Contributors to the Emerging Investigators collection 2025: part 3

Dr Bishnu P. Biswal has been a faculty member of the School of Chemical Sciences, NISER Bhubaneswar, India, since 2020. He obtained a PhD (from AcSIR) in 2017 in Chemical Sciences with Prof. Rahul Banerjee at the CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune. He worked as an Alexander von Humboldt fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Solid-State Research, Stuttgart, Germany. His current research interests include reticular materials and membranes for sustainable applications. He has been recognized with several awards, including the Rising Star Award by the Aseanian Membrane Society, Head of Max Planck India Partner Group, Odisha Young Scientist Award, and DST-INSPIRE Faculty Award by the Government of India.

Will Brittain conducted his PhD studies in asymmetric catalysis at the University of Birmingham under the supervision of Prof. John Fossey and Prof. Ben Buckley. He moved to Durham University in 2017 to take up a PDRA position with Prof. Steven Cobb before being awarded a Leverhulme ECF in 2020 and then becoming an Assistant Professor in 2024. He is currently an Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry at Durham, where his research group focuses on synthetic chemistry, in particular the preparation and use of organofluorine compounds. In 2024 he was awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship to further explore fluorine chemistry in Durham.

Yueqiang Cao received his BE degree from Hefei University of Technology in 2013 and his PhD degree from East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST) in 2019. After a short visit at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, he returned to ECUST as a postdoctoral researcher. In 2022, he joined the faculty of the School of Chemical Engineering at ECUST. His current research interests include the mechanism and data-driven design of catalysts for various hydrogenations involved in the synthesis of high-performance polymers and green fuels.

Biswarup Chakraborty, who joined the Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India, in 2020, is currently an Associate Professor, and his group is working on designing inorganic materials for photo(electro)catalytic applications, correlating their structure–activity to establish the reaction pathway. He obtained his PhD in Chemistry in 2014 at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, India. He spent three and a half years at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Israel) and a little more than one year at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany, for postdoctoral research.

Prof. Jinfa Chang is a full professor at Northeast Normal University. His research focuses on the surface and interface electrochemistry of energy materials and devices, materials science, electrochemical engineering, and nanoscience technology. He has published more than 70 papers in peer-reviewed journals, such as Nat. Energy, Nat. Commun., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Adv. Mater., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Joule, Energy Environ. Sci., Adv. Energy Mater., and so on.

Dr Jinjin Chen is currently a principal investigator at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, where his research team focuses on mRNA delivery and therapy. He received his BS degree in Chemistry from the University of Science and Technology of China. He then obtained his PhD in Polymer Chemistry under the guidance of Prof. Xuesi Chen from Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry (CIAC). He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Tufts University, working with Prof. Qiaobing Xu.

Xi Chen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Riverside. He received his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin in 2014, under the supervision of Professors Li Shi and Jianshi Zhou. His research group focuses on developing advanced materials for thermal management, thermoelectric energy conversion, spin caloritronics, and all-solid-state batteries, with particular emphasis on uncovering the fundamental mechanisms governing energy carrier transport at the microscopic level.

Graham S. Collier earned his BS in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina Wilmington in 2011. He then pursued graduate studies with Prof. Michael Walter at UNC Charlotte, receiving his MS in 2013. In 2017, he completed his PhD in Polymer Chemistry with Prof. Mike Kilbey at the University of Tennessee. Following his doctorate, he joined Prof. John Reynolds’ lab at Georgia Tech as a Postdoctoral Research Associate. Graham began his independent career at Kennesaw State University in 2020 before joining the University of Southern Mississippi's School of Polymer Science and Engineering as an Assistant Professor in 2024.

Dr Chinmoy Das received his PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in 2018. He pursued postdoctoral research at the AIST–Kyoto University Chemical Energy Materials Open Innovation Laboratory (CHEM-OIL), Japan (2018–2021), followed by another postdoctoral stint at Technische Universität Dortmund (TU Dortmund), Germany (2021–2023). In 2023, he returned to India to join SRM University–AP, Andhra Pradesh, as an Assistant Professor. His research interests focus on the design and synthesis of coordination network-based materials for applications in solid-state batteries and supercapacitors, atmospheric water harvesting, and photoluminescent glasses.

Juncai Dong serves as a senior scientist at the Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility (BSRF) in China. He earned his PhD in Condensed Matter Physics in 2014 from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. Afterwards, Dong underwent specialized training as a beamline scientist at BSRF, where he honed his expertise in utilizing X-ray spectroscopic techniques to delve into the intricate relationship between structure and functionality in the fields of condensed matter physics and materials science. Dong's current research focuses on applying in situ/operando synchrotron-radiation-based X-ray spectroscopies to uncover the dynamic processes and fundamental physicochemical mechanisms of various electrocatalytic systems under real-time operational conditions.

Qingyun Dou has been an associate professor since 2022 at the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, China. He received his PhD degree from the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2019, and worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the School of Chemical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea, from 2020 to 2022. His research interests focus on the regulation and design of electrolytes for electrochemical energy storage applications. He has published papers in the top journals of Chem. Soc. Rev, Energy Environ. Sci., Angew. Chem., Adv. Mater., Nat. Commun. Natl. Sci. Rev., etc.

Zhaoyu Jin received his Bachelor's degree in 2013 and PhD in 2017, both from Sichuan University. He then conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Texas at Austin from 2017 to 2021 with Prof. Allen J. Bard. Since 2022, he has been a Professor at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. His research focuses on scanning electrochemical microscopy techniques and advanced instrumentations for studying electrocatalysis.

Dr Simon D. Kloß obtained his PhD from the Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich, Germany, working under Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schnick. He joined Prof. Dr Paul Attfield’s group as a research fellow supported by a scholarship of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). Currently, he is employed as a Junior Research Group leader at the inorganic chemistry department of the LMU Munich through the Emmy Noether programme of the DFG. His research combines materials preparation under extreme conditions using high pressures with the elucidation of physical properties. Currently, he is researching highly oxidized transition metal nitrides such as nitride perovskites, rocksalt-type nitrides, and nitridometallates.

Chuang Li is currently a professor at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). He earned his PhD in 2016 from the Department of Chemistry at Tsinghua University, under the supervision of Professor Dongsheng Liu. From 2016 to 2021, he worked as a postdoctoral research fellow with Professor Samuel Stupp at Northwestern University in the United States. In June 2021, he joined the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering at USTC as a professor. His research focuses on supramolecular self-assembly, dynamic covalent chemistry, and photoresponsive functional hydrogels with applications in biomimetic actuators and soft robotics.

Guangfu Liao received his PhD degree from Sun Yat-sen University in 2020. He then became a Research Associate at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Subsequently, he worked as a Researcher at the China University of Geosciences. Now, he is a Professor at Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University. His research interests involve photo & electro catalysis, biomass energy, polymer synthesis & applications, etc. So far, he has published more than 80 high profile SCI papers. The awards he has received include Youth Talent Promotion Project of the China Association for Science and Technology, Distinguished Professor of the “Minjiang Scholars” in Fujian Province, etc.

Xiaoqing Liu is a Full Professor in the School of Chemical Engineering and Light Industry at the Guangdong University of Technology (GDUT). She earned her PhD in Physical and Analytical Chemistry in 2016 from the prestigious Université Pierre et Marie Curie (now Sorbonne Université) in Paris, France. She conducted her doctoral research under the guidance of the distinguished Professor Christian Amatore. Following her PhD, she began her independent academic career in 2018 as an Associated Research Fellow within the Department of Chemistry at Sun Yat-Sen University. Her current research interest concentrates on the development of aqueous zinc-based energy storage materials and devices.

Yongchang Liu is a full Professor at the University of Science and Technology Beijing. He received his BS degree from Beijing Jiaotong University in 2011, and PhD degree from Nankai University in 2016. His research interest focuses on the design, synthesis, and mechanistic understanding of high-performance electrode materials for next-generation metal-ion batteries (especially sodium-ion batteries and aqueous zinc-ion batteries). He has published over 130 relevant papers with more than 19 000 citations and has an H-index of 73. He was honored with the National Program for Top-notch Young Professionals and the Highly Cited Researcher-Clarivate (2023–2024).

