Shaofei Ni, PhD student under the supervision of Prof. Feliu Maseras (ICIQ), has defended his PhD Thesis entitled “The Role of Copper in Homogeneous Catalysis: Single Electron Transfer and Beyond” (assigned to the Department of Physical and Inorganic Chemistry of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili) publicly on November 18st at the ICIQ Auditorium.
The members of the examining committee were: Prof. Carles Bo Jané (ICIQ), Dr. Silvia Díez González (Imperial College of London) and Prof. Haijun Jiao (Universität Rostock).
Dr. Ni with the members of the evaluation committee and his thesis supervisor
Dr. Shaofei Ni was born in Yantai, a seaside city in China. He started his research life at Shantou University as a Master student. He worked as a researcher and a teacher assistant at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in Shenzhen (China) before joining Prof. Feliu Maseras’ group at ICIQ in 2016. During his stay in Tarragona, he has enjoyed the weather and thanks to this, hiking on the nearby mountains.
Why did you become a scientist? What would you want to achieve as a scientist?
I think it’s interesting to find something that others don’t know yet, the unexpected discoveries of doing research. It wasn’t until I began studying chemistry that I really appreciated it. I hope I will have my own research group in the future and to work with people who feel the same passion for research.
From the lessons learnt at ICIQ, which one do you value the most?
I think that the most important things are the ones that Feliu taught me. Specifically, the importance of evaluating and analysing your (research) results. Also, my biggest challenge was learning Spanish, foreign students should start to learn the language as soon as they can.
What will you miss the most from ICIQ?
I really like the group activities of the ICIQ, especially the calçotades. I couldn’t imagine people ate calçots this way before I arrived here. But if you try it, you will like it!
What advice do you have for students who are starting their PhD now?
First of all, you should find something you like, and just try it. Chem is try!
Where are you going next?
I would like to continue working in academia, so I’m looking for a postdoc position. In the future, I want to have my own research group and work on homogenous catalysis.
If you were a lab instrument which would you be?
I would like to be a memory slot of a computer; it would be amazing if I could remember and forget things at will!