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THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING SICC10
The 10th Singapore International Chemistry Conference (SICC-10) is jointly organised by the Department of Chemistry of the National University of Singapore (NUS), Division of Chemical and Biological Chemistry, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Singapore National Institute of Chemistry (SNIC) was held on 16 to 19 December 2018 at NUS U-Town. There were more than 500 attendees over the four (4) days. Thank you to our sponsors who also play a part to make this conference a great success.
E-PROCEEDINGS
OUR SPEAKERS
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Atsuhiro Osuka
Kyoto University, Japan -
Barry Trost
Stanford University, USA -
Hans Joachim Freund
Fritz-Haber Institute of Max-Planck Institute, Germany -
Klaus Müllen
Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Germany -
Samuel Achilefu
Washington University in St. Louis, USA -
Susumu Kitagawa
Kyoto University, Japan -
Liu Bin
National University of Singapore, SingaporeHans-Peter Steinrueck
University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, GermanyHarry L. Anderson
Oxford University, UKHui-Ming Cheng
Institute of Metal Research of CAS, ChinaIb Chorkendorff
Technical University of Denmark, DenmarkJeff Bode
ETH Zurich, SwitzerlandKenitchiro Itami
Nagoya University, JapanKian Ping Loh
National University of Singapore, SingaporeMatthew S. Sigman
University of Utah, USANatalia Shustova
University of South Carolina, USALee Pooi See
Nanyang Technological University, SingaporeShunsuke Chiba
Nanyang Technological University, SingaporeTanja Weil
Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, GermanyThomas Bein
University of Munich, GermanyWei Wang
Lanzhou University, ChinaWenping Hu
Tianjin University, ChinaWilliam Dichtel
Northwestern University, USAYongfang Li
Institute of Chemistry, CAS, ChinaZhiyong Tang
National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, ChinaZhixiang Yu
Peking University, China
ORGANISERS & SPONSORS

Organiser

Organiser

Organiser
VISIT SINGAPORE – TOURIST & TRAVEL GUIDE
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Event Secreteriat
Ms. Sylvia Chan
Email: contact@sicc10.org
Scientific Chair
Email: scientific-chair@sicc10.org
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Wei Wang
Lanzhou University, China
Wei Wang received his PhD in physical organic chemistry from Lanzhou University in 1998. After his postdoctoral research at University of Stuttgart (2000–2001) and at University of Southern California (2001–2002), he worked at the Institute of Chemical Technology, University of Stuttgart until 2006. He then moved back to Lanzhou University and was appointed as the Changjiang Professor from the Ministry of Education of China. Currently he serves as the Director of the State Key Laboratory of Applied Organic Chemistry (SKLAOC). The research in his laboratory focuses on homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis, organic porous materials, and solid-state NMR spectroscopy.
Zhiyong Tang
National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, China
Dr Tang is currently a Professor (2006-present) in National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, China. He obtained his Bachelor and Master degree from Wuhan University in 1996. He then moved to Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry of Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences with Professor Erkang Wang and obtained a Ph.D. degree in 1999. After six years as a postdoctoral fellow in Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Oklahoma State University and University of Michigan, in November 2006 he won the 100-Talent Program, Chinese Academy of Sciences and started his current position.
His research interests are mainly focused on controllable synthesis, property manipulation and practical application of inorganic nanomaterials. He developed the general and fundamental methods for preparation of inorganic nanoparticle assemblies with different dimensions, structures and functionalities, and explored their applications in the field of energy and environment. In the past several years, he has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers, and among those 90 papers have been published in the journals of the impact factor higher than 8. For instance, as the first author he published two (2) papers in Science and one (1) paper in Nature Materials; while as the corresponding author he has already published one (1) paper in Nature, one (1) paper in Nature Nanotechnology, two (2) paper in Nature Communications, 1 paper in Chemical Society Reviews, ect. Because of the pioneering work in nanostructured materials, his work has been extensively reported by both world-renown news magazines and academic journals including The New York Times, The Washington Times, Nature, Nature Materials, Nature Nanotechnology, Science News, Chemical & Engineering News, etc..
