PhD (2017 – 2021): University of Otago, New Zealand, with Professor Sally Brooker, ‘Carbazole Complexes as Catalysts for Hydrogen Evolution and CO2 Reduction’
MSc (2014 – 2017): Lanzhou Jiaotong University, MSc thesis with Professor Wen-Kui Dong, ‘Synthesis, Crystal Structures and Exploration of Luminescent Properties of Schiff Bases’
Photo: Fola at St. Clair Beach
I came to Dunedin to join Brooker’s Bunch in 2017, in pursuit of a PhD with Professor Sally Brooker after completing a Master of Science (MSc.) at Lanzhou Jiaotong University, China. There is so much to see and do in Dunedin, a beautiful city surrounded by several amazing beaches (where you will find sea lions and fur seals enjoying their natural habitat). I found it fascinating togaze at endless bodies of water. With lots of interesting places to visit, I enjoyed my stay in Dunedin.
I remain thankful to Sally for her excellent supervisory skills, which are rare among many supervisors. One of the things I so much cherish in Sally is her availability when it comes to creating time for discussions, which was a key factor during my PhD. There was never a time I needed Sally for guidance that she was not available. Drafting and thorough proof reading of thesis chapters and manuscripts is one of the fundamental skills that I learnt under her supervision. Sally encourages her students to initiate writing manuscripts which is followed by her excellent proof reading and then by revisions as we worked together to bring the initial draft up to publication standard.
During the course of my PhD (3.5 years due to COVID-19), I gained a wide range of hands-on skills, which I learnt from Brooker’s Bunch senior members who I met at the start of my doctoral program. I gained more experience on multi-step organic synthesis, complexation of organic ligands with 3d metal ions, crystallisation, X-ray diffraction data collection and refinements to publication standard, as well as electrochemistry which became the core area of my project (electrocatalysis). Also, I was trained on collecting and working up data for (a) modified Evans NMR measurements for determining spin state under pressure (collaborative visits to Prof. Geoffrey B. Jameson at Massey University, NZ), and (b) photocatalysis testing of our complexes under both hydrogen evolution (HER) and carbon dioxide reduction (CO2RR) conditions (collaborative visit to Prof. Garry S. Hanan, at Montreal University, Canada in 2018 for 9 weeks). Thus, working for Sally boosted my confidence towards hands-on chemistry, making me a better Chemist.
During my PhD, I had opportunities to attend and give talks at domestic and international conferences such as: Chemistry and Biochemistry Graduate Research Conference (CBGRC), Montreal, Canada in 2018; and Otago Future Fuels (OFF) workshop organised by Prof. Sally Brooker, University of Otago in 2019. Unfortunately, COVID-19 caused the International Conference on Coordination Chemistry (ICCC, Italy) which I planned to attend, to be postponed for 2 years.
I enjoyed the cordial relationships within Brookers Bunch, owing to the amicable work environment exemplified by Sally which encourages looking after one another.
Finally, I will always be very grateful to Sally for the opportunity to do my PhD under her supervision, and to the University of Otago for the award of a doctoral scholarship.
