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Materials science is helping to transform China into a high-tech economy

Researchers are reaping the benefits of carefully built programmes and a surge in funding.
By
  1. Sarah O’Meara

    1. Sarah O’Meara is a freelance science writer in London.

By the time Dawei Zhang’s study visa to the United States had been renewed, it was too late. The 29-year-old materials scientist was back in China with his wife and son, ready to begin a postdoc at the University of Science and Technology Beijing — one of the country’s leading materials institutes. The delay had prompted him to accept a position in China, rather than pursue research on self-healing materials in the United States.

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Nature 567, S1-S5 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-00885-5

Additional research by Kevin Schoenmakers.

This article is part of Nature Spotlight on Materials Science in China, an editorially independent supplement. Advertisers have no influence over the content.

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 27 March 2019: An earlier version of this story gave the wrong birthplace for Ho-Kwang Mao; the wrong affiliation for Guang Chen; and the wrong university campus for Zhenhai Wen’s postdoctoral research.

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