Science & Technology

Xia named the Tso-Ping Ma Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Fengnian Xia, who has conducted pioneering work in low-dimensional quantum materials and devices, has been part of the Yale faculty since 2013.

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Fengnian Xia

Fengnian Xia

Fengnian Xia, who has conducted pioneering work in low-dimensional quantum materials and devices, was recently appointed the Tso-Ping Ma Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, effective immediately.

Xia joined the faculty of the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science (SEAS), in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, in 2013. Prior to that he was a research staff member at IBM Research, where he did groundbreaking work on nanoscale photonics and electronics.

Among his many discoveries, Xia made an important breakthrough in graphene photodetector, which opened up a new field of graphene optoelectronics. In 2014 he was one of the first to identify and demonstrate the great potential of black phosphorus as a 2D semiconductor with a sizable bandgap. Xia further demonstrated transistors and photodetectors based on black phosphorus, attracting significant attention from the scientific community. He recently introduced a new sensing concept called “Geometric Deep Sensing,” which is founded on two key cornerstones: the reconfigurability of semiconductor devices and the integration of artificial intelligence.

Among his many recognitions, he was elected to be a Fellow of American Physical Society, a Fellow of Optica, and he has been named as a highly cited researcher by Clarivate Analytics for seven consecutive years since 2017. In addition, he has received the Presidential Early Career Award (PECASE), the National Science Foundation CAREER award, the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, the IBM Corporate Award, that corporation’s highest technical prize; he was designated the Weller Professorship in Engineering and Science by Yale in 2015, and was named MIT Technology Review’s Top Young Innovators under 35. 

Xia is also a dedicated teacher whose teaching philosophy emphasizes the importance of lifelong learning. He teaches a junior level required course, “Electronic Circuits,” and a senior level course, “Photovoltaic Energy.” Students especially appreciate that his courses encourage them to apply classroom knowledge to lab work and designs.

He is also a dedicated university citizen. He has served as co-director of undergraduate studies since 2021, has supervised multiple senior projects, and has served in the graduate admission committee since 2013. Outside of Yale, he is active within professional organizations: he has co-organized multiple international conferences and currently serves as an associate editor of Science Advances (AAAS), and he was a primary guest editor for IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

A graduate of Tsinghua University, he earned an M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton University.