Huang Kun

Huang Kun (; September 2, 1919 – July 6, 2005) was a Chinese physicist and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was influential in the establishment of solid-state physics in China. He is known for his various contributions to solid-state physics including the Huang diffraction, early theory of polaritons, the Born–Huang approximation, the and the Huang–Zhu model.

He was awarded the State Preeminent Science and Technology Award (the highest science award in China) by President Jiang Zemin in 2001.

Life

Born in Jiaxing, China, in September 1919. He got a bachelor degree from Yenching University in physics.

In 1948, he earned his PhD from the H. H. Wills Physics Lab of Bristol University in England. His supervisor was Nevill Mott. In his thesis, he worked on the effect of dissolved solute atoms to X-ray diffraction in dilute solid solution. he calculated the average emitted phonons in a electronic transition in crystallographic defect. The formula they developed is known as the . A year later, he would marry Rhys.

In 1951, Huang returned to China to teach, and became a professor of physics at Peking University. Huang and Xie Xide started the research of semiconductors in China, and established the solid state physics major at Peking University. In 2001, Huang and Wang Xuan received the State Preeminent Science and Technology Award by President Jiang Zemin.