Project Name

Abstracts

Awardees

Molecular basis underlying high-yield and superior-quality traits and breeding elite rice varieties by molecular design

Rice is one of the world's most important crops, playing an important role in national food security. Although tremendous progresses have been made in developing high-yield and good-quality rice varieties over past decades, it is still a time-consuming and labor-consuming process at present in improving yield- and quality-related traits by traditional breeding approaches, because of the complexity of these traits and lacking the knowledge of how these traits are regulated and coordinated. Therefore, it is the national benefit and strategy to develop a powerful and effective system for breeding high-yield and good-quality elite rice varieties by dissecting the genetic network that regulates important agronomic traits and making full use of the natural variation of rice germplasm resources. 

To meet the challenges that aims at addressing the fundamental questions and to meet the national needs, this project collaboratively integrated technologies of genetics, genomics, molecular biology, biochemistry, cell biology, and crop breeding to systemically investigate molecular mechanisms of these important agronomic complex traits and to effectively evaluate their application potentials in molecular breeding. In the past 13 years, the project had made ground-breaking progresses by cloning key genes involved in important agronomic traits, dissecting molecular mechanisms underlying these complex traits, utilizing elite germplasm resources and genome-wide association analysis, understanding the origin and domestication of Asian cultivated rice, and breeding high-yield and superior-quality rice varieties by molecular design. This project also systemically analyzes rice cooking and eating quality that is mainly determined by a genetic network of the starch synthesis pathway, paving an avenue and providing important genetic resources for the improvement of rice quality by molecular design. Moreover, this project developed a series of algorithm for genome-wide associate analysis and precise detection of the genetic loci that control complex agronomic traits, innovating the genetic dissection of complex agronomic traits. By identifying the genetic variations between indica and japonica rice varieties, scientists in this project have revealed the genetic basis of the reproductive isolation between the two subspecies, providing a new insight into the utilization of rich rice genetic resources and playing a vanguard role in developing a molecular design technology in rice.

The creative achievements and original findings made in this project have resulted in a series of joint publications in the top scientific journals including Nature, Nature Genetics, PNAS, and Plant Cell, which have been widely and positively cited and reviewed in many original research papers and review articles, with more than 4800 SCI citations for their joint published papers and over 1900 SCI citation for the 8 selected representative papers. Both Jiayang Li and Bin Han were awarded in 2014 by Thomson Reuters as the “highly cited researcher” and "world's most influential scientists" in the category of Plant and Animal Sciences based on their publications from 2002-2012. As recognized by the academic community, the scientists in this project have been invited to write review articles for Annual Review Plant Biology, Annual Review Genetics, Nature Genetics, Trends Genetics, Current Opinion in Plant Biology, and frequently invited as plenary and keynote speakers in the international academic congresses, conferences and symposia. Notably, their achievements regarding "The molecular mechanism underlying rice ideal plant architecture" and "The strigolactone signaling pathway and their roles in regulating rice tillering" were elected as “the Nation’s Top ten Scientific Breakthroughs in China" in 2010 and 2014, respectively. More importantly, they have demonstrated how to translate the knowledge from basic research to applied technology and then to agricultural production, paving an applicable way for upgrading breeding efficiency from understanding and mining gene regulating important traits to breeding new elite varieties by molecular design.

Jiayang Li (Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Aggregation-induced emission

Many organic fluorophores emit strongly in dilute solutions, but demonstrate decreased or no emission concentrated solution or the aggregate state. This “aggregation-caused quenching” (ACQ) effect results in low emission efficiency of organic fluorophores in the solid state, and is detrimental to their device performance. Scientists have tried different strategies to prevent chromophore aggregation, but only limited results were obtained. In this project, a natural aggregation process, named aggregation-induced emission (AIE), was utilized to elevate the solid-state emission efficiency of organic fluorophores, through which original and creative results have been achieved. The main scientific discoveries in the project are summarized as followings:
1. Based on previously proposed AIE mechanism of restriction of intramolecular rotation (RIR), the achievers developed new tetraphenylethene (TPE)-cored AIE luminogens (AIEgens), discovered room temperature phosphorescence of organic crystalline fluorophores, put forward the concept of crystallization-induced phosphorescence, and prepared TPE-containing AIE-active polytriazoles with excellent processability by their developed click polymerizations. Moreover, interesting AIE-active polymer systems without conventional chromophores were also reported. 
2. Through elaborate molecular design and careful experimental verification, RIR rather than E/Z isomerization or J-aggregation was proved to be the underlying mechanism for the AIE. A sub-concept of AIE, that is, crystallization-induced emission was proposed, which was well recognized by researchers worldwide. New strategies to create AIEgens from ACQ molecules by conjugation with AIE moieties, and generate efficient red emissive AIEgens by combination of RIR and twisted intramolecular charge-transfer processes were invented. 

3. Blue/deep-blue AIEgens used in OLEDs were obtained through sensible molecular design. An array of sensing applications, such as quantitative fluorescence turn-on detection of carbon dioxide and metal ions, specific detection of D-glucose, and monitoring of the growth of a specific cell line were realized, which all exhibit the superiority over conventional fluorophores. 

With the accomplishment of this project, 1 Chinese and 2 USA patents were issued. The 8 representative papers, all ranked as ESI highly cited papers, have been cited by others for 3469 times, and the highest citation for a single paper is 1285 times. Tang was listed as ESI highly cited Scientist in chemistry and materials fields, elected to the member of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2009, and won the Hong Kong Croucher Senior Research Fellowship and the National Natural Award both in 2007. Tang has delivered 72 invited talks, including 17 plenary/keynote lectures in the domestic and international academic conferences, and chaired two AIE international symposiums, held in 2013 and 2015, respectively. Special issues on AIE have been published in Small [2016, 47(12)], Science China Chemistry [2013, 56(9)] and Acta Chimica Sinica [2016, 74(11)], and monographs on AIE were also published by Wiley in 2013.

In summary, the AIE provides a new avenue for the design of luminescent materials and fluorescent sensors, and innovates our design principle for light-emitting materials, enriches the fundamentals of photo-physics, and creates a new research field in chemistry and materials sciences, in which Chinese scientists take the lead, followed by the scientists all over the world.

Benzhong Tang (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)

Some Analysis Problems in Differential Geometry

The project belongs to Geometric Analysis which is an interdisciplinary of Differential Geometry and Partial Differential Equations and a hot important research field in pure mathematics. The main results are as follows:

1）Constructed a new evolution equation and used the mean curvature flow to prove the existence of closed minimal surfaces (paper 1 and 5). How to find closed minimal surfaces and holomorphic curves is important and many problems are unsolved. The project constructed a new evolution equation to study the existence of closed minimal surfaces in Riemannian manifolds. They showed that, in the Torus case, the new flow does not produce complicated singularities, obtained the global weak solution and its convergence.Recently, Topping and his coauthor generalized it to higher genus case. The project used the mean curvature flow to study the existence of minimal surfaces in a K-E surface. They proved that, if the initial surface is symplectic, the mean curvature flow has no Type I singularity (Wang M.-T. proved it independently), under some assumptions they proved the global existence and convergence.

2）Blow-up formula for stationary harmonic maps (paper 2, 3 and 4). This is an important and difficult subject in geometric analysis and nonlinear analysis. Energy minimizing maps are compact (Schoen-Uhlenbeck), if the target has no harmonic spheres stationary harmonic maps are also compact (F.-H. Lin). The project constructed a weakly convergence sequence of stationary harmonic maps whose limit is not stationary. In general, stationary harmonic maps are not compact. The project studied the blow-up behavior of a weakly convergence sequence of stationary harmonic maps in the general case, proved a blow-up formula for the weak limit and the blow-up set, which implies that the weak limit is stationary if and only if the blow-up set is stationary. The project also proved that the energy identity holds for a sequence of maps from a Riemann surface to a sphere with tension fields bounded in L Log L. Topping and his coauthor generalized the compactness and pointed out that the space L Log L can not be improved to local Hardy space.

3) In the case of lack compactness, found a minimum of the functional, and obtained the existence theorem of Kazdan-Warner problem (paper 6 and 7). The problem is raised in 1974 (Ann Math), related to Moser-Trudinger inequality , is interesting and difficult. The results and analysis method were used by other authors, cited by others 66, 81 times.

4) Proved the Donaldson，Uhlenbeck-Yau theorem in non-compact cases and the Chern number inequality on parabolic stable bundles（paper 8）. The result and other results are used to study the parabolic stable bundles further. 

The results were published in Invent Math, Comm Pure Appl Math, Adv Math, etc. Academician Tian Gang, academician of American Academy of Sciences, Chang, S. introduced the work in her ICM plenary speak. The results were used by the plenary speaker of ICM, Mochizuki (Japan Academy Prize winner) and ICM invited speaker Topping、Malchiodi. ICM invited speaker Lin Chang-Shou (Academician of Academia Sinica) and Li Yanyan highly appreciate it.

Jiayu Li (Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Doping mechanism of semiconductors

Doping is a key technology in modern semiconductor industry. This project focuses on the band structure characters of wide-band-gap semiconductor materials, two-dimensional materials, and nano devices. We systemically investigated the doping mechanism and predicted the properties of several important semiconductor materials. We developed first-principles based algorithm for large-scale calculations, and applied it to doped semiconductor systems and two-dimensional semiconductors. Our results are valuable for the p-type doping technology of the third generation semiconductors, for the improvement of the photocatalysis efficiency of TiO2 based materials, and for the fabrication of semiconductor spintronic devices and 2D devices in the future. The main results of the projects are as follows:
1. By analyzing the band structure of TiO2 and the chemical potentials of the dopants, we propose that the band edges of TiO2 can be modified by passivated codopants such as (Mo+C) to shift the valence band edge up significantly, while leaving the conduction band edge almost unchanged. Such a method enhances the adsorption to visible light in TiO2, and maintains its photocatalysis ability. This work attracts world-wide attentions, and recent experimental studies have verified the feasibility of Mo+C co-doping. The paper was cited for 360 times.
2. We systemically studied the origin of “d0 ferromagnetism”. We further demonstrated that localization of the holes by dopants and quantum confinement effect can reduce the critical hole concentration for stabilizing magnetization. These findings suggest new possibility of preparing non-magnetically doped spintronic semiconductor devices. The paper was cited by 232 times.
3. We systemically studied the doping character and bottleneck of dopant and acceptor impurities in quantum dots and quantum wires. We show that due to quantum confinement, the transition energies and defect formation energies of defects always increase as the quantum dot sizes decrease, leading to the self-purification. We proposed the method to solve such doping bottleneck, and developed a model to describe the quantum Stark effect in hole impurity state of quantum dots. These works promoted the research in the application of nano devices. The related paper was cited for 106 times.
4. We predicted the type-II band alignment in MoX2-WX2 heterostructures. Moreover, we studied the mechanical, optical properties and band gap modulation of graphyne, and discovered that Ca-doped graphyne had high capacity of hydrogen storage. Lastly we found direct-indirect gap transition and semiconductor-metal transition in strained MoS2.
The project attracted great attentions, and the related works are highly cited by researchers all over the world. The 8 representative papers have been cited by 1344 times, and 5 of them are selected as ESI highly cited papers. 6 related invention patents have been issued. Parts of the work was selected as “research highlight” by NPG Asia Materials, and two papers published in Physical Review Letters in 2009 were selected as “Most influential papers of China, 2009”. These works are the developments of semiconductor doping theory, and have important scientific value for the device design and property prediction of new generation semiconductors and nano-devices.

