On June 5, 2026, a special academic lecture session of the 14th “Huayu Tiangong Youth Forum” was successfully held in Room A203 of the Engineering Building. The forum specially invited Professor Liu Xiaogang from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, who delivered two practical, forward-looking lectures covering young researchers’ academic growth and cutting-edge scientific frontiers. A large number of young faculty members and graduate students of the School attended to exchange ideas and learn.
The first lecture was titled How to Write High-Impact Research Papers: My Three-Core Methodology. Professor Liu pointed out that academic papers are far more than simple stacks of experimental data; they serve as systematic presentations of scientific questions, experimental frameworks and original academic insights. Drawing on abundant writing examples, he shared his three core paper-writing techniques: ensuring coherent language, constructing rigorous overall frameworks, and developing meticulous logical argumentation. Meanwhile, Professor Liu sorted out typical pitfalls in academic writing and offered actionable suggestions for key links including overall manuscript conception, paragraph layout, result interpretation and logical deduction, substantially boosting participants’ academic writing proficiency and the persuasiveness of their papers.
The second lecture focused on cutting-edge research, entitled Computationally Aided Design of Fluorescent Functional Dyes. Professor Liu noted that traditional fluorescent dye development largely relies on repetitive trial-and-error experiments with low efficiency, making it difficult to clarify intrinsic correlations among molecular structures, excited-state characteristics and photophysical properties. The lecture systematically introduced an innovative rational design strategy integrating quantum chemical calculations, molecular feature analysis and experimental validation. This approach establishes quantitative structure-property relationships (QSPR) between molecular structures and fluorescence performance parameters, precisely identifying core structural factors regulating fluorescence brightness, environmental responsiveness and excited-state relaxation behaviors. It provides a clear roadmap for structural optimization of high-performance fluorescent molecules, driving the paradigm shift of dye research from empirical trial-and-error to theory-prediction-guided development.
The forum featured substantial, targeted content explained in accessible language. It resolved practical puzzles regarding academic writing for young faculty and students, while broadening their horizons for innovative frontier research. During the interactive session, teachers and students actively raised questions about paper writing skills, computational simulation methods, optimized design of fluorescent dyes and other topics. Professor Liu patiently responded to all inquiries with detailed explanations, fostering a vibrant atmosphere of academic exchange on site.