Xie Chen

Xie Chen is an Associate Professor in the Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology. She previously held a Miller Research Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley (2012–2014) and joined Caltech as an assistant professor in 2014 before being promoted to associate professor in 2017. Chen earned her bachelor's degree in physics from Tsinghua University in 2006 and her Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2012 under advisors Isaac Chuang and Xiao-Gang Wen.

• Alma Mater: Tsinghua University (B.Sc., Physics), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D., Theoretical Physics)
• Previous Affiliation: Miller Research Fellow, University of California, Berkeley (2012–2014)

Xie Chen’s research focuses on condensed matter theory and quantum information, particularly exploring novel phases and phase transitions in quantum condensed matter systems. Her work addresses topological order in strongly correlated systems, dynamics in many-body systems, tensor network representations, and quantum information applications. She investigates unconventional emergent phenomena in many-body quantum mechanical systems, contributing to understanding their theoretical foundations.

• Key Research Areas: Topological states of matter, quantum many-body dynamics, tensor networks, quantum computing

Xie Chen has received numerous prestigious awards, including the New Horizons in Physics Prize (2020) for her contributions to topological states of matter, the Simons Investigator award (2021), and the Sloan Research Fellowship (2017). She was also honored with the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Award (2017) and earlier fellowships at MIT and Caltech.