The International Joint Research Laboratory of Nano-Micro Architecture Chemistry (NMAC) passed the acceptance check of the Ministry of Education in April 2017. Hosted by Jilin University with key participating members of Université de Strasbourg France, Rutgers University USA and University of Waterloo Canada, NMAC is truly an international research institution. Under the joint leadership of Professor Shouhua Feng (ACAS) of Jilin University and Professor Paolo Samori of Université de Strasbourg, NMAC is committed to drive and sustain world-class chemical research that will contribute to a knowledge-based and innovation-driven economy of China.

NMAC’s research evolves around four strategic directions: (1) Elucidation of the underlying mechanisms that direct the construction of nano-micro architectures; (2) Design and development of novel constructional pathways that exploit physicochemical interactions between disparate nano/micro building blocks; (3) Thorough understanding of the structure-property relationship; (4) Rational design and spontaneous organization of nano-micro architectures with advanced functions. NMAC has cultivated a multi-national and interdisciplinary community of scientists with a passion and forward looking vision enabling it to stay at the forefront of world-class research at the interface of chemistry, biology, nanoscience and nanotechnology.

NMAC operates on a sound human resource management policy that is designed in essence to grow its capacity to develop, retain and attract more talents around the world to ensure its growing competitiveness as a center of excellence for nano-micro architecture chemistry. By providing robust research and commercialization infrastructures, NMAC enables the knowledge created by its scientists to be exploited to expand existing industries and create new ones. It also takes prides in its scholarship and training programs dedicated to nurturing future generations of scientists as manifested by double degree programs with overseas universities for undergraduates, and international exchange programs for postgraduates. Added to the NMAC’s community of highly qualified scientists are 1 academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2 awardees of the “Thousand Talents Program”, 6 awardees of the “Thousand Young Talents Program”, 4 awardees of the “National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars” and 6 awardees of the “National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars”. There are 10 full-time expatriates at NMAC that count for about 15% of the total manpower.

Since its inception, NMAC has grown both in excellence and in impact in nano-micro architecture chemistry as manifested by 240 joint research papers. Breakthrough progress has been made, to name a few, the synthesis of high-performance water-splitting catalyst of highly faceted Ni₃S₂ nanosheet arrays from abundant natural resources, the generation of chemical diversity on nano-micrometer scale by an orthogonal dual switching process, the self-assembly of DNA-based hierarchical nanomachines by taking advantages of the conformational dynamics of DNA and the discovery of accelerated crystallization of zeolites by hydroxyl free radicals that is featured in Science in 2016. Thanks to the contributions of NMAC, chemistry discipline of Jilin University is ranked the 27^th  in November 2020 by ESI for its outstanding chemical research performance.