physics

Mei-Yin Chou

Mei-Yin Chou is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mei-Yin Chou rather than just read about it. In short: Mei-Yin Chou (Chinese: 周美吟; pinyin: Zhōu Měiyín; born 1958) is a Taiwanese physicist who has been vice president of Academia Sinica since 2016. She is a specialist in condensed matter physics and solid-state physics.

Key takeaways

Mei-Yin Chou belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mei-Yin Chou to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mei-Yin Chou from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mei-Yin Chou (Chinese: 周美吟; pinyin: Zhōu Měiyín; born 1958) is a Taiwanese physicist who has been vice president of Academia Sinica since 2016. She is a specialist in condensed matter physics and solid-state physics.

Education Chou graduated from National Taiwan University with a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in physics in 1980. She then completed advanced studies in the United States at the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned her Master of Science (M.S.) in physics in 1983 and her Ph.D. in physics in 1986. Her doctoral dissertation, completed under physics professor Marvin L. Cohen, was titled, "Electrons in Solids and Clusters". She published 12 academic papers before she completed her doctorate at Berkeley.

Acadenic career After receiving her doctorate, Chou completed postdoctoral research with Exxon, and joined the Georgia Institute of Technology faculty in 1989. Chou received a two-year fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation between 1990 and 1992, as well as a five-year fellowship from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation (1990–1995). Chou became an associate professor at Georgia Tech in 1993, and was promoted to full professor in 1998. Chou held the Advance Professorship in Science from 2002 to 2006, and chaired the physics department between 2005 and 2010. She returned to Taiwan to assume the directorship of the Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences at Academia Sinica, and took a joint adjunct professorship at National Taiwan University. In 2013, Chou was awarded the Outstanding Award of the Taiwan Outstanding Women in Science Awards. She was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society in 2002, and elected to membership within Academia Sinica in 2014. Chou was considered one of three finalists for the position of president of Academia Sinica in 2016. After Kuo Way withdrew from consideration and James C. Liao was selected, Chou was appointed one of three vice presidents. In late 2017, Chou was one of eight finalists considered for the position of National Taiwan University president. Chou remained in the running until the final round of five candidates.

Personal life Chou is married to Ye-Hwa Evan Chen. They have a son and a daughter; her son earned a master's degree from the University of Washington and her daughter graduated from Harvard University with a degree in mathematics.

References

External links

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mei-Yin Chou

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mei-Yin Chou claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mei-Yin Chou before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mei-Yin Chou ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mei-Yin Chou

In research: Mei-Yin Chou appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mei-Yin Chou in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mei-Yin Chou is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1958 births, 20th-century Taiwanese physicists, 20th-century women physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mei-Yin Chou outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Mei-Yin Chou in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mei-Yin Chou means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mei-Yin Chou out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mei-Yin Chou in simple terms?

Why does Mei-Yin Chou matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mei-Yin Chou?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mei-Yin Chou.