Debate star and physicist Guo Yanliang leaves a top European quantum lab for China
Guo Yanliang, a champion debater who honed his argumentation skills in international contests and on online variety shows, has left one of Europe’s top quantum laboratories to set up his own research group in Beijing. Guo, 33, says he sees scientific research as a debate between different opinions, which made him more compatible with China than Europe. This year, he returned to China to take a…
Guo Yanliang, a highly accomplished debater and physicist, has transferred from a prestigious European quantum research institute to establish his own research team in Beijing. At the age of 33, Guo believes scientific research is akin to a debate among differing viewpoints, which has made him more aligned with China as opposed to Europe.
This year, he returned to China to assume an associate professor position at Renmin University of China, where he is constructing an ultracold atom experiment platform. Despite securing accolades such as publications in Science and Nature, and a position on MIT Technology Review's "Innovators Under 35 China" list, Guo asserts that China provides better support for his long-term research objectives.
In a recent interview with DeepTech, he stated that the local research environment better aligns with his research style. Guo's future research goals involve utilizing lasers to cool atoms to temperatures close to absolute zero and investigating quantum matter that classical computers are unable to simulate. His academic journey commenced in France after being admitted to the physics department of Wuhan University in central China in 2011, where he completed a bachelor's degree through the Wuhan University + Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (2+2) program.
He earned his master's degree from the University of Paris-Saclay in 2017 and a PhD from Sorbonne Paris Nord University in 2021. Throughout his time in France, Guo demonstrated his debate prowess, winning a championship in a Chinese-language debate competition in 2018 and participating in the recording of Qipashuo, a popular Chinese online debate variety show, in 2019.
He likened writing a paper to debating, emphasizing the importance of gathering evidence, anticipating objections, and explaining concepts from the audience's perspective. In 2021, Guo relocated to the University of Innsbruck in Austria as a postdoctoral researcher, focusing on ultracold atomic low-dimensional quantum gases. His research in this area led to a groundbreaking discovery published in Science, focusing on a quantum gas that resists heat.
Additionally, he explored the momentum distribution of a quantum gas after introducing contaminant particles, publishing the results in Nature. These achievements have garnered recognition, leading to his promotion to senior postdoctoral researcher at the University of Innsbruck and recruitment for the Quantum Science Austria discovery project.
This year, Guo received funding under the Excellent Young Scientists (Overseas) program and returned to Renmin University of China as an associate professor.
Written by urgent.news from South China Morning Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