Dr Zhuoxin Liu is currently an associate professor at the College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Sichuan University in Chengdu, China. After that, he obtained his PhD degree from the City University of Hong Kong, China. His research interests mainly focus on aqueous energy storage and conversion systems and their flexible devices, including aqueous batteries and thermocells. He has published more than 90 articles in international journals with over 17 800 citations and an H-index of 61. He was awarded as one of the Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate and the World's Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University.

Xue Feng Lu is currently a full professor at the College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, China (2022–present). He obtained his PhD in Physical Chemistry from Sun Yat-sen University in 2017. Subsequently, Dr Lu carried out his five-year postdoctoral research at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research focuses on the design and synthesis of functional micro/nanomaterials, with an emphasis on investigating their performance regulation mechanisms in electrochemical energy conversion and storage technologies, such as electrolyzers, metal–air batteries, and fuel cells.

Dae-Hyun Nam is an associate professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Korea University, Republic of Korea. He received his BS degree (2011) and PhD degree (2017) from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Seoul National University. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto (2017–2020). From 2020 to 2024, he worked as an assistant professor at Daegu Gyeongbuk Science and Technology (DGIST), Republic of Korea. He joined Korea University as an assistant professor in September 2024. His research focuses on electrocatalysts for renewable energy conversion and CO₂ conversion for carbon neutrality.

Ming-Yu Qi obtained his PhD degree from Fuzhou University in 2023, and now works as specially appointed associate researcher in the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. He has published over 70 papers in many prestigious journals, such as Chem. Rev., Chem. Soc. Rev., Nat. Commun., Angew. Chem., and Energy Environ. Sci., and accumulated more than 8000 citations in total. He was recognized in the “World's Top 2% Scientists 2023/2024/2025”. In addition, he was sponsored by the 2024 National “Postdoctoral Innovative Talent Support Program”, and awarded the “Molecular Catalysis Young Researcher Award 2025” and “2024 IUPAC International Award for Young Chemists”.

Insoo Ro is an Associate Professor at Korea University. He received a BS from Rice University (2012) and a PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison (2017), followed by postdoctoral research at the University of California–Santa Barbara. His group studies heterogeneous catalysis for plastics upcycling and CO₂-to-fuels chemistry. He has published over 30 papers in journals such as Nature, Nat. Commun., and Angew. Chem., and has been recognized with an Outstanding Science and Technology Paper Award from the Korea Federation of Science and Technology Societies (2024), Emerging Investigator recognition from Green Chemistry (2025), and a Lectureship Award from Chemical Society of Japan (2025).

Hong-Kang Tian is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at NCKU, Taiwan. He joined as Assistant Professor in August 2021 and was promoted to Associate Professor in February 2025. He earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering from Michigan State University (2019) and conducted postdoctoral research at NIMS, Japan (2019–2021). His research integrates multi-scale simulation and machine learning for energy materials. His honors include J. Mater. Chem. A Emerging Investigators, NSTC 2030 Emerging Young Scholars, and the LCY Outstanding Junior Professor Award, all in 2025.

Edmund C. M. Tse received his BSc from the University of Virginia, and he completed his PhD under the co-supervision of Professor Andrew A. Gewirth and Professor Thomas B. Rauchfuss at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Edmund then conducted his postdoctoral work at the California Institute of Technology with Professor Jacqueline K. Barton as the advisor. Edmund is now an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on interfacial electrocatalysis and bioinorganic chemistry, developing bio-inspired systems to upcycle wastes into fuels and resources, addressing the UN's sustainable development goals.

Marina Uzelac is a Royal Society University Research Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Bath. She received her PhD in Chemistry in 2016 from the University of Strathclyde under the supervision of Prof. Eva Hevia, which was followed by postdoctoral research in collaboration with Prof. Robert E. Mulvey. After this she joined the group of Prof. Michael Ingleson (University of Manchester, then University of Edinburgh). In 2022, she started her independent career working in the area of molecular organometallic chemistry investigating new types of manganese reagents as environmentally benign earth abundant metal catalysts.