Thomas Bein received his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Hamburg (Germany) and the Catholic University Leuven (Belgium) in 1984. He continued his studies as Visiting Scientist at the DuPont Central Research and Development Department in Wilmington, DE (USA). From 1986 to 1991 he was Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque (USA). In 1991 he joined Purdue University (Indiana) as Associate Professor, and was promoted to Full Professor of Chemistry in 1995. In 1999 he was appointed Chair of Physical Chemistry at the University of Munich (LMU), where he also served as Director of the Department of Chemistry.
He has recently won an ERC Advanced Grant entitled “Electroactive Donor-Acceptor Covalent Organic Frameworks”. Presently he is the Coordinator of the DFG Excellence Cluster “Nanosystems Initiative Munich (NIM)”. Bibliographic data: Over 400 publications, over 24.000 citations, h=86 (WoS).
His current research interests cover the synthesis and physical properties of functional nanostructures, with an emphasis on porous materials for targeted drug delivery and nanostructured materials for solar energy conversion.
URL: http://bein.cup.uni-muenchen.de/
Tanja Weil studied chemistry (1993–1998) at the TU Braunschweig (Germany) and the University of Bordeaux I (France) and completed her PhD at the MPI for Polymer Research under the supervision of K. Müllen. In 2003 she received the Otto Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society. From 2002 to 2008 she managed different leading positions at Merz Pharmaceuticals GmbH (Frankfurt) from Section Head Medicinal Chemistry to Director of Chemical Research and Development. In 2008 she accepted an Associate Professor position at the National University of Singapore. Tanja Weil joined Ulm University as Director of the Institute of Organic Chemistry III / Macromolecular Chemistry in 2010. In 2012 Tanja Weil has been awarded the ERC Synergy Grant together with Fedor Jelezko and Martin Plenio. Her current scientific interests include the synthesis of quantum materials, customized and adaptive macromolecules for precision sensing and therapy as well as polymeric catalysts and hybrid membranes that outperform existing materials. Prof. Dr. Tanja Weil joined the Max Planck Society in 2017 as one of the directors of the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research heading the department “Synthesis of Macromolecules”.
Education
B.S., 2002, Moscow State University
M.S., 2004, Moscow State University
Ph.D., 2005, Physical Chemistry, Moscow State University
Ph.D., 2010, Inorganic Chemistry, Colorado State University
Research Interests
Research in her group will focus on materials for sustainable energy conversion, sensing, switches, and artificial biomimetic systems. Development of these materials will involve the synthesis and characterization of the porous (e.g., metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent-organic frameworks (COFs)) and graphitic materials. Specifically, three main directions related to 1) morphology control of the active layer of a bulk heterojunction solar cell, 2) light harvesting and energy transfer in well-defined self-assemblies, and 3) design of artificial scaffolds mimicking protein behavior will be developed.
The Active Layer Morphology Control in Organic Photovoltaics. Increase of efficiency in the currently used bulk heterojunction solar cells, the realistic candidates for an efficient photo-energy conversion, can be achieved through the precise control of the active layer morphology at the nanoscale level. The ultimate goal of the research in my group is to design new materials that can be used as active layer components, which will lead to efficiency enhancement of solar cells.
Light Harvesting and Controllable Energy Transfer in Well-Defined Self-Assemblies. Light harvesting chromophore assemblies with an ability to control Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) processes are required for the preparation of the next generation organic photovoltaics, molecular-scale digital switches, and sensors coupled to FRET. To address these issues, a new strategy to control energy transfer processes in self-assembled well-defined arrays of chromophores with integrated photochromic linkers will be developed.
