On January 6th, invited by Prof. Tian He (Academician of CAS, Dean of School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering), Prof. Itamar Willner (Academician of the Israel Academy of Sciences, Academician of the German Academy of Sciences, Academician of the European Academy of Sciences) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem visited our school.
Prof. Willner first visited the Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials. Prof. Tian He made a detailed introduction of the construction, development of the Key Laboratory, and Prof. Willner gave some valuable suggestions on the sustainable development for the Key Laboratory. Furthermore, Prof. Tian and Prof. Willner discussed about the declaration of chemical plateau peak discipline. Prof. Willner stated that ECUST was qualified as a leading chemistry institute with powerful scientific research strength to declare chemical plateau peak discipline, and he was willing to fully support the applications.
After the visit, Prof. Willner attended the 142th "Famous Teacher Forum" and gave a lecture titled “Recent Advances in DNA Nanotechnology”. Prof. Tian He hosted the lecture and Prof. Long Yitao, Zhu Weihong, Zhang Jinlong, Zhong Xinhua also attended the lecture.
In the lecture, Prof. Willner started from the basic structure of DNA self-assembly. Then he showed how to use DNA to construct molecular tweezers, lock hydrocarbons, rotaxanes, molecular robots and other complex structures. Prof. Willner further illustrated the analysis and characterization of the behavior of complex structures DNA by modifying DNA with nanoparticles and fluorophores. After that, Prof. Willner presented the application of these DNA complex structure in polymorphism, multiple response type molecular hydrogel system, which are promising for future practical applications. In addition, Prof. Willner explained in detail the use of DNA nanotechnology in functionalized modified mesoporous silica materials. After the lecture, Prof. Willner discussed with participants and exchanged opinions.
After the lecture, the seminar of "Photoelectric functional molecular design and interfacial characteristics study" (National Fund Committee of international cooperation and exchange projects) was held. The young teachers and students of this project reported respectively their work summary to Prof. Willner. Prof. Willner gave some valuable suggestions on the sustainable development for this project. What’s more, Prof. Willner also visited the laboratory to instruct students in research work, reviewed the report of their work and provided suggestions and key issues in academic writing.
CV of Prof. Itamar Willner
Academic Background
1974-1978 Ph.D. Thesis, Physical Organic Chemistry
1978-1980 Post-doctoral fellow, U.C. Berkeley, Physical Chemistry
1980-1981 Staff Scientist and Adjunct Assistant Professor, U.C. Berkeley
1981-1983 Senior Lecturer, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
1983-1986 Associate Professor, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
1986- Professor, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Research Activities
Supramolecular Chemistry, Nanotechnology, Nanobiotechnology, Molecular Self-Assembly, Molecular and Biomolecular Machines, Molecular and Biomolecular Electronics, Sensors and Biosensors, Electronics and Photophysics of Nanoparticles and Quantum Dots, Functionalized Monolayers, Molecular Optoelectronics, Optobioelectronics, Photocatalysis, Photoinduced Electron Transfer, Artificial Photosynthesis, Sensors and Biosensors, Biofuel Cells.
Awards and Honors
Bergmann Award - 1986
Honorary Professor, Osaka University - 1991
Kolthoff Award - 1993
AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Fellow - 1996
Sandoz-Novartis Award - 1997
The Kaye Innovations Award – 1998, 2004
Max Planck Research Award for International Cooperation – 1998
Israel Chemical Society Award – 2001
Israel Prize in Chemistry – 2002
Member of The Israel Academy of Sciences – 2002
The Klachky Family Prize for the Advancement of the Frontiers of Science – 2003
Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts - 2004
Honorary Guest Professorship, Tsinghua Univesity, Beijing, China – 2005
Honorary Professor, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China – 2007
Rothschild Prize in Chemistry, Israel – 2008
EMET Prize in chemistry (under the auspices of the Prime Minister of Israel) – 2008
Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) (U.K.) – 2009
Member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina – 2009
ACS Nano Lectureship Award – 2013
Grand Professor, Technical University Dresden, Germany – 2013 2
Publications
Over 670 papers and 30 patents.
h-index: 102 (Web of Science); 111 (Google Scholar Citations).
Editorial (Advisory) Boards of Journals
1999-2004 Journal of the American Chemical Society (ACS)
1999- Langmuir (ACS)
2000- Molecules
2002-2008 Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry (RSC)
2002- International Journal of Nanotechnology
2002- Israel Journal of Chemistry
2003-2007 Sensor Letters
2003- Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry
2004- ChemPhysChem (Wiley-VCH)
2004- Small (Wiley-VCH)
2004- Current Analytical Chemistry
2005-2007 Journal of Biomedical Nanotechnology
2005- Electroanalysis (Wiley-VCH)
2005- Fuel Cells – From Fundamental to Systems (Wiley-VCH)
2007- Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Nanomedicine
2008- Wiley Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Series
2008- Nano Research (Springer)
2010- Nano Letters (ACS)
2011- Angewandte Chemie (Wiley-VCH)
2012- ChemPlusChem (Wiley-VCH)
2013- ChemElectroChem (Wiley-VCH)
2013- ACS Nano (ACS)
