Recorded video link: https://vshare.sjtu.edu.cn/open/873097b882b106de6773d832c171b0bfc78b19a3b8dfe9b4fdba5eb99c4bad9b

Host: Prof. Xiaogang He (何小刚）

Abstract:

Centennial Celebration: Quantum mechanics, Quantum field theory, and More
Abstract: 2025 marks 100 years since the birth of quantum mechanics — a scientific revolution that reshaped our understanding of nature at its most fundamental level. We will trace its origins from pioneering work of Heisenberg, Schrödinger, and Dirac to its modern formulation in quantum field theory — the language of particle physics and the Standard Model, and the transformative technologies powering the modern world, from semiconductors and lasers to quantum computing. Alongside the historical journey, we will explore key concepts in quantum mechanics and quantum fields, the philosophical questions they pose, and how ongoing research continues to push the boundaries of what we know.

Bio:

Tao Han is Distinguished Professor of High Energy Physics at the University of Pittsburgh, and the founding Director of the Pittsburgh Particle Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology Center. He received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1990. He was a Research Associate at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and a National SSC Fellow. He was appointed an Assistant Professor at UC Davis in 1993, and became Associate Professor. He returned to UW Madison in 1997, was promoted to Full Professor in 2001, and served as Co-Director for the "Phenomenology Institute" until 2011, when he relocated to the University of Pittsburgh.

Tao Han's research has focused on new physics exploration at colliders, phenomenological formulation of theoretical models. He contributed to the Higgs physics and other new physics searches at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. He has been involved in exploring physics potentials for various future high-energy colliders, such as the International Linear Collider (ILC), the Future Circular Collider (Fcc), and the muon collider.

Tao Han was elected a Fellow of APS in 2003 and a Fellow of AAAS in 2019. He won an Alexander von Humboldt Research Award in 2024, a 2025 APS Meenakshi Narain Mentoring Award, and a 2025 Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Wisconsin Physics Department. He is an elected general member of Aspen Center for Physics and of CTEQ. He was 2021 Chair of APS Division of Particles and Fields, Chair for the 2020 APS April Meeting, and on the Chair-line and Steering Committee for the US particle physics Community Planning Exercise of Snowmass 2021.