Jingbo Li (Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Raman Spectroscopy of Low-dimensional Carbon Materials

Low-dimensional carbon materials, including carbon nanotubes and graphene, are strategic materials that will dominate the high-tech competition and play a core role in future semiconductors, micro/nano-electronics and energy. The in-depth studies of their fundamental structures and properties are essential for the possible breakthroughs in frontier and original research. Raman spectroscopy has played an important and irreplaceable role in the research of low-dimensional carbon materials. This project focuses on the high-resolution Raman spectroscopy of low-dimensional carbon materials. With the support by MOST and NSFC, this project aims to solve the key scientific problems in the mechanism of the controlled growth, the approaches of band structure modulation, the electron-phonon coupling and charge transfer in the Raman scattering processes of low-dimensional carbon materials, and have made primary achievements in the following aspects: 
1) Development of methods for controlled growth and Micro-Raman spectroscopic characterization of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs)
Aiming at the challenges in the chirality control and high-resolution characterization of SWNTs, this project developed the corresponding Raman spectroscopic techniques, realized the quantitative studies of the chirality of SWNTs, and obtained the fundamental parameters such as the temperature coefficient and the growth rate. Further, this project proposed the concept of “carbon-based” chirality control and the approach of cloning-growth, and made breakthroughs in the chirality control of SWNTs.
2) Invention of graphene-enhanced Raman spectroscopic method
Aiming at the challenges in quantitative analysis and trace detection of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), this project proposed the concept of graphene-enhanced Raman scattering, and proved the chemical mechanism. This project also developed the segregation growth of high-quality graphene using binary metal catalysts and the invasive transfer of graphene. A type of graphene-based flexible SERS substrate was realized, and the direct detection of trace molecules on arbitrary substrate was achieved, opening up new possibility for quantitative analysis of SERS.
3) Development of methods for the band structure modulation of low-dimensional carbon materials and its Raman spectroscopic characterization
This project realized the band structure modulation of SWNTs using strain, studied the correlation between the band structure and electron-phonon coupling in SWNTs. The photochemical modulation of the band structure of low-dimensional carbon materials was also proposed, and a series of methods have been developed, including the layer-by-layer thinning of graphene, the local transform from graphene to graphene oxide and the transform from metallic to semiconducting SWNTs. These findings built the foundation for the applications of low-dimensional carbon materials in future micro/nano electronics.
The 8 representative publications include 1 in Chem. Soc. Rev., 1 in Acc. Chem. Res., 2 in J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1 in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 1 in Adv. Mater. and 2 in Nano Lett., with more than 1100 citations, among which 3 are ESI highly cited papers. These papers have been cited by high-impact journals such as Chem. Rev., Nature, Science, Nat. Chem., Nat. Photonics, Nat. Nanotechnol. and Chem. Rev. Soc., and have been highlighted by scientific magazines such as Nature China, C&EN, NPG Asia Materials. The findings have led to 20 invited talks in international conferences, and resulted in 16 issued patents.

Jin Zhang (Peking University)

Structure-property relationship and reactivity regularity of organic compounds

Discovery of new reactions drives the advance of organic chemistry, during which elucidation of the reaction mechanism and origin of reaction selectivity constitutes one of the core targets of organic chemistry. Studies in this direction contributes to the understanding of the principles of organic reactions and motivates the collaborative innovation of experimental and theoretical chemistry. This project involves systematic studies focusing on structure-property relationship of organic compounds and their reactivities in organic reactions. These studies led to the development of several physical chemistry theories including the enthalpy-entropy compensation theory, the polarized cluster continuum solvation model for organic solvents, and the free energy equations for the redox potentials in organic solutions. On the basis of these theoretical advances, especially the solvation models in organic solvents, we carried out theoretical studies to clarify the reaction mechanism and the origin of reaction selectivity in the conversions of carbon−carbon, carbon−hetero and carbon−metal bonds. Inspired the mechanistic understandings and predictions from the theoretical studies, we were successful in developing an array of new organic reactions such as decarboxylative cross-coupling and radical-controlled selective C−H functionalization reactions. The representative scientific achievements are summarized as follows:

1. Development of physical organic chemistry theories, including enthalpy-entropy compensation theory based on the transition of species of equivalent chemical potentials, the polarized cluster continuum solvation model for organic solvents, and the free energy equations for the redox potentials in organic solutions.

2. Elucidation of the mechanisms and the selectivity of C-C, C-X, and C-M transformation reactions, including 1) elucidation of the mechanism of nickel-catalyzed C-O activation in cross-coupling of aryl esters and explanation of the selectivity of aryl C-O and carbonyl C-O activation; 2) elucidation of the origin of chemoselectivity in copper catalyzed arylation of aminoalcohols; 3) elucidation of the mechanism of decarboxylative Heck-coupling of carboxylic acid and olefins

3. Development of an array of new organic reactions. Important examples include: 1) palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative coupling between potassium oxalate monoester salts and aryl halides; 2) copper-catalyzed trifluoromethylation reactions.

The above studies were published in about 100 papers in the international peer-reviewed journals, including 15 papers in J. Am. Chem. Soc., 8 papers in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., and 1 in Chem. Rev. These achievements have drawn broad attentions in the world and have been recognized by different research groups. Eight representative papers have been cited by others for 1473 times. Over 50 invited presentations have been given at the international conferences. 

Lei Liu (University of Science and Technology of China)

Basic Research on New Molecular Ferroelectrics

As a type of advanced materials, ferroelectric materials are used in various devices. Since the first ferroelectric Rochelle salt was found in 1920, the phase transition temperature (Tc) and saturation polarization (Ps) of molecule-based ferroelectrics have been long beat by the well-known inorganic ceramic ferroelectric such BaTiO3. Under supports from NSFC, the team has carried out systematic studies on the development of the field of molecule-based ferroelectrics in the past 10 years from the assembly of noncentro-symmetric coordination polymers to the screening and characterizations of molecule-based ferroelectrics. As one of the main international contributors to the area, the team has afforded an effective semi-empirical approach to find and design series of new molecule-based ferroelectrics which greatly enrich the family of this type of functional molecular materials. 

The primary academic contributions include:

(1) Finding a series of organic ferroelectrics with high Tc and large Ps.

The most important achievement is the finding of the ferroelectric diisopropylammonium chloride and bromide that have high Tc, large Ps and low coercive field (Ec) which are superior to the widely used polymeric ferroelectric PVDF and comparable with BaTiO3. This is the key step toward practical applications of molecule-based ferroelectrics. Meanwhile, they have advantages on cheapness, easy availability, simple preparation and so on. All these make them have the potential to be applied or used as a supplement to conventional ferroelectric oxides and polymers.

(2) Constructing novel ferroelectric and dielectric metal-organic frameworks.

By using in situ solvo-thermal approaches, the team successfully constructed metal complexes with noncentrosymmetric structures, including the first captured tetrazole intermediates that are hard to trap by conventional methods as reported by Sharpless and the tetrazole-based coordination polymers. Their nonlinear, dielectric and potential ferroelectric properties were systematically studied. 

(3) Finding and designing two types of ferroelectric molecular rotors.

The team successfully prepared new ferroelectric molecular rotors based on crown ether-phenylammonium derivatives and protonated 1,4-diazacyclo[2,2,2]octane compounds. Their ferroelectricities come from the rotating-frozen transitions of the rotator components. This study discloses the close relationship between ferroelectricity and molecular machines. 

(4) Proposing first a semi-empirical approach to guide the exploration of new molecule-based ferroelectrics.

The team first introduced the use of temperature-dependence of second-order nonlinear coefficient (T-χ(2)) as a judge of the occurrence of symmetry breaking. Furthermore, the team can screen and predict ferroelectric crystals in CCDC by using Curie and Neumann principles to clarify the relationship between super- and sub- groups. These rules avoid the try-and-error approach or serendipity for screening new ferroelectrics.

The research has published dozens of papers, including Science (1), J. Am. Chem. Soc. (10), Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (3), Phys. Rev. Lett. (3), Adv. Mater. (1), Chem. Soc. Rev. (3) and Chem. Rev. (1). The eight representative papers have been cited 1116 times. The project was awarded as the first-class prize in 2015 of National Natural Science Award of Universities and Colleges of China. Besides, the research on molecule-based ferroelectrics was highlighted by the “editors’ choice” of Science.

Rengen Xiong (Southeast University)

New strategies for stereo- and enantioselective direct transformations of aromatic compounds

The transformation of aromatic compounds is among the most fundamental reactions in organic chemistry. However, their direct stereo- and enantioselective transformations are quite limited, and it is of great significance to develop highly efficient, novel, stereo- and enantioselective reactions as well as new concepts. Focusing on these challenging issues, this project presented a novel concept of catalytic asymmetric dearomatization (CADA) and developed a series of novel chiral ligands, sequential catalytic reactions and CADA reactions. The latter were applied in the asymmetric total syntheses of several natural products. These works provide new strategies for the application of aromatic compounds.

The concept of CADA has been widely applied by others. Due to the high energy barrier required to break the aromaticity and facile re-aromatization of the dearomatized product, development of CADA reaction is extremely challenging. In this project, various asymmetric allylic dearomatization reactions were achieved by constructing quaternary carbon center to avoid product re-aromatization. Ir-catalyzed intramolecular allylic dearomatization of indoles/controllable migration of methylene amine group was developed, which corrected the wrong structural assignment in the literature and provided a new mechanistic understanding on intramolecular alkylation of aromatic compounds. Two novel types of chiral phosphoramidite ligands (THQphos and BHPphos) were developed. The active iridacycle is generated via sp2 C−H bond activation, which is different from the reported sp3 C−H bond activation. The high diastereoselectivity and overcoming the “unfavorable ortho effect”offered by these ligands greatly expand the substrate scope for the allylic substitution reaction.

Organocatalytic CADA reactions have been developed. Oxidative dearomatization of phenols/chiral Brønsted acid-catalyzed asymmetric Michael addition reactions led to concise and efficient total syntheses of natural products such as cleroindicin and (-)-mesembrine. Organocatalytic cascade dearomatization of indoles was accomplished to construct polycyclic compounds bearing multiple chiral centers rapidly. 

Chiral phosphoric acid catalyzed highly enantioselective Friedel-Crafts reactions of indole and 4,7-dihydro-1H-indole with N-sulfonylimine and nitro olefin were achieved. Sequential catalysis by combining Ru complex with chiral phosphoric acid, with synergistic effect (“1+1>2”), was developed to afford highly enantioselective synthesis of polycyclic indoles. These methods provide novel regio- and enantioselective transformations of electron-rich aromatic compounds.

The representative publications include J. Am. Chem. Soc.(4) and Angew.Chem.Int.Ed.(4). These 8 papers received 971 citations by others in total with 246 as the highest and 121.4 on average. Six ligands with intellectual property have been licensed to international chemical vender companies such as Strem Chemicals, J&K and Daicel Chiral Technologies and used worldwidely. This project trained 10 PhDs and 1 postdoc, with 5 awarded “Excellent Doctoral Dissertation of CAS”, 3 awarded “the Special Prize of President Scholarship”, 2 supported by “Thousand Youth Talents Plan Project”, 2 supported by “Hundred Talent Program of CAS”, and 8 promoted as associate/full professors. The first contributor delivered over 70 plenary or invited lectures, and received RSC Merck Award (2015), the 14th China Youth Science and Technology Award, Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Prize for Scientific and Technological Innovation (2016), and many other awards. He was invited to publish a personal account in Acc. Chem. Res., and edit a book entitled 《Asymmetric Dearomatization Reactions》. These results are of significant importance in the field of asymmetric synthesis and medicinal chemistry, significantly advance the selective transformations of aromatic compounds, and greatly promote the development of organic chemistry.

Shuli You (Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Destruction of North China Craton

This project belongs to the research realm of Earth Sciences. 

  Cratons are the ancient cores of continents, characterized by the lack of obvious volcanic activity and violent earthquakes, and thus are traditionally thought to be tectonically stable over long periods of geological time. However, large-scale volcanic activities and great earthquakes have occurred in the North China Craton (NCC) since the Mesozoic, marking the loss of craton stability. The question why craton could lose its intrinsic stability has been a conundrum of nearly a century. 

  This group started to study the destruction of the NCC from 2000 and has made a series of important contributions to the timing, scale and mechanism of the NCC destruction by conducting interdisciplinary research, including, 1) proposed the new concept of “craton destruction”, cognized that lithospheric thinning and large-scale magmatic-tectonic activities are the superficial phenomena, of which the essence is the loss of the tectonic stability of the craton, and provided well-accepted evidences demonstrating that the changes in the compositions and properties of the lithosphere were the key factors leading to craton destruction; 2) determined the temporal-spatial extent of the NCC destruction. The destruction mainly took place in the eastern NCC in the Mesozoic with a peak age of ca. 125 Ma, while the western NCC generally has retained its overall stability; 3) systematically expounded and proved the mechanism of the NCC destruction, found that Pacific subduction in the early Cretaceous is the main dynamic factor that triggered the NCC destruction. The dehydration of the stagnant Pacific slab in the mantle transition zone beneath the NCC caused unsteady mantle flows and decompression melting of mantle materials, eventually leading to the NCC destruction.

