On September 15, Prof. Zhao Lidong from Beihang University won the 2022 Xplorer Prize in the field of advanced interdisciplinary studies.

Dr. Zhao Lidong is a full professor and Ph.D. supervisor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Beihang University. After being employed as a member of “Hundred Talents Program” of Beihang University in 2014, he has been selected into several national major talent projects, Beijing Pioneer of Teacher's Professional Ethics, Young Investigator Award for Excellence in Research in Thermoelectrics (1 winner per year in the world), Highly Cited Researchers (2019-2021), etc. His research interests include electrical and thermal transport behaviors in the compounds with layered structures. He has published over 260 important papers in journals such as Nature and Science, and has been cited more than 30,000 times, with an h-index of 82. Prof. Zhao is currently the Founding Editor-in-Chief of Materials Lab (http://matlab.labapress.com/matlab/).

The Xplorer Prize is a non-governmental merit-based award launched in 2018 by the Tencent Foundation and 14 renowned scientists to support full-time science professionals under the age of 45, based in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao. Each year, up to 50 young scientists are selected from the fields of basic sciences and frontier technologies, with each receiving a no-strings-attached grant totaling RMB 3 million over a five-year period. Sticking to the mission of “Facing Future, Rewarding Excellence, and Encouraging Exploration”, the Xplorer Prize encourages young scientists to research unexplored areas of basic sciences and frontier technologies without being distracted.

In 2021, two professors from Beihang University, Prof. Zhao Weisheng from the School of Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering and Prof. Chen Huawei from the School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, have been honored with this award in the fields of information and electronics technologies and advanced manufacturing respectively.

Reviewed by Li Jianwei

Edited by Jia Aiping

Translated by Lyu Xingyun