NTU Assistant Professor Jie Shen Named MIT Technology Review Innovator Under 35 Asia Pacific 2025

We are proud to share that Assistant Professor Jie Shen, from NTU’s School of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE), has been named to the MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 Asia Pacific 2025 list, in the Inventors category.

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About the Innovators Under 35 (TR35)
Launched in 1999 to coincide with MIT Technology Review’s centennial, the Innovators Under 35 (TR35) highlights emerging talent in science and technology whose recent breakthroughs show potential to address pressing global challenges. Since 2014, the Asia Pacific edition has provided a platform to recognise and connect innovators across the region. Honourees are selected in five categories — Visionaries, Pioneers, Inventors, Humanitarians, and Entrepreneurs — reflecting the different ways young researchers and entrepreneurs contribute to advancing science, technology, and society.

Jie Shen’s Contributions
Recognised under Inventors, Prof Shen is pioneering new approaches in systematic materials design and fabrication innovation to transform industrial membranes — a critical step toward reducing the over 50% of global industrial energy consumed by separation processes.

Key achievements include:

• Developing a scalable synthesis platform that combines molecular engineering with chemical vapor deposition (CVD), producing membranes with uniform sub-nanometer channels stable under near-industrial conditions.
• Creating polymeric membranes with regular pore structures, achieving over 99.5% salt rejection and six times the water permeance of current commercial desalination membranes.
• Engineering atomically thin molybdenum disulfide membranes—only three atoms thick—with precisely controlled pores, enabling ultrafast water transport and efficient proton transport for potential applications in water treatment, hydrogen fuel cells, electrolysis, and flow batteries.
• Extending his systematic approach to flexible, biocompatible sensor technologies for next-generation healthcare wearables.
  

Prof Shen is now focusing on interdisciplinary innovations, integrating advanced membranes to systems such as electrocatalysis, smart sensors, and bioelectronics — including neural interfaces — where channel materials and membranes serve as key enablers.

Prof Jie Shen’s award relates to MSE’s wider efforts to drive innovation in sustainability, advanced manufacturing, healthcare technologies, and AI-driven materials discovery.

Read more: MIT Technology Review – Innovators Under 35 Asia Pacific