American Physical Society Names Yongjie Hu a Fellow

Hu was selected for his “field-defining contributions to the physics of extreme thermal transport in solids, including ultrahigh-thermal-conductivity materials, active thermal devices, room-temperature quantum heat waves, and transport concepts that enable advanced microelectronics and thermal management technologies.”

At UCLA, Hu is a member of the California NanoSystems Institute and leads the H-Lab, which studies nanoscale heat transfer and advanced semiconductor materials for a wide range of applications, including electronics, energy, sensors and thermal management. The team focuses on materials synthesis, pulsed electronics, high- speed optical spectroscopy and thermal spectral mapping techniques.

The research group recently demonstrated that heat-carrying atomic vibrations, known as phonons, can travel along focused, ray-like paths at room temperature, a finding that could support advances in heat flow management in electronics and quantum computing technologies. His team also discovered that a metallic material known as theta-phase tantalum nitride conducts heat nearly three times better than conventional metals like copper, opening up new possibilities for cooling electronics and AI hardware.

Hu’s previous honors include an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, an Air Force Young Investigator Award and UCLA Samueli’s Vernroy Makoto Watanabe Excellence in Research Award. He is also a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and was selected to participate in the National Academy of Engineering’s 2019 U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium.

Zhongbo Kang, a professor of physics and astronomy at UCLA, was also named a 2026 American Physical Society fellow.

Other UCLA Samueli faculty elected as APS fellows in recent years include Anya Jones and Aaswath Raman in 2025, Prineha Narang and Kunihiko “Sam” Taira in 2024, Pirouz Kavehpour in 2023, Mona Jarrahi in 2022 and Richard Kaner in 2020.