PhD Admissions Update | Prof. Hengzhi You's Research Group

Professor Hengzhi You, Ph.D. Supervisor, received his PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Oxford, UK, where he studied under Professor Stephen Fletcher. He is currently affiliated with the School of Medicine and Health Engineering at Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, where he serves as the disciplinary leader in Intelligent Pharmaceutical Engineering. He also concurrently serves as Executive Dean of the Green Pharmaceutical Engineering Research Institute of Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, Deputy Director of the Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Materials and Integrated Applications, and a jointly appointed professor at Shenzhen Hetao College (National Artificial Intelligence Pilot Zone). He has been selected for the Harbin Institute of Technology “Young Elite Talent Program,” the Shenzhen “National-Level Leading Talent Program,” the Nanshan District of Shenzhen Class A “Leading Talent Program,” and serves as a member of the Nanshan District Youth Federation of Shenzhen.

To date, as the principal investigator of his project team, he has led and completed three major provincial- and ministerial-level projects, each with funding exceeding RMB 3 million. As the team leader of a collaborating research unit, he has also participated in and contributed to eight major national and provincial-/ministerial-level collaborative projects, each with funding exceeding RMB 10 million. In addition, he has led more than 40 research projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, the Natural Science Foundation of Shenzhen, as well as related biopharmaceutical and fine chemical enterprises, with a total contract value exceeding RMB 80 million. His researches have resulted in more than 50 high-impact SCI papers published in top international journals, including Nature, Journal of the American Chemical Society, ACS Catalysis, and Chemical Science, as well as over 70 filed or granted international and Chinese invention patents.

Personal ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8904-5050

Personal Homepage: http://faculty.hitsz.edu.cn/youhengzhi

Research directions:

The team is led by Academician Chen Fen’er as Chief Scientist / Special Advisor, and brings together a group of outstanding young core faculty members, including Professor You Hengzhi, Associate Research Fellow Zhu Yuxiang, Associate Research Fellow Huang Junrong, and Associate Research Fellow Zhao Yang. The team members have study and work experience at renowned domestic and international universities and research institutions such as the University of Oxford, Peking University, MIT, and Nankai University. Their research covers organic synthesis, catalytic chemistry, pharmaceutical intermediate development, natural product chemistry, and intelligent pharmaceuticals. The team possesses both solid fundamental research capabilities and experience in industrial translation, providing a strong foundation for high-level scientific research and collaborative innovation.

In response to the key R&D challenges and practical needs of China’s biopharmaceutical and pharmaceutical industries, his research focuses on developing greener, more efficient, safer, and smarter applied synthesis and manufacturing technologies. His research is characterized by the integration of heterogeneous catalysis, AI, and continuous-flow chemistry. Specific research areas include:

Design and synthesis of novel heterogeneous catalysts and their applications in continuous-flow synthesis;
Development of AI-enabled route design, reaction prediction, and parameter optimization for chemical synthesis based on a high-throughput continuous-flow reaction platform;
Industry-oriented continuous-flow manufacturing processes for pharmaceutical intermediates and functional molecules.

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