yang is an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and HK Institute of Quantum Science & Technology at The University of Hong Kong. He obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Peking University, and PhD degree at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He continued his postdoctoral research in the Research Laboratory of Electronics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology before joining the University of Hong Kong in 2022. Dr. Yi Yang works on optics and photonics and his research focuses on the interaction of light with materials, free electrons, and synthetic gauge fields. With collaborators, Dr. Yang put forward an electromagnetic framework for quantum optical responses at the extreme nanoscale, introduced an upper limit and a flatband scheme to spontaneous free-electron-light interaction, and synthesized non-Abelian gauge fields in real space. Dr. Yi Yang is a recipient of MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 China and Excellent Young Scientists (Hong Kong and Macau).

Personal Web: https://www.scifac.hku.hk/people/yang-yi