On the occasion of the 40th Teachers' Day, Fudan University held a conference to celebrate the 2024 Teachers' Day, which is “vigorously carrying forward the spirit of educators and accelerating the construction of a strong educational country”. At the meeting, the list of “Zhong Yang style” good teachers and good teams for 2024 was announced, and Prof. Yu Yanlei was honored as “Zhong Yang style” good teacher (10 in total).

On-site award photo (Prof. Yu Yanlei is the fifth from the right)

Personal Profile:

 Yanlei Yu is a Distinguished Professor at Fudan University, currently the Dean of the Department of Materials Science, a member of the Teaching Steering Committee of Fudan University, a member of the Committee on Popularization of Science of the Chinese Chemical Society, and the Chief Scientist of the National Key Research and Development Program. 28 years of dedication to the front line of teaching and research, the organic combination of moral education and scientific and technological innovation, and to lead the students to forge ahead in the pursuit of excellence. His research group has been awarded “Benchmark Laboratory” by Fudan University twice, his undergraduate laboratory textbook has been selected as one of the “Seven Series of Excellence Textbooks” by Fudan University, and his postgraduate course “Liquid Crystal Materials and Displays” has been selected as one of the “Model Courses of Civics and Politics” by Fudan University. He is committed to the research of light-responsive liquid crystal polymer materials and their flexible devices, and has opened up the all-optical control microfluidic chip technology. 2016 as the only corresponding author of the results published in Nature journal, was reported by CCTV “News” and so on. Cumulatively trained 68 master's and doctoral students. He was awarded the Shanghai Yucai Prize, the first prize of Shanghai Natural Science Award, the Changjiang Scholars Distinguished Professor of the Ministry of Education, and the National Jieqing Youth.

The standard of “Zhong Yang style” good teacher in her mind:

Establish virtue, love students like children - to help students grow up and become successful with the “heart of seeding”;

Courage to innovate and take responsibility - to pursue excellence with the spirit of “sharpening a sword in ten years”.

Award-winning deeds:

Next, let's learn about Prof. Yu Yanlei's award-winning deeds from three aspects: education, science and technology, and talents.

I. Happy to teach and love the students, cultivate the pillar material with a wise heart

Professor Yu Yanlei has been teaching for nearly 30 years, and has taught undergraduate courses such as “Structure and Properties of Polymer Materials”, “Experiments in Materials Chemistry”, “Functional Polymer Materials”, “Research Methods of Polymer Materials”, as well as postgraduate courses such as “Liquid Crystal Materials and Displays”, and “English for Professional Purposes”. She always believes that classroom teaching is the cornerstone of scientific research, and emphasizing on classroom teaching not only promotes the improvement and development of her own teaching level, but also lays a solid theoretical foundation for her students to further their scientific research or seek employment in the society in the future.

She edited the undergraduate laboratory textbook “Materials Chemistry Experiment”, which was selected as one of the “seven series of high-quality textbooks” of Fudan University; lectured in the postgraduate course “Liquid Crystal Materials and Displays”, which was selected as one of the Fudan University's model courses in the field of political thinking; and this year she also lectured in the “Road to Strength” course “The Road to a Stronger Nation” of Fudan University. This year, he also lectured on the “Road to Strength” of Fudan University, “China's Liquid Crystal Materials and Displays: The Road of Reversal”. He has supervised a number of XiYuan projects, WangDao projects, and Swiss Scholars Program, providing important academic guidance for undergraduates who are keen on scientific research, as well as opportunities to experience academic research and good research conditions.

In addition to her teaching and research work, she also likes to talk with students about various trendy topics of interest to young people nowadays, and sometimes, inspired by current events, she will have a profound discussion on life, values and responsibilities, and from her own life experience and cognitive insights, she will answer questions and solve problems for students, so as to make the clouds over students' scientific research, academics, and life dissipate. In addition, she also encourages students to go beyond the limited course of study and personal research topics, to look at the problem from a broader perspective, and to integrate personal development with the progress of the country and the nation. It is based on the outstanding teaching and parenting effectiveness that Ms. Yu was awarded the Shanghai Yucai Award in 2019.

