The Materials Today ‘Rising Star Awards’ recognize researchers in materials science and engineering who have demonstrated themselves to be exceptionally capable researchers with the potential to become future leaders in the field.

The nomination for 2021 Materials Today ‘Rising Star Awards’ was closed on 1st October 2021, and the winners were announced during the 2021 Materials Today Innovation Award Winner Presentation by Yury Gogotsi on 19th January 2022.

And there will be two webinars given by the four winners.

Webinar I: Research on Energy Storage & Conversion

Date: 23rd February, 8:00 PM (EST) / 24th February, 9:00 AM (GMT + 8)

Speakers: Dr. Guangmin Zhou (Tsinghua University), Dr. Yuan Yang (Columbia University)

Registration Link: Materials Today Rising Star Awards Webinar I

Webinar II: Research on Biomaterials & Bioscience

Date: 15th March 9:00 PM (EST) /16th March 09:00 AM (GMT+ 8)

Speakers: Dr. Jun Chen (University of California), Dr. Wei Tao (Harvard University)

Registration Link: Materials Today Rising Star Awards Webinar II

Click the link to register the webinar you prefer, view local timings, and to save the invitation to your calendar.

Read below for more information on the winners!

Dr. Yuan Yang
Dr. Yuan Yang

Category: Energy

Dr. Yuan Yang is currently an associate professor of materials science in department of applied physics and applied mathematics at Columbia University. He received his B.S. in physics at Peking University in 2007, followed by the completion of his Ph.D. in materials science and engineering at Stanford University in 2012. After three years as a postdoc in the department of mechanical engineering at MIT, he joined Columbia University in 2015. Dr. Yang’s research interests include advanced energy storage and thermal energy management. He has published more than 90 peer-reviewed papers with a total citation over 27,000 times and an H-index of 51. He is a Scialog fellow on Advanced Energy Storage, and a Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher in 2020 and 2021. He has won 3M Non-tenured Faculty Award in 2021, Young Innovator Award by Nano Research, Emerging Investigators Award by Journal of Materials Chemistry A.

Highlighted publications:

  • Zeyuan Li#, Aijun Li#, Hanrui Zhang#, et al., Haijun Zhang*, Yuan Yang*. Interfacial engineering for stabilizing polymer electrolytes with 4V cathodes in lithium metal batteries at elevated temperature, Nano Energy,2020, 72, 104655. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2020.104655
  • Xue Wang, Haowei Zhai, et al., Yuan Yang*. Rechargeable solid-state lithium metal batteries with vertically aligned ceramic nanoparticle/polymer composite electrolyte, Nano Energy, 2019, 60, 205-212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2019.03.051
  • Qiliang Lin, Yanchu Zhang, Arnaud Van Mieghem, Yi-Chung Chen, Nanfang Yu, Yuan Yang, Huiming Yin. Design and experiment of a sun-powered smart building envelope with automatic control. Energy and Buildings, 2020, 223, 110173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2020.110173
Dr. Guangmin Zhou
Dr. Guangmin Zhou

Category: Energy

Dr. Guangmin Zhou is an Associate Professor in Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University. He received his Ph.D. degree from Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2014, and then worked as a postdoc in UT Austin during 2014-2015. After that, he was a postdoc fellow at Stanford University from 2015 to 2019. His research mainly focuses on the development of advanced energy-storage materials and devices, and battery recycling. He has published 140+ articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and first/correspongding-authored 56 papers published in Nature Nanotechnology (2), Chemical Reviews, Nature Communications (3), PNAS (2), Science Advances, Energy & Environmental Science (2), Advanced Materials (9), Advanced Energy Materials (3), ACS Nano (6), etc. These publications have been cited more than 27100 times with an H-index of 69 (Google Scholar). Additionally, he has authored 1 book (Design, Fabrication and Electrochemical Performance of Nanostructured Carbon Based Materials for High-Energy Lithium-Sulfur Batteries) and 1 book chapter (≤Graphene Science Handbook≥). Dr. Zhou was honored “Highly Cited Researcher” in Materials Science field by Clarivate Analytics for consecutive 4 years (2018-2021), Young Scientist Award of Hou Debang Chemical Science and Technology (2021), Young Scientist Award of Guangdong Materials Research Association (2020), Energy Storage Materials Young Scientist Award in 2018, Carbon Journal Prize in 2015, etc. Dr. Zhou served as Scientific Managing Editor of Energy Storage Materials (Impact Factor 17.789) since 2019, and also served as a member of the youth editorial committee of SusMat, Science China Materials, Rare Metals, and Chinese Chemical Letters. He was invited to give Plenary/Keynote/Invited talks more than 20 times in academic conferences and industrial forums

Highlighted publications:

