Junling is a Professor at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). He received his Ph.D. in 2007 from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, under the supervision of Prof. Hong-Jun Gao. During his doctoral studies, he visited the group of Prof. Hans-Joachim Freund at the Department of Chemical Physics, Fritz-Haber-Institute, Max Planck Society, as an exchange student from 2004 to 2006. Following his Ph.D., he conducted postdoctoral research at Northwestern University with Prof. Peter C. Stair for three years, followed by approximately two and a half years with Dr. Jeffrey W. Elam at Argonne National Laboratory. In March 2013, he joined the University of Science and Technology of China as a Professor.
His current research focuses on the atomically precise design of advanced catalysts through a combined wet-chemistry and atomic layer deposition (ALD) approach. He was awarded the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars in 2020, and has received several other honors, including the National Catalysis Prize for Young Scientists in 2021 and the 7th Chinese Chemical Society–Royal Society of Chemistry Young Chemist Award in 2021.