# Lu Ke
**Lu Ke** (卢柯; born 1965 in Huachi, Gansu) is a Chinese materials scientist who works on nanocrystalline metals and amorphous alloys. He is a professor at the Institute of Metal Research of the [Chinese Academy of Sciences](https://www.edgepedia.org/chinese-academy-of-sciences) (CAS) in Shenyang and president of the Liaoning Academy of Materials.[1](https://www.hkias.cityu.edu.hk/our-people/senior-fellows/professor-ke-lu) He is known for nano-twin strengthening, gradient nanostructures, the Schwarz crystal structure that suppresses atomic diffusion, and, most recently, interfaces with negative excess energy that strengthen nickel alloys.[2](https://www.nsfc.gov.cn/english/site%5F1/news/A2/2025/11-24/482.html)
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| Born | 1965, Huachi, Gansu, China[3](https://www.csm.org.cn/col/col6363/art/2023/art_f5dd256b293a472db93e7ab4140de9ff.html) |
| Field | Nanocrystalline metals and amorphous alloys; hierarchical structure design of nanostructured metals[4](https://imr.cas.cn/rcjy/ljrc/202512/t20251228_8068541.html) |
| Training | B.Sc. Nanjing University of Science and Technology, 1985; master's 1988 and PhD 1990, Institute of Metal Research, CAS; postdoc, Max Planck Institute for Metal Research, Stuttgart, 1991–1993[1](https://www.hkias.cityu.edu.hk/our-people/senior-fellows/professor-ke-lu) • [4](https://imr.cas.cn/rcjy/ljrc/202512/t20251228_8068541.html) |
| Signature work | "Suppressing atomic diffusion with the Schwarz crystal structure in supersaturated Al–Mg alloys" (Science, 2021); "Strengthening Ni alloys with nanoscale interfaces of negative excess energy" (Science, 2025)[5](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abh0700) • [6](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aea4299) |
| Current positions | Professor, Institute of Metal Research, CAS; President, Liaoning Academy of Materials[1](https://www.hkias.cityu.edu.hk/our-people/senior-fellows/professor-ke-lu) |
## Education and career
Lu studied at the Institute of Metal Research (IMR), where he earned graduate degrees in materials science.[8](http://english.syb.cas.cn/newsroom/syb/201607/t20160708_248180.html) According to a Chinese Academy of Sciences interview, he then took a postdoctoral position at the Max Planck Institute for Metal Research in [Stuttgart](https://www.edgepedia.org/stuttgart), working on nanocrystallization kinetics, and was a senior visiting scholar there from September 1991 to March 1993.[4](https://imr.cas.cn/rcjy/ljrc/202512/t20251228_8068541.html) • [8](http://english.syb.cas.cn/newsroom/syb/201607/t20160708_248180.html)
He returned to IMR in early 1993, became a full professor there in January 1993, was invited to set up a group studying nanostructured metals, and became a doctoral supervisor from January 1995.[4](https://imr.cas.cn/rcjy/ljrc/202512/t20251228_8068541.html) • [8](http://english.syb.cas.cn/newsroom/syb/201607/t20160708_248180.html) He directed the State Key Laboratory for Rapidly Solidified Non-equilibrium Alloys from July 1997 to October 2000.[4](https://imr.cas.cn/rcjy/ljrc/202512/t20251228_8068541.html) Sources differ on the start of his leadership of the Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science (SYNL): the IMR faculty page records October 2000, while his Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study CV records March 2001 to August 2023; the SYNL site calls him its founding director in 2001.[4](https://imr.cas.cn/rcjy/ljrc/202512/t20251228_8068541.html) • [1](https://www.hkias.cityu.edu.hk/our-people/senior-fellows/professor-ke-lu) • [9](http://english.synl.ac.cn/leader.asp?did=131) According to the Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study, he led the [Max Planck Society](https://www.edgepedia.org/max-planck-society)–CAS Partner Group on materials science from April 1999 to March 2004, and was dean of the School of Materials Science and Engineering at [Shanghai Jiao Tong University](https://www.edgepedia.org/shanghai-jiao-tong-university) from January 2005 to December 2007.[1](https://www.hkias.cityu.edu.hk/our-people/senior-fellows/professor-ke-lu) He served as director of IMR from July 2001 to July 2012.[4](https://imr.cas.cn/rcjy/ljrc/202512/t20251228_8068541.html) From October 2018 to January 2023 he was vice governor of Liaoning Province, and he is now president of the Liaoning Academy of Materials.[1](https://www.hkias.cityu.edu.hk/our-people/senior-fellows/professor-ke-lu)
