UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Cui-Zu Chang, assistant professor of physics, has been named Henry W. Knerr Early Career Professor of Physics. George R. and Lisabeth Knerr Poore established the professorship in 2021 in honor of Henry Knerr to support early-career faculty in the Eberly College of Science. The professorship offers recognition for outstanding early accomplishments and provides financial support to encourage promising young faculty members to establish a commitment to teaching and explore new areas of research.
In his research, Chang combines state-of-the-art materials synthesis techniques, such as molecular beam epitaxy, and unconventional device concepts to discover emergent quantum phenomena in quantum materials. The central focus is on “quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) insulators” which contain dissipation-free “highways” for transporting electrons.
Chang received a Rustum and Della Roy Innovation in Materials Research Award from the Penn State Materials Research Institute in 2021 and was selected as an Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Systems Initiative (EPiQS) Investigator by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation in 2019. His additional awards and honors include the Outstanding Young Researcher Award (Macronix Prize) from the International Organization of Chinese Physicists and Astronomers in 2019, a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award in 2019, an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in 2018, the Army Research Office (ARO) Young Investigator Program (YIP) Award in 2018, the MIT Tech Review 35-Under-35 Innovation Award (China region) in 2018, the Young Scientist Prize from the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) in 2017, and the Switzerland Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation Award in 2013. Chang is a member of the American Physical Society and holds five patents in both the United States and China.
Prior to joining the faculty at Penn State in 2017, Chang was a postdoctoral associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He earned a doctoral degree in condensed matter physics at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, in 2013 and a bachelor's degree in optical engineering at Shandong University in Jinan, China, in 2007.
Henry W. Knerr joined the faculty at Penn State in 1936 and served as a professor of physics and associate dean of the graduate school at Penn State. His primary research interest centered on microwave adsorption and dispersion in water, and he also explored challenges with teaching physics. Knerr retired from Penn State in 1968.