Prominent young professor becomes doctoral supervisor at leading Chinese research university amid high-level recruitment drive
3-MIN READ3-MIN ListenShi HuangPublished: 4:26pm, 15 May 2026Stephen Lin Er Chow, a physicist who designed a groundbreaking copper-free superconducting oxide capable of high-temperature superconductivity, has joined Zhejiang University from the National University of Singapore (NUS).
Last year, at 27, Chow published the findings in the journal Nature, marking the first top-tier publication for the NUS lab since its establishment two decades ago.
Confirming to the South China Morning Post that he had joined Zhejiang University full-time, Chow said “I really like Hangzhou’s living environment [and] the scenery around West Lake”.
He also pointed to his connections to China, noting that his grandfather was of Chinese descent and his wife is Chinese.
At NUS, Chow was the youngest recipient ever of the Best Graduate Researcher Award during his PhD studies in 2022. Immediately after graduation at 26 years old, he was offered a position at the university as a research fellow.
Now, he has arrived in China through Zhejiang University’s “100 Young Professors” programme and serves as a principal investigator at the elite research university.
