Recently, the 18th Annual Conference of the Global Academy of Chinese Chemical Engineers (GACCE) was held in Shanghai. At the conference, Associate Professor Yuqing Ye in the College of Engineering at Eastern Institute of Technology, Ningbo (EIT), received the 2026 "Global Chemical Engineering Award for Outstanding Young Female Scientist", while Associate Professors Hang Zhang and Qingchen Shen were selected as 2026 "Future Chemical Engineering Scholars".
To further support the professional growth of young female chemical engineering scholars and increase the visibility of women in the global chemical engineering community, GACCE established the "Global Chemical Engineering Award for Outstanding Young Female Scientist" in 2022. The award is presented to no more than three female scientists worldwide each year. On August 10, 2026, Associate Professor Yuqing Ye, who had joined EIT as a full-time faculty member just six months earlier, received the award.
Ye's research focuses on pulmonary inhalation drug delivery, modification and functionalization of pharmaceutical particles, microenvironment-responsive smart drug delivery systems, and computer-aided design and development of smart inhalers and new drugs. She is currently leading her team in tackling two highly challenging directions. The first is nose-to-brain delivery, which aims to provide new non-invasive treatment strategies for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. The second is inhaled pulmonary drug delivery, which seeks new possibilities for improving or even reversing disease progression.
To encourage and cultivate outstanding young scholars and engineers in chemical engineering, promote the development of young talent and international exchange in the field, and advance future innovation and cooperation, GACCE has organized a dedicated forum since 2017, which was officially named the “Future Chemical Engineering Forum” in 2019. Each year, the forum selects six to eight outstanding young chemical engineering scholars under the age of 40 and confers on them the permanent title of “Future Chemical Engineering Scholar.” Among the 2026 recipients were Associate Professor Hang Zhang and Associate Professor Qingchen Shen from EIT.
Associate Hang Zhang’s research focuses on the design of polymer hydrogel networks, structure–property relationships, and bioinspired soft materials. He has published more than 30 SCI-indexed papers in leading international journals such as Nature Materials, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Communications, and Advanced Materials, and serves as a reviewer for Advanced Materials, Nature Communications, Matter, and other journals.
Associate Professor Qingchen Shen's main research interests include bioinspired thermal and optical materials and devices. He has published more than 10 papers as first or corresponding author, including co-first/co-corresponding authorship, in leading international journals such as Science, Advanced Materials, and Advanced Science. His work has been cited more than 2,000 times on Google Scholar, with an H-index of 18. He holds one granted UK patent and seven granted Chinese patents, and serves as a reviewer for journals including Advanced Materials and Nature Communications.
The Global Academy of Chinese Chemical Engineers has long been committed to academic research and international exchange in chemical engineering, making significant contributions to collaboration among Chinese chemical engineering scholars worldwide and to the advancement of the discipline. Jingxu Zhu, Chair Professor at EIT and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Engineering, is one of the Academy’s key initiators and founding members.
The GACCE annual conference was initiated by Professor Jingxu Zhu. Since the first conference was held in Niagara Falls, Canada, in 2009, the conference has alternated between domestic and overseas venues. The 18th annual conference was hosted by East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Sinopec Shanghai Research Institute of Petrochemical Technology Co., Ltd., and co-organized by EIT, Tsinghua University, Jiangsu University, and Donghua University.
Each year, the Academy holds an annual conference that provides members with a platform for exchange and presentation while continuously improving its programs and operations. It has also established a number of academic honors to recognize scholars who have made outstanding contributions to chemical engineering. Among these, the “Future Chemical Engineering Scholars” and the “Global Chemical Engineering Award for Outstanding Young Female Scientist” are the Academy’s two most representative honors.
