Chemistry Student Earns International Recognition for Doctoral Research
ALBANY, N.Y. (Nov. 4, 2025) — When Yikun Zhu first watched her middle-school chemistry teacher ignite a strip of magnesium, she didn’t know that moment would spark a career that would take her halfway around the world — and eventually earn her international recognition for groundbreaking research in nanocarbon chemistry.
Zhu, who grew up in Taiyuan, China, recently received the Crystals Best PhD Thesis Award from the open-access publisher MDPI for her dissertation work at the University at Albany. She also earned UAlbany’s 2024-25 Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award, marking the culmination of a scientific journey that began with curiosity and grew into discovery.
A Journey Across Cultures
“I grew up in a family not connected to science, so my first real exposure to chemistry came in middle school,” Zhu said.
It was during one such class in Taiyuan that her teacher performed a simple demonstration with magnesium — a dull gray metal that, when set alight, flares into brilliant white light before falling away as a fine, white powder.
The transformation was brilliant and unforgettable. “The vivid reactions made science feel alive,” said Zhu.
As a high-school chemistry representative, she helped classmates with lab work and found inspiration through close mentoring. During her undergraduate studies, she joined a group focused on metal-based battery materials, where she discovered an interest in understanding why materials behave as they do — not just how to make them work better.
That curiosity guided her toward doctoral study. “When I discovered Distinguished Professor Marina A. Petrukhina’s pioneering work on carbon nanobowls and their redox chemistry, I was immediately drawn to it,” she said. “After receiving strong recommendations from mentors, I knew UAlbany was where I wanted to grow as an independent researcher.”
For Zhu, coming to the United States for graduate school was both exciting and transformative.
“One clear difference I noticed was the teaching style,” said Zhu. “In China, professors often lecture directly from slides. At UAlbany, classes are much more interactive — professors use real examples and stories to help students understand concepts deeply.”
She also found the role of graduate students to be broader and more hands-on.
“As a teaching assistant, I led lab sessions, explained experiments and guided undergraduates,” she said. “That experience improved my communication skills and, as a non-native speaker, gave me confidence in public speaking.”
Beyond the classroom, Zhu found a welcoming and collaborative environment within the Department of Chemistry and across campus.
“Working with students and faculty from diverse backgrounds broadened my scientific perspective and made my graduate experience both productive and rewarding,” she said.
Mentorship, Discovery and Recognition
Under the mentorship of Petrukhina, the Carla Rizzo Delray Professor of Chemistry, Zhu’s doctoral research explored how small, curved fragments of graphene — called molecular nanographenes — can store and transport electrons.
Her work focused on redox chemistry — the study of how materials gain and lose electrons — which holds important implications for developing future energy-storage technologies.
It has led to the successful isolation and structural characterization of several highly reduced nanocarbon structures, revealing how curvature and topology influence electron behavior. The findings were published in leading journals including Nature Chemistry, Journal of the American Chemical Society and Angewandte Chemie.
“Receiving both the Crystals Best PhD Thesis Award and UAlbany’s Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award was an incredible honor,” Zhu said. “They affirm the scientific value of my research while also highlighting the mentorship, collaboration and perseverance behind it.”
“Yikun has been an extraordinary graduate student with great passion for experimental chemistry and a unique ability to learn new things,” said Petrukhina. “With her deep knowledge, communication skills and warm personality, she became an indispensable group member and mentor. I expect great things from her on the road ahead.”
Next Steps
Now a postdoctoral research associate at UAlbany, Zhu continues to study the redox chemistry and structural dynamics of carbon-based materials. Her goal is to establish clear structure–property relationships that can guide the design of efficient, durable materials for energy storage and electronic devices.
“In the long term, I hope to build an independent research group that unites synthesis, spectroscopy and computation,” she said. “I also want to expand into other redox-active systems such as metal–organic frameworks and metal clusters for sustainable energy technologies.”
Reflecting on her time at UAlbany, Zhu said the experience shaped her as both a scientist and a person.
“My PhD experience was transformative,” she said. “It taught me how science connects people and ideas across cultures — and how collaboration can turn curiosity into discovery."