Outstanding Research Postgraduate Alumni Award 2025

We are proud to announce that Professor LI Danfeng has been awarded the Outstanding Research Postgraduate Young Alumni Award 2025. Professor Li is the Associate Professor of Physics and Associate Dean (Research and Postgraduate Education) in the College of Science at City University of Hong Kong. He earned his BEng from Zhejiang University, completed his MPhil at PolyU under the supervision of Professor Ji‑yan Dai, and obtained his PhD in Quantum Matter Physics at the University of Geneva with Professor Jean‑Marc Triscone, followed by a Swiss National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University in Professor Harold Y. Hwang’s group.

Professor Li’s research spans condensed matter physics and materials science, with emphasis on atomic‑scale synthesis of complex oxide heterostructures, kinetic engineering of unconventional quantum materials, low‑dimensional superconductivity, and emergent interfacial phenomena. In 2019 he co‑led the discovery of the first nickelate superconductor, a landmark achievement that catalysed global interest in nickel‑based superconductivity and advanced the frontier of quantum materials research. His pioneering work has been recognised internationally, including the 2025 Asian Young Scientist Fellowship, the 2024 Outstanding Research Award in Oxide Electronics, the 2023 AAPPS–APCTP C. N. Yang Award, and selection to the 2021 MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 (China) list.