On November 12, 2025, the first session of the “Major Challenges Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration Forum”—thematic forum on Microscale Thermal Management—hosted by the Chinese Materials Research Society, was held at the China Science and Technology Hall.

With the core objective of “breaking disciplinary boundaries and promoting collaborative innovation,” the forum brought together leading experts from materials science, basic sciences, process and equipment engineering, artificial intelligence, and engineering applications to jointly explore frontier challenges and cross-disciplinary solutions in the field of microscale thermal management.

The forum was attended by Liu Xiaofang, Director of the Academic Activities Division of the Society Service Center of the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST); Professor Zhang Zengzhi, Secretary General of the Chinese Materials Research Society and Academician of the Asia-Pacific Academy of Materials; Professor Cao Bingyang (Tsinghua University); Professor Gu Junwei (Northwestern Polytechnical University); Professor Huang Xingyi (Shanghai Jiao Tong University); Professor Li Xiaofeng (Beijing University of Chemical Technology); Professor Song Bai (Peking University); Researcher Zhang Xudong (Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences); Researcher Zhang Hang (Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences); Professor Wan Chunlei (Tsinghua University); Associate Professor Wang Haidong (Tsinghua University); Associate Professor Ju Shenghong (Tsinghua University); Researcher Yang Lin (Peking University); Researcher Shao Yuanlong (Peking University); Professor Dong Ruoyu (Beihang University); Professor Chu Fuqiang (University of Science and Technology Beijing); Professor Sun Jingyao (Beijing University of Chemical Technology); Assistant Researcher Li Zhenxing (Beijing Institute of Technology); Researcher Yang Guang (New Power Systems Research Center, Huairou National Laboratory); Hao Jingyang, Technical Director of Lenovo; and student representatives from the Jin Yi Qiu Jing Society of the University of Science and Technology Beijing, among more than 40 experts and scholars.

Microscale thermal management, as a critical enabling and common technology for major strategic fields such as electronic devices, new energy, and aerospace, represents a global scientific and technological challenge. China’s frontier research in this field has already entered a stage of head-to-head competition at the cutting edge with developed countries such as the United States. Breakthroughs in this area will drive qualitative leaps in the development of key strategic industries and play a decisive role in fostering the emergence of explosive industrial clusters.

The Chinese Materials Research Society (CMRS) has deeply understood and thoroughly implemented the guiding principles of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee. Under the leadership of the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), CMRS has positioned the resolution of critical challenges in national scientific and technological development as the strategic high ground for academic exchange and cooperation. Focusing on bottlenecks and pain points hindering industry development, and recognizing the intrinsic interconnections among relevant disciplinary fields, CMRS has organized top scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs across industries to conduct collaborative discussions. Through promoting interdisciplinary integration and stimulating new sources of innovation, these efforts aim to drive the comprehensive resolution of major technical challenges and structural constraints.

Professor Zhang Zengzhi, Secretary General of CMRS and Academician of the Asia-Pacific Academy of Materials, emphasized that major challenges are fundamental and common issues constraining industrial development. Addressing such challenges requires breaking through traditional “disciplinary boundaries” and advancing cross-field and cross-disciplinary collaboration. CMRS has therefore planned 38 sessions of the Major Challenges Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration Forum, representing a vivid and concrete practice of implementing the spirit of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee. This initiative will have far-reaching significance for promoting independent and high-quality industrial development and for fostering high-level new quality productive forces.

This forum adopted a format combining morning thematic presentations with afternoon closed-door meetings. Frontier academic developments were live-streamed to the public, while the closed-door sessions facilitated in-depth exchanges among experts. Through multidisciplinary and cross-domain collaboration, participants jointly explored solution pathways and implementation strategies for the major challenge of microscale thermal management, and distilled the outcomes into dedicated policy and research briefing reports.

Professor Cao Bingyang delivered a presentation titled “Science and Technology of Thermal Management for Integrated Circuits.”

Professor Gu Junwei delivered a presentation titled “Thermally Conductive Polymers and Their Composites.”

Professor Huang Xingyi delivered a presentation titled “On-Demand Preparation and Applications of Two-Dimensional Boron Nitride Nanosheets.”

Professor Li Xiaofeng delivered a presentation titled “Controlled Construction of Thermal Conduction Networks and High-Performance Thermally Conductive Composites.”

Professor Song Bai delivered a presentation titled “How Will Future Chips Be Cooled?”

Researcher Zhang Xudong delivered a presentation titled “Room-Temperature Liquid Metal Thermal Management Materials and Technologies.”

The participating experts unanimously noted that they gained substantial insights from the forum. The Major Challenges Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration Forum on Microscale Thermal Management was characterized by both depth and breadth, and participants agreed that only through multidisciplinary integration can fundamental scientific problems in microscale heat transfer be addressed, and only through close collaboration among industry, academia, and research institutions can major technological challenges in thermal management be effectively resolved.

Experts expressed their hope, under the leadership of the Chinese Materials Research Society, to align more closely with national major strategic needs, further develop the Thermal Management Materials Division with distinctive features, and make sustained, forward-looking contributions to industry development. During the forum, a group of highly dynamic, forward-thinking, and academically advanced young and mid-career scientists emerged. Actively engaged in cross-disciplinary exchanges and vigorous discussions, they generated a series of significant academic concepts and engineering pathways for addressing major challenges in microscale thermal management, and explored collaborative mechanisms based on specialized division of labor in this field. These experts plan to jointly apply for the establishment of a Secondary Committee on Microscale Thermal Management under the Chinese Materials Research Society, and to organize multiple cross-disciplinary exchange activities each year. Their goal is to ensure China’s world-leading position in this field and to promote high-end industries as global centers of innovation.

Under the leadership of the China Association for Science and Technology, the Chinese Materials Research Society will continue to build a series of high-level forums at the China Science and Technology Hall, including the Major Challenges Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration Forum, Key Materials Common Technology Forum, Disruptive Technology Thematic Forum, and Frontier Materials Non-Consensus Salon. These initiatives aim to serve national strategic scientific and technological forces and to drive the development of new quality productive forces toward a higher level and higher quality.