Xiao-Gang Wen is a Chinese-born American physicist. He is a Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His expertise is in condensed matter theory in strongly correlated electronic systems.

He is the author of a well-known book in advanced quantum many-body theory entitled, Quantum Field Theory of Many-body Systems: From the Origin of Sound to an Origin of Light and Electrons. Wen earned his BS in Physics from the University of Science and Technology in China and an MA in Physics from Princeton University. Wen studied superstring theory under theoretical physicist Edward Witten at Princeton University where he received his PhD degree in 1987. He later switched his research field to condensed matter physics.

On September 16, 2011 it was announced that Dr. Xiao-Gang Wen would be leaving MIT to join the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The Perimeter Institute is the largest theoretical physics research and academic organization in the world. Wen comes to Waterloo as the inaugural holder of the BMO Financial Group Isaac Newton Chair. The prestigious position was funded by a $4 million gift from the BMO Financial Group, matched by another $4 million from Perimeter’s existing endowment. The BMO Financial Group Isaac Newton Chair in Theoretical Physics at Perimeter Institute is the first of five chairs planned by the Perimeter Institute, to be named after scientists whose insights defined modern physics.