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Huatian Hu began his academic journey at Wuhan University, where he earned his B.E. in 2016, before continuing toward a PhD in Physics under the supervision of Prof. Hongxing Xu. During his doctoral studies, he explored strong light–matter interactions in plasmonic nanocavities, with particular emphasis on plasmon–exciton coupling, nanogap-enhanced spectroscopy, and electrically driven light emission. His work also involved tunneling junction–based electroluminescence (EL) systems, where quantum tunneling of electrons can directly generate confined optical modes. This early experience at the interface between quantum mechanics and nanophotonics laid an important foundation for his later research directions.

In 2019–2020, Huatian joined the Nanophotonics Group at Rice University as a visiting PhD student under the supervision of Prof. Peter Nordlander, where he expanded his expertise in theoretical plasmonics. Later on, Dr. Hu pursued a postdoctoral position at the Italian Institute of Technology in the group of Cristian Ciracì, where he developed and applied quantum hydrodynamic theory (QHT) models to describe free-electron nonlinearities and nonlocal effects in heavily doped semiconductor nanostructures. His work connected microscopic quantum corrections to classical electromagnetic descriptions, providing practical computational tools for modeling nonlinear nanoplasmonic systems. Over the years, Dr. Hu has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications, including papers in leading journals such as Science, Nature Photonics, Nature Communications, Nano Letters, and ACS Photonics.

In 2026, Huatian joined POLIMA at the University of Southern Denmark for further postdoctoral research, where he will work under the supervision of Prof. P. André D. Gonçalves in the Quantum Nanophotonics subgroup. Building on his background in tunneling-driven electroluminescence and quantum hydrodynamic modeling, his research at POLIMA aims to explore quantum tunneling junctions to probe and control polaritons in low-dimensional quantum materials. By combining advanced quantum and nonlocal models of the optical response in polariton-supporting nanostructures, Dr. Hu’s research seeks to shed light into our fundamental understanding of light–matter interactions at the nanoscale and to uncover new regimes of electrically driven and strongly confined optical phenomena.