[Seminar] " Water: Soft in Nature, Hard in Science" by Prof. Enge Wang

ABSTRACT

Water-solid interactions are of broad importance in nature and technology. Using a combination of experimental (cryogenic STM) and theoretical (first-principle electronic structures and molecular dynamics) methods, we systematically studied the full quantum nature of water on salt surface. These results shed light on our understanding of water-solid interactions, which would be helpful in designing novel water/solid interface structures and utilizing such structures for the study of water clustering and concerted proton tunneling in more complicated systems.

BIOGRAPHY

Enge Wang is the Professor of Physics and the President Emeritus of Peking University. He also chairs the Advisory Board of the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He received his Ph.D. from Peking University in 1990. After working in France and US, he started his academic career in 1995 as a professor at Institute of Physics (CAS). He was the Director of the Institute of Physics (CAS) (1999-2007), the Provost and then the President of Peking University (2011-2015), and the Vice President of CAS (2015-2017). He is also the Honorary Director of Kavli Institute for Theoretical Sciences at the University of CAS (2018- ).

Wang researches surface physics; the approach is a combination of atomistic simulation of nonequilibrium growth and chemical vapor deposition of light-element nanomaterials. Recently, he also studies nuclear quantum effects of water on solid surface. In the above areas, he is the coauthor of over 300 papers in peer-reviewed journals. He delivered over 100 invited talks including APS, MRS and IUMRS. Wang was named a number of international and national academic honors and awards, for example, the Advanced Materials Laureate (2018), the Tan Kah Kee Science Award in Mathematics and Physics (2014), the TWAS Award in Physics (2005), and the Humboldt Research Award (2005), etc. He has also served to the physics community in many committees, for examples of the Vice President of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) and the International Councilor of American Physical Society (APS). He has been elected to the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS).