Recently, the National Natural Science Foundation of China released the list of the 2020 National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars. Two USTB teachers, Prof. HOU Xinmei and Prof. YAN Xiangbin, were named as recipients.

Photo of Prof. HOU Xinmei

Prof. HOU Xinmei, Collaborative Innovation Center of Steel Technology,is aPh.D. supervisorandhas long been engaged in the research of the controllable preparation of new refractory materials for clean steel, the establishment of high-temperature interface reaction kinetics and theoretical models, and new methods of high-performance ceramics as well as the functional applications in electrochemistry. She is also a member of the National Refractory Standardization Technical Committee, a member of the High Temperature Professional Committee of the Chinese Society for Corrosion and Protection, acouncil member of the National Materials New Technology Development Research Institute, an editor of journals such as  Scientific Reports  and  Journal of Engineering Science  andanexpert of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and China Postdoctoral Fund Communication and Conference Review as well as a member of the Science and Technology Expert Database. She has presided over more than 20 projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and obtained 13 authorized national invention patents. Prof. HOU has also received the second prize oftheBuilding Materials Science and Technology Award for Science and Technology Progress, the China Industry-University-Research Cooperation Innovation Award, the China Metallurgical Youth Science and Technology Award, "New Century Excellent Talents Support Program" of the Ministry of Education, National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation and Beijing Excellent Talents (Top Youth Individual) and other scientific and technological awards and honorary titles.

Photo of Prof. YAN Xiangbin

Prof. YAN Xiangbin, Dean of the School of Economics and Management and Ph.D. supervisor, has been mainly engaged in the research of e-commerce and business intelligence, business data analysis, economic and social networks and the fields of evaluation theory and methods. He is the member of the Management Science and Engineering Teaching Steering Committee of Higher Education Institutions of the Ministry of Education, vice president of the China Information Economics Association, Deputy Director of Society of Management Science and Engineering of China, Deputy Secretary of the Systems Engineering Society of China, member of the China Association of Information Society, member of the Chinese Academy of Management, an editor of journals such as  Energy Informatics ,  Systems Engineering-Theory & Practice and Journal of Harbin Institute of Technology  and he has served as president of many famous international conferences in related fields.Prof. YAN has presided over more than 20 research projects, including programs funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and National “Twelfth Five-Year” Major Science and Technology Project. Prof. YAN has won 8 awards, including the National Defense Science and Technology Progress Award, the National Defense Technology Industry Enterprise Management Innovation Award, Social Science Outstanding Achievement Award and Natural Science and Technology Academic Achievement Award of Hei Longjiang province.