{"id":507150,"date":"2026-04-01T13:34:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T13:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/507150\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T13:34:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T13:34:12","slug":"rising-quantum-physicist-zhu-zijie-leaves-europe-after-nearly-a-decade-to-join-fudan-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/507150\/","title":{"rendered":"Rising quantum physicist Zhu Zijie leaves Europe after nearly a decade to join Fudan University"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zhu, 30, left the ETH Zurich in March to take up a role as associate professor and Xianghui Young Scholar at Fudan University, according to the South China Morning Post.<\/p>\n

The Xianghui program, named after Fudan\u2019s founding figures Ma Xiangbo and Li Denghui, aims to attract outstanding early-career scientists from overseas.<\/p>\n

“Compared to continuing established projects at ETH, I hope to do something nobody\u2019s done in China,” Zhu said at Fudan University on March 25, as quoted by SCMP.<\/p>\n

“Regardless of my personal academic aspirations or my feelings towards my country, I hope that cutting-edge and groundbreaking advancements can be made domestically. That is why I have always been determined to return to China for development.”<\/p>\n

\"Quantum<\/p>\n

Quantum physicist Zhu Zijie. Photo courtesy of ETH Zurich<\/p>\n

Zhu developed an early interest in physics after reading a book on Newtonian mechanics and Einstein\u2019s theory of relativity at home. In high school, a teacher recognized his potential and encouraged him to compete in physics contests, where he won a provincial first prize.<\/p>\n

In 2014, he enrolled at Peking University\u2019s School of Physics, one of the country\u2019s leading institutions in the field. During his second semester, he joined a research group in cold atom physics, a field that studies atoms cooled to near absolute zero to observe quantum effects.<\/p>\n

After graduating in 2018, Zhu moved to ETH Zurich for graduate studies and later remained as a postdoctoral researcher for over a year.<\/p>\n

His research focuses on quantum simulation and quantum computing using ultracold atomic systems, where controllable atoms are used to model complex quantum behavior beyond the capabilities of classical computers.<\/p>\n

In 2024, he published a first-author paper in Science examining how particles move along a quantized “quantum track,” where they travel in fixed directions and speeds, helping advance understanding of high-temperature superconductors and supporting the development of future quantum technologies.<\/p>\n

Zhu has authored papers in Science and Nature Physics before the age of 30, and has also published two in Physical Review X, with another study recently accepted by Nature.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, he plans to use cold atom systems to tackle the ground-state problem of the fermionic Hubbard model, a key challenge in understanding high-temperature superconductivity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zhu, 30, left the ETH Zurich in March to take up a role as associate professor and Xianghui…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[2302,177829,90,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-507150","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-physics","8":"tag-physics","9":"tag-rising-quantum-physicist-zhu-zijie-leaves-europe-after-nearly-a-decade-to-join-fudan-university-vnexpress-international","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}