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Shi Huang

Zhang Wei, former chairman of the chemistry department at the University of Colorado Boulder, has returned to China to join Great Bay University (GBU) as a full-time faculty member.
Zhang, who will be the deputy dean and chair professor of GBU’s physical sciences school, attended a hiring ceremony at the university’s Songshan Lake campus in Dongguan, in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong on July 2.
He was presented with the appointment letter by GBU president Tian Gang, who is also a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.


“Professor Zhang has long been engaged in scientific research and discipline construction at overseas high-level research universities,” Tian said at the ceremony.
“The fact that such an internationally outstanding young talent has chosen to come to the university is not only a recognition of the school’s educational philosophy and development direction, but also further strengthens the university’s confidence in building a high-level teaching staff.”
Zhang said he was motivated to return to China by family and research opportunities. The death of his father in 2020, and pandemic travel restrictions “had a profound effect” on him, he said in an email.
“Now that my mother is getting older, I hope that in the next stage of my life, I can be closer to her and spend more time with her,” he wrote.
“Being able to continue high-level scientific research closer to home while also participating in the development of a new university is a rare combination.”

He said he hoped the school could both conduct fundamental research with international influence and cultivate future talent “who truly understand science, technology and industrial needs”.
At the GBU appointment ceremony, Zhang said: “I will leverage my own experience and the actual development needs of the college to actively fulfil my responsibilities, and work together with colleagues from the school of physical sciences to make joint efforts in talent cultivation, scientific research innovation and international exchange”.
Zhang graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering at Peking University in 2000, and then went to the United States for further studies.
In 2005, he received his PhD in chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and conducted three years of postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In 2008, Zhang joined the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) as an assistant professor. There, he developed novel chemical materials with potential application in solar energy conversion, chemical sensing and catalysis, as well as gas separation and storage.
For his contributions in this field, Zhang received the Sloan Research Fellowship in Chemistry in 2013.
The fellowships were established in 1955 by former General Motors chief executive Alfred Sloan to support early-career researchers. Sixty Sloan Fellows have gone on to win Nobel Prizes, with 21 of them awarded the chemistry prize.
In 2014, Zhang was promoted to associate professor with tenure, and in 2018, to full professor with tenure. Since 2022, he has served as the chairman of CU Boulder’s chemistry department.
His research covers a wide range of topics – from two-dimensional materials and porous organic materials, to sustainable and recyclable polymers, molecular separation and carbon capture, as well as flexible sensor devices and all-solid-state battery materials.
In 2024, Zhang published a paper in the top-tier academic journal Science, solving a long-standing challenge in many industrial fields – how to separate gases.
For a wide range of industries, gas separation is a crucial component of processes and products – whether it involves separating nitrogen and oxygen from air for medical purposes, isolating carbon dioxide from other gases during carbon capture, or removing impurities from natural gas.
However, traditional methods of gas separation are both energy-intensive and costly. Zhang used a novel porous material to solve this challenge. This material can contain and separate many different gases, and is made from common, readily available materials.
Additionally, it combines rigidity and flexibility, enabling size-based gas separation at significantly lower energy costs.
Zhang is a prolific scientist, having published more than 200 papers with more than 30,000 citations.
In addition to the Sloan fellowship, he was elected a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors and was named a highly cited researcher by Clarivate in 2024 and 2025.
In June last year, approval was granted for the establishment of GBU – one of China’s “new-type research universities”.


The physical sciences school is the first established by GBU. Its founding goal is to address national strategies and the industrial needs of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area.
The Dongguan Songshan Lake campus hosts national-level laboratories and large-scale scientific facilities, including the Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory and the China Spallation Neutron Source.


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Award-winning chemist Zhang Wei leaves US to join China’s Great Bay University

Zhang Wei’s research covers topics from two-dimensional materials and porous organic materials, to sustainable and recyclable polymers, molecular separation and carbon capture. Photo:  Handout

Zhang Wei (left) was presented with an appointment letter by GBU president Tian Gang on July 2. Photo: Handout

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China

On his return to China, Zhang says he looks forward to cultivating talent ‘who truly understand science, technology and industrial needs’


On his return to China, Zhang says he looks forward to cultivating talent ‘who truly understand science, technology and industrial needs’.


Award-winning chemist Zhang Wei leaves US to join China’s Great Bay University

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}On his return to China, Zhang says he looks forward to cultivating talent ‘who truly understand science, technology and industrial needs’

On his return to China, Zhang says he looks forward to cultivating talent ‘who truly understand science, technology and industrial needs’