Professor Zhang Hua, Herman Hu Chair Professor of Nanomaterials in the Department of Chemistry at City University of Hong Kong, has been elected Foreign Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences in recognition of his highly interdisciplinary research.

“This is a great honour for me. It means that our interdisciplinary research on the phase engineering of nanomaterials has been recognised internationally and that it encourages me to continuously pursue great research,” said Professor Zhang, who collaborates with scientists in China, Europe, UK and US.

Professor Zhang’s research has many promising applications for daily life. “Our research contributes to catalysis, clean energy, (opto-) electronic devices, nano- and biosensors, and water remediation, which can all help people to improve their lives,” he said.  

One particular area is the synthesis of ultra-thin two-dimensional nanomaterials, such as metal nanosheets, graphene, metal dichalcogenides, metal-organic frameworks, covalent organic frameworks, among others, and their hybrid composites for use in a range of bio-engineering and nano-tech industries.

Professor Zhang has filed 74 patent applications (including eight granted US patents), and published five invited book chapters and about 500 papers with citations and an H-index of over 72,000 and 131 (Web of Science) and over 85,000 and 140 (Google Scholar), respectively.

A Highly Cited Researcher from 2014 to 2019 according to Clarivate Analytics (Thomson Reuters), he was listed in the top 300 most cited researchers in the field of materials science and engineering by Elsevier Scopus in 2016.

He is an Academician of the Asia Pacific Academy of Materials and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.