Eight representative papers have been cited 1200 times by other researchers. Two of these representative papers were among the ISI top 1% highly cited papers and all the five achievers are ranked in the list of the global highly cited researchers in geosciences. This group has edited two special issues in the journals of Lithos and Gondwana Research, respectively. The first achiever was selected as AGU-Fellow in 2011, who is the first geoscientist that received this honor in recent years in Mainland China.

  This group organized the International Conference on Craton Formation and Destruction (Beijing) in 2011, which attracted many famous scientists, including academicians from National Academy of Sciences of UK, Australia, Norway and USA etc. The National Science Foundation of China has reported four major achievements in the field of continental dynamics, among them the NCC destruction was the top one. The destruction of the NCC is the only research frontier dominated by Chinese scientists and was one of the Top 10 in Earth sciences in both 2014 and 2015 Research Frontiers jointly issued by the Thomson Reuters and Chinese Academy of Science. This project has been a successful example of studying the global continental evolution based on a regional case, which makes the regional issue of the NCC destruction not only become a hotspot in global scientific research, but also lead the direction of study on continental evolution. Such a success has significantly enhanced the international influence of solid Earth science research in China.

Rixiang zhu ( Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Late Cenozoic tectonic deformation of the Tibetan Plateau and its northeastern margin

Founded by the NSFC and 973 project, our group studied the late Cenozoic deformation processes of the Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding area. For more than 20 years we carried out two following interrelated topics, first, we utilized the global positioning system (GPS) observations to reveal the deformation pattern, velocity field and strain distribution of the Tibetan Plateau, and then to better understand the present deformation processes. Second, we targeted the youngest growing NE Tibetan Plateau to study the late Cenozoic formation processes of the Tibetan Plateau.
Three significant scientific findings can be summarized as follows, (1) Our analysis of GPS measurements indicates that 90% of the strain between Indian and Eurasian plates were absorbed by the deformation in and around the Tibetan Plateau. We also determined the present-day deformation pattern and velocity distribution across different tectonic units of the Tibetan Plateau. The interior Tibetan Plateau is characterized by expansion and shear strain, however, the plateau margins are dominated by compression strain. The "eastward extrusion" is actually eastward crust material flow and clockwise rotation from the internal plateau. (2) We determined that the formation of the northeastern Tibetan Plateau was featured by five stages, and the quasi-synchronous deformation during the late Cenozoic (10-12 Ma) is the most important geological event, which contributes to mountain uplift and basin destruction. Consequently, the northeastern Tibetan Plateau became the latest growing plateau margin, and ultimately its front has propagated across the Hexi Corridor basin into the Gobi-Alax block. (3) Our studies on the Cenozoic tectonics-climate-erosion processes revealed that the high terrains were created during the middle to late Miocene (10-12 Ma) around the Tibetan Plateau, and it provided consequent climatic change to drive the significant increasing rates of erosion and deposition. The rapid increase in sedimentation rate between 2-4 Ma was controlled by the global climate fluctuation during the glaciation-interglacial periods, and it contributed to the formation of the famous "molasse" deposits in the west China. This study significantly promotes the pioneer topics of interaction between the tectonics and climatic variation.
41 peer-reviewed international SCI papers were published, of which 21 papers are written by the group first author (corresponding author). Among these papers, highest citation for one manuscript is 564. Our eight representative papers were totally cited 1210 times by other authors. Two papers were published in journals Nature and Geology, and the citations are 898 with ranking No. 466 and No. 218 in ESI (Essential Science Indicators) database during 2001-2011, respectively. An invited review paper in Nature Geoscience in 2013 highlighted the representative paper 1 as one of the important progresses by the Department of Geology of Natural Science Foundation of China. The group was once rewarded as first prize by China Earthquake Administration. During the project, Peizhen Zhang was nominated as the academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the National Distinguished Young Scientist. Huiping Zhang was appointed as the National Outstanding Young Scientist. Peizhen Zhang was in a rank of 952 over 3402 global geoscientists during 2006-2016.

Peizhen Zhang (Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration)

Studies on the Mesozoic granites and crustal evolution in the Cathaysia block

Along with the international research progress on granites and regional characteristic of South China, the research of granites in South China has been focused on tectonic setting, magmatism, granite and crustal evolution, granite mineralization. Cathaysia Block, located in the southeast and occupies two thirds of South China, is dominated by Mesozoic granite and volcanics.

A prominent characteristic of the granites in Cathaysia Block is their episodic occurrences, where Mesozoic granites are dominant relevant to the contemporary large-scale mineralization. Researches on Mesozoic granite in Cathaysia Block have been focused on three key scientific questions: (1) What is the geodynamic drive for the generation of granitic magmas and how magmas aquired emplacement space? (2) What’s the “heat source” and “material source” for granitic magmas? (3) How to identify metallogenic granite bodies from barren granite units? Our research group conducted a long-term research on these questions with supports from NSFC. Based on detailed field work, a comprehensive study that combined mineralogical, petrological and structural geological investigations was performed on more than 50 granite bodies, over 10 volcanic/sedimentary basins and Precambrian metamorphic basement in the Cathaysia Block. The main scientific discoveries are as follows: 

(1) A subduction-extension model for the petrogenesis of Mesozoic granites in the Cathaysia Block has been established. This model elucidated the transformation of Tethys-Pacific tectonic domains and further revealed the extensional tectonic setting of the Cathaysia Block during the late Mesozoic and solved the key issue of geodynamics and “emplacement space” for granites and their mineralizations. 

(2) Our work answered the question of the “heat source” for the formation of granitic magma, and revealed the relationship between the crust-mantle interaction, magma mixing and the “material source” for granitic magma. The composition, evolution history and Phanerozoic multi-phase reworking process of the Cathaysia Precambrian crust is revealed, leading to a discovery of a Palaeoproterozoic orogeny during Columbia polymerization in Wuyi terrane, and better constraints of the location of Cathaysia Block within Rodinia supercontinent. 

(3) The geochemical features of tin and rare metal bearing granites in the Nanling region have been systematically studied. Our work revealed that tin and rare metal mineralization occurred during the transition from magmatic to hydrothermal stages, and established the ore-forming patterns of granites.

The above discoveries solved the key problems for the genesis of Mesozoic granites in Cathaysia Block, promoted the research on granites and their mineralizations, reconstructed Mesozoic tectonic framework in South China, and provided important insight for the strategic layout of metal deposits prospecting. 131 papers have been published in SCI journals. 8 representative papers have been other-cited for 1432 times in SCI journals and the highest citation for a single paper is 521 times. 3 representative papers belong to ESI Highly Cited Papers placed in the top 1% of their academic field. The advances made on the Mesozoic granites and crustal evolution have been appreciated by the scientific community, and has been awarded the First Prizes twice for Natural Science Research by Ministry of Education, P. R. China, in 2007 and 2011, respectively.

Xinmin Zhou (Nanjing University)

Contamination profiles and physico-chemical control principles of persistent organic pollutants (POPs)

Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are environmentally persistent, toxic, bioaccumulative, and capable of long-range transport. Stockholm Convention demands POPs control, reduction and elimination. POPs occurrence in environmental media and degradation mechanism are urgent problems to be solved. Funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and National Basic Research Program of China, the project investigated the environmental contamination profiles of POPs, and explored mechanisms of the catalytic degradation and adsorptive removal of POPs. Key findings include:



(1) Identification of POPs contamination profiles in typical environment. This project found several POPs environmental contamination features, including a comprehensive contamination profile of chlorinated legacy POPs in Tonghui River, Beijing, the particle size-dependent concentration distribution of brominated POPs in indoor dust and its crucial influence on human exposure assessment, emission and contamination of perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in chrome plating industry in China, and first discovered a China-specific PFOS alternative with POPs-like properties overlooked for over 30 years. Related publications have been cited by researchers from over 40 countries and used to draft China’s National Action Plan to implement the Stockholm Convention. 



(2) Development of the catalytic destruction principles for POPs removal. The polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) dechlorination on the novel palladium-modified metal foam electrode was found to follow the first-order kinetics. The active hydrogen atom spillover mechanism of Pt electrodes was proposed and verified. The sequential defluorination mechanism in the electro-chemical oxidation of PFCs on the self-developed Ti/SnO2-Sb-Bi anode was elucidated. The photocatalytic mechanism of PCP by bismuth oxyhalides material was also proposed.



(3) Elucidation of adsorption behavior and mechanisms of PFCs removal. Powdered activated carbon and acrylic acid-based anion-exchange resins are found to be suitable for their removal with high adsorption capacity. The electrostatic attraction is found to be the main force, and the weak oleophilicity of hydro-oleophobicity of perfluorocarbon chain in adsorption process is verified. It is first reported that the superhigh adsorption capacity for PFOS and PFOA on porous adsorbents is mainly attributed to the accumulation of PFOS and PFOA in porous structure and the formation of micelles. 



Eight representative research articles have been published in EST, Water Research, etc. Their SCI citation count excluding self-citation reached 768, and total citation count excluding self-citation in Web of Science reached 948. The most cited article has SCI citation count excluding self-citation of 238. Based on the distribution of citations by Essential Science Indicators (ESI), 3 of the 8 representative articles are among the top 1% in the field of Environment/Ecology, and others are among the top 10%. Outputs from this program have won the first prize of MOE “Natural Science Award” (2013).



Dr. Gang Yu was the co-Chair of Stockholm Convention BAT/BEP expert group. He currently serves as the deputy director of China Steering Committee for the Implementation of the Stockholm Convention, the director of POPs committee of the Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences, and the Chair of China POPs Forum. Dr. Gang Yu and Dr. Shubo Deng are listed as the most Cited Chinese Researchers by publisher Elsevier.

Gang Yu (Tsinghua University)

Nonlinear Mechanism of Runoff Generation & Transformation in Basin

This project belongs to the category of “Hydrogeography”. Runoff generation and transformation at basin scale is highly nonlinear, and understanding its law is very important for flood control and water security. Traditional methods are mostly based on the linear system theory resulting in large errors in runoff calculation. The nonlinear issue has been considered a bottleneck in developing hydrological sciences. Based on analyses of enormous hydrological datasets worldwide, the group has obtained internationally recognized achievements as follows:

   1. A power-law to reveal a nonlinear mechanism between runoff generation and soil wetness, rainfall intensity and land-cover was found by Prof. Xia for the first time in the world. Subsequently the nonlinear Time-Variant Gain Model (TVGM) was developed and validated using datasets from over sixty basins globally. Compared with linear models, TVGM increased the accuracy in runoff prediction by up to 63% with an average of 45%. This achievement was evaluated by the “Stockholm Water Prize” awardee, Prof. Biswas, as “Prof.Xia has been to develop a non-linear time-variant model. The work has significantly improved our understanding of water-land-environment-human-ecosystems interactions”; and appraised by Prof. Ababou as one of the representative achievements in “Non-linear and non-stationary unit hydrograph methods”. Prof. Savenije, President of International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS), evaluated the achievement as “promoting the hydrological science basis for sustainable water utilization by developing a nonlinear time-variant system approach”.

   2. The group found the ratio of soil evaporation to total evapotranspiration as a nonlinear function of Leaf Area Index (LAI) and surface soil moisture. This work revealed the nonlinear mechanism for water and energy transformation at the interface of water and “Soil–Plant-Atmosphere- Continuum”(SPAC). The achievement has been widely cited and applied to highly-efficient use of agricultural water in North China, which was evaluated by Academician Zhenshen Li, the winner of State Supreme Science and Technology Award, as “achieved significant benefits by saving water of 100mm and obtaining crop yields of over 1000kg during two seasons”.

   3. The group developed a new Distributed Time-Variant Gain Model (DTVGM), through coupling spatially-distributed properties and multiple hydro-physical processes. A new approach to quantify modelling uncertainties was also developed. The DTVGM model and its application was cited by Prof.Gupta as “can be used to anticipate changes in catchment behavior and to evaluate consequences of natural and/or human-induced changes to the system”. It has been successfully applied to eight large basins in China and has brought prominent social and economic benefits.

   The eight representative papers have been externally (non-self) cited by 725 times, where the external SCI citations reached 577 times and the most cited paper has 151 external citations. Owing to the outstanding contribution to hydrological sciences, Prof. Jun Xia was awarded the 2014 INTERNATIONAL HYDROLOGY PRIZE-The Volker Medal for his “outstanding contributions to the sciences of Hydrology and application of his research and hydrological expertise to the benefit of society. It is awarded by IAHS with the support of World Meteorology Organization (WMO) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO)”.

