Submitted by Pooja Pandey on Fri, 11/08/2023 - 09:28
The second Mark Warner Prize for talented theoretical physicists has been awarded to Yuchen Yang, Physics student at Trinity College, for his outstanding work in Experimental and Theoretical Physics in Part II of the Natural Sciences Tripos.
The £250 prize, sponsored by the Ogden Trust, is awarded in memory of Professor Mark Warner, FRS, theoretical physicist, pioneer in the field of liquid crystal elastomers who inspired and mentored generations of physicists.
I ran into Yuchen at a Max-Planck-Institute in Dresden this summer, where he is doing a short research project in theoretical condensed matter physics. When we talked, I realised that the student I used to supervise is now working on cutting-edge research – what more can a university teacher hope for? Prof. Malte Grosche
Yuchen, a Part II student (3rd year) of physics at Trinity College, received the highest marks across both parts of the Theoretical Physics Course this year.
His Director of Studies at Trinity College, Prof. Malte Grosche, comments: “the two Theoretical Physics courses complement the standard third-year physics material – such as thermodynamics, electrodynamics, relativity and quantum physics – with advanced tools helpful for understanding these subjects at a deeper level and extending them by research. The courses are notoriously challenging. To top both Theoretical Physics courses in the presence of strong competition in an excellent cohort is an outstanding achievement worthy of recognition.”
When asked about where his interest in physics comes from, Yuchen explains: “I prefer subjects that have the broadest applicability. I often like to imagine being on a planet far away from Earth yet still being able to apply my knowledge and say something useful about my surroundings. So, naturally, many physical sciences appeal to me, and physics is a foundation of the most general principles of everything we can experience, from chemistry to geology.
“But there is a second explanation: When I was in secondary school, I was gifted a copy of Jackson’s electrodynamics. On the first page, there were strange inverted triangular symbols everywhere, and it felt like arcane magical tomes from the Hogwarts library. I promised myself that one day I would understand them, and now I do!”
Reflecting on his third year of study and the Theoretical Physics Course, he said: “The first part (TP1) of the course was very interesting precisely because of the kind of generality that brought me to physics in the first place. It grounded a multitude of natural phenomena, from gravitation to fluid flow to phase transitions, all on the Principle of Least Action. This is something that you can rely upon when hitchhiking in the galaxy.”
“The second part (TP2) was exciting in a different way. It discussed many practical aspects of our craft, such as scattering matrices and the topological nature of Berry phases (which is cutting-edge!). It also featured many slick tricks (such as the calculation of Landau-Zener tunnelling by way of contour integration) that are just mathematically too amazing.”
His Director of Studies adds “I ran into Yuchen at a Max-Planck-Institute in Dresden this summer, where he is doing a short research project in theoretical condensed matter physics. When we talked, I realised that the student I used to supervise is now working on cutting-edge research – what more can a university teacher hope for?”
What’s next for Yuchen? “First, my 4th year (part III), in which I will likely focus on condensed matter systems, which are the physicists' sandbox for building almost any system we fancy. Then I will likely pursue a Ph.D. degree in physics.”
Mark Warner, who died in 2021, was a fellow of Corpus Christi and a professor of theoretical physics at the Cavendish Laboratory. As a researcher, Mark made pioneering contributions in the field of liquid crystal elastomers: materials with cross-linked polymer chains that possess a combination of liquid and crystal properties, and have applications as artificial muscles and in microrobotics.
His lifelong passion for science education led him to found the Isaac Physics online platform with Dr Lisa Jardine-Wright in 2014, which has revolutionised physics education for teachers and students in an extraordinary number of UK schools.
The Ogden Trust is a charitable trust that exists to promote the teaching and learning of physics.
Cavendish research themes: https://www.phy.cam.ac.uk/research