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Chirality is an ubiquitous concept in modern science, from particle physics to biology. In quantum physics, chirality is linked to the topology of gauge fields due to the quantum chiral anomaly. While the quantum anomaly is usually associated with the short-distance behavior, recently it has been realized that it affects also the macroscopic behavior of fluids with chiral fermions. In particular, the local imbalance between left- and right-handed fermions in the presence of magnetic field induces the non-dissipative transport of electric charge ("the Chiral Magnetic Effect"). In heavy ion collisions, there is an ongoing search for this effect at Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, with conclusive results expected by the end of this year. Recently, the Chiral Magnetic Effect has been discovered in ZrTe5 and other materials possessing chiral quasi-particles. These observations open a path towards applications.
Dmitri Kharzeev was educated at Moscow State University; he received his PhD in particle and nuclear physics there in 1990. He then spent two postdoctoral years in the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics, three years in the Theory Division at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, and a year at Bielefeld University in Germany. In 1997 he joined the newly created RIKEN-BNL Research Center at Brookhaven National Laboratory under direction of Prof. T.D. Lee, a Nobel laureate. In 2000 he became a Scientist with tenure at BNL; he had been the head of the Nuclear Theory group there from 2004 till 2010. Under his leadership the BNL group has become the highest ranked nuclear theory group in the US National laboratories system. Since 2007, he has also been an adjunct professor at Yale University. In 2010, Kharzeev has become a Professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Stony Brook University where he directs the Center for Quantum Materials; he also continues to hold the Senior scientist appointment at BNL, where he is the Head of the RIKEN-BNL Theory group.