Beijing Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Applications

• 2026      RFIS I - National Science Foundation of China      BIMSA
• 2025      Beijing CEP project      BIMSA
• 2024      President’s graduate scholarship      UWaterloo
• 2024      Ontario graduate scholarship      UWaterloo
• 2023      President’s graduate scholarship      UWaterloo
• 2023      Ontario graduate scholarship      UWaterloo
• 2023      QEII-GSST      UWaterloo

• [1] Hank Chen, Joaquin Liniado, Infinite Dimensional Topological-Holomorphic Symmetry in Three-Dimensions, accepted by PRD (2025)
• [2] Hank Chen, Combinatorial quantization of 4d 2-Chern-Simons theory II: Quantum invariants of higher ribbons in D^4 (2025)
• [3] Hank Chen, Combinatorial quantization of 4d 2-Chern-Simons theory I: the Hopf category of higher-graph states, accepted by ATMP (2025)
• [4] Hank Chen, Categorical quantum symmetries and ribbon tensor 2-categories (2025)
• [5] Hank Chen, Joaquin Liniado, Higher Gauge Theory and Integrability, PRD, 110(086017) (2024)
• [6] Hank Chen, Florian Girelli, Integrability from categorification and the 2-Kac-Moody algebra (2024)
• [7] Hank Chen, Drinfel'd double symmetry of the 4d Kitaev model, JHEP, 2023, 141 (2023)
• [8] Hank Chen, Florian Girelli, Categorical Quantum Groups and Braided Monoidal 2-Categories, accepted by Theory and Applications of Categories (2023)
• [9] Hank Chen, Florian Girelli, Categorified Drinfel’d double and BF theory: 2-groups in 4D, PRD, 106, 105017 (2022)
• [10] Hank Chen, Florian Girelli, Gauging the Gauge and Anomaly Resolution (2022)
• [11] Hank Chen, Lieb–Schultz–Mattis theorem and the filling constraint, 111, 139 (2021)
• [12] Hank Chen, Matthew R. C. Fitzpatrick, Sujit Narayanan, Bitan Roy, Malcolm P. Kennett, Interacting quantum Hall states in a finite graphene flake and at finite temperature, PRB, 102, 205401 (2020)

My research interests concerns the interplay between physics, algebra and geoemtry/topology exemplified by the following closely related phenomena:

1. as observed by Witten, the Wilson lines in 3d topological quantum field theories (TQFTs), such as Chern-Simons theories at integral level, form braided tensor categories,
2. as observed by Jones, the observables in 2d integrable quantum spin systems/field theories (IFTs) produce knot invariants.
3. as observed by Kazhdan-Lusztig (also by Aleskeev et al.), the observables/operator algebras underlying the 3d TQFT and 2d IFT are equivalent.

The algebraic structures which govern the observables in TQFTs and IFTs, in particular those of the quantum group Hopf algebras, play very central roles in my research. Specifically, I work in the categoification program (cf. the global categorical symmetries collaboration in physics), in order to lift the above to 4-dimensions.

My approach is based on a categorification of Hopf algebras that allows one to produce 4d TQFTs (such as higher-Chern-Simons theories and Poisson AKSZ models) and 3d IFTs, and whose modules are braided monoidal higher tensor categories, equipped naturally with additional structural data.