Wang Enge's team wins award, revealing the full quantum mysteries of water

Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professor at the School of Physics, Peking University, Wang Enge led his team and, after more than 20 years of research, made important progress regarding the hydrogenbond strength of water and the full quantum effects in dynamical processes, and on July 8 won First Prize of the 2025 State Natural Science Award. The report introduced that this research broke out of the centuryold BornOppenheimer approximation, bringing both atomic nuclei and electrons into quantum treatment simultaneously, establishing a new theoretical method. Combined with a selfdeveloped highresolution scanning probe microscope system, it has advanced the direct observation of the structure of water molecules. Based on the integration of experiment and theory, the team also achieved control over full quantum effects, further discovered new states of matter such as twodimensional ice, and realized a phase transition of ice from an insulating state to a metallic state under normal pressure. These achievements not only broke longterm foreign technological monopolies, but also provided new ideas for research on quantum materials and quantum devices.