Wei Zhou, a PhD student from the Prof. Paolo Melchiorre’s Group, has successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled “New Photochemical Methods for Catalytic Radical Processes” publicly on October 13th.
The members of the evaluation committee were Prof. Arjan Kleij (ICIQ), Prof. Dr. Fabio Julià (Universidad de Murcia) and Prof. Dr. Giacomo Crisenza (University of Manchester).
Dr. Zhou was born and grown into a small city of Sichuan province, China. He went to master study in Shanghai, and then moved to Spain to pursue his PhD at ICIQ, funded by the Chinese government, China Scholarship Council (CSC). In Wei spare time, he always hangs out with his friends, play mobile games and travel to other countries for sightseeing.
Why did you become a scientist?
I am always fascinated by science, from which I always can find something unknown before or something new for me, then I can dig into them and learn something.
What do you want to achieve as a scientist?
Construct new molecules or disclose new pathways to molecules.
What is your thesis about?
My thesis is about developing new photochemical methods for the catalytic radical process.
What triggered your interest for the subject of your thesis?
The great potential of photocatalysis to generate radicals under mild conditions while enabling otherwise difficult synthetic transformations.
What applications can your thesis have in the future?
Maybe we can do reductive cross-coupling with gas ethylene, which is the fundamental feedstock in the industry.
The thing that I like most about my thesis is….
So much different reaction mechanisms are involved.
From the lessons learnt (or skills developed) at ICIQ, which one do you value the most?
The problem session that we had every Friday, even while we were doing shift during the Covid-19 period, we hosted the session online. The session taught me some basic knowledge and broadened my horizons, which made me not limited to only radical chemistry.
What ICIQ moment you´ll never forget?
The old times when our lab was full of people (I mean every computer spot and fume hoods were taken). At that time, I can discuss chemistry with a lot of colleagues and tell ¨bad¨ jokes.
What will you miss the most from ICIQ?
Good support from all the units.
What do you wish you had known at the beginning of your PhD?
I should have known PhD is a long journey, which is supposed to be well-planned.
Where are you going next? What will you do there?
I will go to the Scripps Research Institute in the USA as a postdoctoral researcher.
Chemistry/Science is fun because…
You can run something to prove what you thought before, or you can get what you never expected before.
What is your favourite molecule?
Citral, which really smells like lemon, fresh me every time when I use it.
If you were a piece of lab equipment, what would you be?
I would be a balance.
