Virtual International conference organized by UOW’s Professor Shujun Zhang

Applications of Ferroelectrics, International Symposium on Integrated Functionalities and Piezoresponse Force Microscopy

During 16th -21st May, the ISAF-ISIF-PFM2021 joint meeting (International Symposium on Applications of Ferroelectrics, International Symposium on Integrated Functionalities and Piezoresponse Force Microscopy Workshop) was held virtually.


The International Symposium on Applications of Ferroelectrics, International Symposium on Integrated Functionalities and Piezoresponse Force Microscopy Workshop is one of the largest conferences on ferroelectric materials globally. This conference was organised by Prof Shujun Zhang from Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, AIIM, University of Wollongong and A/Prof. John Daniels from Materials Science and Engineering, UNSW.

This conference received 700+ abstracts and registrations, from 40+ countries and regions, spanning from China, USA, Europe, Japan, Korea to Lithuania, Serbia and Algeria. The conference had 60+ technical sessions parallel, tutorials, plenary talks, invited talks, oral talks and poster presentations. It also had the Ferroelectric Publication 100-Year Anniversary Celebration with famous scientists around the world as the speakers. There were 160+ students attending the student contest, with the final winners of 10%. A special session was also initiated at this conference, with the inclusion of a session celebrating outstanding contributions of young ferroelectrics researchers from around the world, which provides a platform for up-and-coming researchers and is an exciting place for sharing of novel and new ideas. This conference shown the equity, diversity and inclusion, with invited female and male scientists accounting for about half/half. It also had the WIE (Woman in Engineering) session and attracted many attendees.

At the conference, Prof. Shujun Zhang was awarded “Ferroelectrics Recognition Award” for his outstanding contributions to our understanding of how the material design, fabrication and microstructure of dielectric and ferroelectric ceramics and single crystals affects their properties and applications. Give a brief Bio. Of Prof Zhang. Prof Zhang joined ISEM in 2015 with the award of ARC FT2 and he is the Leader of the Piezoelectric Materials research Program at ISEM. Prof Zhang and his team has made many ground-breaking research and published their work in Nature, Science, and their sister journals. Prof Zhang has been recognized as the world leader in the field of piezoelectric materials and device applications. Prof Zhang received 26,000+ citations and his H index is 77 based on Google Scholar

 “The Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, University of Wollongong was proud to be one of the patrons for this conference. This conference is a great opportunity to showcase UOW’s outstanding achievements on novel dielectric materials and devices application. The Award Prof Zhang received from the conference is a further recognition to Prof Zhang who was admitted to the fellow of IEEE UFFC-S earlier this year” according to Dis. Professor Xiaolin Wang, the Director of ISEM.