On August 18, 2016, the governor of Fujian province Mr. Weiguo Yu met with the 2010 Nobel Laureate Professor Konstantin Novoselov from University of Manchester, one of the inventors of graphene and “Honorary Professor” of Xiamen University (XMU) since April 2016, accompanied by Mr. Shiman Ye, vice president of XMU, Professor Zhongqun Tian, member of Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of Faculty of Engineering of XMU, Mr. Jian’an Zhang, director of Office of Development and Planning of XMU, Mr. Hantao Zhou, deputy director of Office of Science and Technology of XMU etc. Representatives from XMU reported the progress about research and development of graphene and industrialization of graphene, and also the preparatory work of national laboratory for energy materials.
The governor firstly expressed warm welcome to Professor Novoselov to visit XMU and Fujian province on behalf of the secretary of provincial Party committee Mr. Quan You, Fujian provincial government, and provincial Party committee, for making cooperative research and promoting scientific results. Governor Yu says it is significant and praiseworthy that XMU has positively enhanced high-end international scientific cooperation and established close and pragmatic cooperation relationship with Professor Novoselov since two years ago. Governor Yu expects Professor Novoselov will expand and deepen the cooperation to in and outside of Fujian based on its’ with XMU, in order to speed up and move forward industrialization application of graphene. Governor Yu says that Fujian provincial government will spare efforts to support research and industrialization of graphene and 2D materials by policy guidance, top development planning, and financial resources.
Governor Yu also debriefed XMU about the preparatory work of national laboratory of energy materials led by XMU. He said, the overall ideas and plan for the establishment of national lab is based on strategic perspectives and conform to the major strategy of our country and Fujian province, Fujian government will fully encourage and gather more supports to promote the establishment of national lab.
Professor Novoselov said the cooperation with XMU is fruitful in these years, since Fujian has rich culture deposits, dynamic international communication, and good economy development impetus, he is confident to move forward the technology research and application of graphene, to promote scientific innovation, and to assist industry development of Fujian by joint efforts with Fujian.
Professor Novoselov began his relationship with XMU since 2014, until now he has visited XMU total nine times with a span of around five months. Professor Novoselov takes the lead to organize and hold total four symposiums and many small workshops and seminars in XMU until now. The serial research results related to properties of graphene conductivity by cooperating with Professor Novoselov have been published on international high-level journals, and now are being promoted to the market by cooperative companies.
From the mid-July to mid-August 2016, Prof. Novoselov has participated in and instructed the initialization and review of the first batch “2016 Project for Industrial Technology, Application, and Research of Graphene” which is organized by XMU and aims to support research groups of XMU. Total 43 applications have been received from seven colleges, including College of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Pen-Tung Sah Institute of Micro-Nano Science and Technology, College of Materials, College of Physics Science and Technology, School of Information Science and Engineering, School of Aerospace Engineering, and College of Energy. Through strict selecting and oral pleading, fifteen projects with potential applications in future are finally chosen to support. In order that the projects chosen can be implemented smoothly and efficiently, Prof. Novoselov and Prof. Tian gather all the related persons to make discussions and communications thoroughly for each project, give precious suggestions respectively, and serve as a bridge for cooperation among different groups and different research directions. All the participates have also visited Clean Laboratory at Yixuan Building to look around the equipment of preparations and characterization of graphene and a wechat public number has been applied for enhancing communication and discussion. It provides all round strong supports including direction guide, hardware facilities, and cooperation environment. New materials such as graphene 2D materials is one of the important research fields for the preparatory national lab led by XMU, cooperation with Nobel Laureate help to not only seize the frontier and hot topics in research and application, but also find some innovative and international way fit for national lab sustainable development.
It is not new for Chinese universities to invite and cooperate with Nobel Laureates, But it is quite few to fix the pragmatic cooperation relationship like Prof. Novoselov with XMU, he not only makes cooperative research, but also devotes to push applications of research result, not only helps establish high level innovation platform, but also pushes forward the discipline construction, not only tutors the students by himself but also builds cooperative group. Cooperation with Prof. Novoselov is the highlighted construction work of Collaborative Innovation Center for Chemistry of Energy Materials, which also makes XMU to walk steadily forward to the world, sets a good example and provides reference for Chinese universities to develop high level international exchange and cooperation.
(Office of Science & Technology of XMU, Office of Development & Planning of XMU, Collaborative Innovation Center for Chemistry of Energy Materials)
