Department of Chemistry

 Qiao Zhang, a PhD student recently graduated from Prof. Yadong Yin's group, has been selected by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) to receive one of the five 2013 IUPAC Prizes for Young Chemists. According to IUPAC, the prizes are given for the most outstanding Ph.D. theses in the general area of the chemical sciences. In addition to a cash prize of USD 1000, Qiao will be provided travel expenses to the 44th IUPAC World Chemistry Congress, 8-15 August 2013, in Istanbul, Turkey, where he will be invited to present a poster to describe his award-winning work. While in Prof. Yin's group, Qiao's research was mainly focused on the design and fabrication of nanomaterials and their applications in catalysis, including the mechanistic study of colloidal synthesis of metal nanoparticle catalysts, stabilization of metal nanoparticles to make reliable catalysts, and engineering the metal-based catalysts for significantly enhanced performance. Qiao is currently working as a postdoc at the University of California, Berkeley.