## Research
Lu's doctoral work produced the first paper on devitrification of amorphous alloys as a synthesis route to nanocrystalline metals, and nanocrystalline metals have remained his primary focus.[8](http://english.syb.cas.cn/newsroom/syb/201607/t20160708_248180.html) He developed amorphous complete crystallization, which prepares metallic nanomaterials free of micropores and interface contamination, and found that nanocrystalline copper shows superplastic ductility at room temperature.[10](http://www.imr.ac.cn/kxcb/kxqh_kxcb/201005/t20100510_2842441.html)
**Two strengthening strategies** mark his group's work. The first is surface nanocrystallization: he invented surface mechanical attrition treatment (SMAT) and surface mechanical grinding treatment (SMGT), which produce gradient nano-grained surface layers in which grain size rises from the nanoscale to the ordinary scale; with such a layer the strength of a pure copper bar doubles while its tensile ductility is unchanged, and the treatment greatly lowered the surface nitriding temperature of iron.[1](https://www.hkias.cityu.edu.hk/our-people/senior-fellows/professor-ke-lu) • [10](http://www.imr.ac.cn/kxcb/kxqh_kxcb/201005/t20100510_2842441.html) The second is nano-twinning: introducing a high density of nano-scale twin boundaries into pure copper raises its strength by one order of magnitude while keeping electrical conductivity comparable to high-purity oxygen-free copper and retaining considerable ductility, breaking the usual strength–conductivity trade-off.[1](https://www.hkias.cityu.edu.hk/our-people/senior-fellows/professor-ke-lu) • [11](https://www.futureprize.org/cn/laureates/detail/40.html) The Future Science Prize citation notes that the nano-twin principle has since been verified in many metals, alloys, compounds, semiconductors, ceramics, and diamond.[11](https://www.futureprize.org/cn/laureates/detail/40.html)
## Representative work
Schwarz crystal structure (Science, 2021). In ["Suppressing atomic diffusion with the Schwarz crystal structure in supersaturated Al–Mg alloys"](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abh0700), Lu's group showed that a polycrystalline material whose grains are arranged on a three-dimensionally periodic minimal surface, a structure the institute's academician profile describes as a new metastable "confined crystal structure" with ultra-high thermal stability and ultra-high strength, suppresses atomic diffusion in a supersaturated aluminum–magnesium alloy with extremely fine grains.[5](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abh0700) • [12](http://www.syb.ac.cn/ysfc/kxyys/200607/t20060706_1866670.html) With these stable structures in place, diffusion-controlled intermetallic precipitation from the nanosized grains and their coarsening were inhibited up to the equilibrium melting temperature, around which the apparent across-boundary diffusivity was reduced by about seven orders of magnitude.[5](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abh0700)
Negative-excess-energy interfaces in Ni(Mo) (Science, 2025). In ["Strengthening Ni alloys with nanoscale interfaces of negative excess energy"](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aea4299), published on November 6, 2025, the group produced extremely dense planar faults with average spacing as small as about 1 nm in supersaturated Ni(Mo), by pulse-current electrodeposition followed by annealing.[2](https://www.nsfc.gov.cn/english/site%5F1/news/A2/2025/11-24/482.html) [Density functional theory](https://www.edgepedia.org/density-functional-theory) calculations gave the coherent FCC–HCP interfaces negative excess energies of −8.7 to −19.5 mJ/m², making them more stable than coherent twin boundaries, which had been believed the most stable interface in FCC metals.[2](https://www.nsfc.gov.cn/english/site%5F1/news/A2/2025/11-24/482.html) • [6](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aea4299) Because these interfaces inhibit dislocation motion at about 1 nm spacing, the alloy's strength reaches 5.08 GPa, close to the theoretical value and exceeding the highest strength of other bulk metallic alloys including steels and refractory alloys; the measured [Young's modulus](https://www.edgepedia.org/youngs-modulus) rises with interface density to 254.5 GPa, well above that of the same-composition metallic glass and the intermetallic compound Ni₃Mo.[2](https://www.nsfc.gov.cn/english/site%5F1/news/A2/2025/11-24/482.html) • [6](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aea4299)
