Professor GAO Hongjun, an experimental condensed matter physicist, is a Group Leader in the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He also serves as the Dean, School of Physical Sciences, U-CAS. He was born in Anhui Province in 1963 and obtained his Ph.D. degrees from Peking University in 1994. He was elected as a CAS Member in 2011 and Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS) in 2012. He was elected as a Member of the German National Academy of Sciences in 2021.

Dr. GAO served as the Vice President of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) from 2014 to 1015. He also acted as Scientific Secretary of the International Union of Vacuum Science, Technology, and Applications (IUVSTA) in the triennium 2004-2007, and as Chairman of the Nano Science & technology Division NSTD, IUVSTA (2010-2013). From 1997 to 2000, he worked at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) as a Guest Scientist. He has served as an Associate Editor for Appl. Phys. Lett. from 2010 to 2018 and editorial board member for several international journals.

Dr. GAO has made significant contribution to the field of low-dimensional quantum nanostructures via scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy including the construction of novel quantum nanostructures and their physical properties. He has published more than 500 papers including 6 in Nature and Science. His total citations exceed 28000, and his H-index is 86. He has received numerous awards for his work, including awarded a Humboldt Research Award in 2010, the TWAS Prize in 2009, the Achievement in Asia Award (Robert Prize) of the Overseas Chinese Physics Association in 2008, the TAN KAH KEE Science Award in Mathematics and Physics, 2010, the Science and Technology Awards of the Ho Leung Ho Lee, 2012, and the Outstanding Science and Technology Achievement Prize of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2013.