fuxiang li a former graduate student in the department of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university is one of 14 graduate students across the campus who have been named texas a&m distinguished graduate students for 2015 in recognition of exemplary achievement in teaching and research each year students are nominated by their faculty advisors or departments and up to 15 award recipients then are chosen by a panel of reviewers that includes faculty and administrators li earned a distinguished graduate student award for excellence in research dr fuxiang li in his collaborative work with texas a&ms valery pokrovsky and the university of colognes thomas nattermann li predicted a new kind of topological defect vortex domain walls in chiral magnets these combined figures are from their 2012 paper published in physical review letters showing different types of helical ordering (top) domain walls in centrosymmetric helical magnets (middle) and domain walls in noncentrosymmetric helical magnets (credit: li pokrovsky nattermann) masters and doctoral students contribute to the research and teaching mission of the university while also advancing scholarship through their academic excellence and completion of their advanced degrees said dr karen butler-purry associate provost for graduate and professional studies thanks to the support we receive from the association of former students for these awards we are able to recognize these students who are among the best and brightest in their fields they play a vital role in strengthening quality in academics at texas a&m and carrying that experience with them throughout their careers li and his fellow honorees were celebrated monday (apr 27) in a ceremony at the memorial student centers stark gallery sponsored by the association of former students and the texas a&m office of graduate and professional studies as part of texas a&ms distinguished day activities lis graduate advisor texas a&m distinguished professor of physics valery l pokrovsky attended the ceremony in lis absence and accepted his framed certificate and custom gold watch from the association on lis behalf the association of former students takes great pride in supporting the distinguished graduate student awards which recognize students who have achieved excellence in research and teaching said porter s garner iii 79 president and ceo the students we honor today embody texas a&ms core values of excellence integrity leadership loyalty respect and selfless service and will represent the aggie network well in their professional careers in academia and industry li earned his doctorate in physics from texas a&m in december 2014 and currently is a postdoctoral research associate in the theoretical division and center for nonlinear studies at the los alamos national laboratory where he specializes in spin noise spectroscopy and non-equilibrium thermodynamics while at texas a&m he served as both a research assistant and teaching assistant from 2009-2014 at los alamos lis research continues to focus on condensed matter theory a branch of physics that covers fundamental quantum problems and directly leads to promising applications in human life to date in his young career li already has published 13 papers on different fundamental problems relating to myriad areas of condensed matter physics in the worlds top journals in physics including physics review letters natures scientific reports physical review b and new journal of physics lis research has led him to collaborate with several different groups and experts from around the world while working with pokrovsky and dr thomas nattermann a professor from the university of cologne in germany li predicted a new kind of topological defect vortex domain walls in chiral magnets more recently with dr nikolai sinitsyn at los alamos li developed a systematic and unified theory to explain and interpret the spin noise spectroscopy a newly developed experimental technique that optically probes the physical system without disturbing it he has also collaborated with experimentalists from eth zurich and proposed a universal scaling relation that beautifully explains the current-voltage curve obtained in the near-field scanning tunneling spectroscopy to learn more about the distinguished graduate student achievement and related recognition programs visit http://ogapstamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu