On November 27, School of Environment and Energy Sub Forum of “Outstanding Young Scholars from Both Home and Abroad Forum” of South China University of Technology was successfully held in the B4-308 conference room of Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center Campus. This forum invited overseas young scholars Dr. Shu Longfei from the University of Washington, Dr. Zeng Lin from the Institute for Advanced Study of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Jockey Club to give academic reports. The directors of the School of Environment and Energy and related professional teachers and students attended the forum, which was hosted by Dean Ye Daiqi.

 Dr. Shu Longfei made an academic report on the theme of "From Environment to Evolutionary Ecology". This report mainly introduced two projects. The first was the "Study on the Acidification of Water and the Ecological Evolution of Amphibians" carried out in Sweden within the EU framework. The second project was microbial ecology and evolution, studying the diversity, composition, function, evolution of environmental microbes and the relationship with environment or host. Evolutionary ecology was an important part of environmental science and was a hotspot in current international research. The serious environmental problem had become one of the major problems China facing now. Evolutionary ecology could help to understand the effects on living beings and humans themselves caused by human activities, and could also provide scientific support for the development of effective pollution monitoring, governance and management methods.

 Dr. Zeng Lin made an academic report on the theme of "Research on New Type Catalysts and Functional Membranes in Fuel Cells and Flow Batteries." The report noted that the performance of fuel cells and flow batteries was highly dependent on their key components, including electrode materials and functional membranes. For the fuel cell, the oxygen reduction on the cathode side is the control step. So it was necessary to develop nanometer catalysts with high catalytic activity and good stability. The report described the preparation of novel palladium nanowires, silver nanowires and graphene supported platinum catalysts, as well as their catalytic performance for oxygen reduction in alkalinesystem. The report stated that polymer solid electrolytes act as a carrier for ion exchange, limiting the power density and energy efficiency of fuel cells and flow cells.

 The entire forum was full of strong academic exchange atmosphere. The present teachers and students carried out further exchange and discussion with the reporters on the research directions and questions that they were interested in. The atmosphere was very lively. The platform let us know about the latest research results and the research trends in the research field and also reflected the latest developments in these fields.

 It was reported that the “Outstanding Young Scholars from Both Home and Abroad Forum” of South China University of Technology aimed to invite young talents both at home and abroad to conduct discussions and exchanges on the frontier and spotlight fieldsof international scientific research and key technical issues in the industry and industries, so as to enlighten each other and broaden their horizons as well as promote international exchange and cooperation.

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 1、Speaker Profile: Shu Longfei, Ph.D. from ETH Zurich. He is currently a researcher at Simons Foundation Fellow and Life Sciences Research Foundation Fellow at the University of Washington. He is mainly engaged in the field of environment and ecology and his research directions are climate and environmental change as well as microbial ecology and evolution. He has presided over a Simons Foundation fund, a project of the European Society for Evolutionary Societies. The cumulative grant amount is about 180,000 US dollars. He has won six national and international awards and scholarships, including iBiology Young Scientists, the Swiss Foundation for Nature Fund and so on, with a total amount of money about 160,000 Swiss francs. He has published more than ten articles in The ISME Journal, Plos Biology, Molecular Ecology, Oecologia and other top and mainstream journals of ecology and environment. He has been reviewer for many journals and participated in several projects including the National Nature Fund, the Swiss Nature Fund and the U.S. Natural Fund.

 2、Speaker Profile: Dr. Zeng Lin currently engages in postdoctoral research at Institute of Advanced Study of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Jockey Club. In 2014, he got his Ph. D. degree in the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Dr. Zeng has been engaged in the research and development of key components in the new energy storage and conversion system for a long time and has achieved a series of academic innovations. Up to date, he has published about 39 research papers in Energy & Environmental Science (one first-author paper), Nano Energy (one first-author paper), Journal of Materials Chemistry A (one first-author paper), Journal of Power Sources (four first-author papers), Journal of Membrane Science (one first-author paper) and other magazines, including 11 first-author papers, 25 first-area papers in Chinese Academy of Sciences with 514 times of the total citations and 14 H index. He won a Chinese invention patent, attended the international academic conference 3 times and did the congress report 2 times.