Chang Liu

Liu Chang is a nuclear physicist specializing in plasma physics and nuclear fusion who left his position as a staff research physicist in the Theory Department of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) to join his alma mater, Peking University, as an assistant professor at the Institute of Heavy Ion Physics in February 2025.

Liu earned his BS in Physics from Peking University in 2011 and his PhD from Princeton University in 2017, remaining at PPPL as a researcher until his departure in January 2025. His research centers on magnetic confinement fusion, working toward the long-standing scientific goal of making nuclear fusion energy a practical reality.

His return came just one day after China announced that its Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) — an artificial sun experiment designed to replicate the sun's fusion process — had reached temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius, a milestone widely seen as signaling China's rapidly advancing position in the global race toward viable fusion power.