Congratulations to the awardees of the 2026 Carbon Future Young Investigator Award

It is our great pleasure to announce and congratulate the awardees of the 2026 Carbon Future Young Investigator Award. Established in 2024, this award recognizes young researchers (PhD student or postdoctoral researcher) who have demonstrated exceptional research potential and innovative capabilities in the fields of carbon materials, carbon catalysis, low-carbon energy, or chemical engineering.

 

Since the initiation of the event in 2026, we have received over one hundred outstanding nominations from around the world. Following a meticulous screening and unbiased review process by the award committee, we have identified 10 recipients of the Carbon Future Young Investigator Award, along with 30 recipients of the Honorable Mention Award. Not only have they made significant contributions in their respective research areas, but they have also demonstrated exceptional scientific potential and innovative capabilities in carbon-related science and technology fields.

 

We sincerely appreciate all nominators for their dedicated guidance and support, which has played a pivotal role in nurturing young scholars and advancing the field of carbon science.

 

List of awardees for the 2026 Carbon Future Young Investigator Award (Sort by surname order):

Awardee	Affiliation	Nominator
Lichen Bai	Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, Germany	Prof. Xile Hu
Yi Cai	University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China	Prof. Xiao-Dong Wen
Chang Gao	Tsinghua University, China	Prof. Weizhong Qian
Ping Jin	Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China	Prof. Feng Wang
Ji-Yong Kim	Yale University, USA	Prof. Lea R Winter
Bosi Peng	Northwestern University, USA	Prof. Yu Huang
Xuetao Qin	Leibniz Institute for Catalysis,Germany/ Peking University, China	Prof. Ding Ma
Yaoyu Yin	Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China	Prof. Buxing Han
Qiyang Zhang	Leibniz-Institut für Katalyse e. V. (LIKAT), Germany	Prof. Evgenii Kondratenko
Zhen Zhang	Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA	Prof. Ju Li

                                                       

List of awardees for the 2026 Carbon Future Young Investigator Honorable Mention Award (Sort by surname order):

Awardee	Affiliation	Nominator
Valentin Briega-Martos	Cornell University, USA	Prof. Yao Yang
Jie Chen	University College London, UK	Prof. Guanjie He
Guorui Gao	Queen's University, Canada	Prof. Cao Thang Dinh
Xintong Gao	Adelaide University, Australia	Prof. Yao Zheng
Shanhe Gong	The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China	Prof. Deniel SP Lau
Chao-Hai Gu	University of Science and Technology of China, China	Prof. Han-Qing Yu
Zunmin Guo	University of Toronto, Canada	Prof. David Sinton
Jin Huang	Northwestern University, USA	Prof. Yu Huang
Ya Huang	Tsinghua University, China	Prof. Rufan Zhang
Yong Jiang	Nankai University, China	Prof. Yaping Du
Jiaxin Li	University of New South Wales, Australia	Prof. Markus Antonietti
Yuefei Li	Northwestern Polytechnical University, China	Prof. Jiayuan Li
Shijie Liu	University of Toronto, Canada	Prof. David Sinton
Min Liu	University of Queensland, Australia	Prof. Xiwang Zhang
Wenbo Liu	Peking University, China	Prof. Shaojun Guo
Yang Lu	Tsinghua University, China	Prof. Kai Liu
Yang Qin	National University of Singapore, Singapore	Prof. Yanwei Lum
Chang Qiu	Rice University, USA	Prof. Haotian Wang
Daniel Sinausia Martinez	Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Israel	Prof. Charlotte Vogt
Haiwei Su	Tsinghua University, China	Prof. Junhua Li
Yanzhi Wang	Fudan University, China	Prof. Wei Li
Qing Xia	The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China	Prof. Xiao Zhang
Feng Xie	University of Notre Dame, USA	Prof. Jing Li
Shichen Xu	Rice University, USA	Prof. James M. Tour
Leyuan Zhang	University of California, Los Angeles, USA	Prof. Xiangfeng Duan
Shuai Zhang	Adelaide University, Australia	Prof. Shi-Zhang Qiao
Bo Zhang	Tianjin University, China	Prof. Quan-Hong Yang
Xinyi Zhang	Northeast Normal University, China	Prof. Xing-Long Wu
Tao Zhou	University of Science and Technology of China, China	Prof. Jie Zeng
Ruijie Zhu	Hokkaido University, Japan	Prof. Huijun Yang

 

The award is generously sponsored by Tsinghua University, Tsinghua University Press and Ordos Laboratory. Each awardee of the Carbon Future Young Researcher Award will receive a certificate and a prize of $1000. Honorable Mention Award recipients will be granted a certificate. Each awardee will be invited to submit a paper related to their research to Carbon Future to share their scientific findings and insights.

The award ceremony will be held during the opening ceremony of Carbon Future 2026 on 5-8 August 2026 in Ordos, China. All the awardees will be invited to participate in the ceremony and the conference, where you can present your research and engage in discussions with global scientists to explore the future directions of carbon science.

We extend our heartfelt congratulations to all the awardees and look forward to their continued success and accomplishments in their future research endeavors. Additionally, we hope that this award will inspire more young researchers to immerse themselves in carbon-related research, collectively advancing the sustainable development of global carbon science.

 

About Carbon Future

Carbon Future (https://www.sciopen.com/journal/2960-0561) is an open access, peer-reviewed, and international interdisciplinary journal sponsored by Tsinghua University and published by Tsinghua University Press. It serves as a platform for researchers, scientists, and industry professionals to share their findings and insights on carbon-related materials and processes, including catalysis, energy storage and conversion, as well as low carbon emission process and engineering. It features cutting-edge research articles, insightful reviews, perspectives, highlights, and news and views in the field of carbon. The article publishing charge is covered by the Tsinghua University Press.

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