Xiaoxing Xi

The native form of this personal name is Xi Xiaoxing. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Xiaoxing Xi (Chinese: 郗小星; pinyin: Xī Xiǎoxīng; born 1957) is a Chinese-born American physicist. He is the Laura H. Carnell Professor and former Chair at the Physics Department of Temple University in Philadelphia. In May 2015, the United States Department of Justice arrested him on charges of having sent restricted American technology to China. All charges against him were dropped in September 2015.

Career

Xi was born in China and received his Ph.D. from Peking University in 1987. He was a researcher at the Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Center in Germany, and moved to the United States in 1989. In the US he worked at Bell Communication Research at Rutgers University and the University of Maryland, before becoming a faculty member of Pennsylvania State University in 1995. He has since naturalized as a US citizen. Xi's wife is also a physics professor, who teaches at Pennsylvania State University. They have two daughters and live in suburban Philadelphia. He was named chairman of Temple University's physics department in 2014.

Honors

• The National Science Foundation's Career Award (1997)
• Chang Jiang Scholar (2006), bestowed by the Chinese Ministry of Education and the Li Ka Shing Foundation
• Fellow of the American Physical Society (2007)

Spy case

In May 2015, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) accused him of sending restricted American technology to China: specifically, the design of a pocket heater used in superconductor research. Xi was arrested by about a dozen FBI agents at his home and faced charges carrying a maximum penalty of 80 years in prison and a $1 million fine. He was put on administrative leave by Temple University and resigned as chairman of the physics department.

In September 2015, however, the DOJ dropped all charges against him after leading scientists, including a co-inventor of the pocket heater, provided affidavits that the schematics that Xi shared with Chinese scientists were not for a pocket heater or other restricted technology. According to Xi's lawyer Peter Zeidenberg, the government did not understand the complicated science and failed to consult with experts before arresting him. He said that the information Xi shared as part of "typical academic collaboration" was about a different device, which Xi co-invented and which is not restricted technology.

Works

Xiaoxing Xi has published more than 300 research papers and holds three patents. His research focus is on materials physics, specifically the applications of epitaxial thin films and nanoscale heterostructures. His key publications include:

• Xi, X.X.; et al. (2002), "In situ epitaxial MgB2 thin films for superconducting electronics", Nature Materials, 1 (1): 35–38, arXiv:cond-mat/0203563, Bibcode:2002NatMa...1...35Z, doi:10.1038/nmat703, PMID 12618845.
• Xi, X.X. (2008), "Two-band superconductor magnesium diboride", Reports on Progress in Physics, 71 (11): 116501, Bibcode:2008RPPh...71k6501X, doi:10.1088/0034-4885/71/11/116501.
• Xi, X.X.; et al. (2012), "Momentum-dependent multiple gaps in magnesium diboride probed by electron tunnelling spectroscopy", Nature Communications, 3: 619, Bibcode:2012NatCo...3..619C, doi:10.1038/ncomms1626, PMID 22233629.
• Xi, X.X.; et al. (2013), "Exploiting dimensionality and defect mitigation to create tunable microwave dielectrics", Nature, 502 (7472): 532–6, Bibcode:2013Natur.502..532L, doi:10.1038/nature12582, PMID 24132232.
• Xi, X.X.; et al. (2014), "Atomically precise interfaces from non-stoichiometric deposition", Nature Communications, 5: 4530, arXiv:1404.1374, Bibcode:2014NatCo...5.4530N, doi:10.1038/ncomms5530, PMID 25088659.

External links

• Xiaoxing Xi legal defense fund