26 May 2026
Dr. Ying-Jiun Chen of Forschungszentrum Jülich has been awarded the 2026 IUPAP Early Career Scientist Prize in Magnetism. The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) is recognizing her groundbreaking work on quantum materials and ultrathin 2D magnets.
The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) is the global umbrella organization for physics. The Early Career Prize is one of the most prestigious international awards for young researchers in the field of magnetism. The prize will be presented at the International Conference on Magnetism 2027 in Puerto Rico, the largest gathering of the global magnetism community.
Dr. Ying-Jiun Chen conducts research at the Peter Grünberg Institute for Electronic Properties (PGI-6) at Forschungszentrum Jülich. She studies materials consisting of only a few atomic layers that possess unique magnetic properties. Such materials are considered promising for future information technologies, such as energy-efficient data storage or novel computer chips. In her work, she uses modern spectroscopic and microscopic methods such as momentum microscopy.
One major achievement of her work was the detection of special electronic states, Fermi arcs, in a so-called topological 2D magnet. These could open up new possibilities for utilizing the orbital angular momentum of electrons - which has hardly been used to date - in information technology.
In another study, as first author, she investigated how magnetic signals - magnons - propagate in such materials. The study was included in the "APL Rising Stars Collection 2024" - a selection of particularly outstanding publications by early-career researchers.
"This award is a great honor within the international physics community," says Dr. Ying-Jiun Chen. "At the same time, it underscores the strong research tradition in the field of magnetism at Forschungszentrum Jülich. I am very pleased to be able to build on the successes of the outstanding researchers at Jülich."
The award continues a remarkable series of successes for Jülich: As early as 2025, Dr. Dongwook Go from Forschungszentrum Jülich and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz received the award. In 1994, Peter Grünberg, together with Albert Fert, received the IUPAP Magnetism Award for fundamental work on magnetic coupling and magnetoresistance in artificial multilayers; both were later awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Dr. Ying-Jiun Chen earned her Ph.D. at the Max Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics and Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Prof. Jürgen Kirschner's group. In 2017, she joined Prof. Claus M. Schneider's group at the University of Duisburg-Essen as a postdoctoral researcher. Since 2023, she has been a member of Dr. Christian Tusche's "Momentum Microscopy" group at Forschungszentrum Jülich.
