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 麻豆精选
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Mingee Chung (Minki Jeong) is an experimental physicist and a member of the academic staff in the Condensed Matter Group, originally established by Prof. W (Joe). F. Vinen, FRS, in 1962. His research group (Resonance Lab) applies Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to explore and understand novel phenomena in solid quantum matter.

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, Dr Chung embarked on an academic career in Europe following the completion of his PhD. His journey began in France, with appointments in Orsay and Grenoble, before continuing in Switzerland at Lausanne. Since 2017, he has been based in Birmingham UK. 

Dr Chung's notable positions include:

  • PSI (Paul Scherrer Institut), Villigen, Switzerland: Visiting Researcher funded by Swiss National Science Foundation through Scientific Exchanges programme.
  • EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne), Lausanne, Switzerland: EPFL Fellow under the Marie-Sklodowska Curie COFUND programme, funded by the European Commission.
  • LNCMI (Laboratoire Nationale des Champs Magnetiques Intenses), Grenoble, France.
  • LPS (Laboratoire de Physique des Solides), University of Paris-Saclay, Orsay, France: funded through Blaise Pascal Scholarship, French Embassy in South Korea.

Teaching

Current activities:

  • Head of Year 3 in Teaching (since 2022).
  • Year 4 Superconductivity (since 2019) - module lead.
  • Year 4 Projects (since 2018) - supervisor and pastoral tutor.

Activities in the past:

  • Year 3 Condensed Matter Laboratory (2018-2022) - demonstrator.
  • Year 2 Tutorials (2017-2022) - academic tutor
  • Year 2 Physics Project (2017) - demonstrator.

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

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

Postgraduate supervision

  • Amy Barker, PhD course (2024-2028)
  • Thomas Brogan, PhD course (2023-2027)
  • Jake Head, PhD awarded in Dec. 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

Dr Chung's academic activities have been funded by EPSRC, Royal Society, Research England (via UoB), Wellcome Trust (via UoB), UK's Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (via British Academy), SNSF and STFC.

Other activities

 Editorial board:

  • Journal of the Korean Physical Society (2021-2027)
  • International Journal of Modern Physics B and Modern Physics Letters (since 2022)

Committee and Advisory roles:

  • Advisory Council, Korea-Europe Quantum Science and Technology Cooperation Centre (2024-2025)
  • Organising Committee, Current Research in Magnetism (CRIM 2024), London.
  • 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.

Grant review:

  • British Council (since 2024).
  • EPSRC Peer Review College (since 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).