Nanoscale & Nanoscale Advances Blog

Nanoscale Horizons ECR Oral Presentation Prize

Meng Li (Queensland University of Technology, Australia)
Presentation Title: “GeTe-based hybrid materials for thermoelectric applications”

Meng Li is an Early-Career Researcher (ECR) and Research Fellow at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). His research interest focus on thermoelectric material-related first-principles calculation, scalable synthesis and fabrication of inorganic thermoelectric materials, and assembly of thermoelectric devices guided by numerical modelling and finite-element analysis (FEA) simulation.

Nanoscale ECR Oral Presentation Prize

Huan Li (University of Adelaide, Australia)
Presentation Title: “Electrocatalysis in metal-sulfur batteries”

Huan Li is a postdoctoral research fellow at The University of Adelaide, Australia in the group of Prof. Shi-Zhang Qiao. He obtained his PhD in Chemical Engineering from The University of Adelaide (Australia) in 2022. Prior to this, he obtained his bachelor and master degree in Electrochemistry from Tianjin University (China) in 2014 and 2017. Currently, his research interests are focused on the development of high-performance metal-sulfur batteries, including the design of metal anode, sulfur cathode and functional electrolyte.

Nanoscale Advances ECR Oral Presentation Prize

Gábor Varga (University of Queensland, Australia)
Presentation Title: “Non-conventional synthesis of solid F(rustrated)L(ewis)P(airs) catalysts via surface modification of hydrotalcites by cation insertion”

Dr Gábor Varga has received his master’s degree (2014) and PhD (2017) in Chemistry from the University of Szeged, Hungary, where he is now an assistant lecturer. With financial support from a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Global Fellowship recently awarded to him by the EU, he is now working as a visiting researcher at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. His research interests focus on organic transformations (heterocyclisations, couplings, hydrogenations) promoted by heterogeneous catalysts, surface modifications of 2D materials, biomass valorisation and CO₂ utilization.

Materials Horizons ECR Oral Presentation Prize

Shanshan Ding (University of Queensland, Australia)
Presentation Title: “Surface ligand engineering for highly efficient and stable FAPbI₃ quantum dot solar cells”

Shanshan Ding is a PhD student at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia. She obtained her Master’s degree from Nanjing University in China. After that, she joined Prof. Lianzhou Wang’s group as a fully funded PhD student in 2019. Currently, Shanshan’s research concentrates on the development of stable metal halide perovskite quantum dots for efficient solar cell applications.

Biomaterials Science ECR Oral Presentation Prize

Mohammad Tavakkoli Yaraki (Macquarie University, Australia)
Presentation Title: “Au nanocluster-enabled charge transfer for surface enhanced Raman Scattering”

Dr Mohammad Tavakkoli Yaraki is an alumnus of National University of Singapore, having received his PhD in plasmon-enhanced processes for diagnosis and therapy of cancer in 2020. Mohammad joined joined Macquarie University in November 202, and received competitive three-year Macquarie University Research Fellowship (MQRF) in late 2022. His current research is fundamental study of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) towards designing ultrasensitive SERS nanotags for detecting wide ranges of biomarkers. Mohammad has 12+ years of experience doing research in both academia and industry. His research interests are developing plasmonic nanomaterials, charge-transfer induced SERS enhancement, photocatalysts, antibacterial nanomaterials, drug delivery systems and polymeric nanocomposites.

EES Catalysis ECR Oral Presentation Prize

Chao Ye (University of Adelaide, Australia)
Presentation Title: “Catalysing metal-sulfur batteries”

Chao Ye received his PhD degree in 2020 from Prof. Shi-Zhang Qiao’s group at the University of Adelaide, Australia. Now he works as a DECRA fellow at the University of Adelaide, Australia. As an early career researcher, he demonstrated an exceptional track record, reflected by the publication of high-level refereed papers in peer-reviewed journals, including 16 papers as the first/co-first author, including Nat. Commun., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Adv. Mater., Matter, Energy Environ. Sci., Adv. Energy Mater., Adv. Funct. Mater., ACS Nano, etc. His research interests are focused on energy storage and conversion such as metal-sulfur batteries and aqueous Zn-ion batteries.