Liu Bin
National University of Singapore, Singapore
Education
• Ph.D. in Chemistry, National University of Singapore, Singapore (2001)
• M.S. in Chemistry, Nanjing University, P. R. China (1998)
• Bachelor in Chemistry, Nanjing University, P. R. China (1995)
Professional Experiences
• Department Head, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (2017-present)
• Professor, National University of Singapore (2016-present)
• Provost’s Chair professor, National University of Singapore (2016-present)
• Dean’s Chair professor, National University of Singapore (2014-2016)
• Associate Professor, National University of Singapore (2010–2016)
• Assistant Professor, National University of Singapore (2005–2010)
• Assistant Researcher, University of California at Santa Barbara (2003–2005)
• Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California at Santa Barbara (2001–2003)
• Research Associate & Research Fellow, Institute of Materials Research & Engineering, Singapore (2000–2001)
Awards & Honors
• Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics (2017)
• Fellow of the Academy of Engineering, Singapore (2017)
• President’s Technology Award (2016)
• Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (2016)
• The World’s Most Influential Minds; Top 1% Highly Cited Researchers in Materials Science by Thomson Reuters (2015)
• Materials in Society Lectureship, Elsevier (2015)
• Singapore National Research Foundation Investigatorship (2014)
• The World’s Most Influential Minds (Highly cited researchers by Thomson Reuters 2014)
• Singapore National Institute of Chemistry (SNIC)-BASF Materials Award (2014)
• Invited Lecturer of Asia Excellence, Japanese Polymer Society (2013)
• Asia Rising Star, 15th Asia Chemical Congress (2013)
• National University of Singapore Young Researcher Award (2013)
• National University of Singapore Faculty Young Researcher Award (2012)
• L’Oreal-Singapore Women in Science National Fellowship (2011)
• Defense Research and Innovative Program Award (2010)
• Singapore National Science and Technology Young Scientist Award (2008)
• National University of Singapore Young Investigator Award (2006)
Lee Pooi See
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Prof Lee received her Ph.D. degree from National University of Singapore in 2001. She joined Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd (now Globalfoundries) in research and technology development department from 2001-2003. She is a recipient of the 2001 Norman Hackerman Young Author award presented by the Electrochemical Society, USA. In January 2004, she joined the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University as an Assistant Professor.She was promoted to tenured Associate Professor in 2009. In Sept 2015, she was promoted to Full Professor.
She has authored and co-authored many publications in the field of nanomaterials for energy and electronics applications. She holds more than 30 patents filed/provisional applications at present. She served as the Sub-Dean/Asst. Chair (undergraduate) in MSE from July 2004-2008, Associate Chair (Research) in June 2012-2014, and Associate Chair (Faculty) in March 2014. She was awarded the National Day Awards, Public Administration Medal (Bronze) in 2014 and is a recipient of the prestigious NRF Investigatorship, Class 2015.
She is a member of Materials Research Society and she serves as the editorial board member of Advanced Energy Materials, Scientific Reports and Frontier. She is interested in synthesizing innovative nanomaterials, and harnessing its multi-functionality through understanding the structural-property characteristics. She has developed high energy capacitors, energy saving electrochromic coatings, novel transparent conductors, flexible and stretchable devices. She is keen in advancing the frontier of green nanotechnology and to translate research outcomes into real solutions.
Matthew S. Sigman
University of Utah, USA
Matt Sigman was born in Los Angeles, California in 1970. He received a B.S. in chemistry from Sonoma State University in 1992 before obtaining his Ph.D. at Washington State University with Professor Bruce Eaton in 1996 in organometallic chemistry. He then moved to Harvard University to complete an NIH funded postdoctoral stint with Professor Eric Jacobsen. In 1999, he joined the faculty of the University of Utah where his research group has focused on the development of new synthetic methodology with an underlying interest in reaction mechanism. His research program explores the broad areas of oxidation catalysis, asymmetric catalysis, and the relationship between structure and function in complex reactions.
Matt Sigman’s research efforts have been recognized by several awards including the Research Innovative Award sponsored by Research Corporation (2000), NSF CAREER Award (2002), the Pfizer Award for Creativity in Organic Chemistry (2004), the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2004), the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award (2010), and the University of Utah Distinguished Research Award (2011). Additionally, he has been recognized for outstanding teaching at the University of Utah as highlighted by being named the University of Utah Distinguished Honors Professor (2008) and the Robert W. Parry Award (2009). He currently serves on several editorial boards as well as an associate editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Zhixiang Yu
Peking University, China
Zhi-Xiang Yu obtained his BS (Wuhan University, 1987-1991), MS (Peking University, 1994-1997, with Prof. Qingzhong Zhou) and Ph.D. (the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, 1997-2001, with Prof. Yun-Dong Wu). After a three-year postdoctoral study at University of California, Los Angeles (with Prof. M. Mascal and Prof. K. N. Houk), he joined the faculty of Peking University as an associate professor in 2004 and was promoted to a full professor in 2008. With a research philosophy of “Chem is try computationally and experimentally”, his laboratory focuses on application of computational and synthetic organic chemistry to study reaction mechanisms, develop new reactions, and apply the new reactions discovered from his group to synthesize natural and non-natural products. Selected recognition and awards from Prof. Zhi-Xiang Yu include: Chang-Jiang Professorship, Ministry of Education, China, 2015;Advisor of the Best 100 Ph.D Theses in China, 2012, Ministry of Education, China;Chinese Chemical Society-Sci Finder Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, 2011; Chinese Chemical Society-Physical Organic Chemistry Award, 2011;Chinese Chemical Society-BASF Award, 2011;The National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China, 2008; The Young Chemist Award, the Chinese Chemical Society & the Royal Society of Chemistry, 2008.
