Weiwei Xie named MSU Research Foundation Distinguished Professor
The Department of Chemistry’s Weiwei Xie has been honored with a prestigious MSU Research Foundation Distinguished Professorship. The title, which is awarded to exceptional faculty, recognizes Xie’s leadership in the discovery of novel quantum materials that are helping shape future technologies.
“What if we could design materials that carry electricity without heat loss, or store information in entirely new ways?” offered Xie, who joined MSU in 2022. “My research is driven by these questions.”
In the lab, Xie and her team act as quantum detectives, searching for the strange and often surprising properties that certain atomic structures exhibit under crushing forces.
“If you want to clearly see how electrons behave, sometimes you might need to give them a little push, and pressure acts like a ‘knob’ that allows us to gently squeeze atoms closer together,” said Xie.
“Under these conditions, materials can transform in unexpected ways, such as becoming metallic, magnetic or even entering entirely new quantum states.”
To catch a glimpse of these high-pressure phenomena, Xie continually pushes the boundaries of X-ray and neutron scattering – analytical methods that can trace real-time changes in materials across shifting conditions.
Knowing how atoms precisely fit together allows the Xie Lab to reveal the fundamental nature of known materials, as well as develop new ones needed to meet global challenges.
“Quantum materials sit at the heart of future technologies in energy, computing and beyond, and Dr. Xie is helping craft the chemistry that will make those futures real,” said Eric L. Hegg, dean of the College of Natural Science.
Being named an MSU Research Foundation Distinguished Professor is the latest honor for Xie, whose frontier science has garnered national recognition.
To date, she’s received a Beckman Young Investigator Award, a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, and was named a Rainmaker Emerging Scholar for Research and Creative Activity while appointed at Louisiana State University.
As the world experiences an AI revolution driven by chip fabrication, the Xie Lab’s breakthroughs are more crucial than ever – leading the search for materials that promise greater speed, power and efficiency.
This includes ongoing work in pursuit of a true high-temperature superconductor. Something of a scientific holy grail, such a material would have monumental implications, from lossless electrical grids to enhanced MRIs and particle accelerators.
For Xie, it’s another readymade challenge that’s once again taking her lab to the frontiers of quantum science.
