Focus on frontier issues in chemical engineering and promote the discipline development through in-depth exchanges. On January 21, a frontier seminar themed on chemical engineering was held at Guangdong Technion - Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT). Experts and scholars from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), GTIIT, Shantou University, and Guangdong Provincial Laboratory of Chemistry and Fine Chemicals gathered together. The seminar was aimed to promote cooperation and development in chemical engineering and its interdisciplinary fields through high-level academic exchanges.

Zhang Guojun, Division Director of the Department of Chemical Sciences of NSFC delivered a speech about Chemical Engineering Discipline. He comprehensively introduced chemical engineering, a huge interdiscipline, from aspects of overview, its management policy by NSFC and its future development. He pointed out that chemical engineering, as a bridging discipline between laboratory and factory, involves fields such as energy, resources, environment, food, medicine and so on, with broad prospects. When he learned about the research status of chemical engineering at GTIIT, he said it is full of vitality with a professional faculty team. He encouraged experts and scholars to actively apply for the talent projects of NSFC to promote the high-quality development of chemical engineering discipline.

“GTIIT has three cohorts of graduates receiving offers from a variety of worldwide famous universities, which demonstrates GTIIT has achieved initial results in talent cultivation,” said Prof. Gong Xingao, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chancellor of GTIIT. He introduced the history, admission conditions, graduates’ development and the teaching and scientific research progress of GTIIT, adding that chemical engineering, as the earliest program and also one of the superior programs at GTIIT, is equipped with international faculty and research team. He hoped to take this chance to conduct in-depth communication with leaders from NSFC and peers in chemical engineering to promote the development of this discipline.

During the report session, Prof. Zhong Ziyi, Deputy Head of Chemical Engineering Program at GTIIT, introduced the basic situation and research progress of GTIIT chemical engineering program and chemistry program. Wu Zhilin, a researcher from Guangdong Provincial Laboratory of Chemistry and Fine Chemicals and Prof. Wu Qinghe from College of Chemistry & Chemial Engineering at Shantou University gave speeches titled “Ultrasonic Microreactor: 13 Years of Exploration from Basic Research to Industrial Transformation” and “Study on Condensed Ring Polymer Functional Materials and their Photovoltaic Devices” respectively to probe into the research frontiers in chemical engineering.

This seminar also set up a discussion session. The experts and scholars discussed problems they met during research with the leader from NSFC. In a warm atmosphere, the audience raised questions actively and fully exchanged their scientific thinking.

The seminar provides a platform for participants to share their research progress in chemical engineering, promotes the cooperation between universities and scientific research institutes, injects new impetus into the growth of chemical engineering in our country and also offers a new direction for future scientific research of GTIIT.