As a Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Einstein Professorship winner, Professor Mercouri G. Kanatzidis from Northwestern University, USA, visited Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter (FJIRSM) during the period of August 20th to 21st, 2014. He is the first internationally well-known scientist who received this honor, recommended by FJIRSM.
Professor Kanatzidis gave a lecture entitled ”Design and synthesis of materials for energy conversion and detection”. In this talk, Professor Kanatzidis gave a comprehensive introduction on his recent research on the thermoelectric materials, X-ray detection materials and infrared non-linear optical materials. The audiences were highly impressed by his talk.
On August 21st, Professors CHEN Ling, collaborators of Professor Kanatzidis at the Institute, organized a mini symposium with Professor Kanatzidis and researchers in the relevant fields from FJIRSM, USTC and Shandong University. The researchers made thorough discussions on their research topics. Professor Kanatzidis commented on the works done by the fellow researchers as “world class”.
Professor Mercouri G. Kanatzidis tackles some intriguing puzzles of chemistry and is the leading explorers in the studies of chalcogenides. His work in this field has been pushing forward the developments in energy conversion and detection. He redefined the chalcogenides from a fundamental perspective and has been greatly influencing the semiconductor thermoelectric conversion and solar energy conversion. The nano-structured thermoelectric materials which Professor Kanatzidis has put forward led to the discovery of a variety of high-performance thermoelectric materials, with some of them setting new records in the field.
As a Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor at Northwestern University, USA and a senior scientist at Argonne National Laboratory of DOE, Professor Kanatzidis has been the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Solid State Chemistry since 1997 and serves in the editorial advisory boards of multiple renowned journals. He has published more than 800 research papers, among which 7 publications are in the journal Science and 8 in Nature. His publication has achieved more than 25,000 citations and an H-index of 80.
The Einstein Professorship Program is a key initiative of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Einstein Professorships are awarded each year to 20 distinguished international scientists actively working at the frontiers of science and technology, for conducting lecture-tours to China. This program aims to strengthen science and technology links, cooperation and exchange, and enhance the training of future generations of scientists in China.
