With the final days of March on the horizon, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) welcomed Academician Zhang Ze from the Chinese Academy of Sciences onto campus. He was here to give the 154^th lecture in the SUSTech Lecture Series. He presented an intriguing lecture about the in-situ microscopic study of material surface structures in the field.

Zhang Ze is a material science expert and crystallographer. He has long been engaged in the study of the relationship between the properties and microstructure of quasicrystal and low-dimensional nanomaterials. He is currently the director of the Academic Committee of Zhejiang University, the president of the China Association for Analysis and Testing, and the director of the Asia-Pacific Microscopy Society. He has won many awards, including first prize in the National Natural Science Awards, the Young Scientist Award of China, and the He Liang He Li Award.

In his lecture, Zhang Ze explored the influence of the external environment on the surface structure of materials. He spoke about factors such as temperature, gas, and pressure. From the perspective of surface energy, he described changes in the structure of materials under different temperatures, pressures and gas compositions over time. Zhang Ze also spoke about the physical and chemical nature of the changes under each different set of factors. He then introduced the significance of this study for understanding the structure and catalytic effect of nanoparticles, especially nano-catalytic materials.