The 2024 Nano Letters Seed Grants present some of the most compelling nanoscience and nanotechnology prospects from graduate students in four different areas of the world. Learn about each of the winners and their research.
Nano Letters is committed to building a global community of young investigators and supporting their research development. We are also invested in equity and diversity, both individually and worldwide.
This initiative has been a rewarding opportunity for Nano Letters to showcase some of the most compelling nanoscience and nanotechnology prospects from graduate students in different areas of the world.
We are pleased to shine a spotlight on our winners for each of the four different geographical regions of the competition.
Wei Zheng (Winner, East Asia and the Pacific)
Wei Zheng is a third-year Ph.D. student at the University of Adelaide under the supervisor of Prof. Zaiping Guo and Dr. Gemeng Liang. Her research area is layered cathodes for rechargeable lithium/sodium-ion batteries. She mainly focuses on performance enhancement through novel strategies, as well as atomic-level investigation of degradation and enhancement mechanism during electrochemical process. So far, she has published six peer-reviewed papers in high-profile journals as the first author, including Joule, Energy Environ. Sci., Energy Storage Mater., Nano Res., etc.
Jianhui Zhang (Winner, Europe)
Jianhui Zhang is a fourth-year doctoral student at the Nanoengineered Systems Lab at University College London (UCL), supported by UCL’s ORS & GRS full scholarship. Jianhui is supervised by Prof. Manish K. Tiwari. He will continue as a Research Fellow in AI at UCL after finishing his Ph.D. He is recognized for his research proposal on “Materials Discovery for Extreme Icephobic Nano-Surfaces Enabled by Deep Learning.”
Gunjan Sharma (Winner, South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa)
Gunjan Sharma is a fourth-year doctoral researcher at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, India, working under the supervision of Prof. Vivek Polshettiwar in the Nanocatalysis Laboratory. Her research focuses on the design and development of novel plasmonic nanocatalysts aimed at addressing climate change challenges. Specifically, Gunjan is investigating nanocatalysts that utilize localized surface plasmonic resonance (LSPR) for energy-intensive industrial processes, such as carbon dioxide reduction, olefin processing and ammonia production. Through the application of photocatalysis, her work aims to reduce the carbon footprint associated with these reactions, contributing to the goal of achieving net-zero emissions.
Xintong Yuan (Winner, The Americas)
Xintong Yuan is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), working with Prof. Yuzhang Li. Her research primarily focuses on lithium metal batteries and the use of cryo-EM for characterizing energy materials. Her long-term research goal is to lead innovations in battery and energy conversion development, with a focus on tackling critical issues in energy capacity, circularity, and sustainability.