Pratap Vishnoi is an Assistant Professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore. He received his MSc in Chemistry from the Rajasthan University in 2008 and PhD in Chemistry from the IIT Bombay in 2014 under the supervision of Prof. R. Murugavel, followed by postdoctoral research at the JNCASR and the University of California, Santa Barbara. He established his independent research group in 2021, with the focus on halide perovskites for magnetic, optical, and energy-related applications. He is a recipient of a Ramanujan Fellowship from the Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India.

Yanlei Wang received his PhD from Tsinghua University in 2017. After working as an assistant and associate professor at the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, he joined the faculty at the School of Chemistry and Life Resources, Renmin University of China. His research focuses on nano-confined thermodynamics and green chemical applications. Employing an integrated approach that combines theoretical simulations, data-driven methods and experiment, he investigates the interactions and microstructures of water, ionic liquids, and other fluid systems under nanoscale confinement, and aims to develop confinement-enhanced transport-reaction models that support applications in CCUS, energy conversion, and related areas.

Xijun Wei earned his PhD degree in Chemical Engineering and Technology from Chongqing University, Chongqing, China in 2020. He is currently working as distinguished associate professor at the Southwest University of Science and Technology. His research interests center on alkali metal-ion secondary batteries and recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries.

Xingqiao Wu is currently working at Wenzhou University. He received his PhD degree from the Zhejiang University in 2022. His research interests are mainly focused on the controllable synthesis of energy storage and catalyst materials, as well as the exploration of structure–performance relationships, with a particular emphasis on novel anode materials for sodium-ion batteries.

Huicong Xia completed his PhD at Zhengzhou University in 2022 under the supervision of Prof. Jia-Nan Zhang. From 2019 to 2020, he carried out his research as a visiting student at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics under Prof. Dehui Deng. He then joined the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Zhengzhou University as a faculty member in 2022. Since 2023, he has also been a Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Physics, Zhengzhou University, supervised by Prof. Chong-Xin Shan. His research interests primarily focus on carbon-based nanomaterials for energy storage and conversion, such as metal-ion batteries and metal–air batteries.

Wenjie Xia is an Associate Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Iowa State University. He received his PhD from Northwestern University in 2016. His research focuses on the multiscale modeling and computational design of polymers and soft matter to understand and predict the complex behaviors of multifunctional and structural materials. He is a recipient of several prestigious awards, including the NSF CAREER Award, ACS PMSE Young Investigator Award, and ASME Rising Star of Mechanical Engineering.

Peihua Yang obtained his PhD from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 2018, followed by postdoc studies at the Leibniz Institute for New Materials and Nanyang Technological University. In 2022, he joined Wuhan University as a faculty member. His research focuses on developing advanced batteries to enable scalable and sustainable energy storage.

Shuliang Yang is a Professor at the College of Energy, Xiamen University. He has been selected for the Nanqiang Outstanding Young Talent Program (Category A) at Xiamen University. He received his PhD in 2016 from the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and conducted postdoctoral research from 2017 to 2023 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, and Northwestern University (with Prof. J. Fraser Stoddart, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, 2016). His research focuses on the design and application of high-performance nanocatalysts for green catalytic transformations, as well as the development of recycling technologies for strategic metals.

Bo You received his PhD degree in 2014 under the supervision of Prof. Zhaoxiang Deng at the University of Science and Technology of China. He then joined Prof. Yujie Sun's group at Utah State University from 2014 to 2016, Prof. Hong Li's group at Nanyang Technological University from 2016 to 2017, and Prof. Shi Zhang Qiao's group at The University of Adelaide from 2017 to 2019 as a postdoctoral researcher. Currently, he is a full professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. His research focuses on integration-designed electro-activation (IDEA) for advanced renewable energy.

Dr Jun Yuan is an Associate Professor at Central South University (CSU), China. He earned his PhD in Chemistry from CSU in 2018, during which he undertook a joint training program at the Department of Materials Science, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), USA. He subsequently conducted postdoctoral research at the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, Linköping University (LiU), Sweden. His research focuses on the design and synthesis of conjugated molecules/polymers for organic photovoltaics. He has published more than 130 peer-reviewed articles, which have been cited more than 17 000 times.