Yongfang Li
Institute of Chemistry, CAS, China
Yongfang Li got his M.S and Ph.D. degree from East China University of Science and Technology in 1982 and from Fudan University in 1986 respectively. Then he entered Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS) as a postdoctoral researcher in 1986 and became a staff of ICCAS in 1988 after finishing his postdoc. research. He was promoted to professor in 1993 in ICCAS. He ever did his visiting research in Institute for Molecular Sciences, Japan, from 1988.10. to 1991.4. and in University of California at Santa Barbara, USA, from 1997.6. to 1998.6. He was invited to be a professor in Soochow University in 2012 and was elected as a member of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2013, a fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and a member of the executive council of Chinese Chemical Society (CCS) in2014.
Yongfang Li’s main research fields are photovoltaic materials and devices for polymer solar cells, the electrochemistry of conducting polymers and semiconductor nano-materials. He has published more than 500 research papers and given more than 90 plenary and invited lectures in international and domestic academic meetings and conferences. His papers have been cited by others for more than 17000 times with a h-factor of 67. He was named as “Young and Middle-aged Specialist with Outstanding Contributions in Natural Science” by Chinese government in 1998, .awarded the Second-Grade National Award of China on Natural Sciences in 1995 and the First-Grade Award of Beijing City on Science and Technology in 2005. In 2012, he won “Macro2012 Lecture Award” from American Chemical Society. According to the announcement of Thomson Reuters, he is one of the 21 hottest scientific researchers in 2013 and one of the 147 highly cited researchers in the field of materials science, based on the data from 2002 to 2013.
William Dichtel
Northwestern University, USA
William Dichtel was an undergraduate student at MIT, where he majored in chemistry and was fortunate to gain his first research experience working in the laboratory of Prof. Tim Swager. Will then moved to UC-Berkeley for graduate school, where he earned his Ph.D. for investigating light-harvesting macromolecules under the supervision of Prof. Jean M. J. Fréchet. He next moved to Los Angeles for a joint postdoctoral appointment with Prof. Fraser Stoddart, then at UCLA, and Prof. Jim Heath at Caltech. There his research focused on developing effective strategies for the synthesis of mechanically interlocked compounds and incorporating these molecules onto surfaces and into solid-state devices. Prof. Dichtel began his independent career in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Cornell University in 2008 and was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in 2014. He moved to Northwestern University in the summer of 2016 as the Robert L. Letsinger Professor of Chemistry.
Wenping Hu
Tianjin University, China
Wenping Hu is a Professor of School of Science, Tianjin University, and a Cheung Kong Professorship of Ministry of Education, China. He got his B.S. degree from Hunan University in 1993, M.S. degree from Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS) in 1996 and Ph.D degree from Institute of Chemistry, CAS in 1999 (Supervisor: Prof. Daoben Zhu and Prof. Yunqi Liu). Then he joined Osaka University and Stuttgart University as a research fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences and Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, respectively. In 2003 he worked in Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT), and then joined into ICCAS again as a full professor. He served as a Visiting Scholar at Department of Chemistry, Stanford University in 2007, a Visiting Professor at Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore in 2013. He worked as the dean of School of Science, Tianjin University in 2013 and was promoted to vice president for foreign affairs and science development in 2016. He focuses on organic optoelectronics, and has published 4 books (Organic Optoelectronics for Wiley etc.) and ~500 peer reviewed papers with citations ~19,000 times (H index=70). He worked as an Associate Editor for Polymer Chemistry during 2013-2016 (RSC), and now is EB member of several journals including Adv. Energy Mater., Adv. Electron. Mater., Nano Research, Sci. China Mater.) and international advisory board member of Chemistry – An Asian Journal.
Shunsuke Chiba
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Prof Shunsuke Chiba is currently in the School of Physical & Mathematical Sciences (CBC) since April 2007. He received his Bachelor degree in Chemistry from Waseda University (Tokyo, Japan) in 2001, Ph.D. degrees from the University of Tokyo in 2006. His research interests include Synthetic Organic Chemistry.