Jun Xia (Wuhan University)

Identification, Transformation and Control of Natural Hazardous Compounds in Drinking Water

Algae-originated substances, natural organic matter disinfection by-products, as well as arsenic and fluoride, are important natural hazardous compounds in drinking water, and they are the main regulation targets in global drinking water safety management. Identification and regulation of these compounds in drinking water are great challenges. The project has carried out research on identifying the natural hazardous compounds in drinking water, determining their transformation and controlling strategy. The main innovative achievements are summarized below.

1. Opening up a new area in alage-derived teratogenic retinoids research; reporting for the first time to the environmental issues of retinoids produced by cyanobacteria blooms; and revealing the pathways for retinoids production in algae. 

2. Discovering that the main odor causing compounds responsible for “2007 Wuxi Water Crisis” were dimethyl trisulfide and related alkyl sulfide compounds originated from algae; indicating that alkyl sulfide compounds are mainly responsible for the odor problems of drinking water in China; revealing the regional distribution of alkyl sulfide compounds in source water across China; developing flavour profile analysis and odor causing compounds identification method, which greatly improve the odor management in drinking water industry. 

3. Extending the research field in drinking water disinfection by-products; pioneering the use of ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry to simultaneously characterize nonvolatile disinfection by-products (DBPs) and their natural organic matter precursors; discovering one thousand new DBPs in drinking water; elucidating that coagulation plays a key role in DBP precursor removal; demonstrating that nano Al13 with the Keggin structure are highly stable; proposing the principle of DBP controlling by using nano-Al13. 

4. Developing new methods to enhance the surface heterogeneity, increase the surface site density, and extend the effect pH range of the incorporated composite adsorbents; discovering that Cerium could significantly enhance the surface heterogeneity and hydroxyl site density of iron oxides; revealing the mechanism of regulating the pHzpc value and the density of hydroxyl site density of iron oxides; and developing new material based on this mechanism which may significantly enhance the adsorption capacity of arsenic and fluoride under neutral pH condition.

The project identified new problems in drinking water quality, broke through the methodological difficulties of identifying complex disinfection by-products, developed control principles for enhanced removal of risk compounds from natural sources, provided important theoretical and technical support for drinking water safety, and promoted the development of environmental science and engineering disciplines. Results of this project raised public awareness of the environmental risks of natural hazardous compounds, and successfully applied in coagulation optimization in major drinking water treatment plants. Two reports based on this project promoted the risk management of drinking water quality at the national level. Also, the project effectively supported the enhancement of the national drinking water security along with one Belt one Road through technical training and bilateral technical cooperation. A total of 105 SCI publications, including 1 in Science, 1 in PNAS, 21 in ES&T, and 30 in Water Res of the project. The first achiever was elected as Fellow of IWA.

Min Yang (Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Locust Phase Change

This project was considered as a cornerstone in deciphering molecular mechanisms of phase change in Locusta migratoria through using integrative methods. This project published around 20 peer-reviewed papers and 8 masterpieces have been cited by other scholars for 410 times. The major achievements are summarized as follows:

First, Characterizing the gene expression profiles involved in phase change in L. migratoria. This project firstly carried out the genomic studies based on EST sequences. They identified 532 differentially expressed genes between solitarious and gregarious phase. Several genes of them were verified to be candidate regulators for locust phase change, for example, peptidase, JH binding proteins, oxygen-binding activities and those related to development. They also have established the database LocustDB of locust genetic information, which have extensively used by international scientists. The results were published in PNAS (Publication 1), and cited 111 times. This paper has been regarded as a classic paper in the field of ecological genomics and opened a new window for understanding locust phase change.

Second, revealing molecular mechanisms underlying the regulation of locust phase change. Through using Oligo DNA microarray, they revealed an asymmetric characteristic of phase change in the migratory locust and demonstrated that olfactory pathway plays key regulatory roles in the initiation of locust phase change (PLoS Genetics, Publication 5). They further found that dopamine pathway is the key mechanisms involved in the maintenance of phase traits including body color and behavior (PNAS, Publication 2). Metabolomic analysis revealed 319 phase-related metabolites, of which carnitines have been demonstrated to be involved in locust behavioral phase change, indicating a complex regulatory network involved in locust phase change (PNAS, Publication 2). They also revealed that GNBPs play key roles in the prophylactic immunity of crowded locusts, indicating an avoiding anti-disease strategy of gregarious locusts (PLoS Pathogens, Publication 6). These findings were evaluated as the first attempt to decipher the roles in the pathway from initiation to maintenance of phase change. 

Third, exploring epigenetic mechanisms underlying locust phase change. Through developing a novel method to identify miRNAs independent of locust genome sequence, they identified conserved and locust-specific miRNAs and found that piRNAs have differentially expressed profiles between two phases (Genome Biology, Publication 4, Cited by 100 times). Then, A k-mer scheme to identify piRNA sequences was further developed relying on the training sets from non-piRNA and piRNA sequences. Through using this method, 87,536 locust piRNAs were identified, many of which display differential expression patterns between two phases (Bioinformatics, Publication 7). These computational methods to identify miRNAs and piRNAs have extensively used especially in the studies of non-model species. Other findings about transgenerational effects associated locust phase change were summarized in the review articles (Annual review of Entomology, Publication 8).

Summary, the comprehensive investigation of the complex regulatory mechanisms of phase change by this project have been highly recognized by the community of locust researchers worldwide. These results not only promoted the fundamental research of locusts, but also influenced on Genomics, Ecology and even biopesticide development.

Le Kang (Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Structural and functional study of plant receptor kinases 

The membrane localized receptor-like kinases (RLKs) in plants play an important role in diverse biological processes including development, growth,differentiation and immunity. The receptor BRI1 is a receptor the plant hormone,brassinosteroid. The project team have successively solved the crystal structures of brassinosteroid complexed with BRI1, and complexed with BRI1 and BAK1. These two structures not only reveal the molecular mechanism underlying BRI1 perception recognition of BR but also provide the evidence that BR-induced BRI1-BAK1 heterodimerization is important for BRI1 activation. AtCERK1 is another RLK and responsible for detection of chitin, the major cell wall component of fungi,to activate plant immune responses. The crystal structure of an AtCERK1-ECD complexed with a chitin pentamer reveals that their interaction is primarily mediated by a LysM and three chitin residues. Their biochemical data support the notion that chitin-induced AtCERK1 dimerization is critical for its activation.The RLK FLS2 recognizes the highly conserved N-terminal epitope of flagellin (flg22) and functions together with another receptor-like kinase BAK1 to trigger the plant immune response. The project team solved the crystal structure of the ectodomain of FLS2 and BAK1 complexed with flg22.These structural and biochemical data reveal the molecular mechanisms underlying FLS2-BAK1 complex recognition of flg22 and provide insight into the immune receptor complex activation.these FLS2-flg22-BAK1 and BRI1-BL-BAK1/SERK1 complexes structural studies also suggest the SERK family of proteins may have evolved to allow a high degree of signaling diversity by functioning as co-receptors with different RKs. The direct interaction between the tomato protein kinase Pto and the Pseudomonas syringae effector protein AvrPto is known to trigger disease resistance and programmed cell death through disease resistance protein Prf. The project team solved two complex crystal structures of AvrPto–Pto and AvrPtoB–Pto. Their structural and biochemical analyses demonstrated that AvrPto/AvrPtoB is an inhibitor of Pto kinase in vitro and that functional mimicry of host proteins is an important mechanism used by microbial pathogens to modulate host cellular functions. Otherways The project team also show that AvrPto binds receptor kinases, including Arabidopsis FLS2 and EFR and tomato LeFLS2, to block plant immune responses in the plant cell. BAK1 is a conserved member of the SERK family of LRR-RLKs and was identified as co-receptors with different RKs. Their crystal structure of an AvrPtoB-BAK1 complex reveals the mechanism of AvrPtoB-mediated suppression of PTI.Together, these structural studies of plant RLKs formulate a general mechanism for their activation, which can guide our understanding of other RLKs.

Jijie Chai (Tsinghua University)

Regulation and physiological mechanism in enhancing the remobilization of assimilates to grain and grain-filling in rice and wheat

Monocarpic plants such as rice and wheat need to initiate the whole plant senescence before their pre-stored assimilates can be remobilized for the grain filling. However, plant senescence and photosynthesis is a pair of trade-off processes. The coordination of plant senescence, photosynthesis and remobilization of assimilates is a long-term unsolved problem in cereals, and its regulation mechanism is not understood. This project addresses the two scientific issues: how to coordinate the relationships among plant senescence, photosynthesis and remobilization of assimilates and what the physiological mechanism is in enhancing the remobilization of assimilates to grain and grain-filling by a field practice. The main findings are:

1. Post-anthesis moderate soil-drying can regulate the relationship of plant senescence, photosynthesis, and remobilization of assimilates, and accelerate grain-filing. Post-anthesis moderate soil-drying means that plant can rehydrate overnight and will not severely inhibit leaf photosynthesis at day time. Importantly, it can timely and appropriately initiate the process of plant senescence, trigger assimilate remobilization from vegetative tissues to grain, and accelerate grain-filling, especially improve the fill of late-flowering inferior caryopses, leading to increases in grain yield, harvest index, and water use efficiency. The moderate soil-drying therefore provides a new way to coordinate the relationship among plant senescence, photosynthesis, and remobilization of assimilates during grain-filling and to achieve the dual goal of increasing grain yield and saving water in cereals. 

2. Abscisic acid (ABA) and its interaction with ethylene and gibberellins (GAs) regulate assimilate remobilization and grain-filling. During the active grain-filling period, the fill of grain requires a higher level of endogenous ABA and higher ratios of ABA to ethylene and to GAs. Post-anthesis moderate soil-drying enhances the remobilization of assimilates to grain and grain-filling through increases in ABA levels and the ratios of ABA to ethylene and/or to GAs, which reveals the mechanism in which plant hormones regulate assimilate remobilization and grain-filling, and provides a physiological regulation to improve grain-filling in cereals. 

3. A modest increase in ABA level in plants can enhance activities of the key enzymes involved in carbon metabolism, and thereby increases assimilate loading and unloading capacity. An elevated ABA level though moderate soil-drying or applying ABA with a low concentration can increase activities of the key enzymes in starch or fructan degradation and sucrose synthesis in vegetative tissues, leading to the enhancement in assimilate loading ability, and enhance activities of the key enzymes in sucrose-to-starch conversion in the sink organ, and consequently, increase assimilate unloading ability and starch synthesis in grain, which reveals the mechanism in which ABA regulates assimilate remobilization and grain-filling.

This project has yielded 37 SCI papers. Eight representative papers have been cited 666 times (excluding the citations of authors) in SCI database, and 905 times in Web of Science, and have received positive evaluations from scholars worldwide. Principal investigators of the project have been invited to make 14 presentations in international conferences. This project obtains three national invention patents and won the First-class Prize of Natural Science Award from the Ministry of Education in 2015.

Jianchang Yang (Yangzhou University)

Mechanism and pathological modulation of intracellular Ca2+ signals

Calcium is a prototypical and universal intracellular messenger, regulating most biological processes, from fertilization to cell cycle, from gene expression to protein modification and from muscle contraction to neural plasticity. Abnormal calcium dynamics and handling underlies most diseases. The most important question of calcium signaling is why a simple ion has so many important functions. As a continued effort in answering this key question, this project has been focused on the spatiotemporal patterning, regulatory mechanisms and pathological remodeling of intracellular calcium signals. 

  We discovered highly localized microdomains of intracellular calcium, dubbed “calcium flickers” from the IP3 receptors in fibroblasts and “calcium nanosparks” from the ryanodine receptors (RyR) in cardiomyocytes, which are fundamental units of calcium signals controlling cell migration and cardiomyocyte contraction, respectively. 

  We found that the calcium signaling efficiency for L-type calcium channels (LCCs) to trigger RyR calcium sparks is regulated directly by the b-adrenergic PKA signaling pathway, and by the miR-24-junctophilin-2 (JP2) gene regulation system. The expression of JP2 controls the nanoscopic junctions between the LCC-residing T-tubules (TT) and the RyR-residing sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), and thus determines the efficiency of LCC-RyR signaling.

  We found that calcium signaling efficiency is decreased in failing heart cells due to disrupted TT-SR junctions. While up-regulation of miR-24 in heart failure decreased JP2 expression compromises the efficiency of spark generation, suppression of miR-24 protects the integrity of calcium signaling and effectively prevents the pathological development of heart failure. 

