Li Yang

Li Yang is the Albert Gordon Hill Professor of Physics at Washington University in St. Louis, leading the Computational Laboratory of Quantum Materials (CLoQM). He holds academic appointments in the Department of Physics within the School of Arts & Sciences. His roles include developing and applying large-scale first-principles simulations to study quantum mechanics in materials, focusing on electronic structures and excited-state properties for energy and device applications.

Education:

• Bachelor's and Master's in Material/Statistical Physics from Beijing Normal University
• PhD in Physics from Georgia Institute of Technology
• Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley

Research interests center on quantum confinement effects, exciton-plasmon interactions, and topological properties in materials. His work addresses fundamental questions about electron interactions, quantum excitations, and applications in next-generation electronics and energy systems. Notable contributions include predicting properties of 2D semiconductors, recognized in the Physical Review B 50th Anniversary Milestones.

Awards:

• NSF CAREER Award (2015)
• Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher (2017)

Advising and grants: Yang oversees a lab supported by NSF and Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), mentoring over 120 peer-reviewed articles and 23,000+ citations. He emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration and student/postdoc contributions to advancing quantum materials research.

Labs/Teams: Director of CLoQM, which develops simulation tools for materials discovery and quantum phenomena prediction.