Top 10 Academic Advances of 2024 at Zhejiang University: Celebrating Innovation and Collaboration
Zhejiang University held its Awards Ceremony on December 24, 2025, to honor the Top 10 Academic Advances of 2024 and the Top 10 Academic Advances by Young Scholars. The ceremony began with a screening of the documentary *I’ll Be There for You*, setting a reflective tone for the proceedings.
Aims of the Awards
The purpose of the awards was to highlight significant academic innovations across a variety of disciplines, including the humanities, sciences, engineering, and applied research. The event emphasized the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in promoting scientific and scholarly advancements at the university.
Remarks by University Leadership
MA Yanming, President of Zhejiang University, addressed attendees, encouraging the academic community to focus on original innovations that align with national strategies. He underscored the necessity of building a world-class academic ecosystem while contributing to China’s efforts in science and technology self-reliance.
CHEN Yunmin, Chair of the Academic Committee at the university, urged researchers to foster curiosity, dismantle disciplinary barriers, and maintain high academic standards within a global context.
Award Announcements
The ceremony featured the announcement of several notable awards, including the 2024 Top 10 Academic Advances, the Top 10 Academic Advances by Young Scholars, and the Best Appreciation Award. Recognized achievements included:
- A New Framework for Treating Blood Cancers: A research team led by HUANG He developed a treatment strategy that uncovers new biological mechanisms for clinical application, differing from conventional methods.
- Innovative Separation of Oil-Water Emulsions: XU Zhikang’s team presented a scalable separation technique utilizing polypropylene microfiltration membranes to tackle a longstanding industrial problem.
- Advancements in Photovoltaic Stability: XUE Jingjing and her team created a new materials system aimed at enhancing the stability of solar photovoltaic devices, which is vital for achieving carbon neutrality in China.
- Environmental Evolution Study in Deserts: YANG Xiaoping’s team researched environmental changes in Chinese deserts, providing new insights into desert formation and evolution.
- Biomimetic Robots for Underwater Inspection: HE Zhiguo’s group designed a high-performance underwater robot with integrated functions to enhance marine infrastructure monitoring.
- New Discoveries in Protein Modification: Researchers led by ZHOU Yan and ZHU Yongqun identified a novel post-translational modification that could lead to new understandings of cellular signaling pathways.
- Exploration of Metabolic and Immune Interplay: Research by ZHANG Long’s team highlighted lactate as a signaling molecule, challenging prior conclusions about its metabolic roles.
- Chip Manufacturing Innovation: ZHUO Cheng’s team introduced FabGPT, a large multimodal model aimed at optimizing chip manufacturing processes, marking significant progress in the field.
Conclusion
The ceremony illustrated that substantial scientific advancements frequently emerge at the intersection of diverse fields, reinforcing the notion that collaboration across disciplines is essential for fostering progress.
(Source: Zhejiang University)