  These findings not only revealed fundamental mechanisms and molecular regulations of intracellular calcium signaling, but also have important medical implications. 

Shiqiang Wang (Peking University)

Functional glia-neuron coupling and ischemic neuroprotection

Stroke is the leading cause for mortality and diasblilty in China and around the world.Past research and neurotherapeutic clinical trials have targeted the molecular mechanisms of neuronal cell death during stroke, but this approach has uniformly failed and the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Recent researches suggest that brain function and dysfunction are manifested at the level of cell–cell signaling between neuronal, glial and vascular(neurovascular unit) elements. Astrocytes play an active role in the pathoglical process of stroke and are the promising novel targes for stroke treatment. In this project, we extensively studied the signaling and functional coupling between neurons and astrocytes during normal and ischemic conditions supported by several national grants. The main findings are listed as the following:
1. It is found that glial cells regulate nerve activity and cell migration via releasing ATP by lysosomes and promoting Ca2 + diffusion wave. We provides the first in vivo evidence showing that the impairment of working memory by marijuana and cannabinoids is due to the activation of astroglial CB1R and is associated with astroglia-dependent hippocampal LTD in vivo and reveal novel mechanistic views of the role of astrocytes in learning and memory processes and of the memory-disruptive effects of marijuana intoxication..
2. We found that ischemia induced gliosis and glia scar formation determine the micro environment for neuronal damage and repair. Regulation of the cell cycle can reduce neuronal apoptosis and glial scar formation. Suppressing the cell cycle by specific inhibitors or dominant negative strategies may constitute potential therapeutic methods in neurological disorders including ischemic stroke.
3. We revealed the gap junctional coupling properties between astrocytes under normal and ischemic conditions. Astroglial GJC plays a significant role in MCAO-induced remote hippocampal damage and cognitive impairment. Our results suggest that manipulating GJC could be a new target in protecting stroke patients
The project have published 125 papers in SCI. The 8 representative papers were published in Cell, Nature cell biology, Ann Neurol, Prog Neurobiology, Stroke and other top international journals, with a total impact factor of 99.215, which were cited 523 times, and one of them was cited 217 times. Key findings are highlighted and reviewed in Nature Rev Neurosci, Nature Neurosci and etc. And they were cited multiple times in Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, Lancet, JAMA, Nature Medicine and other top journals (IF> 20 citations, 15; IF > 10 papers cited 38 times). The editor of "Prog Neurobiology" invited Professor Wang Wei writing a review on neural cell cycle dysregulation and central nervous system diseases which was published as a cover article. Part of the research results have been written in the teaching material for long term medical students. Our results were reported by over 150 international media including BBC, Nature、Science、Scientific American. Main staff organized 3 major international meetings, 20 special reports at the International Congress, served as President of the International Congress for 8 times. Project team members includes 1 Chinese Academician of Sciences, 2 National distinguished young scientists, 1 Changjiang scholars, 2 chief scientists of 973 project. Two of us received the National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Award, one First prize of Natural Science in Hubei Province and one first prize of Natural Sciences of Ministry of Education.

Wei Wang (Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science&Technology)

Molecular Interaction Mechanisms on HIV and Host Native Defensive Factors

There are series of natural host defense factors in human bodies, such as APOBEC3 family (A3) and SAMHD1, which have been discovered and identified during the process of AIDS research. Although its genetic organization is simple, encoding only three structure proteins and seven non-structure proteins, HIV-1/2 could break through the host immune defense system and has become one of the severe infectious diseases threatening human health. Hence, the researches on the interaction mechanism of viruses and the hosts have been the international concern for several decades. Our project has been focusing on the molecular interaction mechanism of HIV and host native immune system for the last two decades, and we have published 239 academic papers on SCI journals with the total citation being 7898. The following are the main original achievements:

1. The revelation of the molecular mechanism on HIV-1 Vif inducing the degradation of A3 proteins through host E3 ubiquitin ligase. The research finding proves that HIV-1 Vif degrades A3 through ubiquitin-proteasome by utilizing the host proteins, which reveals the replication mechanism of HIV virus by escaping from the host defense factors from a brand-new perspective. The discovery was published on Science, with SCI paper cited for 666 times by other people and recommended by the Faculty of 1000 as “Recommended”. The subsequent researches prove this mechanism is of universality and communality in the field of interaction of viruses and hosts. 

2. The revelation of the regulatory function of host transcription factor CBFβ on Vif-induced formation of E3 complex, which has been puzzling virologists for decades. The Chief Editor of Nat Rev Microbiol has reviewed this paper as “the research finding is of significant contribution to the HIV research field”. The study was published on Nature, and has been selected by the Faculty of 1000. The research furthers the study of Vif function precision mechanism, and makes the resolution of crystal structure of Vif complex possible, which solves the long-lasting problem of Vif protein complex crystal.

3. The discovery and naming of Vpx of HIV, as well as the essentialness of Vpx in virus replication in macrophage. The research was published on Nature, J Virol., etc. The pioneering researches on the function of Vpx were selected as one of the top-10 researches in the field of Life Sciences and Medicine by Thomson Reuters Corporation in 2013. In 2013, we resolved the crystal structure of SAMHD1, and proved that the tetramer formation is essential for all the known activities of SAMHD1 (Nat Commun.)；we discovered SAMHD1 as a potent suppressor against endogenous retroelements, which is associated with innate immune regulation (Cell Rep.)，and the research paper was published in the “Select” Column of Cell.

4. The discovery of major HIV strains circulating in southern China, CRF01_AE and CRF08_BC, with the latter the major HIV strain in China until now. The research findings have been published on Lancet and J Virol.. We set up the first AIDS patient matrix based on injective drug users, and monitored the circulation status and mutagenesis of HIV in China, both of which provide critical theoretical basis for the development of anti-HIV vaccine and drugs.

The overall impact factor of the 8 representative papers is 123.439, and the non-self SCI citation of these papers is 1313, among which 74 citations are from world-top journals like Nature, Cell, Science, Lancet, JAMA, and their sub-journals. The first achiever, Prof. Xiao-Fang Yu has been invited as the Keynote speaker by such international academic conferences as the Cold Spring Harbor, Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), etc. Achievements of this project have been widely paid attention to, cited, and evaluated by experts in the field like Profs. Stephen P. Goff (member of the National Academy of Science, USA), David Ho (Chinese American expert on AIDS,), Michael H. Malim (Chair of Department of Infectious Diseases, King’s College London, UK). The project has been awarded the First-Class Award in Nature Science for Outstanding Achievements in Scientific Research in Colleges and Universities by the Ministry of Education.

Xiaofang Yu (Jilin university)

Theory and Methods of High-Efficiency and High-Maneuverability Control for Biomimetic Robotic Fish

This project belongs to the discipline of “Robotic Control”.

This project focuses on how to apply the fish swimming propulsive modes to the design and control of robotic fish, and propose theory and methods of modeling and control for biomimetic robotic fish, which provide key theory and methods for the development of novel high-efficient, low-noise, high-maneuverable aquatic propulsion systems. The main scientific contributions are listed as follows:

1. The fish swimming oriented “base wave” concept is first proposed and applied to systematically describe the fish body’s cyclic shape changing motion. A novel fish body wave model and propulsive control method are creatively built, which achieve stable swimming propulsion for a class of multi-joint biomimetic robotic fish. The proposed fish swimming theories are well verified by self-developed robotic fish.

2. The “C-curve” based dynamic trajectory tracking control is first proposed to achieve highly maneuverable turns. An intelligent control framework is established for complex, 3D maneuvers. Typical maneuvers such as submerging, depth maintaining, fast start, snap turn and turning are demonstrated. In particular, the flipping motion and the jumping-out-of-water motion are first implemented on the physical robotic fish series.

3. An optimal index is proposed for the multi-linkage biomimetic robotic fish, and the thrust description is derived under the stable swimming condition. An optimization method based on a delayed neural network is proposed, and its global exponential stability condition is proved. Therefore, the goal of improving swimming performance of the robotic fish through the optimal mechanical system design is achieved.

4. The cooperative control framework and mechanisms for multiple biomimetic robotic fishes based on local information sensing and limited communication are established. Within this framework, a neural network based distributed robust adaptive control method is proposed, and its necessary and sufficient condition for system consensus are proved. Cooperative tasks like formation, transportation, and monitoring are demonstrated.

The number of SCI (SCI+CPCI-S) non-self citations of 8 representative papers is 485 (675). These citation papers are published in the leading academic journals such as IEEE Transactions on Robotics. At the same time, the international peers (include more than 30 IEEE Fellows) who cited our papers are with world renowned universities and institutes like MIT. Furthermore, 3 books were published. 30 patents were granted. One outstanding doctoral thesis prize of Chinese Academy of Sciences and one outstanding doctoral thesis prize of Beijing were awarded. Our robotic fish was applied for researches by University of Hamburg, Deakin University, University of Glamorgan, etc. One achiever was awarded the academic leader of “Innovation Group” project of NSFC. Two achievers of this project were awarded the “NSFC Distinguished Young Scholars”. One achiever of this project was awarded the “NSFC Excellent Young Scholars”. This project has received the 2013 Science and Technology First-Class Award of Beijing (Basic Research Category).

Min Tan (Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Theory and Methods of Coded Mixing Imaging and Computational Reconstruction 

High-resolution (HR) Imaging has many significant applications in defense security, remote sensing, and medical imaging, etc. In conventional imaging techniques, the imaging resolution is mainly determined by the resolution of the detectors and the bandwidth of the detected signals. However, due to the fact that it is rather difficult to produce the HR detectors and impossible to use broadband signals for far-field detection, the HR imaging and detecting is a very challenging task puzzled academy a long time. As an important research direction, it is promising to reconstruct HR images from its LR observations exploiting the prior knowledge of natural images. One of the fundamental problems, which puzzles academy a long time, is how to design robust imaging systems, reveal the mechanisms of effective reconstructions, and build HR image reconstruction models. 
  This project was sponsored by National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and 863 Project. After more than 10 years’ research, this project clarified the mechanisms of HR imaging using LR detectors, revealed the computing properties adaptive to spatial-temporal structures, discovered the principles adaptive to perceptual differences, and proposed computational reconstruction models adaptive to multi-subspaces sparse structures. The major scientific discoveries include: 
  1. Coded Mixing Imaging – We have clarified the mechanisms of HR imaging using LR detectors and revealed the principles of coded mixing imaging and HR image reconstruction. The proposed methods enhance the resolution limits of conventional imaging and achieve HR images without the use of HR detectors. 
  2. Structured Image Representation – We have clarified the compact representations for distinctive image structures and textures and revealed the mechanism of using local subspaces for compact representation. We have also proposed structured representation methods based on sparse subspaces selection and discovered the computing relationships for sparse subspaces learning by exploiting self-similarities. Finally, we have built new compact image representation frameworks using subspaces selection. 
  3. Comutational Image Reconstruction – We have clarified the effects of compact image representations on HR image reconstruction and revealed the law of recovering the HR image from LR images. We have also discovered the mechanisms of structured sparsity prior learning and representation and proposed model driven image reconstruction methods, achieving robust and accurate HR image reconstructions. 
Our works have been highly praised by international peers, including Prof. T. Huang and Prof. S. Osher. The local subspaces learning method adapted to local image structures is commented as one of effective and optimal dictionary learning methods. Structured sparse prior learning is commented as one of the most effective structured sparse coding approaches. The model driven HR image reconstruction method is commented as one of the most impressive image reconstruction methods. Based on the above discoveries, we have developed robust spectral imaging systems for nano-satellites and earth observation applications. 
Two representative papers are selected as ESI 0.1% hot papers, and two representative papers are selected as ESI 1% highly cited papers. The 8 representative papers has been non-self cited 639 times by SCI (902 times by Web of Science), and 1976 times by Google Scholar. One among of them has got total 217 non-self citations by SCI and 610 citations by Google Scholar. The first achiever was selected as “Chung Kong” scholar chair Professor of ministry of education of China. The second achiever received NSFC fund for excellent young scholars. The first achiever was the organize chair of 90th MPEG & 50th JPEG international standard conferences in 2009. The second achiever is an associate editor of IEEE Trans. Image Processing and SIAM Journal on Imaging Sciences. Some achievements have been awarded “the first prize in Shaanxi province science and technology award” in 2013.

