Physics World, sponsored by UK’s Institute of Physics (IOP), announced its list of Top 10 Breakthroughs of the Year for 2025 on December 12, 2025. The research achievements cover multiple fields such as astronomy, antimatter, atomic and molecular physics and more. Among them, the significant progress made by the team led by Prof. Guangyu Zhang from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences / Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics in the field of 2D materials —“First two-dimensional sheets of metal” — was selected.

Since its launch in 2009, the annual Top 10 Breakthroughs by Physics World has held significant authority in the academic community. The selected breakthroughs must meet the following criteria: significant advance in knowledge or understanding; importance of work for scientific progress and/or development of real-world applications; of general interest to Physics World readers.