Kian Ping Loh
National University of Singapore, Singapore
Professor Kian Ping Loh did his Bachelor of Science (Honors) in the National University of Singapore, majoring in Chemistry, and thereafter obtained his D.Phil from University of Oxford in 1996. He did his postdoctoral research in NIMS, Japan between 1997 and 1998. Both his doctoral and post-doctoral work concerned the surface chemistry of diamond, an area which he still maintains active interests. He has an established a notable presence in functional carbon materials research, and his team focuses on the surface functionalization, biosensing, solar and optical applications of diamond and graphene. The expertise of his group ranges from surface science of carbon at the atomic domains, optical studies of advanced functional carbon materials, design and synthesis of organic dyes, molecular electronics to solar cells and surface science. He also works on the Industrial scaling and applications of graphene composites. He is a founding member of the Graphene Research Centre in NUS and is currently the Head of Chemistry Department, National University of Singapore, and is also a visiting professor in Ulsan University of Science and Technology under the World Class Professorship program.
Recent research accomplishments of Kian Ping Loh include pioneering a controllable pathway to generate geometrically well-defined graphene quantum dots and strained graphene nanostructure which boost graphene?s promise as a next-generation semiconductor (Nature Nanotechnology, 2011). His team also invented an ultra-slim broadband polariser that uses graphene to convert light into polarised light, a breakthrough that can broaden the bandwidth of prevailing optical fibre-based telecommunication systems (Nature Photonics, 2011). Working on the industrial scaling of graphene composites, his team also investigated the origin of catalytic reactivity in porous graphene (Nature Comm, 2013). Kian Ping Loh has won numerous awards in Singapore for his research, noteoworthy among these include the University Young Researcher Award in 2008, and the Oustanding University Research Award in 2012.
Kenichiro Itami (born in 1971) received his Ph.D. from Kyoto University under the guidance of Prof. Yoshihiko Ito. He began his academic career at Kyoto University as an Assistant Professor in 1998, then moved to Nagoya University to become an Associate Professor in 2005, and promoted to Full Professor in 2008. Since 2012, he is the Director of the Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (ITbM) in Nagoya University. In 2013, he was selected as the Director of JST-ERATO Itami Molecular Nanocarbon Project.
The ultimate goal of the Itami group is to develop game-changing molecules, such as problem-solving functional molecules (“transformative molecules”) and beautiful molecules. With such goal in mind, the work of Itami group has centered on catalyst-enabling synthetic chemistry with broad directions including molecular nanocarbon materials, C-H activation catalysts, medicinal chemistry, and plant chemical biology.
>300 papers (h-index 60), >90 patent application, >350 plenary/invited lecturers
Representative awards and honors:
The Guthikonda Lecturer, Stanford University (2018), The Roland K. Pettit Centennial Lecturer, University of Texas, Austin (2018), CSJ Award for Creative Work, The Chemical Society of Japan (2018), Highly Cited Researchers 2017, Clarivate Analytics (2017), ICI Distinguished Lecturer, University of Calgary, Canada (2017), The Holger Erdtman Lecture, KTH, Sweden (2016), The Nagase Prize (2016), Treat B. Johnson Lecture, Yale University (2016), Ta-Shue Chou Lectureship Award, Academia Sinica (2016), R. C. Fuson Visiting Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2015), Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, American Chemical Society (2015), Swiss Chemical Society Lectureship Award (2015), Nankai University Lectureship Award (2014), The Aldrich Lectureship Award, Emory University (2014), The JSPS Prize (2014), Novartis Chemistry Lectureship Award (2013), Mukaiyama Award (2013), Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, UK (2012), German Innovation Award (2012), Novartis-MIT Lectureship Award, MIT, USA (2012)
Jeff Bode
ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Bode is a gifted young rising star in synthetic chemistry. The work of Bode is directed towards the chemical synthesis of molecules and conjugates that are currently outside the reach of conventional synthetic methods. He is developing new chemical reactions and catalysts for making molecules of biological importance such as proteins, glycopeptides, sequence and length-controlled polymers, and covalent conjugates of these large structures. Recently, he developed a novel method for the ligation of unprotected protein segments, producing synthetic proteins very efficiently. He is also known as one of the pioneers of an entirely new branch of catalytic asymmetric synthesis, commonly known as “chiral N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) catalysis”. His catalysts will be applied in the development of molecules that selectively induce plant growth and molecules that can overcome species barrier. In addition, collaborating with the group of Ooi, he will also be involved in the development of small-molecule catalysts that can activate and transform bio-molecules in vivo.
