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PhD student Dengping Lyu in the Department of Chemistry has been selected as a Schmidt Science Fellow, one of the most prestigious postdoctoral fellowships in the global scientific community. As one of the elite group of 32 exceptional early-career scientists selected from around the world, she is recognised for her outstanding academic achievements, leadership, collaborative spirit, and scientific curiosity. Dengping is the first scholar nominated by a university in Hong Kong to receive this highly regarded fellowship.

“I feel deeply honoured to have been chosen for this fellowship,” Dengping said. “I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity to immerse myself in a new field and expand my scientific horizons. I’m also excited about applying my knowledge and expertise to push the boundaries of materials science.”

Dengping’s PhD research has focused on colloidal synthesis and self-assembly. She has leveraged the power of physical, synthetic, and supramolecular chemistry to build hierarchical superstructures and functional materials from colloidal-sized particles. A noteworthy and significant contribution of her work is the integration of metal-organic frameworks and colloids, resulting in the development of strategies to produce anisotropic particles with low-symmetry shapes. These carefully programmed shapes carry chemical information, facilitating specific and directional interactions between particles and spontaneously yielding intricate, precisely defined superstructures via self-assembly. These structures can encapsulate small molecules or colloidal cargos, exhibiting anisotropic fluorescence and reconfigurable properties. The findings open up potential applications in diverse fields such as sensing, catalysis, and optics, and may inspire the design of novel mechanical nanodevices.

Dengping’s exceptional research has garnered recognition through her publication of multiple research papers as the first author in high-impact journals, such as Nature Communications, Science Advances, and Angewandte Chemie.

With the Schmidt Science Fellowship, Dengping will pivot from physical chemistry to materials engineering. Her goal is to engineer intelligent materials by translating features of living systems, especially their ability to consume energy and communicate, to materials design. These materials can potentially revolutionise diverse fields such as biomedicine, soft robotics, and electronics.

About the Schmidt Science Fellows
Schmidt Science Fellows is an initiative of Schmidt Sciences, delivered in partnership with the Rhodes Trust, which aims to help researchers solve bigger problems faster by identifying, developing, and amplifying the next generation of science leaders, building a community of scientists and supporters of interdisciplinary science, and leveraging this network to drive sector-wide change.  The fellows are expected to be future leaders driving interdisciplinary research to accelerate discovery and achieve global impact. They will receive support for one or two years to work as postdoctoral researchers in a top institution, focusing on a field of study that pivots from their PhD specialisation. Along with an annual stipend of USD 110,000, they benefit from individualised mentoring and participation in the programme’s Global Meeting Series, which offers training, exposure to new concepts, visits to leading interdisciplinary scientific centres, and opportunities to engage with thought leaders from science, business, policy, and society.

(This article is adapted from https://www.hku.hk/press/press-releases/detail/27269.html)