Conferment of the Degree of
Doctor of Science, honoris causa

A Citation for
PROFESSOR DANIEL C. TSUI

 

          It is no exaggeration to say that Prof. Daniel Tsui is a name well-known to all in Hong Kong.   In 1998, Prof. Tsui was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics along with Prof. Horst L. Stormer and Prof. Robert B. Laughlin.   He is the sixth Chinese scientist to ever receive this highest honour in scientific research and the first Nobel laureate who received his secondary education in Hong Kong.

          Prof. Tsui was born the son of a farmer in 1939 in Henan, China.   At the age of 12, he was sent by his parents to live with his two elder sisters in Hong Kong.  Since then, he has led a fairly independent life.  Unfortunately, he was never to see or be reunited with his parents again.

          Upon arriving in Hong Kong Prof. Tsui entered Pui Ching Middle School.   There were a lot of difficulties adjusting to his new life, including learning Cantonese and making a long journey to school every day.   Prof. Tsui took all these in his stride and his strengths were soon apparent.  He did extremely well in each and every subject at school.   Amiable and modest, humorous and cheerful, he was well loved by all of his classmates.   In 1957, Prof. Tsui passed the Chinese High School Certification Examination with a distinguished record.   He then enrolled in the Special Classes Centre to prepare for the entrance examination of the University of Hong Kong, then the only university in Hong Kong.

          A scholarship offered by the Christian church prompted him to change his course.   Prof. Tsui decided to take the scholarship and enroll at Augustana College, Illinois for further studies.   There he completed his first degree in 3 years, one year sooner than the normal length of study.   In his last year at Augustana, he was elected "Mr. Friendship" by fellow students.   No doubt this honour was a result of his amicability, sincerity and modesty.   And again, Prof. Tsui's academic performance was outstanding, as testified by some of his teachers at Augustana in various articles written for The Joy of the Search for Knowledge, a book published as a tribute to Prof. Tsui on the occasion of his being named a Nobel laureate.

          Following graduation, Prof. Tsui successfully applied for admission to the Physics Department of the University of Chicago as a postgraduate student.  He worked industriously under the supervision of Prof. Royal W. Stark.   Routinely, they worked together 16-18 hours a day, 7 days a week.   Prof. Stark believes that there are three ingredients to make a successful researcher: creativity, originality, and integrity.   The last one, integrity, is particularly important and is difficult to foster.  But this is exactly what set Prof. Tsui apart from other researchers.   With integrity, Prof. Tsui went all out, single-mindedly and steadfastly, to do his research work.   He continues to do so today regardless of all the extraordinary achievements he has already made.

          Prof. Tsui obtained his PhD in Physics at the University of Chicago in 1967 and stayed there to do post-doctroal work for a year.   Then he moved to the Solid State Electronics Research Laboratory at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey, where he worked together with Prof. Horst L. Stormer.   In 1982, they discovered that at low temperatures and in strong magnetic fields, electrons confined to move along the interface between two different semiconductors can form new kinds of quasi-particles with charges that are only fractions of the normal electron charge.   This finding, known as the Fractional Quantum Hall effect or FQH effect, has become a hot research topic by experimental and theoretical physicists ever since.   In the following year, Professor Robert B. Laughlin of Stanford University laid out his explanation for this physics phenomenon: the combination of lower temperature and stronger magnetic field changed the electron gas into a quantum fluid.   It was for their amazing work in the FQH effect, "the discovery of a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations", that Tsui, Stormer, and Laughlin were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1998.

          As a matter of fact, Prof. Tsui had received several American national awards in physics prior to the Nobel Prize.   In 1984, he was honoured by the American Physical Society with the Buckley Prize, a tribute paid to his pioneering work in condensed matter physics.   Four years later, he won the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics, which is deemed the highest honour in physical science in the United States.   These suggest that Prof. Tsui's outstanding work has been long recognized by his peers over the past two decades, and that the award of the Nobel Prize was only natural, or indeed somewhat overdue.

          In regard to scientific research, Prof. Tsui describes it as "a joyous, challenging, meaningful and rewarding undertaking."   He thinks that "the most perplexing part of doing research is that you don't know what the problem is, and when you have identified the problem you don't know what to make of it."   His advice for the aspiring students is: "In doing academic work, you should always be curious, and always raise questions.   Meanwhile, you should have confidence."   This advice embodies Prof. Tsui's successful personal experience which is worthy of our learning.

          Prof. Tsui has been a Professor of Physics at Princeton University since 1982.   He is a fellow of the US National Academy of Science, the American Physical Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, as well as a member of the Academia Sinica in Taipei.   Today, we are very honoured that Prof. Tsui is among us here so that our teachers and students have the opportunity to admire him in person.   Mr. Chairman, it is my privilege and pleasure to present to you Prof. Daniel Tsui, a distinguished scientist, a modest and dedicated scholar, an affable and jovial elder, for the award of the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa.