Mercer Times

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation has named Saien Xie, an assistant professor at Princeton University, as one of the 20 recipients of the 2024 Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering. The fellowship supports innovative, early-career scientists and engineers with unrestricted funds to pursue their research.

Xie joined Princeton's faculty in 2022 and focuses on creating atomically thin materials aimed at enhancing energy efficiency in electronics. With the increasing power demands from artificial intelligence applications, there is a need for devices that perform better while using less energy. Xie's laboratory is addressing this by developing new materials at the atomic level to improve information processing and storage device efficiency and advance quantum technologies.

"Saien has made seminal contributions to the field of quantum materials and devices," stated Richard Register, director of the Princeton Materials Institute. "As a Packard fellow, Saien will be able to delve into the physics of these materials, and use that understanding to engineer energy-efficient electronics."

Each fellow receives $875,000 over five years from the Packard Foundation to support their research. The fellowship encourages innovation by providing flexible funding. Past fellows have achieved significant recognition, including Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals.

James Sturm, chair of Princeton's electrical and computer engineering department, remarked on Xie's approach: "The micro- and nanofabrication methods we have been using for 50 years... are running up against a fundamental wall. Thinking and inventing down to an atomic level like Saien is doing... is the future."

Before joining Princeton, Xie completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Cornell University's Kavli Institute for Nanoscale Science. He holds degrees from Tsinghua University and Cornell University. In addition to his roles at Princeton's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Princeton Materials Institute, he is affiliated with the Princeton Quantum Initiative.

In 2023, Xie received support from Princeton’s Eric and Wendy Schmidt Transformative Technology Fund for developing miniature imaging devices using his materials in collaboration with Antoine Kahn.