On April 12, the award ceremony of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.'s 2024 "Challenge Unveiling" Spark Award was held at Huawei's headquarters in Shenzhen. Professor Songqi Ma from the School of Chemical and Material Engineering at Jiangnan University proposed an effective solution to Challenge No. 6 of the materials field—"High Transparency and High Color Saturation Materials"—from the perspective of polymer structure design and synthesis. Due to the high value of this research and solution, he received the Huawei Spark Award and was invited to attend the award ceremony. This marks the first time Jiangnan University has won the "Spark Award" since Huawei established the "Challenge Unveiling" Spark Award.

Throughout the award ceremony, every segment reflected Huawei's emphasis on technological innovation and respect for university educators and researchers. Ren Zhengfei, founder of Huawei, also held a discussion with the award winners, enthusiastically answering their questions for over three hours.Huawei places great importance on basic disciplines such as mathematics, physics, and chemistry, with many Spark Awards presented to teachers in fundamental fields. Ren Zhengfei addressed questions from our faculty regarding the current state of chemistry as a basic discipline, using multiple examples from various perspectives to emphasize the importance of deeply rooting oneself in the fundamentals of chemistry, innovatively developing high-quality, high-value chemical products, and the significance of this for the development of basic chemistry disciplines and attracting talent.Huawei places great emphasis on future talent. During the discussion, Ren Zhengfei repeatedly mentioned the view that "the future lies in the youth." The award ceremony also invited the families of the winners, with children of the awardees invited to speak at multiple segments, fully reflecting Huawei's commitment to nurturing young talent.Huawei places great importance on the collision of ideas. Not only has it established the Spark Award, but it has also set up multiple physical Huang Danian Tea Thought Rooms around the world to provide an excellent environment for technical exchange and create more comfortable conditions for the collision of ideas. Additionally, at the Spark Award ceremony, Zha Jun, Director of Huawei's 2012 Laboratories, revealed the true essence of the Spark Award:Not for fame, only for talent; genius has no boundaries! Sparks ignite the future!

Scene of the Spark Award Ceremony

The Spark Award is named for the concept of "spark collision." Huawei values basic research and adheres to open innovation. Since November 2021, the company has been refining major challenges faced in industrial competition and industry into scientific problems with both commercial and scientific value, releasing them to the public. By adopting a "challenge unveiling" approach, Huawei seeks talented individuals with solid foundational theories and innovative problem-solving ideas. To recognize and thank these individuals for their significant contributions to industry and science, Huawei specially established the Spark Award.

Profile of the Awardee

Songqi Ma, Professor, Doctoral Supervisor, and Team Leader. He received his Ph.D. from the Guangzhou Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, served as a Project Fellow at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, a postdoctoral fellow at North Dakota State University, and a researcher at the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is currently a Professor at Jiangnan University. His research primarily focuses on green and sustainable thermosetting polymer materials. To date, he has published over 100 journal articles, including 5 ESI highly cited papers, with an h-index of 40. He has contributed to 5 chapters in Chinese and English monographs and holds 48 authorized patents. He serves as a member of the International Advisory Board of Macromolecular Materials and Engineering, an editorial board member of the Journal of Renewable Materials and Current Green Chemistry, a review expert for the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the National Key Research and Development Program, and an invited academic reviewer for over 70 SCI journals (including Nature, Nature Chemistry, Nature Sustainability, JACS, Angewandte Chemie, Advanced Materials, etc.). As a principal investigator, he has led nearly 20 projects, including five from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and two commissioned by Huawei. He has been selected for the Zhejiang Provincial Ten Thousand Talents Program and the Wuxi Taihu Lake Talent Plan for Innovative Leading Talents.