The latest Innovators Under 35 China List by MIT Technology Review was recently unveiled, with three HUST representatives making the list. The honorees are Professor Cai Kaiming from the School of Physics, 2012 alumnus Pang Quanquan from the School of Materials Science and Engineering, and 2013 alumna Pan Yu, also from the School of Materials Science and Engineering.

MIT Technology Review’s global “Innovators Under 35” selection was launched in 1999, marking the publication’s centennial. Each year, it recognizes exceptional young talents from leading-edge technology and industrial fields, with the goal of accelerating technological innovation worldwide.

Professor Cai Kaiming is currently a faculty member and doctoral supervisor at the School of Physics. His research focuses on vertical spin-orbit torque magnetic random access memory (SOT-MRAM) technology. He has overcome key challenges such as field-free high-speed switching and high-density integration, propelling this technology from the laboratory to industrial application.

SOT-MRAM is regarded as one of the most promising non-volatile memory technologies to replace conventional cache in the post-Moore era. To facilitate the transition of SOT-MRAM from lab research to industry, Professor Cai Kaiming’s work addresses and optimizes performance degradation caused by field-free integration schemes. He proposed the concept of multi-bit SOT-MRAM, achieving lower write current and higher integration density, thereby significantly boosting the density and energy efficiency of SOT-MRAM devices. He also experimentally demonstrated, for the first time, ultrafast field-free switching in multi-bit SOT-MRAM with write current pulses as short as 0.3 nanoseconds and energy consumption as low as 60 femtojoules per bit. Furthermore, he devised a scalable vertical SOT-MRAM device architecture that dramatically reduces unit cell size, lowers power consumption by 63%, and increases endurance to over one quadrillion cycles. Through systematic studies on device scaling, he proved the critical importance of miniaturization for SOT device performance enhancement.

Thanks to these technological breakthroughs, Professor Cai Kaiming led the development of third-generation SOT-MRAM devices and demonstrated their successful integration with 300mm CMOS wafers for high-performance computing applications. His work has laid a solid foundation for the large-scale commercialization of SOT-MRAM.

Professor Pang Quanquan studied as an undergraduate at the School of Materials Science and Engineering from 2008 to 2012. Leveraging the abundance of sulfur, he developed low-cost and intrinsically safe electrochemical energy storage systems for both stationary and automotive applications.

Sulfur-based batteries, recognized for their low cost and high capacity, are seen as ideal candidates for next-generation battery technologies. However, complex conversion mechanisms and severe capacity fading have posed significant challenges. Starting from a holistic perspective on sulfur-based batteries, Professor Pang Quanquan has systematically driven innovation in electrode material design, electrolyte development, and interfacial engineering. He pioneered a molten salt aluminum-sulfur battery that leverages the high thermal stability and inherent nonflammability of molten salt electrolytes, along with rapid charging capability in the order of seconds. These batteries could potentially reduce costs to just one-fifth or one-sixth of current commercial lithium-ion batteries, suitable for a range of charge/discharge rates. Crucially, these batteries intrinsically address safety concerns in large-scale energy storage and show great promise for applications such as grid frequency regulation, renewable energy integration, and industrial power storage. Recently, he achieved a major breakthrough in solid-state lithium-sulfur batteries by developing a novel iodine-containing glassy sulfide electrolyte. This new material not only serves as an ionic conductor for the sulfur electrode but, thanks to fast iodine redox reactions, also mediates the rapid solid-state conversion of sulfur, leading to much-improved reaction kinetics.

The solid-state lithium-sulfur batteries based on this research can theoretically achieve charging in minutes and maintain lifespans of over 10,000 cycles. Applied in electric vehicles, this could translate into a battery lifespan of 30 to 40 years. With strong commercial potential, this innovation could define a new generation of power battery technology and accelerate the global transition to new energy vehicles.

Professor Pan Yu, who studied as an undergraduate at the School of Materials Science and Engineering from 2009 to 2013, achieved a major leap in low-temperature thermoelectric performance under ultralow magnetic fields, surpassing existing records for thermoelectric figure of merit at temperatures below 300 K, and opening up new avenues for solid-state refrigeration.

Professor Pan Yu has long focused her research on thermoelectric materials, with a particular emphasis on topological thermoelectric materials. During her doctoral studies, she investigated the thermoelectric transport properties and performance optimization of bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3)-based semiconductors. Because Bi2Te3 alloys possess unique band structures as topological insulators, and thermoelectric performance is closely tied to electronic band structure and electron transport behavior, she began to explore the physical connection between thermoelectric properties and topological band characteristics during her postdoctoral work. She expanded her research focus from traditional thermoelectric semiconductors to include topological semimetals, aiming to bring new perspectives to the field of thermoelectrics from the standpoint of topological physics.

By analyzing the transport characteristics of thermoelectric effects such as the Seebeck and (anomalous) Nernst effects, Professor Pan Yu developed targeted strategies to enhance thermoelectric performance in various material systems. She was among the first internationally to create topological semimetals with exceptional anomalous Nernst, Nernst, and magneto-Seebeck effects, laying a foundation for next-generation thermoelectric materials. She significantly boosted magneto-Seebeck performance under a low magnetic field of just 0.7 Tesla, achievable with a permanent magnet, surpassing the previous low-temperature (<300 K) thermoelectric performance records. Her research clarified the key roles of Dirac band linear dispersion and Zeeman splitting in enhancing the magneto-Seebeck effect in topological materials. This work paves the way for noiseless, vibration-free, portable, and low-cost solid-state cooling technology with disruptive potential.