Group photo of students and faculty members of Prof. Yanlei Yu's group

Ⅱ. Seek innovation, science and technology to empower the frequent colorful

Prof. Yu Yanlei leads the research team of “light-responsive liquid crystal polymer materials”, upholds the spirit of love and dedication, combines moral education and scientific and technological innovation, leads students to carry out scientific research in spite of difficulties and forge ahead, and adheres to the “four orientations” to realize the high-quality development of China's materials field and high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and self-improvement. The team is dedicated to the photoresponsive liquid crystal polymers, which are used in the development of China's materials field and the self-reliance of high-level science and technology.

The team is committed to the research of light-responsive liquid crystal polymer materials and their flexible devices, and has achieved international leading research results in the creation and application of intelligent deformation of new material systems, and has established a variety of light-controlled intelligent micro-execution device design principles, construction methods and function regulation guidelines, and developed prototype prototypes of micro-robotics, micro-pumps, micro-valves and other prototypes. In recent years, the team has realized material innovation from the molecular level to the aggregation state scale, put forward a new design concept of light-responsive liquid crystal polymer, and opened up a new way to construct three-dimensional structural devices, especially in the all-optical microfluidic device construction materials and driving mechanism breakthroughs, and successfully pioneered the new technology of light-controlled microfluidics. 2016 as the sole corresponding author published a lengthy article in the journal Nature The results were reported by mainstream media such as CCTV's “News Broadcast”, “Asahi News”, and the UK's “The Economist”, and listed as one of the top ten scientific and technological events in Shanghai in 2016.

In order to promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements of the developed new materials and technologies, the team has continuously increased its efforts in applied basic research, and has taken the lead in undertaking three key projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Major Research Instrumentation Development Project, the National Key R&D Program, and has been supported by the major projects and rolling projects of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission's Scientific Research and Innovation Program, and has been granted more than 20 patents for Chinese inventions and 1 PCT patent. The company has been authorized more than 20 Chinese invention patents and 1 PCT patent. Especially for the people's life and health, for the needs of in vitro diagnostic (IVD) products, proposed the use of light-responsive materials instead of microfluidic chip materials, constructing a new concept of “all-optical control microfluidic chip”, and transforming the traditional contact “mechanical drive” into a non-contact “light field drive”. The new concept of “all-optical microfluidic chip” has changed the traditional contact “mechanical drive” to non-contact “light field drive”, which is evaluated by domestic and foreign counterparts as “can greatly simplify the microfluidic system” and “opens up a new way in the field of biomedicine and other fields”.

Ⅲ. Craftsmanship and dedication to excellence in nurturing talents

Prof. Yanlei Yu is well aware of the heavy responsibility as a university teacher, and teaches her students to uphold the “craftsmanship” of striving for excellence and pursuing perfection in scientific research - not only to be down-to-earth and not to be in a hurry to achieve quick successes, but also to learn to enjoy the process and to seize the time to do it slowly; We should also be good at cooperating with others and solving problems through cross-disciplinary cooperation.

Based on innovative research projects, she cultivates students' innovative consciousness and scientific research ability, encourages them to explore and conquer new scientific problems, not to be deterred by difficulties in the research process, to maintain enthusiasm for scientific research, not to give up, and to strive to “do their work to the best of their ability”. She not only emphasizes the depth of scientific research to her students, but also devotes herself to broadening the breadth of the research field, focusing on guiding her students to actively explore, think and solve problems in an all-round way, and constantly inspires her students to combine the advantages of different advanced materials in order to obtain new materials with more comprehensive and excellent performance, and to broaden their ideas of new material development. In addition, she also does not forget to cultivate students' teamwork ability, and try to provide them with opportunities to participate in all kinds of academic conferences and out of school exchanges, there have been more than 10 people in the international and domestic academic conferences won the excellent poster award. In the process, the students also met more like-minded young people, for the future to further strengthen academic exchanges and scientific research cooperation to lay a solid foundation.

The team insists on carrying out the zeitgeist of keeping abreast of the times and pioneering, relentlessly pursuing and striving for the first-class, and serving the country and society with practical actions. In particular, the team has accompanied Liu Yang, the first female astronaut in China, to visit the research group and display the cutting-edge research results of the group, which not only let the female model personally feel the “charm” of liquid crystal, but also let the students appreciate the humility and affinity of the resounding rose. Since the establishment of the group in 2004, Ms. Yu has trained more than 30 doctoral students and 40 master's students. The group has been awarded “Benchmark Laboratory” by Fudan University twice, and won the first prize of Dow Chemical Sustainability Innovation Award of Fudan University in 2017.