2017年当选中国科学院院士。1982年毕业于清华大学获得学士学位，1985年毕业于北京化工学院并获得硕士学位；1996年于瑞典皇家工学院获得博士学位。1993年被评选为北京市高等学校（青年）学科带头人，1999年进入人事部“百千万人才工程”一、二层次 ，并荣获教育部跨世纪优秀人才培养计划基金，2000年获国家杰出青年基金，2001年评为教育部“长江学者奖励计划”特聘教授, 2012年作为负责人入选国家基金委创新群体。研究方向为光聚合，可控/活性自由基聚合和高分子材料表面光化学改性。在Chemical Reviews, JACS，Progress in Polymer Science，Macromolecules等刊物上发表SCI收录论文500多篇，他引10000余次；获国家发明专利授权40多件。主要成果有：1）提出“表面受限反应”概念和实施方法，由此发展了一整套光催化表面C-H键转化新反应体系，可对聚烯烃等各种高分子进行多层次表面改性。2）在聚合领域，建立了基于环状芳香频哪醇调节的有工业意义的可控/活性自由基聚合新方法，可制备分子量可控水溶性聚合物和各种功能共聚物。3）在非均相聚合领域，建立了自稳定沉淀聚合绿色新技术，不仅可制备尺寸可控的微/纳粒子，还为解决“全球巨量废弃烯烃利用”难题提供了新途径。多项专利成果已进入工业应用。
Professor Yang Wantaiwas awarded the degrees of BSc (1982) by Tsinghua University and MSc (1985) at Beijing University of Chemical Technology. He received PhD his from the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden in 1996. He was promoted to full Professor in September 1996 and PhD supervisor status in 1997. His research interests include development of new technology in photopolymerization, living/controlled radical polymerization, and controlled surface grafting polymerization. Over 500 publications with more than 10000 non-self citations, in journals such as Chemical Reviews, JACS, Progress in Polymer Science, Macromolecules, as well as 40 patents have resulted from his work. He was appraised as a ‘Subject Leader of Beijing Higher Education’ in 1993, and was supported by the Ministry of Education and Personnel Ministry under the ‘Cultivating of Excellence’ plan in 1999 and by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under the ‘Excellent Youth Scholar’ program in 2000. He was elected as a Changjiang Scholar by the Ministry of Education in 2001. His main accomplishments are as follows:1)He proposed a new theory and strategy of “Surface Confined Reactions” that can be used to modify the surface properties of polymers. Based on this theory, a novel integrated system for photochemical catalysis of C–H bond activation has been developed.2) In the field of polymerization, he developed a new technique for active radical polymerization based on pinacol, which facilitates the synthesis of water-soluble polymers with different molecular weights and numerous kinds of functional copolymers.3) In the field of heterogeneous polymerization, he invented a novel and green polymeric colloidal system, namely, self-stable precipitation polymerization, which not only can be used to synthesize micro-/nano particles with controllable size, but also provides a new pathway to tackle the problem of waste polyolefins. Many of the patented processes have been successfully commercialized.