Bin Zhang received his Bachelor's degree from the Department of Chemistry at Peking University (2013) and his PhD degree from the National University of Singapore under the supervision of Prof. Ning Yan (2018). Currently, he works as a professor and PI at the Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Nanozymes, Shenzhen University. His research focuses on the design and application of atomically dispersed metal catalysts and smart-responsive nanozymes.

Hua Zhang obtained his bachelor and PhD degrees from the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at Xiamen University in 2010 and 2015, respectively. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Chemistry in the same university from 2015 to 2018. He is now a full professor of the Department of Materials at Xiamen University. His research interests include heterogeneous catalysis, energy materials, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, and in situ spectroscopic characterization for catalysis.

Huacheng Zhang earned her PhD in Physical Chemistry from the Institute of Chemistry, CAS (2014), followed by academic and research appointments at CAS and Monash University (ARC DECRA Fellow). She is currently an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow and Associate Professor at RMIT University. Her research pioneers bioinspired ion channel and membrane technologies for advanced separation, resource recovery, biosensing, neural signaling, and energy applications. She has published 80+ high-impact papers and received significant distinctions, including the RMIT VC Fellowship (2020), ARC Future Fellowship (2020), MSA Membrane Science Award (2022), J&J WiSTEM2D Award (2023), and NHMRC Investigator Grant (2024).

Panpan Zhang is an Associate Professor and PhD supervisor at the School of Chemical Engineering, Hebei University of Technology. She received her PhD degree from Tsinghua University in 2021 and was a visiting scholar at the University of Texas at Austin in 2019. Her current research interests lie in the functional design and structural engineering of carbon-based materials (e.g., graphene, hydrogels), the development of photothermal materials for solar-driven interfacial desalination and sustainable critical mineral resource recovery.

Di Zhao is currently an associate professor of School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology. She received her PhD degree from the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology in 2017. She worked as a postdoctoral fellow under the supervision of Prof. Yadong Li at the Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University from 2017–2020. Her research interests include the design, synthesis and characterization of single atom materials, nanostructured materials and their applications in electrocatalytic energy conversion.

Dong-Dong Zhou is a professor at Sun Yat-Sen University (SYSU). He received his BS degree from the South China Agricultural University in 2011, and obtained his PhD degree under the supervision of Prof. Jie-Peng Zhang from SYSU in 2016. Then, he worked as an associate research fellow in Prof. Xiao-Ming Chen's group at SYSU. In 2019, he became an associate professor at SYSU, and was promoted to a full professor in 2025. He serves on the young editorial board of SmartMat and the Chinese Journal of Structural Chemistry. His current research focuses on crystalline porous materials for adsorption and separation.

Hui Zhou received his PhD degree under the supervision of Prof. Xuechuan Hong from the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Wuhan University, in 2021. From 2019 to 2021, he worked at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, as a visiting PhD student, pursuing his research interest in RNA delivery under the supervision of Prof. Jinjun Shi. Then, he joined the Institute of Advanced Materials, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications in 2022. His research focuses on the synthesis of small-molecule probes, especially those in the NIR-II window, for biomedical applications, as well as the development of biomaterials and nanomedicines.

Dr He Zhu is currently an Assistant Professor and Presidential Young Fellow at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. He received his bachelor's degree from Zhejiang University in 2011 and his PhD from McMaster University in 2016. During 2016–2018, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Zhejiang University. Dr He Zhu's research interests lie in the areas of porous materials, tough polymers, and composite materials. He has published more than 90 papers in high-impact journals.

Nan Zhu is a Professor of the School of Chemistry at Dalian University of Technology (DUT), China. In 2017 he joined DUT as an independent PI, and has established a research group on the topic of “Flexible wearable electrochemical biosensors and nano energy devices”. Prof. Zhu previously worked as a Postdoc Researcher at the University of California, San Diego, USA and the University of Copenhagen, Denmark during 2013–2017; he obtained his PhD Degree at the Technical University of Denmark in 2013. Prof. Zhu's research interests are focused on wearable electrochemical biosensors (sweat/saliva/tear) and applications in self-powered systems.

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