The Advances family of journals are delighted to share with you our special 2025 collection of New Principal Investigators. This exciting collection features members of our community who have recently been appointed as principal investigators, and highlights their exceptional research, spanning a wide variety of fields.

This web collection comprises of a variety of articles, including reviews, on a range of topics, so there is sure to be something for everyone! You can explore the complete collection here.

We encourage you to join us in celebrating our new appointees and hope you enjoy reading some of the articles in this collection.

Meet some of our New Appointees

Last year we had the opportunity to interview some of the new principal investigators featured in this collection. These interviews highlight the exciting research happening in these new groups, and feature some insightful advice for those starting out in their academic career. Explore some highlights from the interviews below, or explore the collection of interviews and articles by following the links below. Keep an eye on our social media channels for more updates about this special collection!

Interview Highlights

Q: What advice would you give someone starting out?

A: It can be easy to move on to the next thing, but pausing and taking time to acknowledge achievements, both for yourself and your team, can be both motivational and uplifting. – Jennifer A. Garden

A: I would share the advice that I gladly received from my respected research advisors. Work on things that you are passionate about. Enjoy your work with your students and collaborators. – Henry Chu

A: Know what truly excites and motivates you, and try to build your path in that direction. The energy and authenticity you bring to your work are incredibly important, and they’re only sustainable if you’re doing something you genuinely care about. – Diego Alzate-Sanchez

A: Finding the right place to grow and develop is crucial: when passion and effort are nurtured in such conditions, success and recognition will follow naturally. – Sol Carretero Palacios

Q: What inspired you to pursue science as a career?

A: My fascination with science began at an early age when I asked my father, “What makes us human?” and “What lies behind the moon?“, to which he responded with “Those are such big questions for such a little girl“, only fuelled my curiosity further. – Samira Husen Alamudi

A: I got into science to make a difference and contribute to the wellbeing of our society. – Ioana M. Ilie

A: I enjoy doing experiments in the lab and conducting research, which could help resolve real-world challenges and satisfy my curiosities. – Xiangcheng Sun

A: If I cast my mind back, I can’t remember ever wanting to be anything other than a scientist. I suppose the path forward became a little clearer during my time at university, where I studied Pharmacy. – Oisín N. Kavanagh

Explore the interviews and articles!

Introducing Oisín N. Kavanagh – read the full interview and access their article titled “Cystine crystal nucleation and decay in the context of cystinuria pathogenesis and treatment” here!

Introducing Jennifer A. Garden – read the full interview and access their article titled “Simple divalent metal salts as robust and efficient initiators for the ring-opening polymerisation of rac-lactide” here!

Introducing Samira Husen Alamudi – read the full interview and access their article titled “Design strategies for organelle-selective fluorescent probes: where to start?” here!

Introducing Henry Chu – read the full interview and access their article titled “Diffusiophoresis in porous media saturated with a mixture of electrolytes” here!

Introducing Ioana M. Ilie – read the full interview and access their article titled “Computational design of Bax-inhibiting peptides” here!

Introducing Xiangcheng Sun– read the full interview and access their article titled “Fluorescent carbon dots with dual emissions and solvent-dependent properties for water detection in organic solvents” here!

Introducing Diego Alzate-Sanchez – read the full interview and access their article titled “Fabrication of hydroxylated norbornene foams via frontal polymerization for catalytic applications” here!

Introducing Sol Carretero Palacios – read the full interview and access their titled article “Plasmonic nanoparticles boost low-current perovskite LEDs governed by photon recycling effects” here!

Introducing Ashok Keerthi – read their article titled “Solution-phase synthesis of graphene nanoribbons: a review on polymerization strategies” here!

Introducing Liane M. Moreau – read their article titled “Elucidating the role of surfactant structural parameters in Au nanoparticle morphology” here!

Introducing Emily Sprague-Klein – read their article titled “Investigating the mechanism of copper–carbon interactions in ultraconductor materials via in situ thermal X-ray and Raman spectroscopy” here!

Introducing Zhenhua Tian – read their article titled “In-Petri-dish traveling and standing acoustic wave-assisted fabrication of anisotropic collagen hydrogels” here!

Introducing Hilke Bahmann – read their article titled “A density functional theory study of dye-sensitized solar cells with graphene quantum dots: only a matter of size?” here!

Would you like to be featured in our 2026 collection?

Submissions are now open for our 2026 New Principal Investigator collection, all you need to do is submit to one of the journals in the Advances family, which publish interdisciplinary, robust, quality science. As gold Open Access journals, the Advances family means maximum visibility for your work, to both subject specialists and a general audience. To be eligible, you must have taken up your role as principal investigator within the last 3 years. Submit your research today here, and find more information on the journals, eligibility criteria and submission process here.

We are delighted to introduce the next contribution to our New Principal Investigators collection.

