On August 17, 2023, at the invitation of the Graduate Department of the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Professor Zou Ji from the State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing at Wuhan University of Technology, Researcher Lv Xujie from the Beijing Center for High-Pressure Science, and Researcher Gao Zhe from the Shanxi Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, visited the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics to conduct the fourth "Salt Returns to the Origin" Ideological and Cultural Festival's series of lectures titled "Salt Enters Academia." Over 50 participants, including all party members of the 2022 graduate student party branch, attended the lectures. The lectures were hosted by the Deputy Secretary of the Graduate Student Party Committee, the Secretary of the 2022 Party Branch, and Researcher Nie Hengchang from the Information Function Center. 

Dr. Zou Ji has been engaged in fundamental research and engineering application explorations in boride structural ceramics and composites, as well as materials metallurgy processing. In his presentation, he mainly introduced the research background of ultra-high-temperature ceramics and composites, focusing on the high-temperature toughening and high-entropy of ultra-high-temperature ceramics. He provided a detailed introduction to the preparation and evaluation of carrier-based ultra-high-temperature ceramic-based composites, and concluded with an exploration of the preparation of sintered ultra-high-temperature ceramic-based composites. 

Researcher Lv Xujie's research focuses on the structural design of multifunctional materials and the multidimensional regulation of physical chemistry. He develops multi-scale in-situ characterization methods and technologies to study the structural and property changes of materials under external fields such as high pressure, revealing their evolutionary laws and structure-property relationships. By employing extreme conditions such as high pressure, high and low temperature, he aims to overcome the limitations of thermodynamics and kinetics in chemical reactions, exploring new materials and structures that cannot be obtained through conventional methods. In his recent presentation, he discussed the efforts in using high-pressure techniques to study metal halides and other materials, emphasizing how their structural units can be modified to affect their physical properties. Through the utilization of synchrotron diagnostic tools and laboratory equipment, he investigated the evolution of lattice structure, electronic behavior, optical properties, and optoelectronic characteristics, elucidating the relationships among these factors. 

Researcher Gao Zhe is currently primarily engaged in research on multiphase catalysis and atomic layer deposition. In his presentation, he elucidated that multiphase catalysts are typically composed of multiple components such as active particles, carriers, and promoters, and the synergistic effect between these components dominates the catalytic performance. The precise construction of multi-component catalysts is the focus of multiphase catalysis research. To address the challenges of particle scale, interface structure, and species migration and diffusion control between components in multi-component catalysts, the following work has been conducted: 1. The development of methods for precise control of particle size using atomic layer deposition, and elucidation of the particle nucleation and growth mechanism through the assembly of atomic layer deposition-X-ray absorption fine structure in situ devices. 2. Regulation of component spatial distribution, development of methods for constructing interfaces, achieving precise control of interface microstructure and microenvironment, and strengthening synergistic effects. 3. Construction of spatially separated catalysts, elucidation of the synergistic mechanism promoted by overflow/backflow, proposing a new strategy for controlling the electronic state of active particles using controllable overflow, and revealing the migration and diffusion laws of reactant species. 

Dr. Zou Ji is a professor and doctoral supervisor at the State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing at Wuhan University of Technology. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Tianjin University in 2006 and his doctoral degree from the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in 2011. He has served as a postdoctoral researcher and project researcher at KU Leuven in Belgium, Stockholm University in Sweden, and the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. He was awarded the Excellent Young Scientist Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (2021) and is recognized as a high-level overseas innovation talent in Hubei Province (2019) and a recipient of the Hubei Provincial Outstanding Youth Fund (2022). Dr. Zou currently serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Ceramic Society (2019-present) and the Journal of Materials Science & Technology (2021-present), as well as a Youth Editorial Board Member for Science China Materials. He has published more than 100 papers in high-level journals in the field of structural ceramics, such as International Materials Reviews, Materials Today, and Acta Materialia, with over 3700 citations and 7 authorized national invention patents. He is a council member of the Special Ceramics Branch of the Chinese Silicate Society, a specially appointed researcher of the Chinese Materials Research Society, and a council member of the Engineering Ceramics Committee of the Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society. Dr. Zou actively participates in important conferences in the field of ceramics and composites organized by organizations such as the Chinese Ceramic Society, the American Ceramic Society, and the European Ceramic Society (ICACC, CICC, PACRIM, CMCEE, and the Annual Conference on Advanced Ceramics), serving as a committee member, academic/order committee member, session chair, and competition judge. He is prominent in research on ultra-high-temperature ceramics, composite materials, and materials metallurgy processing at the international frontier. 

Researcher Lv Xujie is affiliated with the Beijing Center for High-Pressure Science. He obtained his bachelor's degree from Zhejiang University in 2006 and his doctoral degree from the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in 2011. He was selected for the National Overseas High-level Talent Introduction Program in 2017. He has published over 100 SCI papers, including those in National Science Review, Science Advances, Nature Communications, Journal of the American Chemical Society, and Angewandte Chemie International Edition, with over 8000 citations. He has delivered more than 20 invited speeches at domestic and international academic conferences and serves as a committee member of the High Pressure Chemistry Committee of the Chinese Chemical Society and as an editor or youth editor for journals such as Materials Research Letters, InfoMat, Renewables, and High Pressure Physics.