Nanoscale & Nanoscale Advances Blog

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.