Rate My Professor Pavan Hosur

Pavan Hosur is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Houston, where he joined as Assistant Professor in 2016 and was promoted in 2022. He earned a B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and completed postdoctoral research at Stanford University. Hosur also serves as Principal Investigator at the Texas Center for Superconductivity and leads the Quantum Many-Body Theory research group in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. His primary academic specialty is theoretical condensed matter physics, complemented by expertise in quantum statistical mechanics.

Hosur's research centers on topological phases of matter, with a focus on gapless phases such as Dirac and Weyl semimetals, unusual broken symmetry phases, and experimental detection methods. He explores quantum ergodicity, quantum chaos, the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis, and Many-Body Localization, alongside electron dynamics in topological semimetals and superconductivity phenomena like vortex spectra. Notable recent contributions include predictions of supersymmetry in superconductor vortices and surface Luttinger arcs in Weyl semimetals. In 2021, he received the NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award worth $575,000 to investigate correlations in topological semimetals and develop educational outreach, including mobile games for physics learning. Other honors include acknowledgment in the Scientific Background for the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics and full membership in Sigma Xi since 2021. His publications, exceeding 5,000 citations across 82 works, include highly influential papers such as "Recent developments in transport phenomena in Weyl semimetals" (Comptes Rendus Physique, 2013), "Chaos in quantum channels" (Journal of High Energy Physics, 2016), "Charge transport in Weyl semimetals" (Physical Review Letters, 2012), "Ultracold atoms in a tunable optical kagome lattice" (Physical Review Letters, 2012), and "Circular photogalvanic effect on topological insulator surfaces" (Physical Review B, 2011). Under his supervision, graduate students have secured scholarships including the Eckhard Pfeifer, Paul W. Chu, and Cora Hawley awards, with several successfully defending Ph.D. theses.