Dr Mingee Chung BS, MS, PhD, MInstP

Dr Mingee Chung

School of Physics and Astronomy
Associate Professor
Birmingham Fellow

Contact details

Email
m.chung@bham.ac.uk
Address
School of Physics and Astronomy
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Mingee Chung (Minki Jeong) is an academic staff of the Condensed Matter Group established by Prof. W (Joe). F. Vinen, FRS in 1962. Mingee's group (Resonance Lab) applies Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to reveal and understand the nature of various collective quantum phenomena in magnetic insulators and spin systems. Current topics of interest are quantum phase transitions and criticality, quantum spin liquids, spin transport and so on. Mingee's other interests include application of magnetic materials for green economy and materials for quantum technologies. His research is funded by EPSRC, Royal Society and STFC.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Experimental Condensed Matter Physics, KAIST, South Korea.
  • MS and BS in Materials Science & Engineering, POSTECH, South Korea.

Biography

Born and educated in South Korea. After obtaining PhD, Mingee moved to France for postdoctoral research, firstly at Orsay (with Profs. F. Bert and P. Mendels, Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, University of Paris-Saclay) and then at Grenoble (with Drs M. Horvatic and C. Berthier, LNCMI; National Laboratory for Intense Magnetic Fields). He later moved to Lausanne in Switzerland to work with Prof. H. M. Ronnow at EPFL. He joined the University of Birmingham in Dec. 2017 as a permanent academic under the University's flagship programme, Birmingham Fellowship.

He was previously an EPFL Fellow (Marie-Sklodowska Curie COFUND, European Commission) and a recipient of Blaise Pascal Scholarship (French government).

Teaching

Current activities:

  • Head of Year 3 in Teaching (2022- ): module lead of Laboratory (10/20 credits) and Group Studies (30 credits).
  • Year 4 Superconductivity (2019- ): 10 credit lecture module lead (Semester 1).
  • Year 4 Projects (2018- ): supervision of a pair of MSci students for their research-level projects (Semester 1 and 2).

Activities in the past:

  • Year 3 Condensed Matter Laboratory (2018-2022): lab demonstration and marking.
  • Year 2 Tutorials (2017-2022): twelve tutees into three groups, each group meeting weekly.
  • Year 2 Physics Project (2017).

Guest lectures (graduate-level Solid State Physics modules at EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland):

  • NMR in Condensed Matter (2014-2015, 2017).
  • muSR in Condensed Matter (2017).
  • Introduction to Quantum Magnetism (2015).

Postgraduate supervision

  • Amy Barker, PhD course (2024-present)
  • Thomas Brogan, PhD course (2023-present)
  • Jake Head, PhD awarded in 2024.

Research

Research Themes

  • Quantum phase transitions and criticality
  • Quantum, frustrated, and low-dimensional magnetism
  • Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and its application for quantum materials
  • Quantum technologies for fundamental physics

Other activities

 Editorial board:

  • Journal of the Korean Physical Society (2021-2024)
  • International Journal of Modern Physics B and Modern Physics Letters (2022-)

Committee and Advisory roles:

  • Advisory Council, Korea-Europe Quantum Science and Technology Cooperation Centre (2024-)
  • Organising Committee, Condensed Matter and Quantum Materials (CMQM 2023), Birmingham.
  • Selected Ordinary Member, Superconductivity Group, Institute of Physics (2021-2025) 

Journal review:

  • Americal Physical Society: Phys. Rev. Lett., B, Research and Materials.
  • Nature Springer: npj Quantum Materials.
  • AAAS: Science Advances.

Grants review:

  • British Academy (2024-).
  • EPSRC Peer Review College (2020-): recognition of "Significant Contribution to EPSRC Peer Review" for 2019-2020.

Publications

Dr Chung (Jeong) has published over 30 papers in peer-reviewed journals. Selected publications are:

  • Zivkovic, I. et al., Magnetic Field Induced Quantum Spin Liquid in the Two Coupled Trillium Lattices of K2Ni2(SO4)3, Phys. Rev. Lett., 127, 157204 (2021).
  • Head, J. et al., Structural, Magnetic, Magnetocaloric, and Magnetorestrictive Properties of Pb(1-x)SrxMnBO4, Chem. Mater. 32, 10184 (2020).
  • Sorensen, M. A. et al., Chemical Tunnel-Splitting-Engineering in a Dysprosium-Based Molecular Nanomagnet, Nat. Commun., 9, 1291 (2018).
  • Jeong, M. et al., Magnetic-Order Crossover in Coupled Spin Ladders, Phys. Rev. Lett., 118, 167206 (2017).
  • Jeong, M. et al., Dichotomy between Attractive and Repulsive Tomonaga-Luttinger Liquids in Spin Ladders, Phys. Rev. Lett., 117, 106402 (2016).
  • Babkevich, P., Jeong, M., et al., Dimensional Reduction in Quantum Dipolar Antiferromagnet, Phys. Rev. Lett., 116, 197202 (2016).
  • Jeong, M. and Ronnow, H. M., Quantum Critical Scaling for a Heisenberg Spin-1/2 Chain around Saturation, Phys. Rev. B, 92, 180409(R) (2015).
  • Ishikawa, H. et al., One-Third Magnetization Plateau with a Preceding Novel Phase in Volborthite, Phys. Rev. Lett., 114, 227202 (2015).
  • Jeong, M. et al., Attractive Tomonaga-Luttinger Liquid in a Quantum Spin Ladder, Phys. Rev. Lett., 111, 106404 (2013).
  • Jeong, M. et al., Field-Induced Freezing of a Quantum Spin Liquid on the Kagome Lattice, Phys. Rev. Lett., 107, 237201 (2011).