唐本忠，1982年获华南理工大学学士学位，1985年、1988年先后获日本京都大学硕士、博士学位。曾在多伦多大学化学与药学系从事博士后研究、日本NEOS公司中央研究所任高级研究员。1994年至今历任香港科技大学化学系助理教授、副教授、教授、讲座教授、张鉴泉理学教授，并兼任香港科技大学工学院化学及生物工程学系讲座教授。2006年受聘为浙江大学“光彪讲座教授”。2009年当选中国科学院院士。2013年入选英国皇家化学会Fellow，2015年担任国家人体组织功能重建工程技术研究中心香港分中心主任，2017年起受聘为华南理工大学-香港科技大学联合研究院院长。2020晋升为中国化学会会士。2021年加入香港中文大学（深圳）担任理工学院院长、校长学勤讲座教授。主要从事高分子化学和先进功能材料研究，特别是在聚集诱导发光（Aggregation-Induced Emission, AIE）这一化学和材料前沿领域取得了原创性成果，是AIE概念的提出者和研究的引领者。已发表学术论文1700多篇，总引超140000次，h影响因子为169。作为项目负责人承担了科研项目80余项。在学术会议上作了500多场邀请报告，拥有100多项授权专利。现任德国Wiley出版社发行的Aggregate（《聚集体》）杂志主编，以及20多家国际科学杂志顾问、编委或客座编辑等。先后获得多项荣誉及奖励，于2002年获得由国家自然科学基金授予的“杰出青年学者”（B类，海外华裔科学家）称号，2007年获国家自然科学二等奖、Croucher基金会高级研究员奖、中国化学会王葆仁奖和Elsevier杂志社冯新德奖，2012获Science China Chemistry杰出贡献奖、美国化学学会高分子材料部：科学与工程分会Macro 2012讲座奖等，2014年获伊朗国家科技部科学技术研究组织颁发的Khwarizmi国际奖和2015年获广州市荣誉市民。连续2014-2020年当选全球材料和化学领域“高被引科学家”。荣获2017年度何梁何利基金科学与技术进步奖，以第一项目完成人身份凭“聚集诱导发光”项目获得2017年度国家自然科学一等奖，并获得科技盛典-CCTV 2018年度科技创新人物。2021年获得Nano Today国际科学奖。作为唐本忠院士的代表性成果之一，AIE已发展成为一个用中国科学家引领，世界上其他国家相继跟进的一个研究领域。
报告摘要
To understand the nature, scientists have viewed the world from different angles and built various research frameworks according to the level of inquiry, e.g., macro and micro sciences for studying bulk substances and molecular species, respectively. A philosophical linkage here is the reductionism conjecture, assuming that the former (i.e., a bulk substance) is reducible to the latter (i.e., simpler molecules). The reductionism approach has harvested great success but does not always work well. For example, when molecules are aggregated, the aggregate may show totally different behaviors or properties from its molecular constituents. Some luminogens, for instance, do not emit light upon UV excitation as molecular species, but their aggregates luminescence efficiently. This photophysical effect is known as aggregation-induced emission, which manifests that a new property can emerge at aggregate level. In contrast to reductionism, properties of an aggregate are not necessarily a simple, linear addition of those of its molecular components, but affected in a convoluted fashion by different factors, such as quantity (number of constituents), geometry (size, shape and dimension), morphology (amorphous or crystalline) and interaction (attraction or repulsion). Decipherment of such a complex system calls for the development of aggregate science, a new scientific framework for aggregate study. Understanding the operations and interplays of antagonism, synergism, emergentism, multiplicity, etc. in an aggregate system is of great scientific value and has far-reaching technological implications. The study of aggregate science will generate new laws, rules, models, hypotheses, diagrams, etc. and create new knowledge to boost our comprehension of natural processes and to solve the issues and problems unsolvable by the traditional reductionism approach. The establishment of new fundamental principles and working mechanisms at nanoscale and beyond will enable rational design of novel aggregate systems and judicious development of new advanced materials. It is envisioned that the aggregate science will lead to a paradigm shift in research epistemology and methodology and open up new avenues for exploration and innovation at higher levels of structural hierarchy and system complexity.