November 18th, the laboratory welcomed Prof. Yi Luo, Prof. Weiqun Shi, and Prof. Qian Peng for impactful presentations in the A717 meeting room. They covered topics such as "Predictive Model for Data-Driven Polar Polyene Aggregation," "Actinide Element Separation through Molecular Design," and "Theoretical Study on Rare Earth N₂ Activation."

    Prof. Luo integrates quantum chemistry and data analysis to predict structure-activity relationships in copolymer catalytic systems. Prof. Shi innovatively applies strategies to separate and immobilize actinide elements in radioactive waste, while Prof. Peng focuses on rare earth and asymmetric chemistry.

    Their diverse research attracted attention, and the presentations expanded our understanding. Following the talks, faculty and students engaged in lively academic discussions. The event concluded with a group photo to commemorate the insightful visit and presentations by the three professors.

PS:

      Yi Luo: Chief expert at the Research Institute of Petroleum and Petrochemicals, graduated from the Department of Materials Chemistry at Tohoku University in Japan. Formerly a professor and doctoral supervisor at Dalian University of Technology, Prof. Luo combines computational chemistry and machine learning to conduct research on mechanism- and data-driven molecular design for polymerization catalysts. With support from various projects, including the Japanese Ministry of Education Youth Fund and several National Natural Science Foundation projects, he has published over 160 academic papers in international journals such as Sci. Adv., Nature Chem., Nature Commun., J. Am. Chem. Soc., and Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., with over 2,700 citations. Prof. Luo has received awards, including provincial and ministerial-level first and third prizes for scientific and technological progress, the Outstanding Academic Research Award from Tohoku University, and the first prize for academic achievements in natural sciences in Liaoning Province.

      Weiqun Shi: Born in 1976, graduated from Hubei University of Technology in 1999 with a degree in Chemical Engineering. Earned a Ph.D. in January 2007 from the Department of Chemistry at Tsinghua University and is a recipient of the National Distinguished Youth Science Foundation. Engaged in fundamental research on nuclear fuel cycle chemistry, Researcher Shi innovatively applies strategies to separate and immobilize actinide elements in radioactive waste. He has published over 300 SCI papers in renowned international journals such as JACS, Angew. Chem., Chem., CCS Chem., Nat. Commun., and Adv. Mater., with a total citation of over 14,000 and an H-index of 60 (Google Scholar). He has been consecutively listed as a highly cited scholar in Elsevier's China list of high-cited scholars in nuclear science and technology from 2020 to 2022. He serves as the associate editor of "Supramolecular Materials" and editorial board member for several other journals.

       Qian Peng: Researcher at the School of Chemistry and the State Key Laboratory of Elemento-Organic Chemistry at Nankai University, a doctoral supervisor, and a recipient of the National "Four Youth Talents" award and the Tianjin "Outstanding Youth" award. Prof. Peng obtained a bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Sun Yat-sen University in 2004 and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in 2009, under the supervision of Academician Wu Yundong. He has conducted theoretical computational chemistry research at the University of Notre Dame, Texas A&M University in the United States, and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Since joining Nankai University in 2017, he has published 70 academic papers in authoritative international journals such as Acc. Chem. Res., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Nat. Commun., and Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Prof. Peng has received awards such as the National Natural Science Second Prize (R5), the Marie Curie Award from the European Union, the Thieme Chemistry Journals Award, and was recognized as a highly cited scientist by Clarivate Analytics in 2022. He is a committee member of the Computational (Organic) Chemistry Committee of the Chinese Chemical Society and leads multiple national research and educational reform projects. He is the main lecturer for the national-level quality course/first-class course "Structural Chemistry." Prof. Peng's current research focuses on rare earth chemistry and asymmetric chemistry, investigating the theoretical aspects of organic reaction mechanisms, including the configuration and electron spin effects. He has proposed new mechanisms for some "counterintuitive" organic reactions by analyzing molecular spatial configurations and the structural mechanisms driven by electron spin.