International Union of Pure and Applied Physics Honors Rice University’s Evelyn Tang

Evelyn Tang, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy in the Wiess School of Natural Sciences and a senior scientist at the Center for Theoretical Biological Physics at Rice University in Houston, Texas, is an inaugural recipient of the Interdisciplinary Early Career Scientist Prize from the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics. Headquartered in Brussels, the IUPAP was formed in 1922 to promote physics and international cooperation in physics.

The prize, which includes 1,000 euros, a medal, and a certificate, honors Tang’s “development of new topological and geometrical analyses that reveal fundamental physics aspects which allow the characterization of robust emergent phenomena in complex systems, from quantum phases of matter to biological systems and the brain.”

Dr. Tang joined the faculty at Rice University in 2021. Her research group develops theoretical frameworks for systems far from equilibrium, ranging from biological systems and the brain to quantum phases of matter. Prior to joining Rice, she served as a group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen, Germany.

Dr. Tang holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Yale University, a  master’s degree in physics from the University of Cambridge in England, and a Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.