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About Me & CV

I am Yefan "Alex" Tian, a normal boy falling love in science and math, basically everything in natural scientific world (also a huge fan of history and K-pop). Born and raised in China, I was absolutely one hundred percent thinking as a native Chinese before 2015. Baoding, my hometown, is such a small city in spite of its huge population. I had both of my primary and secondary education there. Sometimes, one question occurred in my mind, what kind of life will I have if I stay in my comfort zone? Maybe I don't have the chance to find it out anymore. 

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I left my hometown after high school and more new chapters started then. Far away from north China, I went to south China for my higher education in 2011. After I got my B.S. degree in Applied Physics at University of Science and Technology of China, I came to the other side of Earth. After 5 & 1/2 years, I finished the Ph.D. program and pursued my Ph.D. and M.S. in Physics. Then, a new adventure is about to start for me to become a postdoc at Cornell University. My research is mainly experimental condensed matter and materials physics, mostly NMR for my Ph.D. research under the supervision of Dr. Joseph H. Ross, Jr. in Department of Physics and Astronomy at Texas A&M University. Definitely, It's not that easy to reach the top of the science pyramid, but I still hope to be a great physicist in the future and contribute as much as possible to our society. All my life, I believe in that DREAM and LOVE are always encouraging me to move forward and march further. Sincerely be grateful for the faith from the people who love me and whom I love. This means much more than everything else.

Q: Is it possible to find my connection with Sir Issac Newton, (one of) the founding father of physics? A very interesting question!

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A: Sir Isaac Newton → Roger Cotes → Robert Smith → Walter Taylor → Stephen Whisson → Thomas Postlethwaite → Thomas Jones → Adam Sedgwick → William Hopkins → Edward John Routh → Sir Joseph John Thomson → Sir Owen Willans Richardson → Dr. Karl Taylor Compton → Dr. Henry DeWolf Smyth → Dr. Kenneth Tompkins Bainbridge → Dr. Edward Mills Purcell → Dr. Charles Pence Slichter → Dr. Joseph H. Ross, Jr. → Me

Professional Experience

2021 - Current

Postdoctoral Associate, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Education

2015 - 2021

Ph.D. and M.S. in Physics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX

2017 - 2019

D3EM Certificate, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX

2011 - 2015

B.S. in Applied Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

Research Interests

Low Temperature Physics

Superfluid and superconductivity

Magnetism and Magnetic Resonance

Quantum Topological Materials

Thermoelectric Materials

Data-enabled Material Design and Discovery

Honors and Awards

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Selected Publications

  • Yefan Tian, Yanglin Zhu, Rui Li, Zhiqiang Mao, and Joseph H. Ross, Jr., “NMR determination of Van Hove singularity and Lifshitz transitions in nodal-line semimetal ZrSiTe”, Physical Review B 104, L041105 (2021).

  • ​Yefan Tian, Nader Ghassemi, and Joseph H. Ross, Jr., “Gap-opening transition in Dirac semimetal ZrTe5”, Physics Review Letters 126, 236401 (2021).

  • Yuhao Wang*, Yefan Tian*, Tanner Kirk, Omar Laris, Joseph H. Ross, Jr., Ronald D. Noebe, Vladimir Keylin, and Raymundo Arroyave, “Accelerated design of Fe-based soft magnetic materials using machine learning and stochastic optimization”, Acta Materialia 194, 144 (2020). (*Contributed equally)

  • Yefan Tian, Nader Ghassemi, and Joseph H. Ross, Jr., “Dirac electron behavior and NMR evidence for topological band inversion in ZrTe5”, Physical Review B 100, 165149 (2019).

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