Institute for Advanced Study Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics Xiao-Gang Wen (simplified Chinese: 文小刚; traditional Chinese: 文小剛; pinyin: Wén Xiǎogāng; born November 26, 1961) is a Chinese-American physicist.

Wen studied superstring theory under theoretical physicist Edward Witten at Princeton University where he received his Ph.D. degree in 1987.

Boundary states can become ideal conduction channels which may lead to device application of topological phases.

He also proposed a special class of topological order: non-Abelian quantum Hall states.

With Michael Levin, he found that string-net condensations can give rise to a large class of topological orders (2005).