Ib Chorkendorff
Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
Ib Chorkendorff is Professor in Heterogeneous Catalysis at the Technical University of Denmark. He got his PhD in 1985 in experimental surface science from Odense University, Denmark. After working as a postdoc with Prof. John T. Yates Jr. at University of Pittsburgh, USA, he was employed in 1987 as Associate Professor at DTU to establish an experimental activity investigating fundamental aspects of heterogeneous catalysis. He became full Professor of Heterogeneous Catalysis at Department of Physics and Department of Chemical Engineering in 1999 and was Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Interdisciplinary Catalysis (ICAT) 1998-2005. From 2005-2016 he was director of Danish National Research Foundation Center for Individual Nanoparticle Functionality (CINF) at Department of physics at DTU. From 2016 he has been Director of The Villum Center for the Science of Sustainable Fuels and Chemicals (V-SUSTAIN). He has authored or co-authored more than 320 scientific papers, 17 patents and a textbook “Concepts of Modern Catalysis and Kinetics”. His research activities focus on investigating fundamental aspects of surface reactions and finding new catalysts for improving energy production/conversion and environmental protection. He is the co-founder of three start-up companies RENCAT APS, HPNOW APS and Spectroinlets APS.
Hui-Ming Cheng
Institute of Metal Research of CAS, China
Cheng Huiming was born in Sichuan in 1963. He received his bachelor degree in 1984 on carbon materials from Hunan Univ., his M.S. in 1987 and Ph.Din 1992 on materials sci. and eng. from the Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IMR CAS). Prof. Cheng began his career as a Guest Researcher at Kyushu Industrial Research Institute, Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, Japan, in 1990; then he was employed as a Research Associate in the Dept. of Materials Sci. and Eng., Faculty of Eng. at Nagasaki Univ., Japan, in 1992, and then took an associate professor position at IMR CAS in 1993. He is currently professor and deputy director at the same institute. Prof. Cheng also worked at MIT (USA), Nanyang Technological Univ. (Singapore), Univ. of Queensland (Australia), etc, as visiting scientist or honorary professor for short periods.
Prof. Cheng is mainly working on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene, new energy materials and high-performance carbon materials. He authored or co-authored more than 300 peer-reviewed papers which have been cited for more than 8000 times. For his scientific achievements, he was awarded a number of national and international prizes, such as the 2nd class National Award in Natural Science, Ryukiti Hashiguti Award, Khwarizmi Award, Charles E. Pettinos Award, etc. Prof. Cheng has already supervised more than 30 Ph.Dstudents, given more than 40 invited talks on international and national conferences and symposia, and is Editor of Carbon since 2000 and EditorinChief of New Carbon Materials since 1998. He takes a leading role in carbon materials research in China.
Professor Cheng has contributed much to the progress of CNTs, carbon materials for energy storage, and recently graphene. While Prof. Cheng is perhaps best known for his research work on CNTs, he has also made significant contributions to the science of graphene, to the use of various carbon materials for energy storage, and to the advancement of photocatalytic semiconducting materials for solar energy conversion.
Prof. Cheng did pioneering work on the large-scale growth of single-walled CNTs using an improved floating catalyst method in 1998. Since then he has extensively investigated their synthesis, growth mechanism, structural characteristics, properties, and applications. In 2009, he made an important advance in the synthesis of single-walled CNTs when he proposed a metal catalyst-free process. He has also investigated ways to control the number of layers and size of graphene, to synthesize 3D interconnected graphene foams, and has developed an HI reduction method to efficiently reduce graphene oxide. Moreover, Prof. Cheng has recently been involved with the use of CNTs, graphene and porous carbons for supercapacitors and lithium ion batteries. In particular, he has produced hierarchical porous carbon that allows for high ion and transfer rate, which translates into high power and energy densities. In addition, Prof. Cheng and his colleagues have designed special pyrolytic carbon deposition equipment and developed a unique process to fabricate bulk isotropic pyrolytic carbon and graphite materials with high performance, and the materials have found wide applications in aerospace, aeronautics and other fields as the best mechanical sealing and wearresistant parts.
