Special Issue Dedicated to Prof. Daoben Zhu's 75th Birthday

Abstract

First of all, I, together with my colleagues and friends, would like to send our best wishes to Professor Daoben Zhu on the occasion of his 75th birthday. Professor Zhu began his chemistry studies at East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST) in 1965 and graduated in 1968. He then joined the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences as an assistant professor, and was promoted to associate professor in 1985 and professor at 1987. He was a visiting scholar at the Max-Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, Germany, from 1977 to 1979. He again worked as a visiting scientist at the same Max-Planck Institute in 1985 and 1986. Professor Zhu is one of the pioneers in the area of molecular materials and devices in China. He has been the director of the CAS Key Laboratory of Organic Solids since its establishment. He and his co-workers have made remarkable contributions to interdisciplinary cutting-edge research areas including organic conductors and superconductors, functional Langmuir–Blodgett films, fullerene chemistry and physics, light-emitting materials and devices, organic semiconductors and devices, and organic thermoelectronic materials and devices. These research achievements have provided in-depth understanding of the electronic processes and related phenomena in organic solids, thus boosting research into molecular materials and devices. Professor Zhu has published two books and more than 1000 papers in scientific journals, which have received more than 24 000 citations, and has an H-index of 90. His research accomplishments have been well recognized by the scientific community. He has received National Natural Sciences of China second-class prizes five times, in 1988, 2002, 2004, 2007 and 2014. He was the winner of the Chinese Chemical Society—the China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation Chemical Contribution Award in 2008, and he won the Tan Kah Kee Science Award in chemistry in 2012. Professor Zhu was elected as a Chinese Academy of Sciences Academician in 1997 and a member of the World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries in 2009. In 2014 and 2015, Professor Zhu was selected by Thomson Reuters as one of the world's most influential scientific minds both in chemistry and materials science. Apart from doing scientific research, Professor Zhu has made great contributions to the administration and management of scientific research in China. Among the administration positions he has held, he was the director of the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences from 1992 to 2000, vice president of the National Natural Science Foundation of China from 2000 to 2007, president of the Chinese Chemical Society from 1994 to 1997, and vice president of the Chinese Materials Society from 2001 to 2005. He was the vice chairman of the second, fourth and fifth advisory committees of the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program). He is now the vice chairman of the Academic Committee of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the committee chair of the Academic Division of Chemistry, CAS. Professor Zhu has continuously supported and actively promoted scientific exchanges and collaborations between Chinese scientists and leading scientists across the world. We publish this special issue to celebrate the 75th birthday of Professor Zhu and express sincere thanks to him for his continuous support over many years. This special issue collects research communications, full research papers, and reviews that cover the following topics: organic semiconductors, doping of organic semiconductors and field-effect transistors, graphdiyne and carbon ene-yne nanoribbon, photovoltaic cells and photodetectors, bioelectronics, and organic nonlinear optical materials. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the distinguished authors who contributed to this special issue, and the editorial staff of Advanced Electronic Materials for enabling its publication. Professor Yuliang Li has worked at the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences since 1975. He was a visiting scholar in the Department of Chemistry at University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands) from 1987 to 1989, was a visiting professor at the Radiation Lab at University of Notre Dame (USA) from August 1998 to March 1999, and worked in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Hong Kong from September 1999 to February 2000. His research interests include the growth of low-dimensional and two-dimensional carbon nanostructures, covalently and non-covalently assembled molecular materials, and supramolecular chemistry.