中科大校友曹原及其高引论文

诸平

曹原，男，1996年出生，籍贯是四川成都，2014年中国科技大学毕业，同年去美国麻省理工学院（MIT）读研，现是麻省理工学院的博士生(详见http://web.mit.edu/caoyuan/www/)。他目前是在《自然》（Nature）杂志上以第一作者身份发表论文的最年轻的中国学者。2018年12月，曹原荣获《自然》（Nature）杂志2018年度影响世界的十大科学人物。

1 少年才子——三年学完十二年课

2007年，年仅11岁的曹原走进深圳耀华实验学校的大门之后，令人吃惊的是他仅仅用了3年的时间读完小学六年级、初中和高中的课程。2010年参加高考，并获得了理科总分669分的高考成绩，14岁的曹原被中国科技大学少年班录取，成为中国科技大学的一名大学生。

2 求知若渴——在知识海洋遨游

据中国科技大学英才班的同学回忆，曹原在中科大虽然年龄小，但是，他的问题却不少。以当年大一下学期由张祖德老师讲授的《无机化学》为例，那时候张老师是晚上在办公室给学生答疑。有同学每次去找张老师答疑时，经常都能看到屋子里只有一个脖子上挂着钥匙的小朋友，拉着张老师问问题，有一次曹原他问的问题这位同学会，在旁边还会插嘴给解答一下。从那时候开始，这位同学说他就感觉这个小同学酷爱学习，问的问题也不一般，而且有深度。后来从张老师那才知道，中科大的这位小同学名叫曹原。张老师经常夸他很厉害，高一就考上少年班，特别聪明，认真好学，求知欲旺盛。《无机化学》期中考试成绩下来，有同学去找张老师看试卷，就发现曹原的试卷放在了最上面，而且成绩遥遥领先。

有同学回忆说，如果他没有记错，曹原在大三和大四考了两次GRE Sub，一次物理，一次化学，成绩基本都接近满分。到了大二，连中科大非专业的化学都跟中科大化学英才班一起上，曹原在物理和化学上的基础都非常扎实，这无疑应该就是他后来科研上的成绩突出的基础。顺便解释一下GRE Sub, 在解释GRE Sub之前，首先介绍一下GRE。GRE的全称Graduate Record Examination，中文含义为美国研究生入学考试，适用于除法律与商业外的各专业，由美国教育考试服务处(Educational Testing Service，简称ETS)主办。GRE是世界各地的大学各类研究生院(除管理类学院，法学院之外)要求申请者所必须具备的一个考试成绩，也是教授对申请者是否授予奖学金所依据的最重要的标准。

而GRE Sub考试就是GRE的专项测试，目的是为测试应考者在某一门学科领域或者专业领域内所获得的知识和技能以及能力水平的高低，从而帮助院校更好地了解申请人在某一学科领域的能力情况。GRE Sub并不是每个专业都必须考，目前为止，GRE Sub考试设置有8个专业：包括数学、化学、生物、物理、生化、心理学以及英语文学。申请美国研究生的其他专业学生无需考GRE Sub。曹原考了两次GRE Sub，一次物理，一次化学，足以可见他在物理和化学方面具有扎实功基，成为他后来在物理与化学交叉领域大显身手的基础。曹原在大学期间，不仅学习英语，而且对于日语也兴趣浓厚。虽然曹原上日语课时，课桌上就放一本日语教材，却很少打开，也不用写笔记，只是认真而专注地聆听，是他将老师上课讲的内容直接印在自己的脑海里。

3 实践出真知——在实践中增长才干

曹原在上大学期间，参加过多项研究，如2012年以本科生交流的方式，在美国密西根大学安阿伯分校（University of Michigan, Ann Arbor）进行了为期两个月的本科生科研经历，在此期间他编写了US-ATLAS网格计算网络告警系统。部分工作后来被集成到新版的perfSONAR-PS网络监控系统中。2013年，曹原在中国科学技术大学参加了计算物理课程计划，其目的是利用有限元方法计算铁磁流体在磁场中表面图案的形成。有一篇关于这项工作的研究论文后来发表在《磁性与磁性材料》（Journalof Magnetism and Magnetic Materials）杂志上。2012～2014年曹原在中国科学技术大学曾老师的指导（Zeng’s group, USTC, Hefei, China）下，以本科生身份，通过理论方法研究了超晶格对石墨烯及其等离子体性质的影响，研究结果发表在2014年的《物理评论B》（Physical Review B）杂志上。曹原2013年赴英国牛津大学陈玉林研究小组（Yulin Chen’s group, Oxford University, Oxford, UK）进行交流，在这为期三个月的交流项目中，他做了一些角分辨光电发射光谱(Angular Resolved Photoemission Spectrum , ARPES)实验的数据分析和编程。2013~2014年在中国科学技术大学参与了用光还原氧化石墨烯制作超级电容器的项目。采用一个可编程的激光划片器将氧化石墨烯还原成超电容器。

2014年至今，在美国麻省理工学院，Jarillo-Herrero研究小组(Prof. Pablo Jarillo-Herrero's group)担任研究助理。其研究主要集中在基于石墨烯和过渡金属化合物(transitional metal dichacogenides, TMD)的二维体系及其相互作用和物理性质。曹原对扭曲双层石墨烯的研究已经于在2016年的《物理评论快报》（Physical Review Letters）上发表了一篇论文，在2018年的《自然》（Nature）杂志上发表了两篇论文。曹原他们在魔角扭曲双层石墨烯（magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene）方面的研究引起了整个凝聚态界的广泛兴趣。

