ABQ Times

LIVERMORE, Calif. — Wei Pan has been elected a fellow of the American Physical Society, an honor recognizing his significant contributions to physics. Pan's work includes pioneering research in fractional quantum Hall states and experiments on excitonic insulator phases, Majorana particles, topological superconductivity, and Leggett modes in Dirac semimetals.

“I am grateful to the Division of Condensed Matter Physics of APS for the selection,” Pan said.

Pan explained the fractional quantum Hall effect as a collective motion of electrons in a two-dimensional system, comparing it to a dance among people. He highlighted its importance for fault-tolerant quantum computing and expressed gratitude for discovering several types of these states.

His research focuses on previously unobserved quantum phenomena that became possible with specific materials and resources. “This was not an easy task,” Pan noted, emphasizing the robustness of topological phenomena against environmental disturbances. He illustrated this by comparing the topology in physics to deforming a coffee mug into a donut due to their shared topology. Topologically protected quantum computers could be more robust than current models and have applications in various fields, including medicine design.

Pan joined Sandia National Laboratories in 2003 after completing his Ph.D., working initially at Albuquerque before moving to Livermore in 2017. He advises aspiring researchers to “follow your own interest” for sustained motivation in their careers.