Read the paper

Diffusiophoresis in porous media saturated with a mixture of electrolytes

Siddharth Sambamoorthy and Henry C. W. Chu

In the article, we have developed a mathematical model that predicts the diffusiophoretic motion of a colloidal particle driven by a concentration gradient of a mixture of electrolytes in porous media. We report three key findings. First, in the same electrolyte concentration gradient, lowering the permeability of the porous medium can significantly weaken the colloid diffusiophoretic motion. Second, surprisingly, by using a valence asymmetric electrolyte the colloid diffusiophoretic motion in a denser porous medium can be stronger than that in a less dense porous medium saturated with a valence symmetric electrolyte. Third, varying the composition of an electrolyte mixture does not only change the strength of the colloid diffusiophoretic motion drastically, but also qualitatively its direction. We believe that our model will motivate and benchmark future theories and experiments. Our model can be used to understand and predict natural phenomena such as intracellular transport, as well as design technological applications such as enhanced oil recovery, nanoparticle drug delivery, and colloidal species separation.

Meet the Principal Investigator

Henry Chu is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at University of Florida (UF).  He obtained a M.Phil. from The University of Hong Kong and a Ph.D. from Cornell University.  The theme of his research is heterogeneous soft matter transport and design, covering topics such as complex fluid dynamics, colloid and interface science, electrokinetics, porous media, and rheology.  His research group develops predictive computational tools and fundamental theories to address National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges, collaborating with experimental groups to translate knowledge into applications.  His work has been recognized through several awards, including the RSC Advances / Soft Matter / Nanoscale Emerging Investigator by The Royal Society of Chemistry, UF Global Faculty Fellowship, ACS PRF Doctoral New Investigator Grants, and U.S. DOE Geosciences Research Grants.  He welcomes collaboration with academia, government agencies, and industry sponsors.

Website: http://www.chugroup.site/

You’ve recently started your own group, what are the big research question/s your group will be focussing on?

I think one promising future direction is diffusiophoresis in porous media, which is the theme of our article. To date, many excellent theories and experiments have been done on diffusiophoresis in free electrolyte solutions, but little have been done on diffusiophoresis in porous media. Many novel applications, however, involve diffusiophoresis in porous media. I believe that the huge potential of diffusiophoresis will start a new wave of research that addresses both the fundamental and application aspect of the topic.

What inspired you to get into science?

As a computation group focusing on soft matter transport and design, we are excited about leveraging our discoveries to develop practical applications and to explain novel transport phenomena. Our strategy is always to develop models which are as simple as possible but can capture the key physics of a system. Although these are no easy tasks, I enjoy tackling these challenges with my students and collaborators!

What advice would you give to those who are seeking their first group leader position?

I would share the advice that I gladly received from my respected research advisors 🙂 Work on things that you are passionate about. Enjoy your work with your students and collaborators.
I would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge my research advisors, colleagues, and friends, who have given me great support in my early career, thank you!

Read our new Nanoscale Advances collection

In 2023, Nanoscale Advances published quality research across the breadth of nanoscience and our authors and readers in China remain a core part of the journal community.

To showcase some of the great research being carried out, we have selected some of the most popular articles from authors in China published in 2023. A small selection are highlighted below, but click the button below to read the full collection. All articles are gold open access so they are free to read.

Recent progress in flexible micro-pressure sensors for wearable health monitoring

Jianguo Hu, Guanhua Dun, Xiangshun Geng, Jing Chen, Xiaoming Wu and Tian-Ling Ren

Nanoscale Adv., 2023, 5, 3131-3145

A hierarchical integrated 3D carbon electrode derived from gingko leaves via hydrothermal carbonization of H₃PO₄ for high-performance supercapacitors

Han Liu, Fumin Zhang, Xinyu Lin, Jinggao Wu and Jing Huang

Nanoscale Adv., 2023, 5, 786-795

Regulating the thickness of nanofiltration membranes for efficient water purification

Ke Tang, LinSheng Zhu, Piao Lan, YunQiang Chen, Zhou Chen, Yihong Lan and WeiGuang Lan

Nanoscale Adv., 2023, 5, 4770-4781

Nanoscale Advances is pleased to have prominent members of the nanoscience community in China acting as Editorial Board Members:

• Chunli Bai (Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
• Yue Zhang (University of Science and Technology Beijing)
• Qing Dai (National Center for Nanoscience and Technology of China)
• Quan Li (The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
• Jinlan Wang (Southeast University)
• Manzhou Zhu (Anhui University)

The Royal Society of Chemistry has arranged Read and Publish agreements with a number of institutes in China. As part of these agreements you may be entitled to publish your research gold open access at no cost or with a discount. Get in touch to find out more and find out if your institute is covered here.

Wishing you all the best for the upcoming Year of the Dragon!