Guang ming Shi (Xidian University)

Analysis and Control of Networked Dynamic Systems 

With the increasing expansion of industrial manufacturing systems, massive amounts of physical devices are connected into dynamically evolutionary networks by various means of communication. Through real-time interactions, numerous individual nodes form a networked dynamic system. New theories and novel approaches need to be developed accordingly since the traditional control theory and methods cannot fit in with the increasing complexity of networked dynamic systems.
 This project was supported by one National Natural Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholar and several other funds from National Natural Science Foundations of China, and has been accomplished by more than 10-year team collaboration formed by the natural relationship of supervisor and students. In the aspects of node dynamics, dynamic performance, structural attribute, and network effects, several fundamental problems in the coordination control of networked dynamic systems have been deeply investigated and some major breakthroughs have been achieved. The outcomes of the project provide fundamental theories and original techniques for further development of the coordination control of networked dynamic systems.
1) Complex Node Dynamics and Dynamic Performances of Networked Dynamic Systems: Two classes of practical system structures have been proposed. Distributed control protocols have been designed to solve the corresponding coordination control problems and their convergences have been rigorously proved. Furthermore, the finite-time consensus problems have been solved, which reveal the relationship between convergence times and algebraic connectivity of communication topologies.
2) Structural Attribute of Networked Dynamic Systems: A series of new concepts and tools including the reachable state set of switching sequence, the concatenation of switching sequences have been proposed. The quantitative relationship has been established between the reachable state set of the concatenation of two switching sequences and those of the two switching sequences. Then, a switching sequence that generates the controllable state space of the whole system is constructed. By using the concept of column space, cyclic invariant subspace and the geometric space method, some controllability criteria in more general forms have been established, which show that the link weights of communication topologies have an important effect on the controllability of networked dynamic systems.
3) Network Effects in Networked Dynamic Systems: A class of local control protocols for networked dynamic systems have been designed in the presence of time-varying network effects. For discrete-time networked dynamic systems, a criterion for the consensus has been established by the state augmentation method. For continuous-time networked dynamic systems, several feasible LMI conditions for the consensus have been established by introducing a tree-type transformation.
4) Sampled-data Control of Networked Dynamic Systems: A protocol-designing scheme for sampled-data control of networked dynamic systems has been presented. It has been proved that the designed protocol can solve the consensus problem in the case of bounded time-varying delays and time-varying directed networks, which reveals the intrinsic connection between the asynchronous consensus control of networked dynamic systems and the network-induced delays.

Long Wang (Peking University)

Fabrication, Surface/Interface Engineering and Device Applications of Semiconductor Nanostructures

The achievement of this project belongs to the frontier of semiconductor materials and devices in information science. The semiconductor nano technology is the information electronics development Moore era of nanostructured materials involves the only way which must be passed, controllable growth, surface / interface electronic state control and device fabrication and manufacturing, research and solve these complex and challenging scientific matters will lay a scientific foundation for the implementation and application of nano devices.Controlled growth, integration and device application of semiconductor nanostructures is one of the most advanced problems in the field, and has significant scientific and application value. With the support of several national key projects, a systematic research on the relationship among nanostructure, properties and device applications of semiconductors was carried in depth. We established the research strategy of regulating surface states, interface states, and doping state of low dimensional nanostructured materials, and improved device performance with new ideas and new methods. We focused on the development of controlled nanostructure synthesis, assembly, and device applications. The project developed several prototype devices, such as large area nanowire photoelectric device, two dimensional atomic-crystal field effect transistor, and highly sensitive sensor. The main scientific innovations are as follows:.
1. We developed several general novel preparation method of one-dimensional nanostructures, such as the self-remove template method and nano cleavage principle upon stress. We demonstrated the effects of the state density localization of nanowires on their thermoelectric conversion and quantum transport properties; observed quantum transport phenomena of single electron transport and Kondo effect in high-quality graphene nanoribbons and provide the experimental basis for the development of graphene quantum devices; proposed the method of constructing self-adaptive assembly and lateral electrode structure of nanowires photoelectric devices, and developed large area highly sensitive Uv-vis sensor based on nanowire arrays. Relative papers were published in Nature Nanotech., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Adv. Mater., etc.. The cover highlighted paper in Adv. Mater. is the first one from mainland of china.
2. We revealed the intrinsic relationships between surface/interface states and electron transport properties of 2D atomic crystals. We found that the a large number of sulfur vacancy defects on molybdenum disulfide, and revealed the carrier transport dependence on the vacancy defects and charge trap, and proposed novel in situ repair method of sulfur vacancy defects, and opened up a new approach for device property breakthrough, thereby predicted the roadmap for improving device performance. The papers was published in Nature Commun., APL, etc., and cited by the Nobel laureate Prof A.K.Geim on Nature. The representative paper 3 was ranking first as the APL citation King in 2012-2013.
3. According to the features of organic semiconductors, we developed new strategies for doping control of nanostructured polymer semiconductors and device applications, and developed noval structures for break the performance limitations. The invention of the multi-dimension structured polymer semiconductor hydrogels was reputed as "the debut, hydrogel Electronics" by Physics World. Several prototype devices was develop thereafter, such as highly sensitive biosensors and high performance energy storage device. Relative papers were published in PNAS, Adv.Fun.Mater., ACS Nano, etc…
This project published 234 SCI papers, including 2 articles on Nature sub-journals. The 8 representative papers (including 4 ESI highly cited papers) were cited more than 1261 times by SCI articles, and were widely cited by Nature and sub journals of Nature and other famous journals. The project authorized 1 U.S. patents and 10 national invention patents. The PIs were invited to give keynote and specially-invited reports in domestic and international academic conference for over 50 times. The project has won the first-class prize of science and technology progress in Jiangsu in 2016.

Yi Shi (Nanjing University)

Foundational Theory and System Design for Model Predictive Control

This project belongs to the field of applied basic research for automation technology. Model predictive control is a kind of heuristic optimization control method which was originated in 1970's. It has been widely studied by international academic and industrial community from the beginning. Since 1984, the project team has carried out continuous and systematic research in the branch of model predictive control. They have obtained systematic and innovative research results, which lead the development of model predictive control in China. The project team also brings up a lot of researchers, who make the new contributions on the theory, principles and methods of model predictive control. The main contributions of the project include: 
1) Propose three basic principles of predictive control, i.e. prediction model, rolling optimization and feedback correction, and further extend them to solve the complex general control problems such as scheduling, path planning etc. in uncertain dynamic environment. 
2) The stability analysis and whole synthesis method of robust model predictive control for nonlinear and uncertain systems are proposed. 
3) Propose the design method of distributed model predictive control based on neighborhood optimization, and develop the theory and method of coordinated optimal control of large-scale system under network information mode. 
Based on the self-directed academic thinking, the project puts forward and develops the principle of predictive control based on cybernetics and information theory implicated in the predictive control algorithm, and successfully applied it to Bao steel laminar cooling system. Most of the results are first presented in the world and with a high degree of originality and advanced nature, which pioneer and lead the domestic predictive control theory research and application developments. The achievements have won Shanghai Natural Science Award (the first prize) in 2003 and 2006, Chinese Association of Automation natural science Award (the first prize) in 2016. The results have the independent intellectual property rights. The project team has published six academic books, more than 300 papers. Therein, 239 papers are published in high-level SCI international journal, including 18 papers in IEEE, IFAC journals. The total SCI citations are more than 1200 times, and the total SCI citations for the eight representative papers are 268 times. The citations come from Prof. Christofides (IEEE Fellow, AAAS Fellow, American Automatic Control Council Director), Chai Tianyou, Sun Youxian, and Gui Weihua (Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering) and so on.

Yugeng Xi (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

Fundamental research on the synthesis and applications of high-quality graphene materials

Graphene has attracted increasing interest since 2004 because of its unique structure, many fascinating properties and promising applications. The properties of graphene materials strongly depend on their structure such as the number of layers, defects, grain size, and functional groups. Therefore, the synthesis of high-quality graphene materials with controlled structures is essentially important not only for fundamental studies but also for technological applications. Since 2007, we have systematically studied the synthesis of high-quality graphene materials by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and chemical exfoliation, and explored their potential applications in energy storage, composites, optoelectronics, etc. 

 Until the end of 2013, more than 40 peer-reviewed papers have been published in Nat Mater, Nat Commun, PNAS, Adv Mater, JACS, etc. and 16 patents have been granted. Drs. Wencai Ren and Hui-Ming Cheng (the first two achievers) have been invited to write a “News and Views” editorial for Nature in 2013 and a Commentary article entitled The Global Growth of Graphene for Nat Nanotechnol in 2014. The 8 representative papers shown in the Part III (Publications) have been cited 4,464 times by others (Web of Science) in Science, Nature, Nat Mater, Nat Nanotechnol, Adv Mater, Chem Soc Rev, Prog Mater Sci, etc. The related main discoveries are summarized as follows:

(1) We have invented a template-directed CVD method for the synthesis of a novel graphene foam macrostructure with a three-dimensional (3D) interconnected network (Nat Mater, 2011, 1185 citations), and demonstrated its use in high-performance elastic conductors (Nat Mater, 2011, 1185 citations) and flexible lightweight electromagnetic interference shielding materials (Adv Mater, 2013, 262 citations). The Nature Mater paper has been highlighted by Nature, Nature China, and NPG Asia Materials, and this method has been widely used by many research groups.

(2) We have developed an ambient-pressure CVD method with Pt as the substrate to achieve the growth of millimetre-size hexagonal single-crystal graphene domains (Nature Commun, 2012, 355 citations), and found the edge-dependent growth kinetics of graphene (PNAS, 2013, 42 citations). Moreover, we have developed a universal nondestructive electrochemical H2 bubbling method to transfer CVD-grown graphene to arbitrary substrates (Nature Commun, 2012, 355 citations; invention patents granted by China, US, Europe, and Japan), which allows the repeated use of the metal growth substrates. 

(3) We have designed and fabricated a series of graphene sheet/metal oxide nanoparticle composite electrode materials to greatly improve the performance of lithium ion batteries and supercapacitors, and elucidated the synergistic effect between the graphene sheets and metal oxides in the composites (ACS Nano, 2010, 1206 citations; Adv Funct Mater, 2010, 540 citations).

(4) We have developed a hydrogen arc discharge exfoliation and reduction method for the synthesis of graphene sheets with excellent electrical conductivity and good thermal stability (ACS Nano, 2009, 311 citations). Moreover, a simple but highly-efficient hydrohalic acid reducing method has been invented to reduce graphene oxide films into highly conductive graphene films without destroying their integrity and flexibility based on a nucleophilic substitution reaction (Carbon, 2010, 563 citations), which has been widely used by many groups.

Wencai Ren (Institute of metal research, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Solar Materials and Photovoltaic Cells: Structure Design, Facile Fabrication and Solar Conversion

This project belongs to the interdisciplinary field of inorganic nonmetallic materials.

High performance materials forphotovoltaic conversionare key technology for solar cell design and construction. These materials are the basis for one of the most promising technological advances to utilize solar energy. It is a tremendous challenge to design the structure and optimize its property for materials to break through the scientific conundrum of wide-spectrum absorption and rapid separation of the charge carriers. In this project, systematic investigations of structure-performance relations and packing factor have been conducted to address these mutual restriction factors.

Based on innovative strategies, this project has designed and prepared high performance novel photovoltaic materials with wide-spectrum absorption, rapid separation of the charge carriers and high transparency correlated with high electronic conductivity. On this basis, a series of high performance photovoltaic materials were developed for photocatalysis and solar cell applications. A pilot-scale product line of CuInGaSe2 (CIGS) has been built in SICCAS. The technology of material synthesis and device fabrication has been transferred to a commercial company. The primary discoveries of this project are briefly summarized below:

1) New Concept for Design of Multifunctional Compounds. We have discovered a rule of Similar Atoms Gathering Together (SAGT) and proposed a new principle of dual structural functional units for designing multifunctional compounds. On the basis of this, a series of p-type transparent conductors were synthesized whose performance is much better than the compounds reported in the literature. We have also discovered a simple but universal model, i.e., that of crystal packing factor (PF), to evaluate the properties of photovoltaic materials especially for photocatalysis.

2) Novel Design for Wide-Spectrum Absorption and Rapid Separation of Charge Carriers. According to the model of packing factor, we have discovered a new composite structure, i.e. <n-type semiconductor I |Semimetal|n-type semiconductor II>, which enables promotion of wide-spectrum absorption of solar spectrum and rapid separation of charge carriers in photovoltaic conversion materials.

