Chemistry Graduate Student Wins Award from the International Precious Metals Institute
By Ben Panko
Chemistry Ph.D. candidate Yingwei Li has received the International Precious Metals Institute's Sabin Metal Ron Bleggi Student Award. The award recognizes her research on precious metals in the lab of Professor of Chemistry Rongchao Jin.
"I am really grateful to the awards committee of the International Precious Metals Institute for considering me worthy of the title, and I feel truly honored and appreciate this recognition," Li said. "I will continue my hard work with more enthusiasm."
Li's research focuses on synthesizing atomically precise, thiolate-protected Au nanoclusters and the properties and applications of those nanoclusters. Using x-ray crystallography on single crystals of the nanoclusters, Li and her colleagues have been able to determine their total structure.
"During the past years, I have achieved some exciting results on several series of noble metal nanoclusters with structure evolution, controllable dipole moments, new optical properties and high catalytic reactivity, as well as the origin of chirality," Li said of her work.