Ai DU, Professor, Doctoral Supervisor. Fellow of the International Association of Advanced Materials (Sweden), Executive Committee Member of the Sol-Gel Branch of the Chinese Ceramic Society, Committee Member of the Youth Working Committee of the Shanghai Physical Society, Committee Member of the Metamaterials Branch of the Chinese Materials Research Society, Committee Member of the Extreme Conditions Materials and Devices Branch of the Chinese Materials Research Society, Associate Editor of Advanced Composites & Hybrid Materials, Associate Editor of Engineered Science, Executive Editor of ES Materials & Manufacturing, former Deputy Secretary-General of Chinese Materials Conference (2023, 2024), Co-Chair of Metamaterials and Multifunctional Materials Branch of China Materials Conference (2019-2024), Co-Chair of 12th Advanced Materials World Congress (Stockholm, Sweden), Organizing Chair of the 2nd Sino-German Workshop on New Materials (Aerogel) Development, International Committee Member of the International Committee of the 1st (Newcastle, United Kingdom) and 2nd (San Sebastian, Spain) International Conference on Aerogel Inspired Materials, Deputy Secretary-General of the 4th Sino-International Symposium on Aerogels.
His main research interests are the interactions between nanoporous aerogels and other matters, and biomimetic nanomaterial devices, and he has published more than 160 papers in academic journals such as Science Advances, Advanced Functional Materials, and ACS Nano. He has presided over more than 10 research projects, and participated in the scientific research work of a number of national scientific research projects. In terms of teaching, he is mainly responsible for the teaching of courses such as "General Physics (C)", "General Physics (D)", "General Physics (B)", "Advanced and Practical Entrepreneurship Competition" and "Modern Physics Experiment". He always organizes the teaching content carefully, like to introduce the latest cutting-edge knowledge in high-level journals in the classroom, and strive to make the presentation and materials vivid and interesting. He advocates an educational philosophy that emphasizes both foundation and interest. He has guided different kinds of students especially undergraduates to carry out research and published several papers, guided various scientific research and innovation activities, and won many awards such as the National Bronze Award & Shanghai Gold Award of China International College Students’ “Internet+” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, and received the title of Excellent Instructor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in 2021 and 2022. In the second semester of the 2012-2013 academic year, he was selected as a course (white paper) recommended by the supervisor for classroom teaching. He participated in the lecture competition of young teachers of Tongji University in 2014 and won the third prize and the best teaching design award. In 2016, he participated in the lecture competition of young teachers of physics in colleges and universities and won the first prize in the Shanghai division. In 2020, he won the first prize of the lecture competition for young teachers of Tongji University, and won the excellence award of the teaching competition for young teachers of colleges and universities in Shanghai.
He actively participates in the work of science popularization and STEM education, serves as an expert of the Shanghai Science Association for Young Talent. He has given science popularization presentations in Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai Foreign Language School Affiliated to SISU (Shanghai International Studies University), High School Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Jianping High School (Shanghai), Nantong High School (Jiangsu Province) and many other schools. He concurrently serves as the Deputy Principal for the Science Education of Shanghai Hongxing Voluntary School. He won the title of "Science Education Master" at the North Bund Education Development Forum in 2024.