Sung Ryul Eric Yang

Sung Ryul Eric Yang (S.-R. Eric Yang) is a theoretical condensed matter physicist. He is a full professor in the Department of Physics of Korea University.

Education
Yang earned his Candidate of Science from the University of Copenhagen in 1982 under supervision of Henrik Smith, who is a co-author of the book Bose–Einstein Condensation in Dilute Gases (Cambridge University Press, 2008). He attended University of California, San Diego, from which he obtained a PhD degree in physics in 1986 under the supervision of Lu Jeu Sham.

Academic career
After receiving his PhD, Yang worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Maryland from 1986 to 1987. He then worked as a research officer at the National Research Council of Canada from 1987 to 1995. In 1995, Yang joined the faculty of the Department of Physics at Korea University as an associate professor and in 2000, he became full professor. He was the condensed matter coordinator at Asia Pacific Center of Theoretical Physics (APCTP) during its establishment period.

His research interests include quantum Hall edge reconstruction, many-body physics and its interplay with disorder. He showed, in collaboration with Allan H. MacDonald, that electron interaction effects do not change the critical properties of the integer quantum Hall plateau transitions, except for the dynamic critical exponent. In recent years, Yang's research focuses on topological order of disordered graphene zigzag nanoribbons. He showed that disordered interacting graphene zigzag nanoribbons is a new topologically ordered insulator with semionic $$ e/2 $$ fractional charges.

Textbook
In 2023, Yang published a graduate textbook titled Topologically Ordered Zigzag Nanoribbon: e/2 Fractionally Charged Anyons and Spin-Charge Separation (World Scientific). The book has been reviewed by Philip Kim.

Personal life
From the age of 12, Yang has lived in various countries including Vietnam, Mexico, Denmark, the USA, and Canada. Denmark is where he spent the majority of his adolescent years. He has a Korean wife and two daughters.