THE HERITAGE PRIZE

The Heritage Prize

In 1993 the Foundation proudly established the Heritage Prize. This prize is awarded to outstanding scholars, educated in the United States, who have a strong desire to return to their homeland, but lack the necessary financial support to establish themselves once they return.

The Foundation provides the recipient with a cash prize in recognition of his/her achievement, along with funding which allows them to establish themselves professionally at their respective institution in China.

Heritage Awardees

2018-2019

Dr. Yen awarded 2018-2019 The Li Foundation Heritage Prize for “Excellence in Creativity”
Assistant Research Fellow Hung-Ju Yen in Institute of Chemistry, Academia Sinica was recently awarded 2018-2019 the Li Foundation Heritage Prize for “Excellence in Creativity”. Dr. Yen’s research expertise is the development of organic and polymeric materials, mainly focusing on the optoelectronic and energy applications. Dr. Yen has more than 70 peer-reviewed publications in high impact journals related to materials chemistry, such as Adv. Mater., Adv. Funct. Mater., Chem. Mater., Chem. Sci., etc.

2015-2016

Song Li Awarded the 2015-2016 Li Foundation Heritage Prize
Chemical engineering alumna Song Li (PhD’14) has been awarded the 2015-2016 Li Foundation Heritage Prize. Li is an associate professor in the Department of Energy and Power Engineering at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Hubei, China.
Li joined the HUST faculty in August 2015. The Foundation cited her outstanding and distinguished research contributions in carbon dioxide capture and storage by metal-organic frameworks.
Her research in the School of Engineering’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering included molecular dynamics simulations of electrolyte-electrode interface relevant to energy storage devices such as supercapacitors; structural and dynamics characterization of bulk/interfacial ionic liquids; confinement effects on ionic liquids; and the application of ionic liquids as lubricants.
At Vanderbilt, Li was a member of a research team led by Peter T. Cummings, John R. Hall Professor of Chemical Engineering and Associate Dean for Research. After receiving a doctorate in 2014, she served as postdoctoral fellow for one year at Northwestern University.
Li earned a bachelor of science degree in chemistry from Shandong University and a master’s degree in chemical engineering from Sungkyunkwan University.