Hong Cai Zhou
Texas A&M University, USA
Hong-Cai “Joe” Zhou obtained his Ph.D. in 2000 from Texas A&M University under the supervision of F. A. Cotton. After a postdoctoral stint at Harvard University with R. H. Holm, he joined the faculty of Miami University, Oxford in 2002. He was promoted to a full professor within six years by working on the preparation and application of Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs), a field he had had no prior experience in as a graduate student or postdoctoral fellow. He moved to Texas A&M University in 2008, was promoted to a Davidson Professor of Science in 2014, and was appointed the Robert A. Welch Chair in Chemistry in 2015. In June 2013, he started to serve as an associate editor for Inorganic Chemistry (ACS). In 2014, he received a JSPS Invitation Fellowship. In 2014, 2015, and 2016, he was listed as a Highly Cited Researcher by Thomson Reuters, and in 2016 he was elected a fellow of the AAAS, ACS, and RSC. In 2017 he was given the Distinguished Achievement award in research by TAMU’s Association of Former Students.
Harry L. Anderson
Oxford University, UK
Harry Anderson completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge UK with Jeremy Sanders and did postdoctoral work at ETH Zurich, Switzerland with François Diederich. He has led an independent research group at the University of Oxford since 1995. His work includes the investigation of porphyrin-based molecular wires, cyclodextrin polyrotaxanes, insulated molecular wires, encapsulated π-systems, template-directed synthesis, multivalent cooperativity, nanorings, polyynes, nonlinear optical chromophores and functional dyes. His research group has extended the frontiers of macrocyclic chemistry by preparing the largest synthetic macrocycles and the largest known Hückel-aromatic rings. He was elected to become a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2013.
Hans-Peter Steinrueck
University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
Hans-Peter Steinrück received his PhD in physics at TU Graz 1985, was postdoc at Stanford University 1985/86, received his Habilitation at TU München 1992, and became Professor of Physics at Würzburg University in 1993. Since 1998, he holds a chair of Physical Chemistry at University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. He was Guest Professor at USTC/Hefei in China, holds a honorary doctorate degree from Szeged University in Hungary, is member of the European Academy of Sciences, the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Academia Europaea, Fellow of APS and AAAS, and received the AVS Medard W. Welch Award in 2017. His research focusses in surface and interface science, from ionic liquids, porphyrins, liquid metals and liquid organic hydrogen carriers to chemically modified graphene. He published 335 peer-reviewed papers.
https://www.chemistry.nat.fau.eu/steinrueck-group/
Bert Sels
University of Leuven, Belgium
Susumu Kitagawa
Kyoto University, Japan
Kitagawa received his Ph. D. at Kyoto University. He is now distinguished professor, Kyoto University Institute for Advanced Study (KUIAS), and Director of Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) at Kyoto University. His main research fields are materials chemistry based on coordination compounds, in particular, chemistry of coordination space, and his current research interests are centered on synthesis and properties of porous coordination polymers/metal-organic frameworks. He received the Japan Society of Coordination Chemistry Award (2007), Humboldt Research Award (2008), The Chemical Society of Japan Award (2009), Thomson Reuters Citation Laureate (Chemistry) (2010), The Medal with Purple Ribbon, Japanese Government (2011), The RSC de Gennes Prize (2013), The 10th Leo Esaki Prize (2013). Japan Academy Award (2016), ACS Fred Basolo Medal (2016), Chemistry for Solvay Future Award (2017).
Samuel Achilefu
Washington University in St. Louis, USA
Samuel Achilefu, PhD, is the Michel M. Ter-Pogossian Professor of Radiology. He holds joint appointments as a Professor of Medicine, Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics and Biomedical Engineering. He is the Vice Chair of Radiology Department and Director of the Molecular Imaging Center at Washington University. Prof. Achilefu is a Fellow of National Academy of Inventors (USA), the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Optical Society of America, the SPIE, and the Academy of Science – St. Louis. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the National Cancer Institute’s intramural Molecular Imaging Program. Prof. Achilefu is renowned for his pioneering work on near-infrared fluorescent molecular imaging and treatment of cancer and other diseases in small animals and human patients. He has published over 300 scientific papers and is an inventor on 57 issued US patents. He has received several honours and awards, including the Carl and Gerty Cori Faculty Achievement Award, Excellence in Healthcare Award, USA Department of Defense BCRP Distinguished Investigator Award, and Medical Innovation Award. He obtained his PhD in Chemistry (1991) from the University of Nancy, France as a French Government Scholar and completed his postdoctoral training at Oxford University, UK.
