The family spokesperson clarified some rumors about the cause of Zhang Shousheng

According to The Paper reported on December 7, on December 6, 2018, the family of Zhang Shousheng, a Chinese physicist and Stanford University professor, issued a statement confirming that the 55-year-old Zhang Shousheng passed away on December 1 (last week) after struggling with depression.6) Accidental death.Because of his contribution to topological insulators, Zhang Shoucheng was once hailed as the Chinese scientist closest to the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Zhang Shousheng

On December 7, 2018, The Paper contacted Sean McCormack, the spokesperson of Zhang Shousheng's family. The spokesperson of Zhang Shousheng's family clarified some of the previous rumors about the cause of Professor Zhang Shousheng's death.Regarding the accidental death of Professor Zhang Shousheng due to depression reported by some media, his family spokesperson also gave a new explanation.

Regarding the statement that Professor Zhang Shousheng committed suicide by jumping off a building at Stanford University, the spokesperson of Zhang Shousheng's family replied: Professor Zhang died in San Francisco, not Stanford University.It is reported that Stanford University is located in Palo Alto, the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in California, USA, about an hour's drive from San Francisco.

On December 6, the statement issued by the family of Professor Zhang Shousheng mentioned that Professor Zhang Shousheng passed away unexpectedly after struggling with depression. Many media interpreted that Professor Zhang Shousheng died of depression.

In this regard, the spokesperson of Zhang Shousheng's family informed that, in fact, Professor Zhang Shousheng's family did not know that Professor Zhang was diagnosed with depression.In retrospect, however, they came to believe he had symptoms of depression.(His family was not aware of any such diagnosis. However, in retrospect, they have come to believe he had symptoms of depression.)

In hindsight, the family now understands that Professor Zhang's struggles are more serious than the daily pressures everyone needs to go through. A spokesman for Zhang Shousheng's family said: "Sadly, we know that even those closest to us often don't know what our loved ones are like."pain of.We ask that you respect the privacy of Professor Zhang's family and their grief process.

Professor Zhang Shoucheng's colleague and the director of the Department of Physics at Stanford University, Shamit Kachru, commented on Professor Zhang in an email interview with The Paper: He was an amazing person, and his death was a heavy blow.

Zhang Shoucheng, professor of physics at Stanford University, member of the American Physical Society, academician of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.His ancestral home is Gaoyou, Jiangsu, and he was born in Shanghai in 1963.He received a bachelor's degree in physics from the Free University of Berlin in 1983, and then went to the State University of New York to study for a Ph.Senior Researcher at IBM Almaden Research Center.He became a professor of physics at Stanford University in 1993 and was elected as a foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2013.

In 2007, the quantum spin Hall effect discovered by Zhang Shoucheng was named one of the top ten important scientific breakthroughs in the world that year by Science Magazine.For this reason, he has won many important awards in the physics world, including the European Physics Prize (2010), the Barclay Prize of the American Physical Society (2012), the Dirac Prize of the International Center for Theoretical Physics (2012), and the Uri Prize in Fundamental Physics(2013) and the Franklin Medal.

(Reporter Zhang Wei)