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Dr. Qiong Ma got her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). She then moved to MIT where she got her Ph.D. of physics under the supervision of Prof. Pablo Jarillo-Herrero and in close collaboration with Prof. Nuh Gedik. Dr. Ma’s research focuses on uncovering and understanding the fundamental physics of novel quantum materials, particularly about electron and phonon dynamics, low dimensionality, topology, and correlation. This new group will apply advanced nano-/micro-sized device fabrications to control multiple degrees of freedom in quantum materials and combine low-temperature electronic transport and nonlinear, ultrafast, and near-field optoelectronic microscopies and spectroscopies to probe the physics.  Qiong has been recognized by the 2018 Rising Stars in Physics Award, the 2022 National Science Foundation (NSF) Early Career Award and the 2022 IUPAP Young Scientist Prize for the Commission on Low Temperature Physics (C5). Qiong has also been selected as a CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar in the Quantum Materials Program (2022-2024 cohort).

Recent research highlights

A. Gao, Y. Liu, C. Hu, J. Qiu, C. Tzschaschel, B. Ghosh, S. Ho, D. Bérubé, R. Chen, H. Sun, Z. Zhang, X. Zhang, Y. Wang, N. Wang, Z. Huang, C. Felser, A. Agarwal, T. Ding, H. Tien, A. Akey, J. Gardener, B. Singh, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, K. Burch, D. Bell, B. Zhou, W. Gao, H. Lu, A. Bansil, H. Lin, T. Chang, L. Fu, Qiong Ma, N. Ni & S-Y. Xu,  “Layer Hall effect in a 2D topological axion antiferromagnet”, Nature 595, 521–525 (2021) (Link)

Qiong Ma, A. Grushin, K. Burch, “Topology and geometry under the nonlinear electromagnetic spotlight”, Nature Materials 20, 1601–1614 (2021) (Link)

Z. Zheng*, Qiong Ma*, Z. Bi, S. Barrera, M. Liu, N. Mao, Y. Zhang, N. Kiper, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, J. Kong, W. Tisdale, R. Ashoori, N. Gedik, L. Fu, S. Xu & P. Jarillo-Herrero, “Unconventional ferroelectricity in moiré heterostructures”, Nature 588, 71 (2020) (Link) MIT news (Link)

S-Y. Xu*, Qiong Ma*, Y. Gao*, A. Kogar, G. Zong, A. Valdivia, T. Dinh, S. Huang, B. Singh, C. Hsu, T. Chang, J. Ruff, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, H. Lin, G. Karapetrov, D. Xiao, P. Jarillo-Herrero & N. Gedik, “Spontaneous gyrotropic electronic order in a transition-metal dichalcogenide”, Nature 578, 545 (2020) (Cover story) (Link) MIT news (Link)

Qiong Ma*, S-Y. Xu*, H. Shen*, D. MacNeill, V. Fatemi, T. Chang, A. Valdivia, S. Wu, Z. Du, C. Hsu, S. Fang, Q. Gibson, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, R. Cava, E. Kaxiras, H. Lu, H. Lin, L. Fu, N. Gedik & P. Jarillo-Herrero, “Observation of the nonlinear Hall effect under time reversal symmetric conditions”, Nature 565, 337 (2019) (Link)

Qiong Ma, C. Lui, J. Song, Y. Lin, J. Kong, Y. Cao, T. Dinh, N. Nair, W. Fang, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, S. Xu, J. Kong, T. Palacios, N. Gedik, N. Gabor & P. Jarillo-Herrero, “Giant intrinsic photoresponse in pristine graphene”, Nature Nanotechnology 14, 145 (2019) (Link) Nature Nanotechnology News and Views (Link), UCR News (Link) and Physics World (Link)

S-Y. Xu*, Qiong Ma*, H. Shen, V. Fatemi, S. Wu, T. Chang, G. Chang, A. Valdivia, C. Chan, Q. Gibson, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, H. Lin, R. Cava, L. Fu, N. Gedik & P. Jarillo-Herrero, “Electrically switchable Berry curvature dipole in the monolayer topological insulator WTe2”, Nature Physics 14, 900 (2018) (Link) Nature Physics News and Views (Link)

Qiong Ma*, S-Y. Xu*, C. Chan, C. Zhang, G. Chang, Y. Lin, W. Xie, T. Palacios, H. Lin, S. Jia, P. Lee, P. Jarillo-Herrero & N. Gedik, “Direct optical detection of Weyl fermion chirality in a topological semimetal”, Nature Physics 13, 842 (2017) (Link) MIT news (Link) and DOE highlight (Link)

Who is funding our research?