The jury describes Nina Chen as an ‘exceptionally promising young scientist’. Her thesis on the Effect of Water Content on CO₂ Reduction in Acetonitrile provides not only a significant chemical insight into CO₂ conversion, but has also already been published in a leading journal.

Chen performed her Master’s research under supervision of Dr Amanda Garcia of the Heterogeneous Catalysis and Sustainable Chemistry Group at HIMS, where she started as a PhD earlier this year under supervision of Garcia and Prof. Sander Woutersen of Physical Chemistry.

Her research focuses on the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO₂RR) in organic solvents using various nanostructured and nanoporous electrodes and cation combinations. It is part of ANION, the Advanced Nano-electrochemistry Institute of the Netherlands, a multidisciplinary fundamental research program where chemists and physicists lay the foundation for new efficient electrochemical technologies designed to dramatically reduce humanity's carbon footprint.

Paper

Connor Deacon-Price, Nina Chen, Ashique Lal, Pim Broersen, Evert Jan Meijer, Amanda C. Garcia: Influence of Water Content on Electrochemical CO2 Reduction in Acetonitrile Solution on Cu Electrodes. ChemCatChem, Volume 17, Issue 6, March 17, 2025, e202401332. DOI: 10.1002/cctc.202401332

See also

• 7 Talented Students Win UvA Thesis Prize 2025
• First ANION PhD student started on February 1st
• Heterogeneous Catalysis and Sustainable Chemistry Group