Dr. YANG Tao from the City University of Hong Kong, recipient of the Lee Hsun Young Scholar Award, visited the Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IMR, CAS), from August 24 to 26.
During his visit, Dr. YANG delivered a lecture titled "Innovative design and advanced manufacturing of strong-yet-ductile multicomponent intermetallic alloys" to IMR researchers and graduate students.
Intermetallic compounds, with their unique long-range ordered structures, high melting points, high strength, oxidation resistance and corrosion resistance, are considered among the most promising high-temperature structural materials. In his presentation, Dr. YANG focused on chemically complex intermetallic alloys—an emerging class of metallic structural materials. He elaborated on their innovative design and advanced manufacturing from multiple perspectives, including "ordered superlattice structures," "multi-element synergistic alloying," and "grain boundary nano-disordering," while also discussing future development and challenges.
The cutting-edge and in-depth lecture sparked keen interest among attendees, leading to extensive academic exchanges on the novel design concepts and core strengthening-toughening mechanisms of chemically complex intermetallic alloys. During his visit, Dr. YANG also held discussions with researchers from the Division of Special Alloys on key performance bottlenecks and potential solutions for high-temperature structural materials.
Dr. YANG Tao is currently with the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the City University of Hong Kong. He is a recipient of the National Natural Science Foundation of China Excellent Young Scientists Fund and the Hong Kong Research Grants Council Early Career Award. He is a core member of the Hong Kong 3D-APT Joint Research Laboratory, the Hong Kong Branch of the National Engineering Research Centre for Noble Metal Materials, and the Centre for Advanced Structural Materials. His research focuses on alloy design, microstructural control and advanced manufacturing of metallic structural materials for harsh service environments, including intermetallics, high-entropy alloys and titanium alloys. He has received numerous awards, including the IUMRS Young Scientist Award, the CMRS Young Scientist Award, the HKIAS Rising Star Award, and the Materials Research Letters Rising Star Award. He has been consecutively listed in Stanford University's World's Top 2% Scientists in Materials Science from 2021 to 2025. He has published over 220 papers in journals including Science, Nature, Nature Communications, Materials Today, Advanced Materials, and Acta Materialia, with more than 16,000 citations. He has also edited one English monograph and two special issues, and applied for over 10 patents. He has led more than 30 research projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the National Key Research and Development Program of China.
