NYU Shanghai PhD Student Wins Best Poster at Chinese Chemical Society Congress

During the 33rd Chinese Chemical Society (CCS) Congress, Liu Zengkui, a fourth-year Chemistry PhD student at NYU Shanghai, received the Best Poster Award for his research presented at the “Quantum and Classical Dynamics in Chemistry” session. He stood among  seven graduate students who were selected for this honor from over 100 poster presenters in the session.The CCS Congress, held in Qingdao, was attended by more than 20,000 participants.

Under the guidance of NYU Shanghai Assistant Professor of Chemistry Sun Xiang, Liu showcased their research group’s recent advancement in calculating quantum-mechanical reaction rates in charge transfer systems. His poster project, titled “Open-Chain Path-Integral Method to Fermi’s Golden Rule Rate,” not only enhances the group’s tools for charge transfer rate theory through computation but also holds the potential to illuminate the processes behind solar energy conversion.

Liu expressed his surprise at receiving the award, considering the complexity of the theoretical work and the limited number of China-based researchers delving into new chemical theories as they have. “I was glad that many professors and students discussed it with me during the session, and they seemed to appreciate the originality,” Liu said. He attributed the award to the novelty and theoretical rigor of his research and expressed gratitude to his advisor, Professor Sun Xiang, and collaborators, Professor Mark Tuckerman and Dr. Xu Wen.