Yingjie Zhang, assistant professor of materials science and engineering in The Grainger College of Engineering, has been named a 2026 Beckman Young Investigator and selected to receive a Beckman Bridge Funding Award from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. His lab works at the intersection of physics and chemistry, developing liquid-phase mid-infrared spectromicroscopy, a novel technique capable of simultaneously imaging and chemically fingerprinting molecules at solid-liquid interfaces with unprecedented resolution.
Written by Jackson Brunner
The big picture:The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation has selected Yingjie Zhang, assistant professor of materials science and engineering in The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as one of seven Beckman Young Investigators to receive a 2026 Beckman Bridge Funding Award. These dollars are part of nearly $800,000 distributed to 12 researchers nationwide to protect high-impact science from federal funding gaps.
Pictured: Assistant Professor Yingjie Zhang
Why it matters:Zhang's lab sits at the frontier of a problem that has puzzled physicists and chemists for decades: what does the molecular world actually look like where liquid meets a solid surface? The answer has direct implications for water desalination, carbon dioxide reduction, battery technology and photocatalysis — challenges central to a sustainable energy future.
What they're doing:Zhang's team is developing a new technique — liquid-phase mid-infrared spectromicroscopy — to image and chemically identify molecules at solid-liquid interfaces with unprecedented resolution. Their approach gives scientists the ability to simultaneously map and chemically fingerprint the same interface, a capability that didn't exist before.
Recent breakthrough:Published inNature Communications, Zhang's group recently unveiled a three-state model of the graphite-water interface. When water first touches a freshly prepared surface, it enters a pristine but transient phase with disrupted hydrogen bonds. Microscopic hydrocarbon contaminants then rapidly crowd the interface — explaining why decades of prior experiments produced conflicting results. Finally, applying a negative electric voltage acts as a molecular vacuum cleaner, repelling contaminants and drawing ordered water back to the surface, enabling precise control of interfacial chemistry.
"This bridge funding allows us to maintain the full momentum of our program at exactly the moment when we have the tools and the foundational understanding to push into new materials — metals, semiconductors and beyond. The solid-liquid interface is everywhere and crucial for clean energy, biology and more. We're just getting started to gaining full molecular understandings of these interfaces." — Assistant Professor Yingjie Zhang
"These researchers are tackling a broad range of problems with amazing creativity, doing work that is both important and innovative in new methods, processes and instrumentation," said Dr. Anne Hultgren, Executive Director of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. "This bridge funding program will help to sustain the momentum of these outstanding researchers and provide critical support to continue their high-impact research programs."
The bottom line:Zhang's three-state model — and the dual-technique platform behind it — offers a universal blueprint that extends beyond graphite to metals, semiconductors and the full range of materials used in electrochemical energy storage and photocatalysis. The Beckman Bridge Award ensures that momentum continues uninterrupted.