The State Key Laboratory of Elemento-Organic Chemistry convened its 2025 Academic Annual Meeting and 40th Anniversary Conference in Tianjin on October 18-19. The event gathered 500 participants, including distinguished scholars, institutional representatives, and laboratory members, to commemorate four decades of scientific achievements and strategize future research directions.

    

The opening ceremony was attended by Yulu Chen, President of Nankai University; Jun Chen, Vice President of Nankai University and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Zhendong Tan, Party Committee Member and Deputy Director of Tianjin Municipal Science and Technology Bureau and Deputy Director of Tianjin Tiankai High-Tech Innovation Park Management Committee; alongside the Key Laboratory's academic advisors Zhenhe Tong and Licheng Song, both Academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Zhenfeng Xi, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Director of the Academic Committee; Qilin Zhou, Academician and Deputy Director of the Academic Committee; as well as Academic Committee members and CAS Academicians Yongqiang Tu, Xiaoming Feng, Yong Tang, Zuowei Xie, and Meixiang Wang. Pingping Tang, Deputy Director of the Key Laboratory, presided over the opening ceremony.

    

Yulu Chen extended a warm welcome to all attending experts and guests. He noted that elemento-organic chemistry serves as a crucial bridge connecting fundamental science with industrial applications, playing an irreplaceable role in China's major strategic domains. Expressing his expectations, he hoped the Key Laboratory would take its 40th anniversary as a new starting point - remaining true to its original mission of pioneering innovation, inheriting its tradition of integrating education with research, practicing open cooperation, and striving to establish itself as a world-class research hub in elemento-organic chemistry.

    

Zhendong Tan, on behalf of Tianjin Municipal Science and Technology Bureau, congratulated the Key Laboratory on its successful reorganization. He emphasized that Tianjin has thoroughly implemented the important directives of General Secretary Xi Jinping by vigorously advancing initiatives to rejuvenate the city through science and education and strengthen it with talent. These efforts have led to comprehensive improvements in both scientific innovation capabilities and ecosystem vitality. Tan suggested that the Key Laboratory focus on national missions, refine operational mechanisms, and accelerate the transformation of research achievements into practical applications. He further affirmed that Tianjin Municipal Science and Technology Bureau would continue to provide unwavering support services to facilitate the laboratory's high-quality development.

    

2025 marks the term transition of the Key Laboratory's Academic Committee. During the opening ceremony, President Chen Yulu formally conferred letters of appointment to distinguished academic advisors and newly appointed members of the upcoming Academic Committee.

    

Professor Zhenfeng Xi delivered an address on behalf of the newly appointed Academic Committee. He highlighted that the Key Laboratory has consistently aligned its research with national strategic needs over the past four decades, achieving significant breakthroughs in pesticide innovation, pharmaceutical R&D, and new energy materials. Emphasizing a commitment to "heritage-driven excellence and innovation-led leadership," he pledged that the Committee would strengthen the laboratory's foundation for future advancements.

    

Professor Chunming Cui, Director of the State Key Laboratory of Elemento-Organic Chemistry, reflected on the laboratory’s four-decade journey. He emphasized that the lab will continue to be guided by the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress, equally prioritizing fundamental and applied research while deepening industry-academia collaboration to bolster China’s self-reliance in high-level science and technology.

At the Key Laboratory's 2025 Annual Academic Conference, Director Chunming Cui delivered the annual work report, comprehensively summarizing the laboratory's development achievements over the past year, including overall research progress, representative scientific breakthroughs, talent cultivation and team building, as well as international collaboration and exchanges.The conference featured keynote speeches delivered by distinguished scholars: Zijian Guo, CAS Academician and Professor at Nanjing University; Zuowei Xie, CAS Academician and Professor at Nanjing University; Eiichi Nakamura, Foreign Member of the Royal Society (FRS), Distinguished Chair Professor at Nankai University and Specially Appointed Professor at the University of Tokyo; Frank Glorius, Member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the European Academy of Sciences, and Professor at University of Münster; Jinlong Gong, President of Tianjin Normal University and Professor at Tianjin University; and Gongli Tang, Researcher at Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, CAS.

The conference also included invited presentations by visiting researchers of the Key Laboratory: Xihe Bi (Professor at Northeast Normal University), Huanming Huang (Professor at ShanghaiTech University), Weilong Xie (Professor at Donghua University), Feng Zhu (Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University), Chuan He (Professor at Southern University of Science and Technology), Ming Yang (Professor at Lanzhou University), Xiaoyu Yang (Professor at ShanghaiTech University), Luqing Lin (Professor at Dalian University of Technology), Youliang Wang (Professor at Xi'an Jiaotong University), Rong Zhou (Professor at Taiyuan University of Technology), Huabing Sun (Professor at Tianjin Medical University), and Shifa Zhu (Professor at Zhejiang Sci-Tech University); as well as Weiwei Zi (Professor at Nankai University) and Youai Qiu (Researcher at Nankai University).

On the opening day, the State Key Laboratory Development Forum was held concurrently. Representatives from major state key laboratories—including the State Key Laboratory of Coordination Chemistry (Nanjing University), State Key Laboratory of Natural Products Chemistry (Lanzhou University), and State Key Laboratory of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs (Peking University)—along with leaders from domestic State Key Laboratories engaged in in-depth discussions on the conference theme.

Representatives from the Nankai University Office of Discipline Development, Double First-Class Initiative Office, Office of Human Resources, and Office of Science and Technology also participated in the event.