Date: Nov.15, 2023 

Source: College of Science & Engineering

Author: WEI Zixian

Translator: ZHANG Diyang

The 2023 Paul Baran Young Scholars Award, in Chicago on Oct. 27, went to Wei Zixian, a 2016 JNU Star and a member of the College of Science and Engineering's 2017 class. The award recognizes his contributions to optical access systems and networks.

Since its establishment in 2007, the award has selected one to four recipients globally each year – three this year. The other two come from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University College London.

Wei is the first JNU alumnus to receive the award. Within mainland China, JNU is the fifth university with undergraduate alumni to receive it, after Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the University of Science and Technology of China, and Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

(Wei Zixian）

Wei is a Ph.D. candidate at McGill University in Montreal, conducting research in optical communications under the supervision of Prof. David Plant, a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and the Engineering Institute of Canada. He graduated from JNU in 2017 with a bachelor's degree in optical engineering under the guidance of class advisor Lu Huihui and earned his master's degree from Tsinghua University in 2020. In recognition of his academic achievements during his undergraduate and master's studies, he received several awards, including 2015 Academic Star, 2016 JNU Star, 2017 JNU Outstanding Graduation Thesis and Outstanding Graduate, the 2018 National Scholarship at Tsinghua University, and Tsinghua University Outstanding Graduation Thesis and Outstanding Graduate. In his Ph.D. studies, he has won several awards, including the 2022 Quebec Government Scholarship, the 2022 Society for Optics and Photonics Award, the 2023 China Scholarship Council Scholarship, the 2023 IEEE Photonics Society Graduate Student Award and the 2023 Qingjin Award, among others.