Kent State researcher and professor elected to the European Academy of Sciences

Quan Li, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow in Kent State’s Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, joins the prestigious Brussels-based organization that has about 660 members from 45 nations, including 65 Nobel Prize and Fields Medal winners. The European Academy of Sciences is a nonprofit nongovernmental, independent organization of the most distinguished scholars and engineers performing forefront research and the development of advanced technologies, united by a commitment to promoting science and technology and their essential roles in fostering social and economic development.

Li’s election to the academy recognizes his profound contributions as a leading authority on the development of advanced smart materials, particularly in the field of liquid crystals.

“I think I speak for many people, if not everyone, when I say we are extremely proud of Dr. Li, and congratulate him sincerely on this very well-deserved honor,” said Paul DiCorleto, Ph.D., Kent State’s vice president for research and sponsored programs. “Researchers like Quan are why Kent State has such a strong legacy in the field of advanced materials and liquid crystals, and indeed why we’ve been able to build an entire institute around this field of research.”

Li joined Kent State in 2004 as Senior Research Fellow and director of the Organic Synthesis and Advanced Materials Laboratory at the Liquid Crystal Institute, now the Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute. He has been honored by Kent State as an Outstanding Research and Scholarship Award winner, and as a guest professor and chair professor at several universities.

Over the past 10 years, Li has directed many research projects funded by multiple federal and state agencies and corporate sponsors. He also serves as a panel member and reviewer for many federal funding agencies and publishing houses.

His research interests include stimuli-responsive smart soft matter, advanced photonic and optoelectronic materials for energy-harvesting and energy-saving, functional biocompatible materials and nanoparticles, nanoengineering and device fabrications.

Li has advised more than 20 postdoctoral research associates and several Ph.D. students. In the past eight years, he has edited eight books for esteemed academic publishers, discussing the exciting frontiers in materials science and engineering, and 40 chapters, including the invited entries “Liquid Crystals” for the prestigious Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology and “Gold Nanorods” for the Encyclopedia of Surface and Colloid Science.

“I am extremely honored and very humbled to have been elected because this is not something you apply for,” Li said. “I want to thank my colleagues in the academy for this honor, and my very talented and dedicated students and distinguished collaborators and friends at Kent State who have helped tremendously during my journey and made me stand out so that the academy feels I am deserving of such recognition.

“I would also like to thank the Division of Research and Sponsored Programs, the Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, the Chemical Physics Interdisciplinary Program and the College of Arts and Sciences,” he continued.

Li obtained his Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1995 from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai, where he became the youngest Full Professor in Organic and Medical Chemistry in 1998. In 1999, he received the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ prestigious “One Hundred Talents” Award. He also is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a past Alexander von Humboldt Fellow in Germany.

Li will be officially recognized by the European Academy of Sciences at a ceremony later this month in Madrid, Spain.

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Photo Caption:

Kent State University Senior Research Fellow Quan Li, Ph.D., has been elected to the prestigious European Academy of Sciences.

Media Contacts:

Dan Pompili, [email protected], 330-672-0731

Emily Vincent, [email protected], 330-672-8595