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The Asian Young Scientist Fellowship (AYSF) announces its inaugural Fellows for 2023. After a rigorous selection process, the AYSF has chosen twelve exceptional early-career scientists from the Asian region who have demonstrated remarkable skill and creativity in their respective fields. Among the chosen Fellows is Dr Yi YANG, Assistant Professor from the Department of Physics, who has been selected as a Physical Science Fellow. The recognition is to encourage and support young scientists in Asia to carry out innovative and transformative research.

The selection was based on the awardees’ remarkable accomplishments in Life Science, Physical Science, Mathematics and Computer Science, and their exceptional creativity and potential for future research endeavours. The chosen Fellows have a proven track record of pushing the boundaries of scientific discovery and have shown immense potential to make significant contributions to their respective fields in the years to come.

Dr Yi Yang is a shining example of the calibre of scientists that the AYSF seeks to support. His research is primarily centered on optical physics and photonics. The AYSF Committee acknowledges his contribution to developing a unified mesoscopic framework for nanoscale electromagnetic phenomena and would like to support his further exploration of light-matter interaction at the interface among nano-photonics, condensed matter physics, and quantum optics.

Dr Yang expresses his heartfelt gratitude to AYSF for its unwavering encouragement and support. ‘Receiving the AYSF award is a tremendous honour. I am committed to conducting outstanding research fostered by HKU's exceptional research environment, and I look forward to collaborating with the talented and diverse community of young scientists in Asia as well,’ said Dr Yang.

About the Asian Young Scientist Fellowship programme
The Asian Young Scientist Fellowship programme was initiated to support talented scientists at the early stage of their careers, provide long-term support to their career growth, and create a community that promotes explorative thinking, cross-disciplinary collaboration, international exchanges, and mentorship. A funding of USD100,000 will be disbursed to the fellow’s home institution over two consecutive years to support his or her research.

Following the success of the Future Science Prize (a scientific award founded in 2016 which recognises world-class scientific breakthroughs in the Greater China region - regardless of the researcher’s nationality), the founding members of the Future Science Prize launched the Asian Young Scientist Fellowship as a new endeavour to support Asian scientists in their most creative years.

Biography of Dr Yi Yang
Dr Yi Yang is an accomplished researcher in the field of nanophotonics and optical physics. His research focuses on topics such as free-electron-light interaction and synthetic gauge fields. His past work includes a general framework that incorporates nonclassical optical responses at the extreme nanoscale, synthesis and observation of non-Abelian gauge fields in real space, an upper limit to spontaneous free-electron radiation in arbitrary photonic environments, and the observation of enhanced free-electron-light interaction from photonic flatbands.

Dr Yang’s academic journey started at Peking University, where he obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in 2011 and 2014, respectively. He then got his PhD degree at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2019, and continued to work as a postdoc at MIT as a postdoc before joining HKU as Assistant Professor in 2022. In addition to the Innovators under 35 award, Dr Yang has been awarded the 2022 Excellent Young Scientists (Hong Kong and Macau) fund under the National Natural Science Foundation of China, an organisation managed by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST). More information about the research group of Dr Yi Yang: https://www.yiyg.hku.hk/

For details, please visit: https://www.aysfellowship.org/lf-list-1/physical-science-fellows

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