In the 1950s, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) established professional research institutes in the fields of semiconductor, metal, inorganic non-metal and other materials, laying a solid foundation for the research and education in discipline of materials science and engineering in mainland China. After more than half a century of development, the discipline of materials science and engineering at CAS has become an indispensable part of the international academic system and has made significant contributions to the country's education, science and technology and industrial development. Since entering the 21st century, the materials science and engineering discipline at CAS has made a series of remarkable achievements and breakthroughs in the fields of new materials represented by semiconductor materials, optoelectronic materials, biomedical materials, new energy materials, nano materials, superconducting materials and intelligent materials.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), administered and managed by CAS, undertakes the task of education and cultivation of advanced talents. According to the strategic planning of CAS and adhering to the educational philosophy of " Fusion of Scientific Research and Teaching" of UCAS, the research and education activities of the materials science and engineering discipline at UCAS are led by the Institute of Semiconductors with other 20-plus CAS institutes as joint partners, including the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, National Center of Nanoscience and Technology, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Institute of Physics, and Aerospace Information Research Institute, etc. Benefits from the vast education and research resources in the relevant CAS institutes, the UCAS materials science and engineering discipline has built a high-powered faculty team including 16 CAS members, 915 full-time teachers and 491 doctoral supervisors. Among them, most teachers have work experience in well-known overseas universities and research institutions and more than 200 supervisors have served in international organizations and academic journals. The UCAS materials science and engineering discipline runs more than 10 CAS key laboratories, state key laboratories/engineering centers and national laboratories and provides a world-class research and education platform for students to conduct scientific research.
The fusion of UCAS and CAS institutes explores a new mode for talent cultivation of undergraduate and graduate students majoring in materials science and engineering under the background of "new era, new engineering". In 2014, UCAS started enrolling undergraduate students and the major of materials science and engineering was one of the first six enrollment majors. Since then, a complete talent training system with three levels of undergraduate, master, and doctoral in materials science and engineering has been well established.
Between 2018 and 2022, 173 undergraduate students majoring in materials science and engineering received their bachelor’s degrees, more than 95% of whom continued with post-graduate education, including many students pursuing their studies in the world’s top ten universities, such as University of California-Berkeley and Columbia University in the United States, Cambridge University and Oxford University in UK, and the Royal Swedish Institute of Technology. The undergraduate students participated in scientific research and achieved some important innovation results during their undergraduate studies. They published 19 academic papers in high-level journals such as Advanced Materials and applied for 6 national invention patents. After graduation, they also demonstrated outstanding innovation ability during their master's and doctoral studies. Three students graduated in 2018 have published their scientific research achievements in Nature and Nature Materials as the first author.
During 2016-2022, more than 1700 post-graduate students earned their masters’ degrees and above 2200 PhD candidates earned their doctorates. These students have shown strong research strength and made important scientific research achievements in the field of materials science and engineering. The scientific and technological innovation ability of post-graduate students in discipline of materials science and engineering at UCAS is demonstrated by more than 8000 articles published in journals included in the Science Citation Index (SCI) within the last five years, including 150 highly cited papers and some of them published in top journals such as Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Nature Materials, Nature Energy, and Nature Photonics. Most master graduates have become the backbone of many well-known high and new tech enterprises. The doctoral graduates have been qualified for education, scientific research, engineering technology implementation, or science and technology management.
Researchers in materials science and engineering discipline at UCAS are committed to developing cutting-edge technologies that address national strategic needs, and solving major problems in materials science and engineering. Since 2016, a series of significant achievements have been made in the discipline of materials science and engineering at UCAS. A number of key material technology achievements, such as "thermal control coating", "high temperature oxidation-resistant coating for refractory alloy ", "high friction cold welding resistant coating", "high temperature heat insulation shield", and "flexible film thermal control coating and low-temperature multi-layer thermal insulation components", have been successfully applied to "Chang'e-4". Industrialization of high luminous efficiency and long life semiconductor lighting materials and key chip technologies has been achieved, and relevant achievements have won the first prize of the 2019 National Science and Technology Progress Award. Based on the research on electrochemical energy storage materials, researchers pioneered the demonstration operation of 100 kilowatt hour sodium ion battery energy storage power station and also took the lead in launching the first low-speed sodium ion battery electric vehicle. Since September 2020, the UCAS materials science and engineering discipline has been ranked the fifth globally and first nationally in the mainland China according to the Essential Science Indicators, and was continuously selected into one in ten thousand disciplines in the world.
In February 2022, the UCAS materials science and engineering discipline continued to be selected for the second round national ‘double first-class’ initiative of China (the first round started in 2017). In the new round of "first-class discipline" construction, the materials science and engineering discipline at UCAS takes Semiconductor Materials, Information Optoelectronic Materials, Advanced Ceramic Materials, New Energy Materials, Biomedical Materials, etc. as the major divisions and is reaching further to deepen "The Fusion of Scientific Research and Teaching" and to strengthen the intersection with other disciplines, in order to build itself into a top world-class materials discipline with the characteristics of UCAS.
The UCAS materials science and engineering discipline also emphasizes the collaborative innovation and devotes to the world-wide education and communication to international students and scientists. The materials science and engineering discipline at UCAS has established close partnerships with esteemed oversea Universities and research institutes. We have established the overseas study visit plan for undergraduates, the "Sino-foreign joint training" and the "overseas academic exchange" plans for postgraduates. UCAS professors and researchers have been involved in more than 50 international cooperation projects in materials discipline. Through some international talent programmes, materials science and engineering discipline at UCAS has attracted many foreign scientists to come to conduct research. We are happy to see more international communication and collaboration with all of you.
Emal: cmoyzb@ucas.ac.cn
