Liuyan Zhao
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Liuyan Zhao is a Chinese and American experimental condensed matter physicist whose research uses optical spectroscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy to study the electronic and magnetic properties of quantum materials. She is an associate professor of physics at the University of Michigan.[1]
Zhao received a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2008. Next, she went to Columbia University for graduate study in physics, where she received a master's degree in 2010 and completed her Ph.D. in 2013.[2]
She became a Prize Postdoctoral Fellow in physics at the California Institute of Technology from 2013 to 2016. In 2017, she joined the University of Michigan as an assistant professor of physics. She was promoted to associate professor in 2022 and has been a QRI Fellow at the Michigan Quantum Research Institute since 2024.[2]
Research highlights
During Zhao’s independent research career at the University of Michigan, her group has developed and applied symmetry-sensitive optical techniques to study phase transitions in solids. The group also creates and investigates new material platforms that host novel phases and enable unconventional physical responses. Her research highlights include detection of ferro-rotational (or ferro-axial) order,[3][4] study of moiré magnetism,[5][6][7] investigation of vestigial order in 2D magnets,[8][9] among others.