## Honors and recognition
Lu was elected a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in November 2003, of TWAS in 2004, and of the [German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina](https://www.edgepedia.org/german-national-academy-of-sciences-leopoldina) in 2005; in 2018 he became a foreign member of the US National Academy of Engineering.[4](https://imr.cas.cn/rcjy/ljrc/202512/t20251228_8068541.html) • [1](https://www.hkias.cityu.edu.hk/our-people/senior-fellows/professor-ke-lu) According to the Shenyang Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he was made a TMS Fellow in 2017, received the 2022 Institute of Metals/Robert Franklin Mehl Award as its 101st recipient at the TMS annual meeting in Anaheim, and in 2019 was the first domestic recipient of the Acta Materialia Gold Medal; his other awards include the Humboldt Research Award (2011).[7](https://syb.cas.cn/xwzx/xtdt/202203/t20220323_7297934.html) • [1](https://www.hkias.cityu.edu.hk/our-people/senior-fellows/professor-ke-lu) On September 6, 2020 he was announced as winner of the Future Science Prize in Physical Sciences, an unrestricted award of US$1 million, for the nano-twin and gradient nano-structure discoveries; the foundation's English laureate page, however, lists him as a 2020 laureate marked "declined".[13](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_24213987) • [14](https://www.futureprize.org/en/laureates/detail/44.html)
## Recent developments
The November 6, 2025 Science paper on negative-excess-energy interfaces is the most recent major result, supported by NSFC grant 52441407 and by the CAS strategic pilot program and NSFC Distinguished Young Scholars program.[2](https://www.nsfc.gov.cn/english/site%5F1/news/A2/2025/11-24/482.html) • [15](https://imr.cas.cn/xwzx/kydt/202511/t20251110_8008838.html) The NSFC announcement states that the hardening effect is expected to apply to other Ni alloys containing elements such as W, Ta, Nb, Mn, and V.[2](https://www.nsfc.gov.cn/english/site%5F1/news/A2/2025/11-24/482.html) His CV records his SYNL directorship ending in August 2023, after which his listed positions are the IMR professorship and the presidency of the Liaoning Academy of Materials.[1](https://www.hkias.cityu.edu.hk/our-people/senior-fellows/professor-ke-lu)
## References
1. [Professor Ke Lu, Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study](https://www.hkias.cityu.edu.hk/our-people/senior-fellows/professor-ke-lu)
2. [Chinese Scientists Make Breakthrough in Strengthening Nanograined Metals by Negative-excess-energy Interfaces, NSFC](https://www.nsfc.gov.cn/english/site%5F1/news/A2/2025/11-24/482.html)
3. [院士简介：卢柯, 中国金属学会](https://www.csm.org.cn/col/col6363/art/2023/art_f5dd256b293a472db93e7ab4140de9ff.html)
4. [卢柯, 中国科学院金属研究所](https://imr.cas.cn/rcjy/ljrc/202512/t20251228_8068541.html)
5. [Suppressing atomic diffusion with the Schwarz crystal structure in supersaturated Al–Mg alloys, Science](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abh0700)
6. [Strengthening Ni alloys with nanoscale interfaces of negative excess energy, Science](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aea4299)
7. [卢柯院士荣获富兰克林·梅尔奖, 中国科学院沈阳分院](https://syb.cas.cn/xwzx/xtdt/202203/t20220323_7297934.html)
8. [Metallurgy is Key, CAS interview with Lu Ke](http://english.syb.cas.cn/newsroom/syb/201607/t20160708_248180.html)
9. [Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Prof. Lu Ke, Director](http://english.synl.ac.cn/leader.asp?did=131)
10. [科学传播, 中国科学院金属研究所](http://www.imr.ac.cn/kxcb/kxqh_kxcb/201005/t20100510_2842441.html)
11. [2020 物质科学奖获奖人, , 卢柯, 未来科学大奖](https://www.futureprize.org/cn/laureates/detail/40.html)
12. [卢柯院士, 中国科学院沈阳分院](http://www.syb.ac.cn/ysfc/kxyys/200607/t20060706_1866670.html)
13. [未来科学大奖获得者卢柯的成长之路, 澎湃新闻](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_24213987)
14. [2020 The Physical Science Prize Laureates, Ke LU (declined)](https://www.futureprize.org/en/laureates/detail/44.html)
15. [金属所学者发现金属中的"负能界面", 中国科学院金属研究所](https://imr.cas.cn/xwzx/kydt/202511/t20251110_8008838.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Technology and the built world › Engineers and computer scientists › Engineers and materials scientists › Researchers in materials science and nanotechnology › Nanomaterials and nanostructures › Nanocrystal and quantum dot researchers*
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