RSC Nanoscale Journals Symposium

Professor Chunli Bai graduated from the Department of Chemistry, Peking University in 1978 and received his M.S and Ph.D degrees from CAS Institute of Chemistry in 1981 and 1985, respectively. From 1985-1987, he was at Caltech, USA, for advanced study, conducting research in the field of physical chemistry as a post-doctorate associate and visiting scholar.

After his return home in 1987, Chunli continued his research at CAS Institute of Chemistry. From 1991 to 1992, he was a visiting professor at Tohoku University in Japan. His research areas involve the structure and properties of polymer catalysts, X-ray crystallography of organic compounds, molecular mechanics and EXAFS research on electro-conducting polymers. In the mid-1980s, he shifted his research orientation to the field of scanning tunnelling microscopy, and molecular nanotechnology.

Prof. Chen received her Bachelor's degree in Chemistry (1991) and obtained her PhD degree in Biomedical Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology of China in 1996. She joined the CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials & Nanosafety. She has been awarded the Second Prize of the National Natural Science Award in 2018, Outstanding Female Awards of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2017, Chinese Young Female Scientists Award in 2014 and supported by the National Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of China. Her research focuses on the potential toxicity of nanoparticles, transformation and fate of nanomaterials in biological systems, therapies for malignant tumors using theranostic nanomedicine systems, with an emphasis on understanding the underlying mechanism of bio-nano interactions.

Wenlong Cheng is a professor and director of research in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Monash University, Australia. He is also an Ambassador Tech Fellow in Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication. He earned his PhD from Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2005 and his BS from Jilin University, China in 1999. He held positions in the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics and the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering of Cornell University before joining the Monash University in 2010. His research interest focuses rational design and assembly of noble nanocrystals (particularly gold) for various applications in nanobioscience and nanobiotechnology, including DNA-based nanoassemblies, soft wearable electronic skin sensors, soft energy devices, targeted cancer theranostics, and soft plasmonic metamaterials.

Dirk M. Guldi completed both his undergraduate studies (1988) and Ph.D (1990) at the University of Cologne (Germany). Following postdoctoral appointments at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (USA), the Hahn-Meitner Institute Berlin (1992), and Syracuse University, he joined the faculty of the Notre Dame Radiation Laboratory in 1995.  He was promoted a year later from assistant to associate professional specialist, and remained affiliated to Notre Dame until 2004.
Since 2004, he has been a Full Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen.

In his current position, Dirk is one of the world’s leading scientists in the field of charge transfer and nanocarbons. In particular, he is well-known for his outstanding contributions to the areas of charge-separation in donor-acceptor materials and the construction of nanostructured thin films for solar energy conversion.
Dirk's group is involved in the designing, devising, synthesizing, and testing of novel nanometer scale structures as integrative components for photoelectrochemical devices. The charge transfer behavior of nanocarbon materials is also studied, in solution, as transparent films or at electrode surfaces.

Quan Li is Professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong. She obtained her B.S. in Chemistry from Beijing University, China in 1997 and then her PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University, USA, in 2001.

Her research interests focus on functional materials and structures for energy and biomedical applications, as well as quantum sensing. In particular, developing energy storage materials such as electrode materials/architectures for Li- and Na- ion batteries.

In investigating nano-bio interfaces, her group works on manipulating the interplay of nanoparticles of biological systems, and nanoparticles for vaccination applications. Her work of quantum sensing focus on sensor development and application in condense matter physics and biomedicine. 

Renzhi Ma is a group leader of Functional Nanomaterials Group at International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan. He is also a Professor (concurrent position) of Waseda-NIMS Joint Graduate Research Program at Department of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, Waseda University.
He received his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and Ph.D in Materials Processing Engineering both from Beijing Tsinghua University. He pursued his postdoctoral research at NIMS. Since 2004, he has been a staff scientist at NIMS. He was a visiting researcher at the Pennsylvania State University during 2007~2008.

Renzhi's research focuses on developing 1D/2D nanostructures and their hierarchical nanoarchitectures through various synthetic techniques, chemical transformation and self-assembly; as well as probing novel functionalities and potential applications in electronics, electrochemistry, energy storage/conversion and catalysis, etc.

Dr. David Tai Leong is an Associate Professor at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore (NUS). He obtained his PhD in Biology and Bachelor in Chemical Engineering from NUS and received his post-doctoral training at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. His research interests span across fundamental understanding of biological effects of nanomaterials to their applications in nanomedicine, biosensing and nanotoxicology.

Dr. Xiyun Yan obtained her B.S. degree in 1983, from the Henan Medical College, and then studied cell biology in Professor Shizhang Bei’s lab in the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) until leaving for Germany in 1989. After receiving her medical doctor's degree from Heidelberg University in Germany, she joined the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York as a postdoctoral research fellow. In 1997, Dr. Yan returned to China through her selection in the “Hundred Talents Program” by CAS. She has since studied tumor biology, finding novel targets and developing new methods for tumor diagnosis and therapy. Her work has been well recognized and respected internationally through honors such as the National Prize for Natural Science and Atlas Award by Elsevier. In 2015, she was elected as the new president of Asian Biophysics Association and Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences.  Dr. Yan’s scientific contributions in the emerging interdisciplinary field of biomedicine and nanotechnology cover nanozymes (discovery and application in tumor diagnosis) and the discovery and application of CD146 in tumor therapy.

Prof. Yue Zhang obtained his Ph.D. degree in Metal Physics from USTB in 1993. And he carried out his academic visits sequentially as an Anthony Mason Fellowship visiting professor at University of New South Wales in Australia (2000), JSPS visiting professor at Tohoku University in Japan (2001) as well as senior visiting scholar at Gerogia Institute of Technology in USA (2002-2003). Prof. Zhang was elected as the academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) in 2019 and 2022, respectively. He currently serves as the director of State Key State Key Laboratory for Advanced Metals and Materials, dean of the Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Science and Technology at USTB. 

Aimed at major requirements for sustainable social development, Prof. Zhang has devoted his research life to full-chain investigation of semiconductor nanomaterials throughout synthesis, characterization, functionalization and service, advancing their applications in energy and information fields including two-dimensional electronics devices and integration, energy conversion and storage devices, as well as information sensing systems.