Professor Yong Lei worked as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany) in 2003–2006. Later he worked at University of Muenster (Germany) as a group leader (2006-2009) and a Junior professor (2009-2011). In 2011, he joined the Technical University of Ilmenau (Germany) as Professor (Full Professor, permanent) and Head of the Group of Applied Nano-Physics (Fachgebiet Angewante Nanophysik). His research interests focuses on template-based multiple and surface nanostructuring, energy-related devices (sodium-ion and potassium-ion batteries) and optoelectronic applications of functional nanostructures and surface nano-patterns. So far he has authored 159 papers in SCI-indexed journals and 2 patents, many of them are published in first-class journals, including 15 papers published in journals with impact factor higher than 20, and 36 papers published in journals with impact factor of 10-20, such as Nat. Nanotech., Nat. Commun., JACS, Angew. Chem., Adv. Mater., Energy Environ. Sci., Chem. Soc. Rev., Prog. Mater. Sci., Adv. Energy Mater., Mater. Today, Adv. Funct. Mater., ACS Nano, Nano Lett., Nano Today. Prof. Lei received a few prestigious large projects in Europe and Germany, including European Research Council, BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany), DFG (German Research Foundation), and VW-Stiftung (Volkswagen Foundation).