Recently, the 55th International Assembly of Advanced Materials Congress, hosted by the International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM), was held in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, in a combined offline and online format. Professor Yin Zhigang from our School was honored with the 2023 IAAM Scientist Medal by the association, recognizing his outstanding contributions to the fields of thin films, material surfaces, and interfaces.

The International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM) is a renowned international academic organization composed of researchers in the field of advanced materials. Established in 2010 and headquartered in Sweden, the association brings together outstanding scientists in the field of materials science and technology from around the world. It is committed to providing a high-level academic exchange platform for the rapid development of advanced materials science, engineering, and technology worldwide, and has become a gathering place and leader for outstanding talents in the fields of materials and engineering. The "IAAM Scientist Medal" is awarded by the association based on nominations and evaluations of researchers' recent work in the field of advanced materials on a global scale. The selection process involves multiple stages, including expert nominations, submission of resumes by nominated scholars, evaluation by the IAAM academic committee, offline or online academic lectures, final review, and award presentation. It is awarded to researchers who have made significant contributions in the field of advanced materials science and technology, recognizing their remarkable achievements in their respective fields.

At the recent conference, Professor Yin Zhigang was invited to give a keynote presentation titled "Thin-Film Materials for Optoelectronic Devices," where he shared the research achievements of his team in the areas of optoelectronic thin-film materials, devices, and sensing applications. Since joining the School of Electrical Engineering at Chongqing University at the end of 2022, supported by projects such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Chongqing Talents Program for Young Top-notch Talents, and the recruitment program of the university, Professor Yin has focused on the frontier interdisciplinary field of functional films and applied electronics. He has collaborated with teams from universities such as the University of Sydney in Australia, Beijing University of Technology, and the Fujian Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, achieving a series of significant progress in areas such as micro-nano manufacturing and device applications of polymer conductive films, efficient charge transport in heterojunction semiconductor transparent films, stable and long-lasting flexible low-power organic transistors, and high-performance photovoltaic devices based on polymer bilayer heterojunction semiconductor interface films. (Z. Yin*, et al. Small 2023, 19, 2301071; Mater. Today Phys. 2023, 37, 101206; Mater. Today Energy 2023, 35, 101322).