🇨🇳 University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) PhD Da Bo (达博), who made his name in Japan — sweeping its top awards and developing the core components of the world’s most advanced chip production line, has left 🇯🇵 National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) and returned to China, along with his team of researchers. Before securing his new position, Da had already begun assembling a team at NIMS composed of fellow 🇨🇳 USTC graduates, with the plan of eventually bringing them back to China as a unit upon his return.
Da, a semiconductor prodigy whose research underpins TSMC’s 3nm chip production line in Japan, is now a chair professor at the School of Engineering Science of USTC in Hefei, Anhui province (Da’s biography is now inaccessible on USTC’s website).
Da joined 🇯🇵 NIMS in 2013 — when he arrived as a postdoctoral student after completing his PhD at USTC. He said in an interview published on May 20 by Chinese news website Deeptech that his goal was very clear (
mittrchina.com/news/detail/1…).
If he could bring China’s semiconductor equipment, materials and components up to international standards, “I believe my lifelong efforts will be worthwhile,” he told the website affiliated with MIT Technology Review.
Da was the youngest independent principal investigator in NIMS’ history and, since 2022, was one of the few Chinese researchers to have been deeply involved in front-line international semiconductor industry projects.
Da is from the small and remote Kang county in the Qinba Mountains in Gansu province. In 2004, he was admitted to USTC as an undergraduate, and completed his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral studies in condensed matter physics within 9 years.
Da then joined NIMS — Japan’s only national R&D institution dedicated to materials science — where he went on to break a number of records.
In 2015, Da became a researcher at the NIMS International Centre for Young Scientists, followed by a similar position at its Centre for Materials Research by Information Integration in 2016.
The same year, he became NIMS’ youngest tenure-track academic, having accomplished the feat in just one year instead of the more usual 3 to 5.
Meanwhile, Da was developing data-driven spectral analysis methods to more efficiently characterise two-dimensional materials — atomically thin semiconductors also known as 2D materials.
Using “white electron” technology to control the secondary electron energy spectrum as a probe, Da’s method of conducting multichannel parallel investigations of two-dimensional materials improved detection efficiency.
At the 2016 International Symposium on Atomic Level Characterisations for New Materials and Devices in Seoul, South Korea, Da received the first-place student award for his work on the modelling of the surface excitation effect for rough surfaces.
On Apr 1, 2017, Da gave a presentation to the NIMS annual conference as a new employee and later the same day was presented with the institute’s highest award for his achievements during the tenure-track phase.
He achieved another first in 2022, when his proposed slogan “materials change the world; we create materials” was adopted by NIMS and is still used today — the only time a foreign individual’s suggestion has been used by a national research institution in Japan.
The same year, he became the only foreigner invited to apply for one of the Hitachi Global Foundation’s 54th Kurata grants, for his rotating crystal film-based micro-focusing X-ray source used in endoscopes.
Da’s pioneering work in the field of diffraction electron optics using cylindrically symmetric rotating crystals was also picked up by 🇺🇸 Lam Research, one of only a few companies involved in frontline international semiconductor projects after 2022.
“My research has been successfully used in a top semiconductor equipment company in the USA so, for me, the … grant is not only financial support but also a chance to bring my research closer to
1/n
scmp.com/news/china/science/…