3) New Preparation Method for Complex System Using Reverse SAGT. Utilizing the reverse of SAGT, i.e., dissimilar atoms do not gather together, we have discovered that auto-aggregation of atoms of metastable materialsis beneficial for improving single phase products. This rule turned out to be a universal principle. This principle was used to prepare high efficient CIGS (Cu/In/Ga/Se) solar cells.

4) Novel Technology of CIGS Devices by Non-Vacuum Liquid Method. Focusing on low-cost and large-scale production of CIGS solar cells, we have discovered a novel technology, i.e., a non-vacuum liquid method, to prepare CIGS thin films and to fabricate solar cells; we have also proposed strategies to synthesize indium-free back electrode, boron-doped graphene with matching work function, and indium-free front ZnO:Al electrode. Accordingly, high performance CIGS solar cells have been fabricated to obtain an efficiency of 16.6% as confirmed by a third-party inspection. A pilot-scale product line of CIGS solar cells has been built in SICCAS. The technologyof the preparations of the materials and devices has been transferred to a commercial company.

The above discoveries have promoted the development of materials for photovoltaic conversion, and have been highly regarded by international fellow scientists. This project has published 118 SCI papers in the journals of Adv. Mater., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Energy Environ. Sci., and Adv. Funct. Mater.etc. Moreover, eight representative papers have been cited 1505 times with an average impact fact of 15.847, and six papers have been ESI highly cited. A single paper has the highest citation of 539 times. Thus far, 58 invention patents have been authorized. Prof. Fuqiang Huang has obtained the China National Funds for Distinguished Young Scientists. This project was awarded the First Prize of Natural Science of Shanghai City in 2016.

Fuqiang Huang (Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Intrinsic versus extrinsic size effect on strengthening and toughening of metallic materials at micro/nano scales

This project belongs to the field of materials science.
Increasing simultaneously strength and ductility/toughness is an eternal theme and key point in metals. With the progress of technologies, both the internal microstructural features controlling the mechanical properties of metals and the external size of metals used in micro/nano-devices have been reduced to the micro/nano-scales, similar to dislocations and twins. The mechanical properties, usually regarded as relying only on the internal microstructures, are now strong external size dependent. In this project, we have discovered a number of coupling internal and external size effects on the deformation, which may provide new strategy for strengthening/toughening metals. The key findings are:
1. We discovered strong sample size effect on twinning behaviors in micro/nano-sized metallic single-crystals. The deformation mechanism is changed from twinning-dominated to dislocation slip-dominated at the size of about one micron-meter. Consequently the maximum flow stress touches the ideal strength, with substantial compressive plasticity remained. Prof. Kraft, the president of MRS of United States, commented in the column “News & Views” of Nature Materials that “Intuitively, one might imagine that there is no size effect for twinning of a small single crystal. However, Yu et al. show that the opposite is true”.
2. We proposed a multi-scale model to describe the coupling effect of multi-scale second phase particles on the ductility/fracture toughness of industrial alloys. Following this model, both the strength and the ductility/toughness of alloys can be simultaneously improved, in particular by controlling the intragranular nanoparticle-dislocation interactions to enhance the work hardening of ultrafine grained alloys. In the column “News & Views” of Nature Materials, Prof. Valiev, a member of The Academy of Europe, commented that “a more efficient nanostructuring route that simultaneously enhances the strength and ductility”.
3. We established a micromechanics model and revealed the coupling effect of internal modulation structure and external sample size on the strengthening and toughening of nanostructured multilayer film micropillars. A superhigh strength over the ideal strength of constituent layer as well as considerable compressive plasticity were found in the submicron crystalline Cu/amorphous CuZr micropillars with 10 nm layer thickness, which were commented as “can fundamentally alter the mechanical behavior, and have demonstrated the sought-after combination of high strength and improved tensile elongation that has eluded equiaxed nanocrystalline metals for over a decade” by an Acta Materialia Paper. 
Our eight representative papers are all published in first-class journals such as Nature and Nature Materials, and received more than 425 citations by our peers in SCI journals. Of the eight papers, two are selected as ESI highly cited papers, and one is awarded as one of the “Most influential 100 papers in China”. Some of them are incorporated into 3 Springer and Cambridge University Press books. Over 30 invited talks are delivered in international conferences. Our major achievements are featured 2 times in Nature Materials, and also in the journals of Nanotoday, NPG Asia, and Nature China. Some of the achievements are awarded the “Top Ten achievements in Science and Technology of Chinese Universities in 2010”.

Jun Sun (Xi'an Jiaotong University)

Function regulation, crystal growth and giant magnetostrain properties of advanced magnetoelastic materials

Magnetoelastic materials are a new class of strategic functional materials, including magnetostrictive alloys and magnetic shape memory alloys. Magnetoelastic materials play important roles in the defense and civilian high-tech fields. However, the development of high performance magnetoelastic materials are hindered by the traditional homogeneous magnetoelastic mechanism and non-faceted solidification theories. Since 2001, this project has systematically investigated new mechanisms of function regulation of magnetoelastic materials, new material design, and high-performance crystal growth. Important scientific discoveries are as follow:

1. Tetragonal nanoheterogeneities were observed in FeGa magnetostrictive alloys. New mechanism of nanoheterogeneous magnetostriction effect was proposed, which was completely different from the traditional homogeneous magnetostriction effect. Along with this mechanism, by doping slight amount (0.2at%) of rare earth element Tb to couple with the nanoheterogeneities, new FeGaTb giant magnetostrictive alloys were developed, the magnetostriction of which was five times larger than the maximum value previously reported in FeGa alloys.

2. Phenomenon of "coupling phase transition" was discovered between the first-order martensitic transformation and the second-order magnetic transition. The subsequent magnetic field-induced martensitic transformation and the accompanied multiple functionalities were all based on this scientific discovery. Idea of "isostructural alloying" was proposed and the coupling transition was realized over wide temperature window of 70-350K.

3. The effect of valence electronic concentration on the martensitic transformation temperatures of magnetic shape memory alloys was revealed. New systems of Mn2NiGa with high Curie temperature, Fe2MnGa with high saturation magnetization, and Ni2FeGa with high ductility were proposed. New system of Ni-rich NiMnGa high temperature shape memory alloys were proposed, the shape memory effect and thermal stability of which were the highest as already reported.

4. Phenomenon of multiple preferential orientations were observed during the faceted crystal growth of the above two kinds of magnetoelastic materials. The formation mechanisms of different orientations were revealed. An equation was proposed to describe controlling of the solid-liquid interface. Theories of faceted crystal growth were developed.

Based on the above scientific discoveries, series of high-performance magnetoelastic crystals were successful grown and have realized important applications in the development of acoustic vibration of oil-assisted mining system and deep-water transducer. It was evaluated that "enhancing recovery by 7.14%, which will become an important technical method to further improve waterflooding oil recovery for high water cut oil fields" and "has been successfully applied to China's deepest potential deep-water transducer development".

This project has published 152 SCI papers, including 5 in Acta Mater, 1 in Nature Commun, 1 in Adv Mater, 13 in Phys Rev B, and 60 in Appl Phys Lett. The listed 8 representative papers have been cited 757 times by Acta Mater, Nature Mater, Phys Rev Lett, Mater Sci Eng R and other SCI journals. The highest citation number was 175 for a single paper. Three papers were selected as the ESI highly-cited papers. This project was highly evaluated by famous scientists over the world, including Prof. E. Quandt from the German Science and Technology Academy, Prof. A. Lapdev from the Sweden Royal Science Academy, and five academicians of China. Our group contains one National Outstanding PhD, one Outstanding PhD of the China Academy of Sciences, one National Outstanding Young Scholars, one Changjiang Scholar of the Ministry of Education, one leading talent of the Central Organization Department. Part work of this project won the first prize of the Ministry of education of natural science.

Chengbao Jiang (Beihang University)

Theories and methods for multiphase flow, mass transfer and energy transport, storage and conversion in solar photocatalytic hydrogen production 

Hydrogen is the most promising and high-quality clean energy in 21st Century. Via solar photocatalytic hydrogen production, solar energy can be converted into and stored by hydrogen energy with high efficiency, low cost in a clean and large scale way. It provides ideal option for fossil fuel supply and the pollution problems of its combustion. As estimated by the US DOE, 5-10% conversion efficiency of solar to hydrogen ensures the technology industrialization. However, solar energy has low density and is dispersion and intermittence. A large increase in conversion efficiency of solar light is the core research goal, but also a world-class challenge and hot issue. The key scientific problems are the collection, transfer and conversion mechanism of non-steady solar radiation in the hydrogen production reaction system and the spatial-temporal multi-scale matching rule of energy and mass flow in continuous multiphase flow hydrogen production in chemical reaction under multi-physics coupled field. By studying the energy and mass flow and transportation, conversion and reaction and their inter-matching mechanism in the whole transportation and conversion process for solar to hydrogen energy from three levels of reaction system-interface-catalyst particles, the project put forward new theories and methods to improve the efficiency of solar hydrogen conversion, forming the designing theory for multiphase flow and continuous reaction instrument for photocatalytic hydrogen production under direct solar light. The main points of the project include:1) The mechanism of energy and mass flow, transport, storage and conversion in the solar photocatalytic hydrogen production system was revealed, and coupling of gradient distribution of catalyst particles and heterogeneous reaction flow was found to effectively promote the absorption, storage and conversion of solar light. It was found that bubble can strengthen the light absorption and promote hydrogen bubble nucleation. The correlation and coupling rules between radiation and the reaction flow were illustrated which solves the problem of low energy transport and conversion efficiency in photocatalytic system. The discovery was evaluated as “few”, “industrial” potential and “important for understanding and the initial applications in photocatalysis”; 2) The enhancement theory for energy and mass storage and transport at liquid-solid interface during solar photocatalytic hydrogen production is put forward. The effect that multi-scattering of photons at interface of the reaction liquid and the catalyst particles can enhance solar energy storage was found. The multi-point synergistic mechanism for energy transport and conversion at phase interface was clarified. New ideas were put forward to reduce the interface resistance for energy transfer and promote the selective conversion of reactants by controlling the interface microscale structure, solving the problem of low solar absorption, high resistance and low conversion at solid-liquid interface in hydrogen production process. It was evaluated as “only”, “provide an imperative for understanding…the microstructure of the…interface” and a “general strategy”; 3) The design theory of continuous flow photocatalytic hydrogen production system under direct solar light was established, realizing the enhancement in energy and mass absorption, transfer and conversion. It proposed a new concept of coexistence of two phases, successfully finding and preparing the twin homojunction catalyst and clarifying the enhancing mechanism of collection, absorption, migration and conversion of photons into transition energy of electrons within the particles by twin homojunction. It was found that 1D long-range ordered twin homojunction can greatly strengthen the photogenerated charge migration and separation. It also revealed the rules of continuous adjustment of the wide spectral response by changing the composition and thus the band structures of the catalysts. The ever existed problem of the low matching and exchanging efficiency between photocatalyst and aqueous solution was solved by hydrothermal method. Pilot and large scale demonstration systems for direct and continuous multiphase flow solar photocatalytic hydrogen production were successfully developed, achieving 6.6% of energy conversion efficiency using non-noble metal catalyst, which is the highest value reported and commercially available. The pilot demonstration was featured in the Newsroom by the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. It was evaluated as “typical”, “creative”, “resulted in a remarkable quantum yield”.
8 representative papers have been cited by 1113 times without self-citation, and 6 of them are ranked in ESI. The project was awarded the 1st class of Shaanxi Science Technology Prize in 2016 and is expected to promote the formation of new interdisciplinary branch of multiphase flow photocatalytic physicochemistry.

Liejin Guo (Xi'an Jiaotong University)

Fire safety design and flame retardant mechanism of polymer/layered inorganic compound nanocomposites

Fire safety design and flame retardant mechanism of polymer/layered inorganic compound nanocomposites

Yuan Hu (University of Science and Technology of China)

Nonlinear modeling and vibration analysis of high-speed moving rigid flexible interaction systems

In the case of high-speed operation, contact, friction, meshing, and other factors make the nonlinear dynamic effects more prominent, which affects the rigid-flexible interaction system performance, exacerbates the wear failure, and even adversely affects the safety, stability and reliability. Rigid-flexible interaction systems exhibit high-dimensional, time-varying and non-smooth characteristics, and its modeling, analysis, and control is an international frontier scientific problem. The research provides a systematic and in-depth study on the dynamic modeling, analysis, and control of the high speed rigid-flexible interaction systems. The major scientific findings and values are included.

