Yi Xie, professor of chemistry at the University of Science and Technology of China, has received the fourth Tsinghua University Press-Springer Nano Research Award. Representatives from Tsinghua University Press and Springer Nature presented the award certificate and medal at the 2017 Sino-US Nano Forum. The annual award includes a cash prize of $10,000. Xie's research on inorganic functional solids with modulated electron and phonon structures has contributed significantly to the field of inorganic solid-state chemistry at the nanoscale. In particular, Xie has made groundbreaking advances in fundamental problems of unconventional semiconductors a few atoms thick, which find promising applications in energy conversion. He is a member of the Chinese Academy of Science and has received numerous awards. Nano Research is an international academic journal sponsored by Tsinghua University and the Chinese Chemical Society and is jointly published by Tsinghua University Press (TUP) and Springer Nature. The Nano Research Award, which was established by the journal Nano Research together with TUP and Springer, is given to individual scientists who have contributed significantly to nano research. The winner is selected by an award committee made up of the editors-in-chief, associate editors and representatives from TUP and Springer Nature.