When I was a postdoc at EPFL, I had the great pleasure of working with many smart and hard-working people. One of them was Dr. Liang Yao, who was now, very recently, appointed professor at the South China University of Technology (SCUT) in Guangzhou to start a new lab. It was very often during those busy days and weekends at EPFL and in Lausanne, that we discussed about our future, and we dreamt about the day we could start our own groups, collaborate, and visit each other to share our research; and, that day, finally arrived :D!
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While visiting China, I had the opportunity to visit SCUT to impart an invited talk in a seminar organized by Prof. Liang Yao at the State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices. Here I discussed some of ASSET Labs’ most recent advances in the field of biomass valorization using photocatalysts and (photo)electrochemical systems. The State Key Laboratory is recognized worldwide for pioneering work in the topic of organic solar cells and OLEDs; indeed, it has a little museum on the ground floor to learn about all the advances made in that building in particular. I was gladly surprised to find that other friends who all had met when being postdocs in Switzerland), were recently appointed professors at SCUT as well, namely, Dr. Wenbo Ju (from EMPA) and Dr. Wu Lan (from EPFL).
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[...] The State Key Laboratory is recognized worldwide for pioneering work in the topic of organic solar cells and OLEDs.
I cannot emphasize enough how welcoming everyone was, and the great scientific discussions they had there…it is always great to find such environments where one can freely discuss science, learn about new topics and where everybody supports each other to advance.
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