Contributors to the Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators 2025 collection
Abstract
Our 2025 Emerging Investigators themed collection gathers some of the best research being conducted by scientists in the early stages of their independent career. Each contributor was recommended as carrying out work with the potential to influence future directions in materials chemistry. Congratulations to all the researchers featured, we hope you enjoy reading this collection.
Alessandro Aliprandi obtained his PhD in 2015 at the Institute of Supramolecular Science and Engineering (ISIS), University of Strasbourg, under the supervision of Prof. Luisa De Cola, where he investigated the self-assembly of luminescent Pt(II) complexes. He then joined the group of Prof. Paolo Samorì for his postdoctoral research, broadening his expertise in low-dimensional materials such as graphene and copper nanowires. He is currently an associate professor in the Department of Chemical Sciences (DISC), University of Padua (Italy). His research interests span from electroluminescence and chemiluminescence to photocatalysis and CO2 valorisation.
His contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TC01835H.
Cunbin An received his PhD from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPIP) in 2015. After carrying out postdoctoral research in the same group, he joined the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS) in 2016. In 2022, he moved to the Capital Normal University (CNU), where he is now a full professor. His current research focuses on the development of novel organic functional materials, as well as the investigation of new mechanisms for application in organic electronic devices.
His contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TC02718G.
Chris Bartel is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science (CEMS) at the University of Minnesota. Prior to joining CEMS in 2022, he earned a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Colorado and worked as a postdoctoral researcher in materials science at UC Berkeley. Bartel now leads the “Design of Materials on Computers Lab,” which leverages first-principles calculations, thermodynamic modeling, solid-state chemistry, and machine learning to accelerate the design of solid-state materials for energy-related applications. He has been recognized as a Scialog Fellow in Negative Emissions Science and Sustainable Minerals, Metals, and Materials. Bartel grew up near New Orleans and earned a BS in chemical engineering from Auburn University. To learn more about the latest work from his research group, please visit https://bartel.cems.umn.edu.
His contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TC02282G.
Chin-Yiu Chan is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and an affiliated assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at the City University of Hong Kong. After the completion of his BSc in chemistry at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, he earned his PhD at the University of Hong Kong, under the supervision of Prof. Vivian Wing-Wah Yam. He was a full-time postdoctoral fellow and research associate professor in the group of Prof. Chihaya Adachi at Kyushu University. His research focuses on the design and synthesis of photo-functional materials and their applications.
His contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TC01486G.
Jin Chen received his PhD from the Fujian Institute of Research on the structure of matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2021, under the supervision of Prof. Mao Jianggao. He then joined Fujian Normal University as an associate professor in the College of Chemistry and Materials Science. His research focuses on designing organic–inorganic hybrid crystals by optimizing the microscopic physical properties of functional building blocks and assembling them via non-covalent interactions like hydrogen and halogen bonds. The goal is to explore novel high-performance second-order nonlinear optical and birefringent crystals. He has published over 20 papers in journals including Acc. Chem. Res. and Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. Outside of his research commitments, he is a new father who enjoys every moment spent with his family.
His contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TC01362C.
Graham S. Collier received his BS in chemistry from the University of North Carolina Wilmington in 2011. Upon graduation, he joined the research group of Prof. Michael Walter and received his MS from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2013. Collier received his PhD in polymer chemistry under the direction of Mike Kilbey at the University of Tennessee in 2017 before joining the lab of John Reynolds at Georgia Tech as a postdoctoral research associate. Collier began his independent career at Kennesaw State University in August 2020 and moved to the School of Polymer Science and Engineering at the University of Southern Mississippi as an assistant professor in January 2024.
His contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TC00292C.
Tianqi Deng received his BSc from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2011 and PhD from Nanyang Technological University in 2016. Currently, he is a principal investigator at the ZJU-Hangzhou Global Scientific and Technological Innovation Center, Zhejiang University. His research interests include developing computational tools for interactions among electrons, phonons, and defects from first principles calculations, and the corresponding transport properties in semiconductors for power electronic and thermoelectric applications.
His contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D4TC04558K.
Nutifafa Y. Doumon is a Virginia S. and Philip L. Walker Jr professor and an assistant professor of Materials Science and Engineering & Engineering Science and Mechanics at The Pennsylvania State University. His research interest spans organic/polymer and halide perovskite semiconductors for indoor/outdoor photovoltaic and optoelectronic device fabrication/characterization, stability, and reliability testing. He was a postdoctoral fellow at NREL in Golden, Colorado, and INRS-EMT in Varennes, Canada. He holds a PhD and MSc in nanoscience and an MA in Leadership from the University of Groningen, after an MSc and a BSc in physics from AUST-Abuja and the University of Ghana, respectively.
His contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TC00110B.
Janine George is a junior research group leader and a professor of materials informatics at the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) in Berlin and at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena (FSU Jena), Germany. She completed her MSc in chemistry in 2013 and, in 2017, her doctorate in computational solid-state chemistry at RWTH Aachen University. In 2018, she started her postdoc and, later, Marie-Skłodowska-Curie fellowship at UCLouvain in Belgium. Since 2021 is a junior group leader at BAM and FSU Jena. In 2023, she became a professor of materials informatics in Jena. She was a Falling Walls Finalist for “Breakthrough of the Year” in the “Physical Sciences” in 2021. She received a junior scientist award from the Stiftung Werner-von-Siemens-Ring in 2023. In 2024, she received the ERC Starting Grant. She is using atomistic simulations and machine learning to design material properties. To do so, she is linking quantum-chemical bonding information and material properties.
Her contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D4TC04095C.
Long Gu received his PhD in 2018 from Nanjing Tech University and subsequently carried out postdoctoral research at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, from 2018 to 2020. In 2021, he joined the Institute of Flexible Electronics at Northwestern Polytechnical University as a professor. His research centers on the design, synthesis, and functional investigation of organic optoelectronic materials, including room-temperature phosphorescent materials, functional supramolecular polymers, and organic scintillators. He explores their advanced applications in data encryption, imaging, detection, and chemical and biological sensing.
His contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TC01657F.
Huicheng Hu is an associate researcher in the Yangtze Delta Region Academy of the Beijing Institute of Technology, China. He received his PhD from the Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials at Soochow University in 2020. He worked as a visiting scholar in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Chicago (2018–2020). After being a postdoctoral fellow in Huazhong University of Science and Technology (2021–2023), he joined the Beijing Institute of Technology in 2023. His main research field is colloidal quantum dot infrared detection and imaging technology.
His contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TC02115D.
Nan Jiang is currently working in the Key Laboratory of Preparation and Applications of Environmental Friendly Materials, Jilin Normal University. She received her PhD in analytical chemistry from Northeast Normal University in 2022, under the supervision of Prof. Dong-Xia Zhu. In 2020–2021, she was a joint PhD student at Durham University (UK) under the supervision of Prof. Martin R. Bryce. Since 2025, she has been a visiting scholar at Zhejiang University. Her dreams are scientific research, world travel and music. Her research is mainly on the development of functional polymeric photoelectric materials and intelligent response-type gel materials.
Her contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TC00577A.
Chensen Li obtained his PhD from Beijing University of Chemical Technology in 2020 under the supervision of Prof. Shouke Yan, with a joint training period at Durham University (UK) in Prof. Martin Bryce’s group. He conducted postdoctoral research (2021–2025) in Prof. Ben Zhong Tang’s group at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology before joining Nanjing University of Science and Technology as an associate professor in 2025. His research focuses on organic optoelectronic materials and devices. He has published over 10 first author papers in high-impact journals including Nat. Rev. Mater., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Chem and Nano Energy, with total citations exceeding 2000.
His contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TC02176F.
Dan Li is currently an associate professor at Changchun University of Science and Technology. She graduated from Northeast Normal University with a Master’s degree in chemistry in the group of Prof. Zhongmin Su under the supervision of Prof. Dongxia Zhu in 2020. She received her PhD in chemistry from Tianjin University in 2023, under the supervision of Prof. Zhen Li and Prof. Ben-zhong Tang. Her research interests focus on multi-component organic room temperature phosphorescence materials.
Her contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TC01683E.
Tian-Yi Li obtained his BSc and MSc in chemistry and inorganic chemistry, respectively, from Nanjing University under the supervision of Prof. You-Xuan Zheng. In 2014, he joined the group of Prof. Koen Vandewal and Prof. Karl Leo in Dresden Integrated Center for Applied Physics and Photonic Materials, TU Dresden. He received his PhD in physics in early 2018 with a final grade of Summa Cum Laude. In the same year, he joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Southern California as a postdoctoral fellow in the group of Prof. Mark E. Thompson. In 2021, he moved to the University of Science and Technology Beijing and was appointed full professor in chemistry as an individual researcher. His research interests include the design of novel luminescent materials, photophysical dynamics, electroluminescent devices, as well as chemical sensors, circularly polarized luminescence and optoelectronic devices.
His contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D4TC02531H.
Zhiwei Li is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Maryland, College Park. He received his PhD in chemistry from the University of California, Riverside in 2019. He was a Richard P. Van Duyne Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Chemistry and the International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN) at Northwestern University. His current research is focused on chemical synthesis and assembly of nanostructured materials for nanophotonics and quantum physics.
His contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TC02507A.
Tianjun Liu is a researcher in the Optoelectronics Group at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge. He currently holds a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship under the supervision of Prof. Sir Richard H. Friend. His research focuses on emerging semiconductor materials for optoelectronic applications, with particular emphasis on perovskite semiconductors and chiral compounds. Prior to this, he received his PhD from the Queen Mary University of London and conducted postdoctoral research in Prof. Feng Gao’s group at Linköping University, where he worked on perovskite light-emitting diodes.
His contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TC02301G.
Liangwei Ma received his MSc in organic chemistry from South China University of Technology under the supervision of Prof. Derong Cao and Prof. Sheng Wang. In 2018, he joined the research group of Prof. Xiang Ma and Prof. He Tian at East China University of Technology, where he completed his PhD in applied chemistry in 2022. He continued his postdoctoral research under the supervision of Prof. He Tian and joined East China University of Technology as an associate professor in the School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering in 2024. His research focuses on the design and tuning of novel phosphorescent dyes and exploring their advanced applications in data encryption, imaging, and sensing.
His contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TC01879J.
Beatriz Martín-García received her PhD in chemical–physics from the University of Salamanca (Spain). In 2014, she joined the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia as a postdoctoral researcher (Graphene Flagship), working on the chemical synthesis and design of nanomaterials for solar cells, photodetectors and memories. In 2020, she moved as an independent researcher to CIC nanoGUNE. There, she leads a research line that develops low-dimensional materials with potential applications in optoelectronics and spintronics, and studies them using spectroscopic techniques to gain insight into composition–crystal structure–physical property relationships for their integration into devices. She has been awarded an Ikerbasque and a Ramón y Cajal Fellowship.
Her contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D4TC04902K.
Guoyun Meng obtained his PhD in 2020 from the Beijing Institute of Technology. From 2020 to 2022, he conducted postdoctoral research at Tsinghua University. Presently, he serves as an associate professor at the School of Chemical Science and Technology, Yunnan University. His research focuses on boron-nitrogen-embedded polycyclic aromatic multiple resonance emitters and devices.
His contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TC02210J.
Shaowu Pan is currently a professor at the State Key Laboratory of Advanced Fiber Materials and the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, China. He received his PhD in materials science and engineering from Tongji University, with joint research experience at Fudan University. He then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, before joining Donghua University. His research interests include smart materials, flexible sensors, and fiber electronics.
His contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TC01895A.
Shuang Pan is an associate professor at the College of Chemistry and Materials Engineering, Wenzhou University. She received her PhD from Fudan University in 2018. From 2016 to 2019, she was a visiting student/postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Zhiqun Lin’s group at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research interests mainly focus on the precise construction of chiral optically active materials and organic/inorganic hybrid materials. She has developed a universal strategy for large-scale, high-throughput film fabrication and explored potential applications in areas such as optoelectronic devices, flexible electronics and energy conversion.
Her contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D4TC01823K.
Aiman Rahmanudin is an assistant professor in materials chemistry at Linköping University in Sweden. He graduated with an MChem degree in chemistry with business and management from the University of Manchester in the UK, in 2013, and obtained his PhD in chemistry from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland with Prof. Kevin Sivula. He is currently a research leader in the Soft Electronics Group at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics. His research focuses on developing sustainable functional materials and device concepts for soft and stretchable energy applications.
His contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TC02280K.
Qi-Jun Sun is currently a professor at the School of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering & Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Sensing Physics and System Integration Applications, Guangdong University of Technology (GDUT). He received his PhD in physics and materials science from the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) in 2017. After graduation, he worked in CityU as a research fellow until he joined GDUT in 2021. His main research interests include flexible electronics and wearable sensors. He has published more than 100 articles in journals including Adv. Mater., Adv. Funct. Mater., Nano Energy, Small, J. Mater. Chem. C.
His contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TC02514A.
Jinfeng Wang received her PhD from Wuhan University in China under the guidance of Prof. Zhen Li in 2019 and then she joined Tianjin University (TJU). Her research interests mainly focus on the design and synthesis of new organic optoelectronic materials, including photocatalytic hydrogen evolution, organic pressure-responsive luminescent materials and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). She has published more than 10 papers, including Angew. Chem., Int. Ed., J. Mater. Chem. A, J. Mater. Chem. C, ACS Materials Letters.
Her contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D4TC03254C.
Yan Wang is currently a tenured associate professor at Guangdong Technion. She received her PhD in chemical engineering from Monash University in 2018 and completed postdoctoral training in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Tokyo in 2021. At Guangdong Technion, her group focuses on developing materials and implementing soft wearables in real-world applications for ambulatory health care and the Internet of Things.
Her contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TC01896J.
Ze Xiong is an assistant professor at ShanghaiTech University’s School of Biomedical Engineering in Shanghai, China. He received his PhD from the University of Hong Kong under the supervision of Prof. Jinyao Tang, and subsequently worked as a research fellow at the National University of Singapore, collaborating with Prof. Chwee Teck Lim, Prof. Benjamin C. K. Tee, and Prof. John S. Ho. His research focuses on developing wireless and flexible bioelectronics to advance clinical and personalized healthcare through digital intelligence. He has received the MINE Young Scientist Award, the Emerging Investigator of China Award, and recognition as an iCANX Young Scientist Award Finalist. In 2025, he was awarded the Young Scientists Fund B (formerly the Excellent Young Scientists Fund).
His contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TC02256H.
Shen Xu received his PhD in 2019 from Nanjing University of Posts & Telecommunications (NJUPT) under the co-supervision of Prof. Wei Huang and Prof. Runfeng Chen. Then he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the City University of Hong Kong supervised by Prof. Qichun Zhang. Currently, Xu is working as a specially-appointed professor at NJUPT. His research focuses on organic optoelectronic materials, especially COFs, and their applications.
His contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TC02640G.
Allen Jian Yang is a professor at the Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB). He received his BS degree from Fudan University in 2012 and PhD from Nanyang Technological University in 2017. Then he worked as a Research Fellow and a Senior Research Fellow at Nanyang Technological University before joining USTB in 2025. His current research focuses on micro- and nano-electronic devices based on two-dimensional semiconductors which are considered as some of the most promising material candidates in the post-Moore era.
His contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TC02024G.
Kun Yang received his BS degree from the University of Science and Technology of China (2011) and PhD in polymer science from the University of Akron (2017) under the supervision of Prof. Yu Zhu and Prof. Stephen Z. D. Cheng. After postdoctoral training at Southern University of Science and Technology in the group of Prof. Xugang Guo, he joined Hunan University as an assistant professor in 2022 and now is an associate professor. Yang’s research focuses on organic semiconducting materials and their optoelectronic/magnetic applications.
His contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TC02503F.
Yifan Yao received his PhD from the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS) in 2016 under the supervision of Prof. Wenping Hu. He then joined the Institute de Science et d’Ingénierie Supramoléculaires (I.S.I.S.) at the University of Strasbourg, France, as a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Prof. Paolo Samorì. In 2021, he joined Hunan University (HNU) as a full professor. His research interests focus on the nanofabrication of organic optoelectronic devices, including organic field-effect transistors, organic photodetectors, and organic electrochemical transistors.
His contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TC02259B.
Yuxia Zhang received her PhD from Nanjing University in 2022, under the supervision of Prof. Yixiang Cheng. She is currently a lecturer at the State Key Laboratory of Flexible Electronics (LoFE) & Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biosensors, Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM), Nanjing University of Post & Telecommunications. Her research interests mainly focus on the design and synthesis of chiral organic optoelectronic materials and their circularly polarized electroluminescence.
Her contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://pubs.rsc.org/doi/D5TC01025J.
Yunlei Zhou received his PhD in materials science and engineering from Nanjing University in 2021. Following his doctoral studies, he conducted postdoctoral research in mechanical engineering at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST). Currently, he serves as an associate professor at the Hangzhou Institute of Technology, Xidian University, China. His research focuses on flexible sensors, stretchable circuits, and biomedical electronics, with an emphasis on developing innovative technologies for wearable and healthcare applications.
His contribution to the 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators collection can be read at https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TC00912J.
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