Young Scientists Symposiumon Emerging Functional Materials and Applications

Welcome to YSS-EFMA 2027

On behalf of the organising committee, we warmly invite you to the 2027 Young Scientists Symposium on Emerging Functional Materials and Applications, a joint initiative of The University of Queensland (UQ) and The University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney), to be held at UQ’s St Lucia campus in Brisbane from 10 to 12 February 2027.

Australia’s research strength in emerging functional materials is real, but it is spread across more than a dozen institutions. The people who do most of the work (PhD students, early- and mid-career researchers) need more opportunities to meet as a national cohort. We have built YSS-EFMA 2027 to support that, and to lower the barriers that may keep people away. This symposium aims to give Australia’s students, early- and mid-career researchers, and their peers across the Asia-Pacific, a platform of their own: a place to connect, communicate, collaborate and create.

The platform belongs to early- and mid-career researchers, but the room will be wider than that. Our plenary speakers, drawn from senior and world-leading scientists, and industry entrepreneurs, will open the sessions with the longer view: future visions for the field, the research frontiers, what industry needs, and how policy is shaping both. The 2027 theme is materials for photovoltaics, optoelectronics and electronic devices — from discovery to end of life, across the specific themed sessions listed below.

YSS-EFMA 2027 is held jointly with the µQ Technology Forum, running 8–10 February at UQ. Both support HDR students and early- to mid-career researchers. The Forum introduces UQ’s micro- and nanotechnology ecosystem through seminars, facility tours, and hands-on workshops in fabrication, characterisation and integrated photonics. Registration is separate and more details can be found on the Abstract Submission webpage.

YSS-EFMA 2027 is the inaugural event in an ongoing series. The theme will rotate in the years ahead to other areas of emerging functional materials, and the host institution will rotate with it, so that the platform we build this year serves the whole field, not one corner of it. The first symposium will take place on UQ’s St Lucia campus, with sandstone cloisters, fig trees and lakes on a bend of the Brisbane River, a short CityCat ferry ride from the city centre. We look forward to welcoming you in Brisbane in February 2027!

Warm regards

Dr Miaoqiang Lyu, The University of Queensland
Dr Meng Zhang, The University of New South Wales

On behalf of the YSS-EFMA 2027 organising committee