On the afternoon of April 24, 2026, at the invitation of the School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Professor Qian Yu delivered an academic lecture titled “Advanced Electron Microscopy Characterization and the Analysis of Structure–Property Relationships in Materials” in an offline session (Room 224, Huaxing Building). Faculty members and graduate students from the School attended the lecture.

Professor Qian Yu is a Qiushi Distinguished Professor at Zhejiang University and serves as the Secretary of the Party Committee and Vice Dean of Chu Kochen Honors College. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 2012. Her research has long focused on the relationships between structure and properties of materials, with particular emphasis on the correlation between defect structures, defect dynamics, and material performance, exploring mechanisms and strategies for material property optimization. She investigates structure–property relationships under extreme service conditions, such as corrosion, radiation, high/low temperatures, and electrochemical environments. As first or corresponding author, she has published over 90 papers in journals including Nature, Science, Nature Materials, and Nature Communications, with over 10,000 citations. She has received funding from the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, and leads or participates in projects such as the NSFC Excellent Innovation Group Program and the National Key Research and Development Program. Her honors include the China Youth Female Scientist Award, the China Youth Science and Technology Award, the Second Prize of the National Natural Science Award, the Qiushi Outstanding Young Scholar Award, and being named to the “Top Ten Scientific and Technological Advances in Chinese Higher Education Institutions”. She serves as Associate Editor for Materials Characterization, Metalmat, and Microstructures, as an editorial board member for Acta Metallurgica Sinica and Journal of Chinese Electron Microscopy Society, and as an Executive Director of the Analytical and Testing Committee of the Chinese Materials Research Society.

The lecture focused on “Advanced Electron Microscopy and the Elucidation of Structure–Property Relationships in Materials”. Professor Yu began by outlining the evolution of electron microscopy techniques, noting that they have expanded from conventional morphological characterization to atomic‑scale and in‑situ dynamic analysis of material structures, thus providing crucial support for investigating structure–property relationships. She then shared multiple directions of application progress based on her own research results: in the field of superalloys, she used atomic‑scale characterization to reveal new strengthening mechanisms arising from nanoscale compositional fluctuations and elemental segregation at dislocation cores; in phase transformation research, by employing in‑situ electron microscopy, she discovered for the first time a non‑classical nucleation mechanism in solid‑state phase transformations; in the area of electrochemical energy storage, she demonstrated innovative applications of electron microscopy in analyzing electrolyte structures, electrode interfacial behaviors, and dendrite regulation in carbon‑based materials. Professor Yu engaged in an in‑depth discussion with the attending faculty and students, greatly benefiting everyone present. The lecture proved to be a complete success.