1. The viscous and non-Newtonian properties of MR fluids lead to difficulties in modeling and analysis. The research proposed the hyperbolic hysteresis model of magneto-rheological actuator, and reveal the influence of time delay on the periodic response of semi-active control system. It is found that the path from quasi-periodic motion to chaotic motion through quasi-periodic ring’s break up in the nonlinear hysteretic vehicle suspension system, which provides a theoretical basis and technical support for the analysis and control of the rigid-flexible interaction system.

2. The research presents a dynamic model of the coupling vibration of a flexible body in high speed motion, and unifies two classical mainstream models of a flexible body. The conserved quantity of the conserved quantity is found, and the stability condition is established based on the conserved quantity. The problem of stability analysis due to mass transfer at the boundary is overcome.

3. A non-linear tire model considering road vibration is proposed, and a 3D rigid-flexible interaction model is established, and a dynamic frame of vehicle-road interaction is established. The research also reveals the inherent mechanism of the ultra-high-dimensional modal convergence due to the frequencies being close to each other, which provides feasible criterion for an accurate numerical simulation of large-scale systems. The research finds out the law of vehicle-road interaction and verifies it through field test, which leads the technical breakthrough of vehicle and road dynamic design.

  Eight representative works were cited by others 721 times. Representative 4 declared as a "pioneering" work by the United States TRB Vehicle-Road Interaction Committee, and received the "Outstanding Contribution Award". In 2013, representative 8 was selected by ASME as the second of the 10 most cited papers in the Journal of Acoustic and Vibration. Prof. J.W. Zu, an academician of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, believes that the research is "a challenging subject". Prof. O. Sename, Grenoble Institute of Technology, France, listed the magneto-rheological damper model proposed by representative 1 as one of the "most important works" of the MR damper. Prof. J. Lozoya-Santos of the University of Monterrey, Spain, believes that the model proposed in the research is one of the five "most important" MR damping models.

  The research received the first class prize of Natural Science of the Hebei Province in 2009. It has been applied to the Daguang Expressway for the dynamic performance monitoring, road dynamics research and linear optimization, reducing the road degradation by 30%. The developed MRF suspension test is effective.

Shaopu Yang (Shijiazhuang Tiedao University)

New remediation methodology for lake wetland contaminated by recalcitrant organic compounds and heavy metals using functional nanomaterials and microorganisms

The project, aiming at the domestic and international research hotspot and difficulties of recalcitrant organic compound and heavy metal pollution remediation, carried out the innovation research about new remediation methodology for lake wetland contaminated by recalcitrant organic compounds and heavy metals using functional nanomaterials and microorganisms. Some important scientific discoveries are listed as the following. 

    1. The project found that the magnetic nanomaterials modified by functional groups, such as hydroxyl and carboxyl etc., have good performance in the removal of recalcitrant organic compounds and heavy metals from water matrixes, such as compost extract, tail water of wastewater treatment plant, tail water of wetland, tail water of river and lake sediment, urban sewage, industrial wastewater, river and lake water, and are easy to separate. Based on these observations, this project synthesized a series of magnetic nanomaterials with high efficiency, low energy consumption as well as low cost for the removal of recalcitrant organic compounds and heavy metals from water. These materials were characterized, with the removal mechanisms, functional patterns and related optimum parameters found.

    2. The project found that the combination of functional microbes with nanomaterials and biomaterials can effectively degrade recalcitrant organic compounds and passivate heavy metal from compost extract, tail water of wastewater treatment plant, tail water of wetland, tail water of river and lake sediment, urban sewage, industrial wastewater, river and lake water, compost, sediment and wetland soil. The primary pathways for degradation of recalcitrant organic compounds and passivation of heavy metal include adsorption, ion exchange, complexation between pollutants and microbes or their metabolites, as well as adsorption among nanomaterials, related biomaterials and pollutants. Based on these findings, the project developed some theories, technologies and methods for degradation of recalcitrant organic compounds and passivation of heavy metals by combination of functional microbes with nanomaterials and related biomaterials.

    3. The project found that, under certain conditions, recalcitrant organic compounds and heavy metals can react with picloram antibodies, laccase, glucose oxidase, horseradish peroxidase, tyrosinase, thymine-rich single-stranded DNA, double stranded DNA and thiourea functionalized dyes by special recognitions, and generate current signals, potential signals, impedance signals, fluorescence signals, and so on. This project established the relationships between the concentrations of recalcitrant organic compounds and heavy metals and the related current signals, potential signals, impedance signals and fluorescence signals. Based on these findings, the project developed a series of nano-biochemical sensors with high efficiency, low energy consumption as well as low cost, for detection of recalcitrant organic compounds and heavy metals in compost extract, tail water of wastewater treatment plant, tail water of wetland, tail water of river and lake sediment, urban sewage, industrial wastewater, river and lake water, compost, sediment and wetland soil. 

    The project has totally published 108 high level papers in international journals with high impacts, including a Letter in Science (IF=34.611) (Zeng GM* et al. Science. 2013. 340 (6139):1403), and a Correspondence in Nature (IF=38.138) (GM Zeng* et al. Nature. 2013.499(7457):154). The project has been authorized 18 national invention patents. 8 representative papers have been cited, not including self-citation, 1460 times in SCI and 1969 times in total, in which the highest SCI citation of single paper was 360 times and 497 times in total. 

    Some world famous scientists fully confirmed the research work of this project, including Professor Lead in Univ of S Carolina of US (Environ Sci Tech (IF=5.393).2015. 49:11729), Professor Elimelech in Yal Univ of US (Chem Soc Rev (IF=34.090). 2015. 44: 5861), Professor Richard in Univ of Alberta of Canada (Chem Rev (IF=37.369). 2008. 108: 2646), Professor Vincent in Univ of Massachusetts of US (Chem Rev (IF=37.369). 2012. 112:2739), Professor HY Chen in Nanjing Univ of China (Chem Rev (IF=37.369). 2014. 114:11027), and so on. 

     Science (IF=34.611) highlighted the research work of this project two times (2003.301:279; 2016.351:135). 

     The research achievements have been applied in 51 practical projects related to wetland remediation in 15 provinces and cities in China.

     The project team was selected to be the Creative Research Group of the National Natural Science Foundation of China in 2015 (Remediation of the Polluted Lake Wetland, 51521006). 

     The research work of this project significantly increased the international impact of China in the related fields.

Guangming Zeng (Hunan University)

Fracture Mechanics of Advanced Functional Materials and Structures

The nonhomogeneity and multi-field coupling features of advanced functional materials (AFMs) have received immense attention from the mechanics community in last decades. The security evaluation of them is a prerequisite to the development of national defense and aerospace fields. Under the continuous support of NSFC, the team has been working on fracture mechanics of AFMs in nearly 20 years. Systematic theory was formed to build solid foundation for the design, analysis and evaluation of AFMs. The team’s work has distinct research features and promotes the development of fracture mechanics of AFMs. The primary discoveries are listed below.
Discovery 1: Established theoretical methods for the typical fracture problems of functionally graded materials (FGMs) with exponential-type properties. The integral singular features were found for crack problems of orthotropic FGMs. The coupling effects of the orthotropy and the nonhomogeneity on the crack-tip characteristic parameters were demonstrated. The impact fracture mechanics model was constructed for FGM coating-substrate structures and the transient response of the interface crack-tip fracture parameters was described accurately. These investigations were reviewed as “representative papers” in fracture field of FGMs.
Discovery 2: Constructed a theoretical model for the crack problems of FGMs with general material properties. A piecewise-exponential-function based method for approaching general nonhomogeneous properties was proposed. Then a piecewise-exponential model (PE model) was established for the crack problems of FGMs with general material properties. A key scientific problem elicited by the crossing-interface crack problem was solved. The constructed PE model overcomes the limitation of the traditional exponential-type model which usually does not match actual cases. Particularly, the doubt about the traditional exponential-type models in recent thirty years were clarified.
Discovery 3: Constructed the multi-field coupling theoretical method of fracture mechanics for functional magneto-electro-elastic (MEE) materials. The theoretical model for multi-field coupling fracture mechanics of MEE materials was established. The variation mechanism of field intensities due to the interaction of multiple cracks was clarified. The influence of the nonhomogeneity parameter on the crack-tip characteristic quantities was revealed. These works have built solid foundation for fracture evaluation of MEE materials. The concerned achievements were deemed to “took the lead in this field”.
The representative papers of this project have been cited 313 times by SCI. The representative papers 1 and 2 were reviewed as “representative papers on fracture and fatigue of FGM since 2000” by the review paper in Appl Mech Rev. The representative papers 1 and 5 won “most cited papers” from Int J Solids Struct and Eur J Mech A-Solids, respectively. The famous scientist, Prof. Erdogan who made important contributions to fracture mechanics, and Prof. Zhang from Universität Siegen, Prof. Kashtalyan from University of Aberdeen, Prof. Lee from Yonsei University, et al., have made positive comments on the results.
Based on the project, Prof. Wu was elected as the Chang Jiang Scholars and NSFC for Distinguished Young Scientist. The research group was selected in National Defense Innovation Team. Founded Join Symposia on Mechanics of Advanced Materials and Structures, which has been hold 4 times in China and Japan successfully.

Linzhi Wu (Harbin Institute of Technology)

Sliding Behaviors and Mechanics Models of Van Der Waals Layered Media

The van der Waals (vdW) layered media constitute one big class of materials. Typical examples are graphite and multi-walled carbon nanotubes that are made of multilayers of graphene. The vdW media have strong intralayer chemical bonds and weak interlayer vdW forces, which give rise to many unique and extreme mechanical properties including high anisotropy and ultra-low interlayer shear resistance. Since year 2000, the team has led pioneering and in-depth theoretical and experimental studies on structural superlubricity and continuum mechanics models of vdW media, which include

(1) Structural superlubricity. The dream of achieving “zero” friction at solid interfaces is a long-pursued goal of human being. It was predicted in 1990 that incommensurate interfaces could host nearly zero friction, named as structural superlubrictiy, however, only at nanoscale, under ultrahigh vacuum condition, and at a low sliding speed. In 2012, this team reported the first observation of micrometer-scale superlubricity at ambient conditions and speeds up to 25m/s (Representative Paper (RP) [1]), which has been recognized as a break-through and big advance by leading experts in the field and has attracted enormous research interests. The experimental setup is related to another discovery by the team – self-retraction motion of graphite crystal (RP [2]), where vdW interaction was revealed as the driving force (RP [3]). Based on this unique phenomenon, this team designed novel experimental tools to study structural superlubricity and measure cohesive energy of the vdW media. This team also leads mechanism studies of the self-retraction motion.

(2) Continuum mechanics models: The team revealed that the novel elastic buckling behaviors of vdW layered media stem from its extremely high anisotropy in elastic constants, and developed continuum mechanics models that successfully explained several anomalous experimental observations reported in Science (1997, 1999) (RP [4]). The team discovered that graphite has the highest elastic anisotropy among all hexagonal crystals and single walled carbon nanotube bundles have higher elastic anisotropy (RP [5]). The team developed the first mechanical model for single walled carbon nanotubes, embodying all elastic constants, elastic anisotropy, and size effect (RP [6]), a multi-beam shear model to explain anomalous vibrational behaviors of graphene-multilayer beams (RP [7]), and a model for strength and toughness design of vdW layered media based on their microstructures and interlayer cross-links (RP [8]).

The successful pose of the abovementioned scientific questions and obtained conclusions significantly advance the progress of solid mechanics and relevant interdisciplinary fields. The team provides valuable scientific insights in achieving ultra-low friction and wear and practical design of high performance materials with micro- and nanostructures. 

The eight representative publications have been SCI-cited for 592 times including Science, Nature and Review of Modern Physics (Appendix 7). Team members have been invited to give plenary keynote talks over 10 times (Appendix 7.1). The work has been positively commented by many prominent researchers including Nobel laureates A. K. Geim and K. S. Novoselov, Academy Member Ted B. Belytschko, Huajian Gao, Joost W. M. Frenken, Wei Yang, Jianbin Luo. It also helped to establish the first 973-project with particular focus on structural superlubricity.

Quanshui Zheng (Tsinghua University)