Xi-Wen Guan, Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Xi-Wen Guan graduated from Jilin University, China in 1998, and then undertook postdoctoral research in Germany and Brazil for about three years. He was a research fellow at the Australian National University (ANU) during the period from 2002 until October 2008. He was promoted to a fellow at ANU in 2009. Since 2012, he is a full professor of physics at Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Science. He currently also holds an honorary professor of the ANU, the Executive Board Editor of Journal of Physics A. He has published more than 140 SCI papers, including Science, Review Modern Physics, Report on Progress in Physics, Physical Review Letters etc. for research in universal thermodynamics, critical phenomena and correlation functions of exactly solvable models, ultracold atoms, strongly correlated electronic and spin systems and quantum metrology etc.

What is the focus of your research at the moment?

I currently focus on developments of quantum integrable models in ultracold atoms, spin materials and quantum metrology. I am really fascinated by the decades-old quantum integrable models, which have uncovered experimentally testable many-body phenomena in a wide range of fields, such as quantum liquid, quantum criticality, universal thermodynamics, quantum transport and quantum metrology.

What do you consider to be the biggest advancement in quantum science to date?

I believe that superfluity and superconductivity are the most significant phenomenon in quantum physics and have led to important advancement in quantum science for decades. I personally think that the high precision optical atomic clock is the biggest advancement in quantum science in the last decade. In this regard, advances in our ability to realize genuine quantum many-body phenomena with ultracold atoms have led to new frontiers in quantum control, quantum optics, quantum gases, quantum metrology, precision measurements etc. Such developments confront mathematical and physical theories with experimental study on novel quantum many-body phenomena in these fields.

In your opinion, what could be the next big breakthrough for the field of quantum science and technology?

High precision measurement and quantum computations with many-body systems of cold atoms, spins and electrons are possibly next breakthroughs for the field of quantum science and technology.

What role does the journal Journal of Physics A play in supporting research in the field?

Journal of Physics A is a fundamental research journal not only with links to mathematical and physical theories but it also provides a unique aspect in supporting international leading edge research fields.