Biography
Dr. Lei-Han Tang started his academic journey in physics at the University of Science and Technology in the spring of 1978 and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1981. That same year, he continued his study at the Carnegie Mellon University through the CUSPEA Program organized by T.D. Lee and obtained his PhD in statistical physics in 1987. He did postdoctoral work on phase transitions of quasicrystals and disordered/driven systems at various US and German institutions including UCSB, Texas A&M University, the IFF at KFA Jülich, and the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Cologne. From 1996-1997, he was a lecturer at the Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London. Dr. Tang joined the Hong Kong Baptist University in 1997 as an associate professor, ascending to the rank of full professor in 2005. He led the university’s Institute of Computational and Theoretical Studies from 2020 to 2024. Additionally, from 2010 to 2020, he oversaw the Complex Systems Division at the Beijing Computational Science Research Center.
Dr. Tang was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2010. He has served on numerous professional committees including the Physical Science Panel of the RGC/HKSAR (2002-2006), the IUPAP C3 Commission on Statistical Physics (2014-2021), Council of the AAPPS (2014-16), Steering Committees of the Asian Biophysical Society (2010-) and the ICAM-I2CAM (2020-). From 2014-2016, he chaired the Council of the Hong Kong Physical Society.
Research
Research in Dr. Tang’s group is at the intersection of theoretical and computational science, with a focus on condensed matter and biological systems through the lens of statistical mechanics. His team is dedicated to the quantitative modeling and analysis of large-scale system properties such as spatio-temporal ordering and fluctuations, based on fundamental interactions at the microscopic or molecular scale. The group's interest is increasingly centered on the complex and robust self-organization of living organisms, a key to unlocking evolutionary fitness. He has collaborated with experimentalists on the development of quantitative tools and models to analyze and integrate biological data and behavior at the cellular level, in particular those related to metabolism, cell motility, and development. Ongoing research topics include:
• Pattern formation in active liquid films
• Condensate formation and wetting properties in multi-component protein solutions
• Mattis-type order and slow dynamics in annealed glassy systems
• Learning dynamics of deep neural networks
• Agent-based model exploration for epidemic control
Representative Publications
1. G Guan, M-K Wong, Z Zhao, L-H Tang, and C Tang, “Volume segregation programming in a nematode's early embryogenesis,” Physical Review E 104, 054409 (2021).
2. L Tian, XF Li, F Qi, QY Tang, V Tang, J Liu, ZY Li, XY Cheng, XX Li, YC Shi, HG Liu,L-H Tang*, “Harnessing peak transmission around symptom onset for non-pharmaceutical intervention and containment of the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Nature Communications 12, 1147 (2021).
3. J Howard, A Huang, ZY Li, Z Tufekci, V Zdimal, H-M van der Westhuizen, A von Delft, A Price, L Fridman, L-H Tang, V Tang, GL Watson, CE Bax, R Shaikh, F Questier, D Hernandez, LF Chu, CM Ramirez, AW Rimoin, “An evidence review of face masks against COVID-19,” Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences 118, e2014564118 (2021).
4. S Wang and L-H Tang, “Emergence of collective oscillations in adaptive cells,” Nature Communications 10, 5613 (2019).
5. J-H Yun, X Li, J-H Park, Y Wang, M Ohki, Z Jin, W Lee, S-Y Park, H Hu, C Li, N Zatsepin, MS Hunter, RG Sierra, J Koralek, CH Yoon, H-S Cho, U Weierstall, LH Tang, HG Liu and W Lee, “Non-cryogenic structure of a chloride pump provides crucial clues to temperature-dependent channel transport efficiency,” Journal of Biological Chemistry 294, 794-804 (2019).
6. S Wang, K Kawaguchi, S-I Sasa, and L-H Tang, “Entropy production of nanosystems with time scale separation,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 070601 (2016).
7. C Liu, X Fu, L Liu, X Ren, CKL Chau, S Li, L Xiang, H Zeng, G Chen, L-H Tang, P Lenz, X Cui, W Huang, T Hwa, J-D Huang, “Sequential establishment of stripe patterns in an expanding cell population,” Science 334, 238 (2011).
8. H Hong, H Chaté, H Park, and L-H Tang,“Entrainment transition in populations of random frequency oscillators,”Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 184101 (2007).
9. L-H Tang and P-Q Tong,“Zero-temperature criticality of the two-dimensional gauge-glass model,”Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 207204 (2005).
10. T Hwa, E Marinari, K Sneppen, and L-H Tang,“Localization of denaturation bubbles in random DNA sequences,”PNAS 100, 4411 (2003).
Contact Us
Email：tangleihan@westlake.edu.cn