RSC Applied Interfaces ECR Oral Presentation Prize

Yurou Zhang (University of Queensland, Australia)
Presentation Title: “Surface structure engineering of hybrid halide perovskite single crystals for controllable charge transport”

Yurou Zhang is currently a PhD student at the University of Queensland (UQ), Australia, under the supervision of Prof. Lianzhou Wang. She received her bachelor’s degree from East China University of Science and Technology in 2019. Since then, she has been pursuing her PhD degree at UQ, and her research interests focus on studying the optoelectronic properties and applications of organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite single crystals.

ChemComm ECR Oral Presentation Prize

Chen Han (University of New South Wales, Australia)
Presentation Title: “Solar-driven CO₂ reduction for fuels and value-added chemicals production””

Chen Han holds a bachelor’s degree from the China University of Petroleum and a master’s degree from the East China University of Science and Technology. Currently, she is a PhD student in Chemical Engineering at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), working under the supervision of Professor Rose Amal, Professor Xiaojing Hao, and Dr Jian Pan. Her doctoral research focuses on Solar-to-chemicals conversion by (photo)electrochemical processes.

Materials Advances ECR Oral Presentation Prize

Shilin Zhang (University of Adelaide, Australia)
Presentation Title: “High-entropy alloys enable efficient CO₂ redox reactions in Li-CO₂ batteries”

Dr Shilin Zhang is now a research fellow at the University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia. He received his PhD degree from the Institute of Superconducting & Electronic Materials in the University of Wollongong (Australia) in 2020 under the supervision of Prof. Zaiping Guo, after he graduated from Beijing University of Chemical Technology with an MSc in 2016. His current research interests focus on the design, synthesis and characterisation of electrode/electrolyte materials in the field of batteries.

MSDE ECR Oral Presentation Prize

Zan Dai (University of Queensland, Australia)
Presentation Title: “Nanochemistry enabled precise ROS regulation for cancer immunotherapy”

Zan Dai is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. His academic journey commenced with a focus on nanocrystals and chemical catalysis during his MPhil studies at the Wuhan Institute of Technology. Upon successfully completing his MPhil in 2016, Zan embarked on further research into reactive oxygen species for catalytic applications, working as a Research Associate in Prof. Rong Chen’s group. Supported by the Australian government RTP scholarship, Zan attained his PhD in biomedical engineering in 2022, supervised by Prof. Chengzhong Yu at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, University of Queensland. His doctoral research was dedicated to the development of nanomedicines for cancer immunotherapy. Currently, Zan’s primary research is centered on biomaterials engineering for cancer therapy and immunoregulation.

Rafael Fuentes-Domínguez (University of Nottingham, UK)
Talk Title: “Super-resolution acoustic imaging using nanostructures”

Dr Rafael Fuentes-Dominguez obtained his PhD from the University of Nottingham in 2018 and he is currently a Research Fellow in the Optics and Photonics Research Group at the University of Nottingham (UK), where he is developing novel super-resolution imaging technologies, using phonons instead of photons, and also designing metamaterials / metasurfaces on optical fibres for advanced endoscopic imaging.

Eva Osuna Bris (The Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain)
Talk Title: “Nano-scale conductivity of Ni₃(HITP)₂ metal-organic framework”

Eva Osuna Bris is a PhD student at the Autonomous University of Madrid, and is vinculated to the IFIMAC Condensed Matter Center. Her research focuses on low dimensional materials, nanotechnology and atomic force microscopy.

Vivek Pareek (OIST Graduate University, Japan)
Talk Title: “Imaging the constituent electron and hole of a Moiré localized interlayer exciton”

Vivek Pareek is currently a graduate student in Femtosecond Spectroscopy (Dani) Unit at OIST Graduate University, Japan. He completed his Integrated BS-MS in Physical Sciences from IISER-Kolkata, India as an INSPIRE fellow. At OIST, he is working on understanding the properties of excitons in van der Waals 2D semiconductors using novel technique of micro time and angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (Tr-µ-ARPES). His research interests are in the field of van der Waals materials and their heterostructures, ultrafast spectroscopy, and quantum materials.

