Lifeng Chi - Biography#

Lifeng Chi is chair professor at the Institute of Functional Nano&Soft Materials (FONSOM) at Soochow Univeristy in Suzhou, China. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Physics (1982) and Master’s degree in Physical Chemistry (1985), both at Jilin University , China. Thereafter she came to Germany and worked at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, where she obtained her PhD degree in November 1989. After three years of research as postdoctoral fellow at University of Mainz and at BASF in Ludwighafen, in 1993 she was appointed as a group leader at Physics Department, University of Münster, where she finished her Habilitation in 2000. In 2004, she became a Professor at University of Münster and joined FUNSOM at Soochow University in China as a chair professor and dean of science in 2012.

Her current scientific interests center around supramolecular chemistry on surfaces, including on-surface reactions (particularly in selective C-H bond activation and C-C coupling of alkanes, surface modulated synthesis of asymmetric molecules and functional macromolecules/polymers, as well as chemical bond imaging), molecular self-assembly, interfacial molecular patterning/engineering and their applications.

She has been awarded several prestigious prizes such as IUPAC Award for Distinguished Women in Chemistry/Chemical Engineering (2017), ACS Nano Lectureship Award (2016), Distinguished Overseas Chinese Young Scientist (1999）and Lisa-Meitner Scholarship (1997) .

She serves on the editorial/advisory boards of 8 international journals and as associate editor of 2 Chinese scientific journals. She is the corresponding person for 19 international/national scientific projects, including the first German-Chinese SFB project acting as the co-speaker.

Publication statistics:

Total journal papers 397, including Nature (1), Science (2), Nat. Commun. (3), Adv. Mater. (23), Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.(11), J. Am. Chem. Soc. (15), Phys. Rev. Lett. (4), Acc. Chem. Res. (3) etc.

(Web of Science: >12,700 citations, H-index 60) (Google Scholar Citations: >13,700 citations, H-index 62)

Total invited talks at international conferences/universities: more than 120 (Plenary, Keynote and Invited)