About PI

Where I'm from

I was born and grew up in Dongying (东营) city of Shandong Province in eastern China. In the Chinese definition, Dongying is a "small" city with a population of "only" 2 million. My hometown is home to the Shengli Oil Field (the 2nd largest oil field in China), the delta of the Yellow River (the 2nd longest river in China & 6th longest in the world), and also Sun Tzu (author of The Art of War). It takes about a four-hour drive from Beijing to my home (about 20 mins walk from the tower in the left figure), of course assuming no traffic jam (unfortunately never possible in Beijing...).

About my name

My last name "Zhang" (张) is the 3rd most common used surname in China. About 96 million Chinese share the same surname as mine. As for my first name, "Rui"(瑞) and "Xing"(星) means "auspicious" and "star" in Chinese, respectively. While "Ruixing" is the way we pronounce & spell my first name in Pinyin, it does not directly follow the English tradition. In particular, the "x" in my name should be pronounced as "sh", but more y-like (e.g. a quantum superposition between "Ray-Shing" and "Ray-Ying").

Hobbies

Cooking

Besides working on theories of condensed matters, since 2012, I have been actively doing daily experiments on cooking authentic Chinese food based on materials available in the United States. I can cook about 50~100 distinct Chinese dishes that originate from a variety of provinces in China. For me, cooking is relaxation after busy work, a reward of my research progress, and enjoyment of my everyday life. I believe that the underlying philosophy of cooking is quite similar to that of condensed matter physics:

(i) A delicate balance among various ingredients. For Chinese cuisine, the ingredients are salt, sugar, spices, oil, vinegar, soy sauce, etc. For condensed matters, they are symmetry, electron correlations, topology, disorders, dynamics, etc.

(ii) More is different. (This is a fundamental principle in condensed matter systems, see the original article by P. W. Anderson for more.

Photography

Being a very amateur "photographer", I love recording my everyday life with my cellphone camera. While the instantaneous beauty of Mother Nature is often unique and transient, if captured by a camera, it lives within a photo forever.

Other Hobbies

In my spare time, I love playing basketball, soccer, and badminton, as well as jogging and hiking. I also love singing and appear to be a fairly good singer according to my family and friends. Besides, travelling with my beloved one is a necessary ingredient of my life.

With my old iphone 6 in Rocky Mountain National Park on 07/21/2018.

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