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Xuemei May Cheng is Professor of Physics, the Rachel C. Hale Professor in the Sciences and Mathematics, and Director of the Quantum  Materials, Sensing, and Education Center (QMSEC). She received her B.S. in Physics and M.S. in Microelectronics and Solid-State Electronics from Nanjing University. She continued her graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University, where she earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in Condensed Matter Physics in 2004 and 2006, respectively. After a postdoctoral fellowship in the X-ray Science Division of Argonne National Laboratory, she joined �����������'s faculty in 2009. She has taught a broad range of physics lectures, laboratories, and seminars at both undergraduate and graduate levels. 

Cheng has made significant contributions to nanomaterials and spintronics, spanning interface magnetism, topological spin textures, synchrotron x-ray applications in materials science, and advanced materials for biomedical and mechanical engineering. Recently, she has expanded her research to quantum materials and quantum sensing. She has published about 80 research articles in peer-reviewed journals, such as Science, Nature Physics, Advanced Materials, Nano Letters, Physical Review Letters. Her research has garnered ~5,560 citations and h-index 29 (based on Google Scholar as of 9/3/2025), invited talks, editorial invitations, and election to the Advanced Photon Source Users Organization Steering Committee. She has established a robust and well-resourced research program at ����������� with support from the College and external grants. She has received over $6.5M rom the National Science Foundation (NSF) to fund her research, including an NSF CAREER award during her second year at the College and a recent $5M NSF ExpandQISE team grant with her as the Principal Investigator for a Quantum Information Science and Engineering (QISE) Center. 

She has engaged about 50 undergraduate and 8 graduate students in her research. Undergraduate and graduate students collaborate as dynamic partners in her lab and often participate as co-authors of her publications. Among her undergraduate thesis advisees, 83% have pursued graduate studies at top-tier research universities, with one recognized as a finalist for the prestigious 2018 Apker Award.

teaching  Research  Service

Selected Publications:

(* for correspondence author, ^# for ����������� students )

• Xiao Wang^#, Alexandra R. Stuart, Mitchell S. Swyt, Carla M. Quispe Flores, Andy T. Clark^#, Adzo Fiagbenu^#, Rajesh V. Chopdekar, Pavel N. Lapa, Zhuyun Xiao, Dava Keavney, Richard Rosenberg, Michael Vogel, John E. Pearson, Suzanne G. E. te Velthuis, Axel Hoffmann, Kristen S. Buchanan*, and Xuemei M. Cheng*
  "Topological spin memory of antiferromagnetically coupled skyrmion pairs in Co/Gd/Pt multilayers"
  Phys. Rev. Materials 6, 084412 (2022). (Editor's suggestion)

• Andy T Clark^#, David Marchfield,  Zheng Cao, Tong Dang^#, Nan Tang,  Dustin Gilbert,  Elise A. Corbin,  Kristen S. Buchanan, and  Xuemei M. Cheng*
  "The effect of polymer stiffness on magnetization reversal of magnetorheological elastomers"
  APL Materials 10, 041106 (2022). 

• Mengying Bian, Liang Zhu, Xiao Wang^#, Junho Choi, Rajesh  V. Chopdekar, Sichen Wei, Lishu Wu, Chang Huai, Austin Marga, Qishuo Yang, Yuguang C. Li, Fei Yao, Ting  Yu, Scott A. Crooker, Xuemei M. Cheng, Renat F. Sabirianov, Shengbai Zhang, Junhao Lin, Yanglong Hou, and Hao Zeng
  "Dative Epitaxy of Commensurate Monocrystalline Covalent van der Waals Moire Supercrystal"
  Advanced Materials, 34, 17, 2200117 (2022).  

• Hannah M. Zlotnick, Andy T. Clark^#, Sarah E. Gullbrand, James L. Carey, Xuemei M. Cheng, Robert L. Mauck
  "Magneto‐Driven Gradients of Diamagnetic Objects for Engineering Complex Tissues"
  Advanced Materials, 32, 48, 2005030 (2020). 

• Binquan Luan, Tien Huynh, Xuemei Cheng, Ganhui Lan, and Hao-Ran Wang
  "Targeting Proteases for Treating COVID-19"
  J. Proteome Res. 19, 11, 4316 (2020).  

• Kishan Sinha, Haohan Wang, Xiao Wang^#, Liying Zhou, Yuewei Yin, Wenbin Wang, Xuemei Cheng, David J. Keavney, Huibo Cao, Yaohua Liu, Xifan Wu, and Xiaoshan Xu
  "Tuning the Néel Temperature of Hexagonal Ferrites by Structural Distortion"
  Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 237203 (2018).

• Wanjun Jiang, Xichao Zhang, Guoqiang Yu, Wei Zhang, Xiao Wang^#, Matthias Jungfleisch, Xuemei Cheng, John Pearson, Olle Heinonen, Kang L. Wang, Yan Zhou, Axel Hoffmann, and Suzanne te Velthuis
  "Direct Observation of the Skyrmion Hall Effect"
  Nature Physics, 13, 162 (2017).

• L. Yu^#, Z. Y. Yan^#, H. C. Yang^#, X. Z. Chai^#, B. Q. Li^#, S. Moeendarbari, Y. W. Hao, D. Zhang, G. Feng, P. Han, D. A. Gilbert, Kai Liu, K. S. Buchanan, X. M. Cheng*
  " Magnetization Reversal of Nickel Three-Dimensional Anti-sphere Arrays "
  IEEE Magnetic Letters, 8, 1 (2017). 

• Le Yu^#, Zhongying Yan^#,  Zhonghou Cai, Dongtang Zhang, Ping Han,  Xuemei Cheng*, and Yugang Sun*
  " Quantitatively in Situ Imaging Silver Nanowire Hollowing Kinetics "
  Nano Letters, 16, 6555 (2016). 

• Xiao Wang^#, D. J. Keavney, M. Asmat, K. Buchanan, A. Melikyan, and X. M. Cheng*
  "Time-resolved photoemission electron microscopy imaging of mode coupling between three interacting magnetic vortices "
  Appl. Phys. Lett., 105, 102408 (2014).  

• X. M. Cheng and D. J. Keavney
  "Studies of nanomagnetism using synchrotron-based x-ray photoemission electron microscopy"
  Reports on Progress in Physics, 75, 026501 (2012). (Invited Review Paper). ;

• X. M. Cheng, K. S. Buchanan, R. Divan, K.Y. Guslienko and D. J. Keavney
  "Nonlinear vortex dynamics and transient domains in ferromagnetic disks "
  Phys. Rev. B, 79, 172411 (2009). 

• X. M. Cheng*, S. Urazhdin, O. Tchernyshyo, C. L. Chien, V.I. Nikitenko, A.J. Shapiro and R.D. Shull
  "Antisymmetric magnetoresistance in magnetic multilayers with perpendicular anisotropy"
  Phys. Rev. Lett., 94, 017203 (2005). 

• X. M. Cheng* and C. L. Chien
  "Magnetic properties of Epitaxial Mn doped ZnO thin films"
  Journal of Applied Physics, 93, 7876 (2003). 

• Mingwei Chen, En Ma, Kevin J Hemker, Hongwei Sheng, Yiming Wang and X. M. Cheng
  "Deformation Twinning in Nanocrystalline Aluminum"
  Science, 300,1275 (2003).