Klaus Müllen
Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Germany
Klaus Müllen was director at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research. He now holds an emeritus position for continuation of his research there and is fellow of the Gutenberg Research College of Mainz University. His research interests range from new polymer-forming reactions, to the chemistry and physics of single molecules as well as graphenes, dendrimers and biosynthetic hybrids. He published about 1900 papers. He received, amongst others, the Max Planck Forschungspreis, Philip Morris Forschungspreis; ; Nikolaus August Otto Award; Society of Polymer Science Japan International Award; ACS Award in Polymer Chemistry; Tsungming Tu Award, Taiwan; BASF-Award for Organic Electronics; Franco-German Award of the Sociéte Chimique de France; Adolf-von-Baeyer-Medal; Utz-Hellmuth-Felcht Award, SGL Group; China Nano Award; Carl Friedrich Gauß-Medal, van’t Hoff Award of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences as well as the Hermann-Staudinger Award and the Award of the Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg. From 2008-2009 he served as president of the German Chemical Society (GDCh). In 2013-2014 he was president of the German Association for the Advancement of Science and Medicine. He is member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, North-Rhine-Westphalian Academy for Sciences and Art, National Academy Leopoldina, European Academy of Sciences (EURASC), Braunschweigische Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft and Academia Europaea. In 2010 he received an Advanced ERC Grant for his work on nanographenes. He is associate editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Hans Joachim Freund
Fritz-Haber Institute of Max-Planck Institute, Germany
Prof Hans‐Joachim Freund is a scientific member and director at the Fritz‐Haber‐Institut der Max‐Planck‐Gesellschaft in Berlin where he is head of the Department of Chemical Physics. The department is dedicated to the study of model catalysts, applying a large number of techniques and instruments, some of which were newly developed within the department to investigate oxide surfaces and oxide metal interfaces.
He serves as Adjunct Professor at five universities in Germany and UK. He received awards in Europe, the US and China. He is a member of six Academies including the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds three honorary Doctorates. He received both, the Leibnitz Award of the German Science Foundation as well as the Ziegler Award of the German Chemical Society. He also received the Gaede‐Langmuir Award of the American Vacuum Society and is the recipient of the 2015 Michel Boudart for the Advancement of Catalysis by the North American Catalysis Society and the European Federation of Catalysis Societies.
He is Fellow of the American Physical Society and has published about 800 scientific papers with more than 40.000 citations and given more than 750 invited talks. He has held a number of named lectureships around the world. He has educated more than 130 PhD students and collaborated with more than 80 postdoctoral associates.

Barry Trost
Stanford University, USA
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1941, he obtained his B.A. degree at the University of Pennsylvania (1962) and his Ph.D. degree at MIT (1965). He moved to the University of Wisconsin where he became Professor of Chemistry in 1969 and subsequently the Vilas Research Professor in 1982. He joined Stanford as Professor of Chemistry in 1987 and Tamaki Professor in 1990. Among his awards, are the ACS Award in Pure Chemistry (1977), the ACS Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry (1981), the Baekeland Award (1981), ACS Guenther Award (1990), the Janssen Prize (1990), the ASSU Graduate Teaching Award (1991), the ACS Roger Adams Award (1995), the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award (1998), the ACS Herbert C. Brown Award (1999), the Belgian Organic Synthesis Symposium Elsevier Award (2000), the Nichols Medal (2000), the Yamada Prize (2001), the ACS Cope Award (2004), the Nagoya Medal (2008), Ulysses Medal (2013), Noyori Prize (2013), August-Wilhelm-von-Hofmann Denkmuenze (2014), and Tetrahedron Prize (2014). He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Sciences (1982) and a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1980).

Atsuhiro Osuka
Kyoto University, Japan
Atsuhiro Osuka received his Ph D degree from Kyoto University in 1982 on photochemistry of epoxyquinones. In 1979, he started an academic career at the Department of Chemistry of Ehime University as an assistant professor. In 1984, he moved to the Department of Chemistry of Kyoto University, where he became a professor of chemistry in 1996. His research interests cover many aspects of synthetic approaches toward artificial photosynthesis and development of porphyrin-related compounds with novel structures, electronic systems, and functions.