Meet the Editors | Interview with Prof. Dr. Huan Pang—Section Editor-in-Chief of the New Section “Nanoscale Science” in Chemistry

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Huan Pang has been appointed Section Editor-in-Chief of the Section “Nanoscale Science” in Chemistry (ISSN: 2624-8549).

Prof. Dr. Huan Pang attained M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from Nanjing University in 2011. He is now a university distinguished professor at Yangzhou University and Young Changjiang Scholars of the Ministry of Education, China. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He was recognized as a highly cited researcher in Cross-Field by Clarivate Analytics in 2020 and 2021. He is the Editorial Board Member of the National Science Review; a number of journal editorial boards and youth editorial board members are academic part-timers. His research area mainly focuses on nano metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)-related materials. He has published more than 300 SCI papers as the first/corresponding author and won the first prize in Natural Science from the Ministry of Education.

The following is a short Q&A with Prof. Dr. Huan Pang, who shared his vision for the journal with us, as well as his views of the research area and open access publishing:

Part I—Regarding the journal Chemistry

1. What appealed to you about the journal Chemistry that made you want to take the role as its Section Editor-in-Chief?

The journal Chemistry publishes papers on various aspects of basic chemistry and applied chemistry, including inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, physical chemistry, electrochemistry, biochemistry, green and environmental chemistry, etc. The scope of this journal is very wide. There are some experienced editors in the editorial committee team of "Nanoscale Science", such as Prof. Dr. Philippe Dugourd, Prof. Dr. Angelo Maria Taglietti, etc. I am mainly engaged in the research of energy chemistry based on nano metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)-related materials. The work of the editorial committee of chemistry enables me to come into contact with the theoretical knowledge of chemistry and the frontier issues of scientific research.

2. What are the expectations you have for this journal? What perspective do you think the journal will bring to the related fields?

This journal has covered all fields related to chemistry. I think an important direction for the future development of the journal is to apply our research materials to practice. Now, the application of nanomaterials in biology, environment, and energy storage is very common. In addition, cross disciplines are also popular, such as multi-functional composite materials.

The journal Chemistry needs to be popularized in many aspects. We still need to control the quality of journal articles, improve the impact factors, and attract more good research jobs. There are also many excellent scholars and relevant research institutions in China. my sincerest hope is that the journal will cooperate with excellent scholars at home and abroad to provide professional publishing services for more scholars and better serve the research in this field.

3. What do you think of the development of open access in publishing?

The open access model is very beneficial for researchers. Because open access journal literature can be read anywhere, we save the cost and time of purchasing literature, which is convenient for readers.

Part II—Regarding the main fields of interest

1. Can you share your career development story briefly? For example, what cases have influenced you the most?

During my master's degree, doctoral degree, and post-doctoral research work, I published papers in many journals such as Angewandte Chemie International Edition. I deeply understand the inseparable relationship between journal publishing and academic research. Therefore, since I started my work, as one of the representatives of Yangzhou University, I co-founded EnergyChem with Elsevier and served as the managing editor in 2019. This has laid a rich foundation for my future editing work and allowed me to accumulate rich experience and in 2020, I served as the young editor of eScience. I was lucky to work with many experienced editors whose words and deeds have benefited me a lot. In 2021, I served as a member of the editorial group of the National Science Review. At the same time, I served as the Editorial Board Member of FlatChem and Rare Metals, and the youth editorial board member of Nano Research, Nano Research Energy. In the process of serving on the editorial committee, I linked my theoretical knowledge of chemistry and the frontier issues of scientific research, and I am now able to apply my knowledge in familiar fields which ultimately strengthens the volume of contributions to the journal publishing house.

2. As a researcher in nanoscale science, what are the latest developments in your field?

Nanoscale Science has always been a research hotspot, such as the nano metal-organic framework material. Nano MOFs exhibit a tunable composition and rich structural diversity beyond traditional solid materials. These characteristics cause them to have a wide range of potential applications, such as separating/storing hydrocarbon mixtures by nano MOF-based membranes or column adsorption and catalyzing various important chemical processes. Especially using a nano MOF precursor, some interesting materials with special compositions and structures can be obtained, which are difficult to obtain using traditional methods. These nano MOF-derived materials exhibit excellent performance and potential applications when used in energy-related processes or designs. With the deepening of the research, we also have a new understanding. However, it still needs to be considered that research and application are unified. For example, the advantages of nanomaterials are more considered in research, while the disadvantages of nanomaterials in specific applications are more considered in the application. This is one of the important reasons why we have not fully utilized them despite our full expectations for nanomaterials. At present, the research on nanomaterials has reached a very high level. In the future, our research will stand on the shoulders of giants, which requires each researcher to stand higher to see further. The application of nanomaterials and energy storage is still a very active field, and it is still deepening and exploring its industrialization and new application fields.

3. Do you have any valuable suggestions you would like to share with young students and early career researchers?

For young students and early career researchers, I suggest that they should first pay attention to the accumulation of knowledge, read more literature, and improve their abilities in all aspects, especially their ability to think independently. Secondly, they should communicate with their peers and do more experiments. In addition, scientific research needs to be treated with a rigorous and responsible attitude, and the data should be recorded in detail to facilitate later verification. Another important thing is to maintain an optimistic attitude and stay healthy. Experimental failures are common, and they should learn from failures, never give up, and try and make mistakes.

We warmly welcome Prof. Dr. Huan Pang as the Section Editor-in-Chief of the new Section “Nanoscale Science” in Chemistry, and look forward to his contribution to the continued success of the journal.