Contributors to the Inorganic Chemistry Frontiers Emerging Investigator series 2024

---

---

Jiangyan Wang received her BE from the China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing (July 2010) and PhD from the Institute of Process Engineering, CAS (January 2016). Then she worked as a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University, USA. In 2020, she joined the Institute of Process Engineering, CAS as a professor. Her research interests focus on the design and fabrication of multifunctional heterostructures for energy storage and conversion. She has won many awards such as the Chinese Chemical Society-Nanochemistry Emerging Talent Award, the 2023 Hollow Materials Young Innovator Lectureship, the Beijing Science and Technology Award-Natural Science Award-Second Prize, etc.

EMI article: https://doi.org/10.1039/D4QI02340D

Website: https://www.wd-homs.cn

Malte Fischer studied chemistry at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, where he also completed his PhD (summa cum laude) under the supervision of Prof. Rüdiger Beckhaus. He then conducted postdoctoral research with Dr Christian Hering-Junghans at the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis, Prof. Jens Beckmann at the University of Bremen and Prof. Simon Aldridge at the University of Oxford. Following this, he began his independent research career in Bremen as a Liebig Fellow. Shortly thereafter, he was appointed assistant professor (tenure-track) at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. His research focuses on main group chemistry, with a particular emphasis on small molecule activation, ultimately aiming at catalytic applications, and also explores the coordination chemistry of early transition metals such as titanium.

EMI article: https://doi.org/10.1039/D4QI02202E

Website: https://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/674212.html

Wenliang Huang was born in Shanghai, the east gate of China. After enjoying his childhood without much snow, he moved north to see some real snow in Yan Yuan where resides the top Chinese Academic Institute, Peking University. After taking courses on a variety of subjects, including chemistry, mathematics, physics, and economics, he was determined to devote his life to chemistry and joined the research group of Prof. Yun-Dong Wu. He learned computational chemistry and applied it to study the mechanism of organometallic reactions. This experience ignited his interests in organometallic chemistry and encouraged him to apply for an overseas PhD program, eventually joining Prof. Paula L. Diaconescu's lab at UCLA to study the reduction chemistry of rare-earth metal complexes. During his PhD, he recorded more than 150 X-ray structures of rare-earth metal complexes and received several awards, including the Inorganic Chemistry Dissertation Award and Dissertation Year Fellowship. At the end of his PhD, he became interested in organic synthesis and materials and joined the research group of Prof. Stephen L. Buchwald as a postdoctoral associate. In August 2017, he joined the faculty of College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering at Peking University. He established the research group of Coordination Chemistry of f-Elements (CCFE) in the State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Materials Chemistry and Applications. His main research interests are coordination chemistry and organometallic chemistry of rare-earth metals and actinides, especially utilizing metal–arene interactions for unusual oxidation state chemistry of f-elements. In February 2025, he was promoted to associate professor with tenure.

EMI article: https://doi.org/10.1039/D4QI02026J

Website: https://www.chem.pku.edu.cn/wlhuang/index.htm

Zhiyuan Zeng received his BSc, MPhil degrees and PhD all in MSE from Central South University, Zhejiang University and Nanyang Technological University in 2006, 2008 and 2013, respectively. After 4 years postdoc at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and 2 years engineering working at Applied Materials Inc. (Silicon Valley), he joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong in 2019, and was promoted as an associate professor in 2024. His research interests are using lithium intercalation and in situ liquid phase TEM to investigate transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), which can be used for energy and environmental applications.

EMI article: https://doi.org/10.1039/D4QI00622D

Website: https://www.zeng-lab.com/

Bolong Huang received his PhD in 2012 from the University of Cambridge, and his BSc in condensed matter physics from the Department of Physics, Peking University, in 2007. Following a systematic post-doc training period in the Chemistry Department at Peking University, and in Hong Kong, he started his independent research at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2015 and became an associate professor in July 2022. He joins the Department of Chemistry of City University of Hong Kong as a professor in 2025. His main research fields are electronic structures of nanomaterials, energy materials, solid functional materials, and rare earth materials, as well as their applications in multi-scale energy conversion and supply systems.

EMI article: https://doi.org/10.1039/D4QI01608D

Website: https://www.cityu.edu.hk/chem/people/academic-staff/bolhuang

Apparao Draksharapu completed his Master's degree at the University of Hyderabad, India, where he conducted his thesis research under the supervision of Prof. Tushar Jana. He then pursued a PhD at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands from 2009 to 2013, working with Prof. Wesley R. Browne and Prof. Bernard L. Feringa. His doctoral work focused on the electrochemical and photochemical properties of inorganic metal complexes relevant to biological systems. Following his PhD, he joined the University of Minnesota (USA) as a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Prof. Lawrence Que Jr., where he investigated bioinspired iron complexes. He is currently an associate professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. His research is inspired by the remarkable ability of metalloenzymes to carry out complex chemical transformations under mild conditions with high efficiency and selectivity, capabilities that are often unmatched by synthetic systems. While artificial metalloenzymes have long been pursued as functional catalysts for biological reactions, they frequently fall short of the activity levels observed in natural systems. His group seeks to bridge this gap by developing biomimetic models of high-valent metal intermediates, with a focus on detailed spectroscopic characterization and mechanistic investigation. Their ultimate goal is to understand the fundamental principles that govern the stability and reactivity of these potent species and translate that knowledge into more efficient systems for their applications in catalysis and energy conversion.

EMI article: https://doi.org/10.1039/D4QI01196A

Website: https://draksharapu.weebly.com/

Stephan Hohloch is an associate professor at the University of Innsbruck. He studied chemistry at the University of Stuttgart and ETH Zurich from 2004 to 2010. After obtaining his diploma, he pursued his PhD under the guidance of Prof. B. Sarkar at the University of Stuttgart and Freie Universität Berlin, exploring the coordination chemistry of triazole-derived mesoionic carbenes. Afterwards, he joined the group of Prof. John Arnold at the University of California, Berkeley, as a DAAD-Postdoc, studying the coordination chemistry of thorium and uranium with macrocyclic and NHC ligands. In 2017, he was appointed as a junior professor at Paderborn University from where he moved to Innsbruck in 2020, starting as an assistant professor. At the beginning of 2024 he was promoted to associate professor. His research focuses on the use of N-heterocyclic and mesoionic carbene ligands in the chemistry of early transition metals, as well as the utility of phosphine-functionalized ligands in lanthanide chemistry. Furthermore, he is exploring the coordination and activation chemistry of heavy cyanate anions across the periodic table.

EMI article: https://doi.org/10.1039/D4QI00868E

Website: https://www.uibk.ac.at/en/aatc/ag-hohloch/

This journal is © the Partner Organisations 2025