• Prof. Dr. Wang was elected as a member of the Academy’s Engineering Division, recognition of his scientific achievements, academic contributions and more than 20 years’ experience in materials science and engineering.
• Founder of IMDEA Materials’ High Performance Polymer Nanocomposites group, Prof. Wang’s research focuses on fire safety and flame-retardant materials.

Senior IMDEA Materials Researcher, Prof. Dr. De-Yi Wang, believes his election as a European Academy of Sciences (EurASc) Fellow reflects the growing importance of flame-retardant and fire-safe materials in the engineering community.

Prof. Wang is the first IMDEA Materials researcher to be elected to EurASc, one of Europe’s most prestigious scientific societies.

Leader of the institute’s High Performance Polymers and Fire Retardants (HPPN) research group, which he founded more than a decade ago, Prof. Wang is considered among the world’s foremost researchers in the fire-safe materials field.

“Of course, I am sure the Academy would have taken into account my entire academic achievement, contributions to the field and professional career in making their decision, since these are the principal selection criteria,” said Prof. Wang.

“However, I do believe that the selection committee may also have given special consideration to the growing importance of fire safety, and of flame-retardants in materials science and engineering.”

“Especially with the growth of electric vehicles (EVs) in recent years, there are a lot of important challenges to overcome, particularly in terms of fire safety issues with battery systems”.

“As far as I am aware, I am the first fellow within the Engineering division to focus on the study of fire-safe materials and engineering, so hopefully I can add my expertise in this area to the Academy’s scope,” he added.

Fire-proofing energy storage materials is just one of the HPPN group’s research lines, along with smart sensitive sensors, biobased polymers and other research dedicated to the broader topics of flame-retardant materials and fire-safe engineering.

In a further sign of the group’s international recognition in the field, next year will see IMDEA Materials Institute host the European Meeting of Fire Retardant Polymeric Materials (FRPM2025) in Madrid.

The event, which will take place from June 3-6, 2025, at the Technical University of Madrid’s School of Civil Engineering, will serve to showcase breakthroughs in flame-retardant research and to foster collaboration between academia and industry on fire-safe materials.

Meanwhile, Prof. Wang said his most-recent recognition could not have come without the support of his research group and his colleagues at IMDEA Materials and Francisco de Vitoria University.

“I think my election is recognition of the work being done by IMDEA Materials as a whole, and the impact of our research,” he said.

“I have to thank my family and of course my colleagues at IMDEA. In particular, it has been a privilege to work with three wonderful directors during my time at the institute”.

“Prof. Javier LLorca, who brought me to Madrid, and to IMDEA, from Germany more than 12 years ago, and Prof. Ignacio Romero who made it possible to convert our research group into a world leader in the field of fire-retardant materials”. 

“And finally, Prof. José Manuel Torralba, who has always strongly supported us. He has played a key role in helping us to develop industrial partnerships and collaborations, and to raise awareness of our research”.

EurASc is a fully independent international association of distinguished scholars that aims to recognise the best European scientists with a vision for Europe as a whole, transcending national borders, and with the aims of strengthening European science and scientific cooperation.

Headquartered in Liège, Belgium, it has over 800 members from more than 50 countries, including over 46 Nobel Prizes and 17 Fields Medal winners.

While already officially an EurASc member, Prof. Wang will be welcomed into the Academy in person at 2024 Annual Symposium & Ceremony to be held on 29-30 October 2024 in Lisbon.