It is our great pleasure to announce and congratulate the awardees of the 2026 Carbon Future Young Investigator Award. Established in 2024, this award recognizes young researchers (PhD student or postdoctoral researcher) who have demonstrated exceptional research potential and innovative capabilities in the fields of carbon materials, carbon catalysis, low-carbon energy, or chemical engineering.
Since the initiation of the event in 2026, we have received over one hundred outstanding nominations from around the world. Following a meticulous screening and unbiased review process by the award committee, we have identified 10 recipients of the Carbon Future Young Investigator Award, along with 30 recipients of the Honorable Mention Award. Not only have they made significant contributions in their respective research areas, but they have also demonstrated exceptional scientific potential and innovative capabilities in carbon-related science and technology fields.
We sincerely appreciate all nominators for their dedicated guidance and support, which has played a pivotal role in nurturing young scholars and advancing the field of carbon science.
List of awardees for the 2026 Carbon Future Young Investigator Award (Sort by surname order) :
Awardee
Affiliation
Nominator
Lichen Bai
Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, Germany
Prof. Xile Hu
Yi Cai
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Prof. Xiao-Dong Wen
Chang Gao
Tsinghua University, China
Prof. Weizhong Qian
Ping Jin
Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Prof. Feng Wang
Ji-Yong Kim
Yale University, USA
Prof. Lea R Winter
Bosi Peng
Northwestern University, USA
Prof. Yu Huang
Xuetao Qin
Leibniz Institute for Catalysis,Germany/ Peking University, China
Prof. Ding Ma
Yaoyu Yin
Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Prof. Buxing Han
Qiyang Zhang
Leibniz-Institut für Katalyse e. V. (LIKAT), Germany
Prof. Evgenii Kondratenko
Zhen Zhang
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Prof. Ju Li
List of awardees for the 2026 Carbon Future Young Investigator Honorable Mention Award (Sort by surname order) :
Valentin Briega-Martos
Cornell University, USA
Prof. Yao Yang
Jie Chen
University College London, UK
Prof. Guanjie He
Guorui Gao
Queen's University, Canada
Prof. Cao Thang Dinh
Xintong Gao
Adelaide University, Australia
Prof. Yao Zheng
Shanhe Gong
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
Prof. Deniel SP Lau
Chao-Hai Gu
University of Science and Technology of China, China
Prof. Han-Qing Yu
Zunmin Guo
University of Toronto, Canada
Prof. David Sinton
Jin Huang
Ya Huang
Prof. Rufan Zhang
Yong Jiang
Nankai University, China
Prof. Yaping Du
Jiaxin Li
University of New South Wales, Australia
Prof. Markus Antonietti
Yuefei Li
Northwestern Polytechnical University, China
Prof. Jiayuan Li
Shijie Liu
Min Liu
University of Queensland, Australia
Prof. Xiwang Zhang
Wenbo Liu
Peking University, China
Prof. Shaojun Guo
Yang Lu
Prof. Kai Liu
Yang Qin
National University of Singapore, Singapore
Prof. Yanwei Lum
Chang Qiu
Rice University, USA
Prof. Haotian Wang
Daniel Sinausia Martinez
Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Israel
Prof. Charlotte Vogt
Haiwei Su
Prof. Junhua Li
Yanzhi Wang
Fudan University, China
Prof. Wei Li
Qing Xia
Prof. Xiao Zhang
Feng Xie
University of Notre Dame, USA
Prof. Jing Li
Shichen Xu
Prof. James M. Tour
Leyuan Zhang
University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Prof. Xiangfeng Duan
Shuai Zhang
Prof. Shi-Zhang Qiao
Bo Zhang
Tianjin University, China
Prof. Quan-Hong Yang
Xinyi Zhang
Northeast Normal University, China
Prof. Xing-Long Wu
Tao Zhou
Prof. Jie Zeng
Ruijie Zhu
Hokkaido University, Japan
Prof. Huijun Yang
The award is generously sponsored by Tsinghua University, Tsinghua University Press and Ordos Laboratory. Each awardee of the Carbon Future Young Researcher Award will receive a certificate and a prize of $1000. Honorable Mention Award recipients will be granted a certificate. Each awardee will be invited to submit a paper related to their research to Carbon Future to share their scientific findings and insights.
The award ceremony will be held during the opening ceremony of Carbon Future 2026 on 5-8 August 2026 in Ordos, China. All the awardees will be invited to participate in the ceremony and the conference, where you can present your research and engage in discussions with global scientists to explore the future directions of carbon science.
We extend our heartfelt congratulations to all the awardees and look forward to their continued success and accomplishments in their future research endeavors. Additionally, we hope that this award will inspire more young researchers to immerse themselves in carbon-related research, collectively advancing the sustainable development of global carbon science.
About Carbon Future
Carbon Future ( https://www.sciopen.com/journal/2960-0561 ) is an open access, peer-reviewed, and international interdisciplinary journal sponsored by Tsinghua University and published by Tsinghua University Press. It serves as a platform for researchers, scientists, and industry professionals to share their findings and insights on carbon-related materials and processes, including catalysis, energy storage and conversion, as well as low carbon emission process and engineering. It features cutting-edge research articles, insightful reviews, perspectives, highlights, and news and views in the field of carbon. The article publishing charge is covered by the Tsinghua University Press.