Research Interests
My research focuses on computational condensed matter physics. My longer-term vision is to seamlessly apply the fundamental laws of quantum physics to study nature at large, from astrophysics to quantum biology.
Dr Bo Peng
Dr Bo Peng a Junior Research Fellow at Magdalene.
I am a Nevile Junior Research Fellow at Magdalene College Cambridge, a position that will allow me to start my independent academic career.
I obtained my MSc and BSc at Fudan, where I explored different research topics in computational condensed matter physics such as heat transport and light-induced dynamics. I also visited the Institute of Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences for one year, working on searching for topological materials.
In my PhD, I worked on the topological aspects of vibrational properties of solids, especially non-Abelian braiding of phonons. In my JRF and beyond, I want to take the next steps to design quantum materials for a wide range of sustainable practices, including but not limited to chemical catalysis, most energy-efficient computing, most accurate time-keeping, and most programmable quantum systems.
Qualifications
- 2023 PhD in Physics, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, UK.
- 2019 MSc in Physics, Department of Optics, Fudan University, China.
- 2017 Second Major in Economy, School of Economics, Fudan University, China.
- 2016 BSc in Optics, Department of Optics, Fudan University, China.
Career / Research Highlights
2024 - IOP Sam Edwards Prize (for best PhD thesis advancing theoretical condensed matter in UK and Ireland)
2022 - Winner in the category Emerging Talents, Falling Walls Science Summit (Berlin)
2021 - Cavendish Prize in Computational Physics (Awarded to 1 PhD student by the Head of Department), Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, UK.
2019 - 15th Daheng Wang Award in Optics (Highest honor for Chinese students in optics), Chinese Optical Society.
2019 - Young Scientist, 69th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, Germany.
2018 - National Scholarship, Ministry of Education, China.
2017 - National Scholarship, Ministry of Education, China.
2017 - Committee of 100 Leadership Scholarship, Committee of 100, US.
2016 - Top 10 Graduating Student (Awarded to 10 out of 3,000 Fudan graduating students).
Selected Publications
Committed to nurture the next generations of scientists, the following 3 last-author papers, highlighted as a Front Cover, demonstrate my ambition to build an inclusive group as a PI where everyone can maximise their capacity.
[1] Jiaqi Wu & BP*. Smallest [5,6]fullerene as Building Blocks for 2D Networks with Superior Stability and Enhanced Photocatalytic Performance. Journal of the American Chemical Society 147, 1749 (2025). Front Cover.
[2] Cory Jones & BP*. Boosting Photocatalytic Water Splitting of Polymeric C60 by Reduced Dimensionality from 2D Monolayer to 1D Chain. The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 14, 11768 (2023). Front Cover.
[3] Gunnar F. Lange, Juan D. F. Pottecher, Cameron Robey, Bartomeu Monserrat* & BP*. Negative Refraction of Weyl Phonons at Twin Quartz Interfaces. ACS Materials Letters 6, 847 (2024). Front Cover.
The following 2 single-author papers demonstrate my capacity to work independently.
[4] BP*. Monolayer Fullerene Networks as Photocatalysts for Overall Water Splitting. Journal of the American Chemical Society 144, 19921 (2022).
[5] BP*. Stability and Strength of Monolayer Polymeric C60. Nano Letters 23, 652 (2023).
The following 6 first- or/and corresponding-author papers, published in my PhD, demonstrate my leadership and teamwork, as I set up teams of physicists, chemists, materials scientists, engineers, and mathematicians and led these projects. Through these projects, I won the Sam Edwards Prize for the best PhD thesis in the UK and Ireland advancing theoretical condensed matter and the Cavendish Prize in Computational Physics.
[6] BP*, Adrien Bouhon*, Bartomeu Monserrat* & Robert-Jan Slager*. Phonons as a Platform for Non-Abelian Braiding and its Manifestation in Layered Silicates. Nature Communications 13, 423 (2022). Hot Paper (Top 0.1% mostly cited) in Physics.
