Invited by our university, Prof. Guozhong Cao from the Departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington attended the 55th Lecture of the Truth-Seeking Forum in the Institute for the Advanced Materials and Technology on the afternoon of July 28, and gave a lecture titled " Lessons learned from our research in truth-seeking pursuit" in the Room 404, Corrosion Building. The lecture was hosted by Prof. Jianjun Tian.

Prof. Jianjun Tian Presiding over the Lecture

Before the meeting, Vice Dean, Jianjun Tian, expressed a warm welcome to the visit of Prof. Cao on behalf of the institute, and they had an in-depth exchange on some topics, such as talent training, scientific research, discipline construction and so on.

Prof. Guozhong Cao Giving his Lecture

Prof. Cao is Boeing-Steiner Endowed Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. He has published over 800 technical papers, authored and edited 8 books and 4 conference proceedings, and received 21 US patents. He is one of Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers with a total citation of > 62,000 and an h-index of 125. His book “Nanostructures and Nanomaterials: Synthesis, Properties and Applications” has been one of the bestsellers and used as textbook or reference book in many universities worldwide, and its second edition has been translated and published in Russian, Korean, and Chinese.

In his lecture, Prof. Cao first visit the history of the establishment of the circulation system four centuries ago and the vacancy diffusion mechanism in solids eighty years ago. Then he shared the lessons learned from his research on the development and understanding of (1) sol-gel optical-quality and flexible coatings for wear resistance and corrosion protection, (2) nanostructured photoanode materials for solar cells, and (3) engineered surface layers or chemistry of electrodes for lithium-ion batteries and supercapacitors. After that, he followed up with a couple of lessons beyond scientific research but directly relevant to the truth-seeking pursuit and the scientific knowledge advancement before concluding his seminar.

A Group Photo of Attendees

After the lecture, Prof. Cao actively interacted with the teachers and students in attendance and gave some targeted suggestions. The lecture ended successfully in a warm applause.