Rate My Professor Xiaoqing Pan

Xiaoqing Pan is the Henry Samueli Endowed Chair in Engineering, professor of materials science and engineering, and professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. He is the inaugural director of the Irvine Materials Research Institute and founding director of the Center for Complex and Active Materials, an NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Center. Previously, Pan was professor and the Richard F. and Eleanor A. Towner Endowed Chair of Engineering, as well as director of the Electron Microbeam Analysis Laboratory at the University of Michigan, where he joined the faculty as an associate professor in 1996 and was promoted to professor with tenure in 2004. Following postdoctoral research at the Max-Planck Institut für Metallforschung in Stuttgart, he earned his Ph.D. in physics from the Universität des Saarlandes, Germany, in 1991, along with bachelor's and master's degrees in physics from Nanjing University. Pan has held distinguished visiting positions, including the Cheung-Kong Distinguished Visiting Professorship at Nanjing University from 2008 to 2010 and the National Distinguished Professorship under China's 1000 Talent Program in 2009.

Pan is an internationally recognized materials scientist and electron microscopy expert whose pioneering transmission electron microscopy methods have enabled probing of atomic-scale structures, properties, and dynamic behaviors of materials, leading to discoveries of new materials and functionalities. His research specializes in atomic-scale characterization of material interfaces and nanostructures under controlled conditions, with emphasis on oxide heterostructures, ferroelectrics and multiferroics, nanocatalysts, two-dimensional functional materials, single-atom catalysts, and complex concentrated materials. Notable contributions include the first direct observation of ferroelectric polarization vortices, real-time nanoscale ferroelectric domain switching, and conducting filament growth in resistive memories, detailed in key publications such as 'Room-temperature ferroelectricity in strained SrTiO3' (Nature, 2004), 'Enhancement of ferroelectricity in strained BaTiO3 thin films' (Science, 2004), 'Observation of conducting filament growth in nanoscale resistive memories' (Nature Communications, 2012), and 'Polarization vortex arrays' (Nano Letters, 2011). He has authored over 200 peer-reviewed papers in high-impact journals including Nature, Science, and Nature Materials, delivered more than 150 invited talks and 120 seminars, and served on committees such as the Advisory Committee of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council, China, since 2011, and the Physical Sciences Panel of the Hong Kong Research Grants Council since 2013. Pan's honors include the NSF CAREER Award, Chinese NSF Outstanding Young Investigator Award, and election as fellow of the American Ceramic Society (2011), American Physical Society (2013), Microscopy Society of America, and Materials Research Society.