[7] BP*, Gunnar F. Lange, Daniel Bennett, Kang Wang, Robert-Jan Slager & Bartomeu Monserrat*. Photoinduced Electronic and Spin Topological Phase Transitions in Monolayer Bismuth. Physical Review Letters 132, 116601 (2024).
[8] BP, Yuchen Hu, Shuichi Murakami, Tiantian Zhang & Bartomeu Monserrat. Topological Phonons in Oxide Perovskites Controlled by Light. Science Advances 6, eabd1618 (2020).
[9] BP, Daniel Bennett, Ivona Bravić & Bartomeu Monserrat. Tunable Photostriction of Halide Perovskites through Energy Dependent Photoexcitation. Physical Review Materials 6, L082401 (2022). Editors’ Suggestion.
[10] BP, Hao Zhang, Weiwen Chen, Bowen Hou, Zhi-Jun Qiu, Hezhu Shao, Heyuan Zhu, Bartomeu Monserrat, Desheng Fu, Hongming Weng & Costas M. Soukoulis. Sub-Picosecond Photo-Induced Displacive Phase Transition in Two-Dimensional MoTe2. npj 2D Materials and Applications 4, 14 (2020).
[11] BP, Ivona Bravić, Judith L. MacManus-Driscoll & Bartomeu Monserrat. Topological Semimetallic Phase in PbO2 Promoted by Temperature. Physical Review B 100, 161101(R) (2019).
Through the following 8 projects before my PhD, I was awarded the highest honour for Chinese young scientists in Optics in my Master whilst all other recipients were either postdocs or senior PhDs.
[12] BP*, Changming Yue* (contributed equally), Hao Zhang, Zhong Fang & Hongming Weng. Predicting Dirac Semimetals Based on Sodium Ternary Compounds. npj Computational Materials 4, 68 (2018).
[13] BP, Hao Zhang, Hezhu Shao, Ke Xu, Gang Ni, Liangcai Wu, Jing Li, Hongliang Lu, Qingyuan Jin & Heyuan Zhu. Room Temperature Bound Exciton with Long Lifetime in Monolayer GaN. ACS Photonics 5, 4081 (2018).
[14] BP, Hao Zhang, Hezhu Shao, Ke Xu, Gang Ni, Jing Li, Heyuan Zhu & Costas M. Soukoulis. Chemical Intuition for High Thermoelectric Performance in Monolayer Black Phosphorus, α-Arsenene and aW-Antimonene. Journal of Materials Chemistry A 6, 2018 (2018). Back Cover.
[15] BP, Hao Zhang, Hezhu Shao, Zeyu Ning, Yuanfeng Xu, Gang Ni, Hongliang Lu, David Wei Zhang & Heyuan Zhu. Stability and Strength of Atomically Thin Borophene from First Principles Calculations. Materials Research Letters 5, 399 (2017).
[16] BP, Dequan Zhang, Hao Zhang, Hezhu Shao, Gang Ni, Yongyuan Zhu & Heyuan Zhu. The Conflicting Role of Buckled Structure in Phonon Transport of 2D Group-IV and Group-V Materials. Nanoscale 9, 7397 (2017). Top 1% Highly Cited Paper.
[17] BP, Hao Zhang, Hezhu Shao, Yuanfeng Xu, Gang Ni, Rongjun Zhang & Heyuan Zhu. Phonon Transport Properties of Two-Dimensional Group-IV Materials from ab initio Calculations. Physical Review B 94, 245420 (2016).
[18] BP, Zeyu Ning, Hao Zhang, Hezhu Shao, Yuanfeng Xu, Gang Ni & Heyuan Zhu. Beyond Perturbation: Role of Vacancy-Induced Localized Phonon States in Thermal Transport of Monolayer MoS2. Journal of Physical Chemistry C 120, 29324 (2016).
[19] BP, Hao Zhang, Hezhu Shao, Hongliang Lu, David Wei Zhang & Heyuan Zhu. High Thermoelectric Performance of Weyl Semimetal TaAs. Nano Energy 30, 225 (2016).