Ying-Cheng Lai
Ying-Cheng Lai, a faculty member in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, was named a 2022 Regents Professor, the highest and most prestigious faculty award at ASU. Celebrate this achievement at the induction ceremony at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 9, 2022, at the Memorial Union on the Tempe campus. All are invited to attend.
Lai is one of four new Regents Professors, who are considered the top researchers at ASU who have national and international recognition among their peers. They are nominated by tenured faculty members at ASU, evaluated by an advisory committee, recommended by ASU President Michael Crow and approved by the Arizona Board of Regents.
“Excellence and creativity drive forward our understanding of the world,” Crow said to ASU News. “These newly named Regents Professors are the very best in their fields, advancing new frontiers of knowledge, exploring new ways of thinking about instruction, about interventions, about quantum chaos and about enhancing our understanding of the universe and its origins. To receive ASU’s highest honor, it is not enough to be knowledgeable, but to be a perpetually curious pioneer — this is where these scholars excel.”
Lai pioneered the interdisciplinary field of relativistic quantum chaos, which lies at the theoretical physics borders of quantum mechanics, relativity and chaos theory. He is considered one of the most innovative and influential researchers in nonlinear dynamics and complex systems. Additionally, he developed methods to modulate quantum transport in nanoscale devices.
Over the course of his career, Lai has secured more than $12 million in federal funding, and published more than 500 refereed journal articles that exceed 26,000 citations. He has mentored and graduated numerous master’s degree students, 22 doctoral students and more than a dozen postdoctoral fellows.
Lai joins a number of Fulton Schools faculty members who have earned the prestigious distinction of Regents Professor.Lai joins a number of Fulton Schools faculty members who have earned the prestigious distinction of Regents Professor.
