Professor Manzhou Zhu joins the Associate Editor team

Welcome to Nanoscale and Nanoscale Advances!

We are delighted to welcome Professor Manzhou Zhu, Anhui University, China, as a new Associate Editor working across Nanoscale and Nanoscale Advances.

What attracted you to pursue a career in nanoscience and how did you get to where you are now?

I had been engaged in natural product chemistry and organic chemistry before I conducted postdoctoral research in Prof. Rongchao Jin’s group at Carnegie Mellon University. Since then, my research has been focused on metal nanoclusters, and I am always deeply attracted by the intriguing findings and unexplored areas in the nanocluster science. I am fascinated by how materials can behave so differently at the nanoscale.  Such an interest motivates me to fill myself with nanoscience arts, and I really enjoy it.

Why did you choose to specialize in your specific research field?

My research focusses on metal nanoclusters. Metal nanoclusters occupy the gap between discrete atoms and plasmonic nanomaterials, and are an emerging class of atomically precise nanomaterials. And the precise nature of nanocluster structures enables the elucidation of their structure-property relationships, which is essential if cluster-based nanomaterials with enhanced performances are to be rationally designed. I’m extremely interested in the precise nature of nanoclusters that we can see and control at the atomic level.

What do you see as the biggest challenges facing researchers who work in your field?

For the nanocluster science, in my opinion, we have gradually known about nanoclusters at the atomic level and controlled them in dictated structures and properties in the past few decades Therefore, the biggest challenges ahead of researchers are the applications of nanoclusters or nanocluster-based nanomaterials.

What is your biggest passion outside of science?

My biggest passion outside of science is cooking. Cooking gives me a chance to be creative outside of lab. I love to create my own recipes. It is interesting to try out different combinations of ingredients. I also feel fulfilled when I make something delicious that my family love to eat.

What career would you have chosen if you had not taken this career path?

Maybe I would choose to be a builder if I had not taken my current career. I grew up in the countryside and many people there went to the city to seek for jobs. The most common job for people like us from the countryside is to be a builder. If I had not gone to college, I would become a builder like my peers. Now, instead of building houses out of bricks I am building new materials out of atoms and molecules. So I always regard myself as a nano-builder by considering that there are many parallels between the building construction and the nanocluster construction.

What do you see as the most important scientific achievement of the last decade?

The last decade has witnessed lots of exciting scientific breakthroughs, such as gene editing, cell reprogramming, metamaterial development, nano-technology development, and so on. To me, the significantly developed nano-technologies that help us to directly “see” the nanoscience are the most exciting, such as cryo-electron microscopy (the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry) and lattice light-sheet microscope (seeing the cells at high spatiotemporal resolution; e.g., Science, 2014, 1257998).

Why should young people study chemistry?

Everything that happens around us is associated with chemistry. Chemistry is one of the most important science and is closely associated with our life. Studying chemistry means learning how to find, understand, and solve problems in our life. Chemistry also teaches us to discover the essence of materials, and thus comprehend their existence and further control them. By studying chemistry, young people can better understand the world, and have the chance to unravel these mysteries and make a difference to the world.

Please join us in welcoming Professor Zhu to Nanoscale and Nanoscale Advances!

Best wishes,

Dr Charlotte Marshall                          Dr Ania Rulka

Managing Editor, Nanoscale                  Executive Editor, Nanoscale Advances

Introducing the new members of the Advisory Board

Welcome to the team!

We are delighted to welcome the following new members to the joint Nanoscale and Nanoscale Advances Advisory Board! The board consists of 44 expert scientists working across the breadth of nanoscience & nanotechnology.

	Professor Stephanie Brock, Wayne State, USA. The Brock group’s research is centered on the synthesis and characterization of novel inorganic/solid state materials with unique and tunable properties, particularly nanomaterials.
	Professor Raffaella Buonsanti, EPFL, Switzerland. Through the core expertise in colloidal synthesis, her team develops novel approaches to complex materials to drive chemical transformations.
	Professor Jingyi Chen, University of Arkansas, USA. The Chen group focuses on rational design and synthesis of functional materials towards optimal properties and performance for energy conversion, tribology, and human-health applications.
	Professor Kristen Fichthorn, Pennsylvania State University, USA. Professor Fichthorn’s research is primarily in atomic-scale simulation of fluid-solid interfaces, with applications in thin-film and crystal growth, colloidal assembly and stability, catalysis at surfaces, wetting and spreading, lubrication, and separations.
	Professor Christy Haynes, University of Minnesota, USA. The Haynes group focuses on applications of analytical chemistry in the fields of immunology and toxicology, with much expertise in the area of single cell analysis.
	Professor Jesse Jokerst, UCSD, USA. The Jokerst group works to improve the contrast of ultrasound images via nanoscale contrast agents, which can often double as drug delivery vehicles.
	Professor Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh, University of New South Wales, Australia. The Kalantar-Zadeh group works on sensors, nanotechnology, liquid metals, materials science, electronics, gastroenterology, and medical devices.
	Professor Pooi See Lee, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. The Lee group develop high energy capacitors, energy saving electrochromic coatings, novel transparent conductors, flexible and stretchable devices.
	Professor Laura Na Liu, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Germany. The Liu group focuses on developing sophisticated and smart nanomaterials to answer structural biology questions and to answer catalytic chemistry questions in local environments
	Professor Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov, Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Prof Ostrikov is widely recognized as a pioneer and leading authority in low temperature plasma applications in nanoscale materials processing and discovery of fundamental mechanisms of nanoscale matter structuring and activation using plasmas and related processes.
	Professor Dong Qin, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA. The Qin group researches bimetallic nanocrystals, understanding heterogeneous nucleation in nanocrystal growth with molecular probes, and colloidal silver nanocrystals.
	Professor Ventsislav K. Valev, University of Bath, UK. The Valev group focuses on the interaction between powerful laser light and nanostructured materials.
	Professor Miriam Vitiello, CNR-Nano, Italy. The Vitiello group researches THz Quantum cascade lasers, THz nanodetectors, graphene and 2D materials for nanophotonics and nanoelectronics, THz near-field optics, THz metrology, and high resolutions spectroscopy and imaging.
	Professor Xiaojun Wu, University of Science and Technology of China, China. The research interests of the Wu group include materials design methods, the design and computational simulation of spintronics materials, (photo)catalytic materials for energy, and other low-dimensional functional materials.
	Professor Yujie Xiong, University of Science and Technology of China, China. The Xiong group research centers on solar-driven artificial carbon cycle through the combination of four routes: photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, photoelectrochemical system and plasmonic catalysis, based on the rationally designed inorganic materials and devices.
	Professor Lin Xu, Nanjing Normal University, China. The Xu group is interested in functional nanomaterials, nanocatalysts for fuel cells, electrocatalysis and electrode materials for batteries.
	Professor Ya Yang, Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. The Ya group focus on the development of micro-nano energy and sensing research, building high-performance composite nano-generators and high-precision self-driving sensor arrays through research in material design and controllable preparation.
	Professor Gang Zhang, Institute of High Performance Computing, ASTAR, Singapore. The Zhang group focuses on using quantum mechanics and molecular dynamics to simulate electronic, thermal, and optical properties of novel materials and structures in important engineering problems.

Please join us in welcoming these new Advisory Board members to Nanoscale and Nanoscale Advances!

Best wishes,

Dr Charlotte Marshall                          Dr Ania Rulka

Managing Editor, Nanoscale                  Executive Editor, Nanoscale Advances