Nobel prize winner to set up advanced materials lab

Writer:   | Editor: Lily A  | From:  | Updated: 2018-01-15

A WINNER of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Roald Hoffmann, will establish a laboratory under his name at Shenzhen Polytechnic. A research team led by Hoffmann inked deals with the university to set up the research center focusing on new energy and new materials Friday.

Li Jing, a student of the Nobel laureate, signed cooperative deals with Jia Xingdong, president of Shenzhen Polytechnic, on behalf of Hoffmann. It is the first time that a laboratory named after a Nobel laureate has been set up at a vocational education institution in China.

According to the deals, the two parties will collaborate to build a world-class research center for the study of advanced materials with an aim of boosting Shenzhen and the country’s research basis as well as industrial development in new materials and new energy.

Hoffmann, born in 1937 in Zloczow, Poland, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1981. Having survived the war, Hoffmann went to the United States in 1949 and studied chemistry at Columbia and Harvard universities. Since 1965 he has been teaching at Cornell University and is now a lifelong chair professor there.

Hoffmann, who is recognized as one of the world’s best scientists, has received the top honor in both organic and inorganic chemistry. His research achievements have been boosting the development of applied chemistry for decades.

As for the future laboratory at Shenzhen Polytechnic, Hoffman will take on the roles of an honorary director and the chief scientist, while two of his Chinese students, Li and Zheng Chong, will plan and run the research center as executive director and deputy director, respectively.

Three doctoral-degree holders, who are also Li’s students, will comprise the core members of the research team. Meanwhile, the lab has also set a goal of attracting more than 30 top scientists and researchers from the fields of new materials and new energy once the lab is established.

“We believe that the Hoffmann research center of advanced materials will become a top center in China with national influence in the coming three to five years, and it will provide solid research support for the development of Shenzhen’s relevant industries,” said Chen Qiuming, Party chief of Shenzhen Polytechnic, during the contract-signing ceremony Friday morning.