  • Zhou, G. M.#; Li, L#; Ma, C. Q; Wang, S. G; Shi, Y; Koratkar, N; Ren, W. C; Li, F.*; Cheng, H.-M.*, A graphene foam electrode with high sulfur loading for flexible and high energy Li-S batteries. Nano Energy, 2015, 11, 356-365. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2014.11.025
  • Zhou, G. M.; Zhao, Y; Zu, C; Manthiram, A.*, Free-standing TiO2 nanowire-embedded graphene hybrid membrane for advanced Li/dissolved polysulfide batteries. Nano Energy, 2015, 12, 240-249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2014.12.029
  • Zhao, Y.; Kang, Y.Q.; Fan, M.; Li, T.; Wozny, J.; Zhou, Y.; Wang, X.; Chueh, Y.; Liang, Z.*; Zhou, G. M.*; Wang, J.;  Tavajohi, N.*; Kang, F.; Li, B.;* Precise separation of spent lithium-ion cells in water without discharging for recycling, Energy Storage Materials, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ensm.2021.11.005.
Dr. Wei Tao
Dr. Wei Tao

Category: Biomaterials

Dr. Wei Tao is an Omid C. Farokhzad Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School, an Endowed Chair and a Principal Investigator in the Center for Nanomedicine, and a Faculty Member in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He has published over 100 papers in prestigious journals such as Nature Rev. Mater., Nature Rev. Cardiol., Science Transl. Med., Nature Biomed. Eng., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Nature Protoc., Nature Commun., Science Adv., etc. His research interests include biomaterials, nanotechnology, RNA medicine, and drug delivery. He is among the Clarivate’s Global Highly Cited Researchers List (2021), World's Top 2% Scientists List (from Mendeley Data/Elsevier; singer year 2019, 2020), and MIT Technology Review Top Chinese Innovators Under 35 list (TR35; 2020), etc. He also serves on numerous editorial boards including as Associate Editor of Journal of Nanobiotechnology (IF=10.435; Springer Nature & BMC), Exploration (Wiley); Editorial Board Member of Bioactive Materials (IF= 14.593; Elsevier), Nano-Micro Letters (IF=16.419; Springer Nature); Advisory Board Member of Matter (IF=15.589, Cell Press) and so on.

Highlighted publications:

  • Xiao Y, Tang Z, Huang X, Joseph J, Chen W, Liu C, Zhou J, Kong N, Joshi N, Du J, Tao W. Glucose-responsive oral insulin delivery platform for one-treatment-a-day in diabetes. Matter 2021, 4(10): 3269–3285.
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2021.08.011
  • Feng C, Ouyang J, Tang Z, Kong N, Liu Y, Fu L, Ji X, Xie T, Farokhzad OC, Tao W. Germanene-based Theranostic Materials for Surgical Adjuvant Treatment: Inhibiting Tumor Recurrence and Wound Infection. Matter 2020, 3(1): 127-144.
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2020.04.022
  • Zhang X, Li L, Ouyang J, Zhang L, Xue J, Zhang H, Tao W. Electroactive electrospun nanofibers for tissue engineering. Nano Today 2021, 39: 101196.
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nantod.2021.10119
Dr. Jun Chen
Dr. Jun Chen

Category: Biomaterials

Dr. Jun Chen is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. His group published two books, 200 journal articles, with 110 of them being a corresponding author in Chemical Reviews, Chemical Society Reviews, Nature Materials, Nature Electronics, Nature Communications, Science Advances, Materials Today, Joule, Matter, and many others.  With a current h-index of 80, Dr. Chen was identified to be one of the world’s most influential researchers in the field of Materials Science by the Web of Science Group. Among his many accolades are the  Materials Thought Leaders by Azom; 30 Life Sciences Leaders To Watch by Informa, UCLA Society of Hellman Fellows Award, Okawa Foundation Research Award, Advanced Materials Rising Star, ACS Nano Rising Stars Lectureship Award, Chem. Soc. Rev. Emerging Investigator Award, JMCA Emerging Investigator Award, Nanoscale Emerging Investigator Award, Frontiers in Chemistry Rising Stars, IAAM Scientist Medal, 2020 Altmetric Top 100, Top 10 Science Stories of 2020 by Ontario Science Centre, Highly Cited Researchers 2020/2019/2021 in Web of Science, MINE2020 Young Scientist Excellence Award. Beyond research, he is an associate editor of Biosensors and Bioelectronics.

Highlighted publications:

  • Xun Zhao, Hassan Askari, Jun Chen. Nanogenerators for smart cities in the era of 5G and Internet of Things. Joule 2021, 6(5): 1391-1431.
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2021.03.013
  • Songlin Zhang, Michael Bick, Xiao Xiao, Guorui Chen, Ardo Nashalian, Jun Chen. Leveraging triboelectric nanogenerators for bioengineering. Matter 2021, 4 (2): 845-887.
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2021.01.006
  • Keyu Meng, Shenlong Zhao, Yihao Zhou, Yufen Wu, Songlin Zhang, Qiang He, Xue Wang, Zhihao Zhou, Wenjing Fan, Xulong Tan, Jin Yang, Jun Chen. A Wireless Textile-Based Sensor System for Self-Powered Personalized Health Care. Matter 2020, 2 (4): 896-907.
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2019.12.025