Many congratulations to Dr Yujie Zhao on winning the 2025 Bruker prize for the best PhD thesis in the field of Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR).  This global prize is awarded annually by the UK Royal Society of Chemistry EPR group following assessment by a distinguished international expert panel.   The prize comes with an invited lecture at an international conference and a substantial financial award.  (https://www.esr-group.org/conferences/2025-conference-london/bruker-prizes-2025/)

 

The external reviewers praised the “significant hardware developments” and “ timely and relevant insights and conclusions ….. from the design and building of hardware, experimental implementation, theory, simulation and experiment,  and application to a contemporary research area”.

 

Yujie came to St Andrews in 2019 under the Chinese scholarship scheme and worked in the mm-wave and EPR group under the supervision of Prof Graham Smith.  Prof Smith commented “Yujie was a wonderful PhD student and research colleague. Her PhD thesis focussed on developing and characterising a new technique for Dynamic Nuclear Polarisation (DNP).  DNP is a process where magnetisation is transferred from electrons to protons to increase the sensitivity of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance measurements for materials characterisation.  The PhD involved instrumentation, device, methodology and software development, theory and computer modelling, high frequency electronics, and a major measurement and characterisation program, all of which established new levels of insight and performance for DNP.  As well as great writing skills, Yujie was also an excellent presenter. Yujie was runner-up for the international JEOL prize in 2022, and since 2023 she has co-hosted a weekly on-line international seminar on magnetic resonance”.

 

After finishing her PhD Yujie worked on a radar modelling project at St Andrews under the guidance of Prof Duncan Roberston, in the mm-wave group, before taking a postdoctoral position in the lab of Prof Robert Griffin at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, focussed on constructing and testing a new high frequency DNP system.

 

Commenting on her time at St Andrews Yujie said “My time at St Andrews was definitely some of the most valuable and memorable days of my life”.

Dr Yujie Zhao

 

Yujie receiving the traditional St Andrews University recognition of a successful PhD.

 

Yujie receiving the traditional St Andrews Physics Department postgraduate student “recognition” of a successful PhD.

Yujie after graduation with her PhD supervisor