Kefan Wu has been a PhD student since 2021 under the supervision of professors Hong Zhang and Wybren Jan Buma of the HIMS Molecular Photonics group as well as Dr Langping Tu at Changchun University of Science and Technology in China. His research focuses on novel nanomaterials that are capable of photonic upconversion: effectively converting long wavelength photons to shorter wavelength photons.

This holds great promise for application in a broad range of fields such as deep tumour diagnosis and therapy, solar energy utilization and sensing, and others. In particular, Wu focuses on lanthanide ion-doped upconversion nanoparticles that enable a high wavelength (anti-Stokes) shift while displaying a high photostability and a sensitive response to near infrared light. He is developing a mechanistic insight of the upconversion process in these nanomaterials, to significantly improve their photon upconversion efficiency.