Obituary: Shoucheng Zhang, external member of the Max Planck Institute Chemical Physics of Solids, and a remarkable and creative thinker
It was with great sadness that we learned of the sudden death of Shoucheng Zhang, who was external member of our institute and one of the leading condensed matter theorists of his generation, and whose work impacted several research fields, most notably that of topological matter.
For his work Shoucheng received several major prizes and awards. We will miss Shoucheng’s innovative and creative ideas that often opened up completely new directions in condensed matter physics and novel materials and even devices. Shoucheng was an outstanding teacher and mentor whom many of us recall as giving brilliant, highly memorable and inspiring lectures and who could explain the most complex concepts in ways that made them clear and understandable to all. As well as teaching others, Shoucheng was always teaching himself. For example, long airplane flights were regarded as opportunities listen to podcasts on subjects way beyond the scope of his research, such as finance, history or biography. He was an outstanding all-round intellectual. Shoucheng leaves behind a loving family who must be heartbroken by their immense loss, as we are too.
Claudia Felser Andy Mackenzie Juri Grin Liu Hao Tjeng