应我校航空宇航学院机械结构力学及控制国家重点实验室张助华教授的邀请，莱斯大学教授Boris I. Yakobson于2019年10月24日-2019年10月26日访问我校，于10月25日做了题为The Colorful Palette of 2D-Materials: Defects, Shapes, and Growth from the First Principles的学术报告。报告介绍了二维原子晶体材料的缺陷性质，光学性质和生长机制与控制原理，从石墨烯，到二维金属插层化合物，到硼烯等一系列新兴的纳米材料。他着重讲述了科学研究需要认清所在领域的发展态势和潜力，并且分享了自己在取得科学发现过程中的一些经历和体会。报告内容丰富、精彩生动，引起了现场师生的普遍兴趣和激烈讨论。Yakobson教授对现场师生的问题均进行了耐心的解答。
访问期间，Boris I. Yakoson教授在张助华教授的陪同下参观了机械结构力学及控制国家重点实验室，并听取了纳米所师生的进一步汇报，并求水伏效应、碳材料的曲面生长等方面的研究进行了深入的探讨和交流。Yakobson教授于我校纳米所已经开展了长达6年的合作研究，合作成果发表在Nature Materials, Nature Nanotechnology, Science Advances等高水平期刊上，并合作培养了1名国家级人才，是为我校对外国际合作的经典范例之一。
报告人简介：Boris I. Yakobson is an expert in theory and computational modeling of materials and nanostructures, of their synthesis, mechanics, defects and relaxation, transport properties and electronics. Presently, Karl F. Hasselmann Endowed Chair in Engineering, professor of Materials Science and Nano-Engineering, and professor of Chemistry, Rice University, Houston, Texas. Received PhD 1982 in Physics and Applied Mathematics, from Russian Academy of Sciences. 1982-1989, Head of Theoretical Chemistry lab at the Institute of Solid Materials of the Russian Academy. 1990-1999, on faculty at the Department of Physics, North Carolina State University. Yakobson’s 1995 study in nanoscale mechanics attracted interest of Richard Smalley (Nobel Laureate), setting off a close collaboration, and in 1999 Yakobson joined Rice University, to work in nanotechnology area. (One aspect of that early study gave rise to what became known in literature “Yakobson Paradox”.) His research resulted in over 400 publications, eight patents, he has mentored a number of PhD students.