{"id":1805,"date":"2025-07-04T15:02:26","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T03:02:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/brooker\/?p=1805"},"modified":"2025-07-04T15:03:57","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T03:03:57","slug":"niklas-plenio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/brooker\/niklas-plenio\/","title":{"rendered":"Niklas Plenio"},"content":{"rendered":"

Current position:<\/strong> M.Sc. student of chemistry at JGU Mainz<\/p>\n

Stay in Dunedin:<\/strong> November 2024 – April 2025 (6 month research project)<\/p>\n

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Photo:<\/strong> Niklas at the top of Ben Lomond, near Queenstown.<\/p>\n

I have always wanted to spend a semester abroad during my studies to broaden my horizons, both in a professional and a private sense. Therefore, I readily accepted Professor Sally Brooker’s kind offer for an opportunity to do a six month research project in her group.<\/p>\n

For my project, I focused primarily on HER (hydrogen evolution reaction) electrocatalysts. I synthesised and attached macrocycle-based molecular catalysts to various carbon electrode surfaces using covalent and non-covalent techniques. This enabled me to experience the complete catalyst development process from synthesis to surface attachment to catalyst testing as part of a cohesive project. During my time in Dunedin, Sally and the entire Brooker group guided and assisted me to overcome any problem that the science threw at me. I am also very grateful for the independence I enjoyed in selecting the research I pursued over the course of my project, which brought me a lot of valuable lab and non-lab skills.<\/p>\n

Apart from university life, I also thoroughly enjoyed the vibrant outdoors all around New Zealand. The breathtaking views and trails I got to experience while hiking and mountain biking around the South Island were truly out of this world. Even close to Dunedin, I continued to find stunning new places to visit up until the very end of my stay. And even when the Dunedin weather sometimes made outdoor activities unpleasant, Unipol was always a great place to spend a rainy day.<\/p>\n

Overall, I had an amazing time in Dunedin thanks to both the Brooker group and everyone else I met during my stay. Looking back, I’m really glad I spent these six months in Dunedin, as I’ll never forget the wonderful memories I made there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Current position: M.Sc. student of chemistry at JGU Mainz Stay in Dunedin: November 2024 – April 2025 (6 month research project) Photo: Niklas at the top of Ben Lomond, near Queenstown. I have always wanted to spend a semester abroad […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/brooker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/brooker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/brooker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/brooker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18270"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/brooker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/brooker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/brooker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/brooker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/brooker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}