The International Union of Materials Research Societies (IUMRS) has announced the winners of the 2021-2022 Frontier Materials Young Scientists Award on its official website. Associate Professor Liu Kai of the School of Materials Science and Engineering (SMSE) at Tsinghua University won this honor.

The IUMRS is an international academic organization built by the materials research societies in the United States, China, Europe, Japan and other countries in 1991, aimed at fostering interdisciplinary research and education in materials sciences. At present, there are 14 member societies worldwide.

The IUMRS Frontier Materials Young Scientists Award aims to give recognition to young scientists who have made great contributions in the field of materials and applications around the world. Only six people are selected every year. Affected by the epidemic, the winners in 2021 and 2022 were awarded at the International Conference on Frontier Materials (ICFM2022) held from May 27 to 31, 2022.

Since joining the SMSE in 2015 to carry out independent research, Prof. Liu has devoted himself to the research on interface properties, smart devices, and extreme-environment applications of low-dimensional materials including two-dimensional atomic crystals and carbon nanotubes. He obtained the tenured faculty position in 2021.

Prof. Liu has published more than 110 academic papers and authorized more than 50 invention patents in the United States and China. In the past five years, as a corresponding author, he has published a series of important research papers in Nature Commun., Science Adv., Adv. Mater., Adv. Funct. Mater., Nano Lett., and other journals. He has won the IUMRS Frontier Materials Young Scientists Award, the First Prize of Science and Technology Award of Chinese Materials Research Society, and the National Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award of China.

He has served as a member of Youth Committee of Chinese Materials Research Society, young editorial board member of SmartMat, Chin. Phys. Lett., Chin. Phys. B, and executive editorial board member of J. Electron. Sci. Technol. He has made more than 30 invited talks at important academic conferences both at home and abroad.

Editor: Li Han