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DOI: 10.1002/smll.201703395 Prof. Yoshio Bando has been leading the communities of nanomaterials and electron microscopy for many years. On this moment of his 70th birthday, to honor his significant contribution to science and technology, we have organized this special issue on “Energy and Optoelectronic Related Nanomaterials and Applications” to highlight the research achievements of Prof. Yoshio Bando. Holding a PhD degree from Osaka University, Prof. Yoshio Bando joined the National Institute for Research in Inorganic Materials (NIRIM) as a researcher in 1975. He was a visiting scientist at the Arizona State University, USA (1979–1981), and in 1992, he became an adjunct professor at the University of Tsukuba. He was promoted to be a supervising researcher of Advanced Beam Analysis Station of NIRIM in 1996. In 2001, NIRIM was merged with the National Research Institute for Metals to form the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), and he was appointed as Director of the Advanced Beam Analysis Group, followed by being appointed Director-General of International Center for Young Scientist (ICYS), NIMS. He became a NIMS Fellow in 2004 and Deputy-Director General of International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), one of the nine research centers sponsored by Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) for the World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI)) in 2007. From 2008 to March 2017, he was responsible for the operation of MANA with the appointed position of Chief Operating Officer (COO). In addition, he was adjunct professor of University of Tokyo (2009–2012) and visiting professor of Waseda University (2008–2015). He is currently an Executive Advisor of WPI-MANA at NIMS, and an Invited Distinguished Professor at the University of Wollongong, Australia. Please refer to Table 1 for more information about his career. Prof. Yoshio Bando has received many prestigious awards and fellowships, including the 3rd Thomson Reuters Research Front Award in 2012, the Tsukuba Prize in 2005, Academician, World Academy of Ceramics in 2004, Commendation Award by the Minister of State for Science and Technology in 1998, Academic Award of the Ceramic Society of Japan in 1997, Seto Award of Electron Microscopy Society of Japan in 1994, and Chunyi Zhi obtained his PhD degree in physics from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Then, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) in Japan. He then worked as a research fellow at the International Center for Young Scientists in NIMS, followed by a permanent position at NIMS as a senior researcher. He is currently an associate professor in Department of Materials Science & Engineering, City University of Hong Kong. His research is currently focused on flexible/wearable energy storage/ conversion devices, etc. He has published more than 190 papers with citations of >10000 and a h-index of 53 (ISI). Dedication: In celebration of Yoshio Bando’s 70th birthday.