Tamara Muñoz Ortiz (The Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain)
Talk Title: “Optical coherence tomography meets thermoresponsive nanogels: a combination for three-dimensional thermal bioimaging”

Tamara Muñoz Ortiz graduated in Physics at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) in 2018. One year later she obtained a Master degree on Advanced Materials, Nanotechnology, and Photonics at UAM. She was awarded the Extraordinary Master Award for her academic performance. In February 2020 Tamara started a PhD on Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology at the nanoBIG group in UAM under the supervisor of Prof. José García Solé and Dr. Emma Martín Rodríguez. In her PhD she has participated in multidisplinar projects regarding the use of nanoparticles of different materials for biomedical optical coherence tomography imaging applications.

Makars Šiškins (National University of Singapore, Singapore)
Talk Title: “Magneto-mechanics of 2D material membranes”

Dr. Makars Šiškins is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Functional Intelligent Materials (I-FIM) of National University of Singapore. He defended his PhD cum laude at the Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands, in 2021, where he also was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in 2022. His research interests cover fields of nanomechanics, 2D materials, magnetism and condensed matter physics.

Yujie Guo (King’s College London, UK)
Poster Title: “Real-time single-molecule monitoring and control of nanoparticle formation”

Yujie Guo is a final year PhD student at department of chemistry, King’s College London, UK. She completed her master’s degree in pharmaceutics at University College London. Yujie’s research focuses on studying reaction kinetics at single-molecule scale. Her work involves the design and synthesis of nanomaterials, such as nanoparticles and polymers, as well as characterization of these molecules with label-free single-molecule imaging techniques. In addition to her research, Yujie enjoys reading and exploring different culture across the world in her free time.

Fatemeh Rajabasadi (Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden – IFW, Germany)
Poster Title: “Polymersomes-decorated microrobots with multiple cargos for gynecological cancer therapy”

Fatemeh Rajabasadi is a PhD student at Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research, Dresden, Germany. Her main interests are in the field of assisted fertilization by facilitating multiple sperm cell transport by means of synthetic microcarriers.

Aswin Asaithambi (Italian Institute of Technology, Italy)
Poster Title: “Enhanced photoresponse from MoS₂-InAs/ZnSe heterostructure”

Aswin Asaithambi Postdoctoral Researcher at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia with a specialization in optical spectroscopy including designing and building of advanced spectroscopic setups.

Alberto Martín-Pérez (Politecnico di Torino, Italy)
Poster Title: “Label-free characterization of cells and particles merging optics, nanomechanics and microfluidics in a single device”

Alberto Martín-Pérez is an Assistant Professor with a strong academic background and expertise in various interdisciplinary fields. He holds a PhD in Applied Physics from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and has completed a postdoctoral research stint at the Materials Science Institute of Madrid (ICMM-CSIC). His research interests span across nanomechanics, microfluidics, optics, and MEMS (Microelectromechanical Systems). With a focus on cutting-edge technology and materials, Alberto is particularly interested in 2D materials, optomechanics, nanofluidics, optoelectronics, and photonics.

Nanoscale Horizons, Nanoscale and Nanoscale Advances Poster Prize

Anna Drummond Young (University of Oxford, UK)
Poster Title: “Cation dependence of noise induced by polymer adsorption in nanopores”

Anna Drummond Young is a DPhil student in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford, UK, under the supervision of Prof. Alice Thorneywork. She received her M. Sci. in the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, UK, in 2022. Her current research focuses on noise in the ionic current of nanopores, specifically in relation to the adsorption of polymers, such as PEG, inside the pore.

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP) Poster Prize

Dominik Duleba (University College Dublin, Ireland)
Poster Title: “Proton enrichment and surface charge dynamics in pH-responsive nanopores”

Dominik Duleba completed his undergraduate degree in chemistry (with a focus on analytical chemistry and nanotechnology) at Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Afterwards, he completed his Master’s at University College Dublin, Ireland, under the supervision Prof. Robert Johnson where he is staying to complete his PhD. His major research interests currently lie in understanding the fundamental processes occurring in confined spaces, continuum modelling of nanoconfined devices with the Finite Element Method, and the incorporation of machine learning approaches with iontronic devices. Previously, he has also worked with the modelling of air pollution patterns, with phosphorescent halogen-bonded frameworks, and with the conduction mechanisms of supercapacitor electrolyte gels.