Hierarchically porous materials and green chemistry—an interview with Ming-Yuan He

Many examples of hierarchies are present in nature, such as water transport in leaf vein systems, the respiratory system, the blood circulatory system, etc. Hierarchically structuring a material over different length scales by mimicking natural systems can provide an opportunity to render the material suitable for a variety of functions. Tremendous research over the past decade has focused on the synthesis and applications of hierarchically structured porous materials. This rapidly evolving field has attracted great interest from both academia and industry. China is at the forefront of this field, and a scientific leader of this research is Professor Ming-Yuan He of East China Normal University. Professor He was elected to the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1995, and he received the Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress from the Ho Leung Ho Li Foundation in 2001. He also won the National Catalysis Achievement Award of China in 2012 and the National Zeolite Lifetime Achievement Award of China in 2019. Professor He's research interests focus on new catalytic materials and oil-refining catalysts and processes. He is a pioneer in the area of green chemistry in China and actively promotes the development of green chemistry and chemical engineering. NSR recently interviewed Professor He about the current achievements and future prospects of hierarchically structured porous materials. This interview is dedicated to Professor He on the occasion of his 80th birthday, in recognition of his distinguished contributions to many aspects in the field of catalytic science and technology.