2014年，18岁的曹原从中国科技大学毕业，获得物理专业凝聚态物质和材料物理学方向的

学士学位（Bachelor of Science (B.S.) Condensed Matter and Materials Physics）。同年他被美国麻省理工学院（Massachusetts Institute of Technology）录取为电气工程专业研究生，2016年20岁的曹原获得MIT电气工程专业硕士学位（M. S. in Electrical Engineering, MIT）。2016年开始，在MIT继续攻读博士学位（Ph. D.candidatein Electrical Engineering , MIT）。

曹原曾经多次获得奖学金，2011～2012年度中国国家奖学金（2011-2012 National Scholarship，China)以及优秀新生奖学金（Outstanding Freshmen’s Scholarship）；2013年郭沫若奖学金，这也是中国科技大学学生的最高荣誉奖（2013 Guo Moruo Scholarship，Highest honor for USTC students)；2014年荣获MIT的洛克奖学金（2014 Locher Fellowship，MIT)。曹原还曾经获得ACM国际大学生程序设计竞赛亚洲赛区的3枚银牌和一枚铜牌。

2018年3月5日，《自然》（Nature）发表了两篇以曹原为第一作者的石墨烯重磅论文。发现当两层平行石墨烯堆成约1.1°的微妙角度，就会产生神奇的超导效应。这一发现轰动国际学界，直接开辟了凝聚态物理的一块新领域。如今，正有无数学者试图重复、拓展他的研究。

4 曹原的部分论文及被引情况

相关报道：

Physics prodigy, 22, honored for discovery of 'magic angle'

2018-12-20 08:37:30China DailyEditor : Mo Hong'eECNS App Download

Cao Yuan, a 22-year-old doctoral candidate in physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was named one of the 10 people who mattered this year by the journal Nature on Wednesday for discovering a "magic angle" in graphene sheets that spurred a new field of superconductor physics. 

The physics prodigy from Chengdu, Sichuan province, is the third Chinese scientist in five years to make Nature's list for pushing scientific development. Pan Jianwei, a world-leading quantum scientist, and Chen Hualan, an expert on bird flu, made the list in 2017 and 2013, respectively.

Cao finished his middle and high school curricula in two years. By age 18, he had completed an undergraduate degree at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, Anhui province. He then went to the United States to pursue a doctoral degree under MIT physics professor Pablo Jarillo-Herrero.

Young and shy, but a passionate "tinkerer" in electronics and chemistry, Cao's hobbies include photographing the night sky using homemade cameras, Jarillo-Herrero said. "Every time I go in (Cao's office), it's a huge mess, with computers taken apart and pieces of telescope all over his desk," he told Nature.

Cao has also shown maturity beyond his years, Jarillo-Herrero said, praising the young student for not being fazed by failures or misdirection in research. "He just rolled up his sleeves and continued working."

In March, Cao surprised the nanoscience community by discovering graphene can potentially be an insulator－a material that resists electricity－or a superconductor－a material that conducts electricity without resistance－by slightly changing the alignment of two graphene layers sandwiched together, according to two papers he published in Nature.

Graphene, first discovered in 2004, is a flat, honeycomblike grid made of a single layer of carbon atoms. It has emerged as one of the most promising nanomaterials for its useful properties, such as being the thinnest and strongest material in the world, and more electrically conductive than copper.

Cao's work showed that when the two layers of graphene were cooled to 1.7 degrees Celsius above absolute zero (-273 C) and rotated to a "magic angle" of 1.1 degrees, the overlaying graphene exhibited nonconducting behaviors.

But when a small electric field was applied in addition to the previous lab conditions, the electrons in the graphene sandwich can break out of the insulating state and flow without resistance.

"One can also imagine making a superconducting transistor out of graphene, which you can switch on and off, from superconducting to insulating. That opens many possibilities for quantum devices," Jarillo-Herrero told MIT News in March.

The prospect of manipulating complex electronic states through simple rotation thrilled engineers and physicists around the world. "There are so many things we can do," Cory Dean, a physicist at Columbia University, told Nature. "The opportunities at hand now are almost overwhelming."

In past experiments, graphene needed to be in contact with other superconductors to inherit some superconducting behaviors.

But Cao's discovery shows that superconductivity might be an intrinsic quality of the purely carbon-based material, taking a huge step in the decadeslong search for superconductors with a simpler makeup, and it might operate at room temperature.

Huang Jiatang, Cao's high-school physics teacher, told the Red Star News in Chengdu that he was "too excited to go to sleep" after hearing about his student making the discovery. Huang said he remembered Cao as a young kid with a superb ability to learn on his own, a love for hands-on experiments and being unafraid to challenge teachers and ask difficult questions.

However, Cao often stressed he was just an ordinary kid who simply loved reading about science and doing experiments, despite being enrolled at age 14 in USTC's School of the Gifted Young, a special program nurturing teenagers into world-class talents.

Cao told the Chengdu outlet that he didn't feel special because everyone in his program was extremely smart.

He said that neither did he feel superior to average college students, saying, "After all, we are all humans, with flaws and emotions."

The Nature article said Cao still doesn't know where he would like his career to go, but physicist Zeng Changgan, Cao's mentor at USTC, told Nature that many universities are already eyeing him for postdoctoral jobs and faculty posts. "The university would gladly have him back," he said.

Apart from those who pushed scientific development, Nature's list also included one or two figures that spurred global scientific debate.

He Jiankui, the Chinese biologist who performed a highly controversial experiment purporting to have created the world's first gene-edited babies, was also included for spurring debate over research standards and ethics.