At the invitation of the Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IMR, CAS), Prof. Paolo Colombo from University of Padua, Italy, the 2026 Lee Hsun Lecture Award recipient, visited IMR from April 22 to 24, 2026.
During his visit, Prof. Colombo delivered a lecture titled “Additive manufacturing of ceramics from precursors” to IMR researchers and graduate students. In his lecture, he detailed strategies for producing high-quality ceramic parts from multiple precursors and described components with sizes ranging from sub-micrometer to tens of centimeters fabricated by various additive manufacturing techniques, including direct ink writing, binder jetting, digital light processing, two-photon polymerization, robotic manufacturing and volumetric additive manufacturing.
During his visit, he also held academic discussions with research groups in superalloys, magnetic and thermal functional materials, and ceramic materials, exploring future trends in the application of ceramics in structural and functional devices.
Prof. Colombo is a professor at the University of Padua, a member of the European Academy of Sciences (AE), the Italian Academy of Engineering, the European Academy of Sciences (EAS), and a Fellow of the World Academy of Ceramics. He is Vice-President of the Italian Ceramic Society and a former President of the International Ceramic Federation. A world-renowned materials scientist specializing in advanced ceramic and glass processing, his work focuses particularly on additive manufacturing, polymer-derived ceramics, geopolymers and structural porous materials. His research has significantly advanced the field of precursor-based ceramic processing and pioneered the additive manufacturing of ceramics (e.g., digital light processing and direct ink writing) from preceramic polymers and geopolymers. As of April 2026, he has published over 450 peer-reviewed journal papers (over 28,000 citations, h-index = 84), two monographs (with another forthcoming in 2026), 11 book chapters, and holds 20 granted patents. Many of his papers are regarded as milestone contributions in the fields of polymer-derived ceramics, ceramic additive manufacturing and porous ceramics.
