ARTHUR XIAO ’15: A Scholar in Search of Answers to Big Questions

From Millbrook School to earning a bachelor’s degree at Amherst College and pursuing a PhD at the University of Michigan, Arthur Xiao has always been deeply inquisitive.

At Millbrook, teachers recognized and nurtured his love of learning in ways that left a lasting impression. Whether accelerating through calculus, discovering the power of statistics, or reflecting on Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, Arthur recalls his classes as intellectually formative and his teachers—from Mr. Zeiser and Ms. Clizbe to Mr. Powers and Mr. Clizbe—as supportive of inquiry for its own sake. Outside the classroom, he found meaning in small moments: getting lost on the cross-country course (more than once), winning Most Improved Runner, and standing on the Flagler Quad on quiet mornings, appreciating the beauty around him. As a head waiter, dorm leader, Latin student, and mathematician in-the-making, Arthur left Millbrook prepared to ask the big questions that have shaped his journey ever since.

From Climate Awareness to Action

Arthur traces the journey of his current research back to a pivotal moment at Amherst, where reading Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything made him realize the depth of the climate change problem and need to address it. This awakening prompted a shift from his original academic interests—a major in physics as an undergrad—to a focused pursuit of renewable energy technologies, including early work at Michigan on photoelectrochemical water splitting for hydrogen production. Although funding cuts eventually redirected his efforts, the urgency of environmental challenges remained a central motivation in his career as he researched alongside Professor Zetian Mi, who is focused on semiconductors and their applications in electronic, photonic, clean energy, and quantum devices and systems.

Life in the Lab: The Grind and the Grit

Arthur’s PhD experience at Michigan has been defined by intense, sustained commitment—working 12-hour days, often seven days a week, for six years. “A typical day might start at 8:30 a.m. and end around 9 or 10 p.m.,” he shares. “There was a stretch when I worked 60 consecutive days without a break.” Despite the grueling schedule, Arthur found the intellectual rigor rewarding, even if he admits, “It was worth it but not something I would probably choose to do again.”

His lab environment was highly independent but deeply collaborative. Arthur often juggled multiple projects simultaneously, working with a core group of peers while staying connected to a broader network of researchers. “It’s too demanding for any one person to carry a project alone,” he says, describing a web of interlinked efforts across subgroups.

Exploring the Frontier of Semiconductor Physics

In March of this year, Arthur successfully defended his doctoral thesis. Most recently, he has been immersed in cutting-edge research on semiconductor materials—specifically, group III-nitrides like gallium nitride, indium nitride, and aluminum nitride, managing stress on these materials to make improvements in device performance. His work contributes to improving the efficiency of micro-LED technologies, particularly in the elusive red spectrum, a challenge in the field due to the complexity of alloying materials like indium with gallium nitride. Arthur and his team successfully produced the most efficient submicrometer red LED to date, a breakthrough with potential applications in cell phone and virtual and augmented reality displays.

A significant portion of Arthur’s thesis centers on heteroepitax—crystalline layers of one material grown on the substrate of a different material—applied to the versatile three-nitride semiconductor family. By carefully layering materials with differing bandgaps, Arthur’s work opens possibilities for highly efficient solar energy devices and compact UV and visible light sources. His research relies on custom-built lab equipment affectionately referred to by the team as their “babies,” and their findings advance the foundational knowledge crucial to next-generation optoelectronics.

Curiosity-Driven Science

While his research has practical implications—supporting technologies such as faster phone chargers and micro-LEDs—Arthur emphasizes his deep commitment to the scientific question itself rather than immediate utility. “When we are talking about innovation, we cannot think about the end result,” he says. “I’d much rather just think about how interesting this is.” This stance has led him to reflect critically on the direction of academic research, noting the tension between curiosity driven inquiry and funding models that demand rapid, commercially viable, and profitable outcomes.

“If I do research, I want to do what I say I’m doing. If I want to make money, I’ll make tons of money. But I don’t want to pretend.”

Validation

Successfully defending his thesis this spring marked a surprising and emotional milestone. “I had no idea I was going to defend until 16 days before it happened,” he says. “So I worked nonstop to meet the deadline—but that wasn’t much different from the last six years.” For Arthur, the achievement was both a personal validation and a moment of release. “I feel pride, relief, and mostly surprise,” he shares. His parents have been extremely supportive of all of his choices—his mother is thankful for his success, and his father, an optimist, has reminded him to keep life’s challenges in perspective and remember that “life is meant to be enjoyed.”

What’s Next?

Though deeply committed to the pursuit of knowledge, Arthur has grown disillusioned with the institutional realities of academic research—particularly in engineering—where funding structures often prioritize short-term utility over genuine inquiry. “If I’d known the funding situation going in, I wouldn’t have done it,” he reflects. He’s critical of a system that rewards the production of narrowly useful but intellectually uninspired results, shaped more by government-driven grant mandates than by scientific curiosity.

“I do like research, but I don’t want to just produce numbers. I don’t know where that’s possible, but I am trying to find that place next.”

While he will remain at Michigan as a postdoc through July to help transition lab projects, Arthur is actively exploring alternatives that might offer a more principled approach to inquiry—perhaps beyond the university setting. He’s clear-eyed about the shortcomings of both U.S. and Chinese research systems but remains open to where his path may lead. For now, Arthur is taking a breath after years of rigorous work and keeping open the possibility of return to research, academia, or something entirely new.

A bout of illness in 2023, which lingered for months until it was eased by triads of Chinese herbal remedies, has sparked a new interest. “It made a difference in my life. I want to understand how it works,” Arthur says. In the near term, he is considering studying herbal medicine and documenting its effects—driven by personal experience and curiosity rather than institutional pressure.

Looking further ahead, Arthur is eyeing machine learning as a potential bridge between his technical background and new applications. “I need to learn it. I think that’s where engineering research should go,” he says. How to support himself through that transition remains a big question, and this might be the most challenging one he has faced yet.