Young professor blazes trail for Hong Kong scientists in mainland China as she shines light on puzzle that eluded Einstein
Theoretical physicist Janet Hung recruited by Fudan University two years ago amid worldwide hunt for talent
Theoretical physicist Janet Hung Ling-yan, a 34-year-old Hongkonger, is shining new light on a puzzle that eluded Albert Einstein.
And she’s doing so as a professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University, blazing a trail for other young scientists from Hong Kong.
It is not too difficult to overcome the differences, as long as I can think from their position
During post-doctoral studies at Harvard University in 2013, Hung and collaborators stumbled upon some surprising properties of a gateway connecting two different worlds while fiddling around with Einsteinian equations.
The portal, buried in a heap of formulas, links the gravity governing stars and galaxies to quantum entanglement at the atomic level, which Einstein dubbed “spooky action”. A mathematical hint in Einstein’s equations describing gravity, which Einstein himself had not spotted, shed new light on the missing link between his general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics.
The discovery took Hung and other physicists further in the long and difficult search for a “united theory” capable of explaining everything.
Two years ago, at the age of 32, Hung started her professional academic career as a full-time professor in Fudan’s physics department, after being recruited through the mainland’s Thousand Talents Programme.