Category Archives: Yi Zhao

AquaConSoil 2017

19th September 2017About Remediate, Coren Pulleyblank, Diogo Santos, Neha Mehta, Panos Kirmizakis, Peter Brennan, Ricardo Costeira, Sabrina Cipullo, Seyedmorteza Seyedpour, Stacie Tardif, Tatiana Cocerva, Yi ZhaoNick Johnston

Tatiana Cocerva and a number of the other Remediate ESRs went to ACS2017 this summer. Enjoy her great summary of the events they all enjoyed!

Working hard setting up experiments, getting the expected results, and publishing your work in great journals are all key goals for a researcher; communicating your research at a conference is also a professionally valuable experience.
This year, REMEDIATE participants had the opportunity to attend the AquaConSoil Conference that took place in Lyon, France on the 26^th-30^th June 2017. This event brought together students, scientists, industry professionals, and policy makers from all over the world. Presentations covered the areas of sustainable use and management of soil, sediment, and water resources.

Sabrina, Tatiana, Stacie, Panagiotis, Yi, Morteza, Diogo, and Neha (REMEDIATE Early Stage Researchers) presented their research to a wide audience in a special session “Improved decision making for contaminated land site investigation and risk assessment”, chaired by Professor Frederic Coulon (supervisor at Cranfield University). It was a very interesting session, after which we received valuable feedback and appreciation of our work. Ricardo, Coren, and Peter chose to disseminate their work in a poster session, where they actively engaged with other conference attendees, and exchanged ideas with many of them.

Being a researcher should be challenging and fun
Social events and informal meetings are the best way to create new collaborations and build new friendships. What can be more rewarding than having dinner with your colleagues after a full day of listening to interesting presentations and meeting nice people? The REMEDIATE team added researchers and new friends from Italy, Germany, Netherlands, and Chile to its network.

The conference dinner was organised in a friendly atmosphere where REMEDIATE supervisors and researchers socialised with different conference attendees in a relaxed, informal environment. Tatiana engaged in interesting discussions with the team from BRGM (French geological survey), and found that they shared a similar network and friends in France. What a happy coincidence! After dinner, a DJ boosted everyone’s energy and we all remembered that professional people can combine research and fun.

We are very grateful to all the organisers for this amazing, memorable conference. This was a great experience for all of us and we were inspired, challenged, and more motivated in our work. We look forward to attending the next conference with the same positive mood!

A done list

6th March 2017Uncategorized, Yi ZhaoNick Johnston

A beautiful illustration from Yi, based at the University of Copenhagen, of the frustrations and joys of being a PhD student:

1 Dilute the 99 arrived As-primers;
2 Use Primer-Blast to check the specificity of 99 As-primers;
3 Use AlleleID to check the parameters of 99 As-primers;
4 ARGs HT-qPCR of the CCA samples;
5 ARGs HT-qPCR of the Tellus archived soil samples;
6 Order the oligo of 99 targeted fragment;
7 Regular PCR with 99 As-primers;
8 Sequencing of PCR-product of 99 As-primers;
9 Pig manure manuscript.

That’s a recent to-do list. I like to start every day with writing and checking my list, because it’s one way for me to clear the fog so I don’t miss anything important and can quickly move into “working” status.

However, there was a lot on my plate: faced with this long list of tasks, even imagining how I should manage my time to shorten it to a more refined list made me feel tired. “One by one, one by one, just pick one and focus on it first”, I told myself, and dragged my body into the lab with my tired “soul”.

Days passed. One day I found, not for the first time, that I couldn’t fall asleep, and I was staring at my to-do list. I suddenly realized the to-do list is not only helping during work time but also “helping” me after work! I couldn’t help wonder if there is a so-called work and life balance, especially for a fallen leaf who is far away from its root.

By talking to friends and colleagues, I realised I am not the only one who has this problem, and I found a solution. “There are always more things waiting for you to do, you should think about what you have done instead of what you haven’t done.” That day, I made a done list after I finished work:

1 Ordered the primers;
2 Centrifuged and diluted the primers;
3 Parameter check;
4 ARG HT-qPCR of CCA samples (1/2);
5 Conference registration;
6 Targeted fragment collection.

After this, I had a very good sleep…

To-do lists and done lists are like yin and yang. A to-do list can direct you to focus on the tasks, and a done list can motivate you in a happier and more positive way, and can be used to review the day and give you a chance to celebrate accomplishments. PhD life can be fulfilling and challenging. Balanced self-management provides comfort for fallen leaves waving and dancing in the wind. From that day on, every time I feel overwhelmed, I ask myself before I finish work, “What is on your done list?”

Meet the Researchers – Yi Zhao

19th July 2016About Remediate, Yi ZhaoNick Johnston

A little later than anticipated, we are pleased to say hello to Yi, all the way from China!

I was born and raised in a city in the northwest of China called Lanzhou. After I received my bachelor degree in ecology from Lanzhou University, I moved to Hong Kong to start my master study in environmental engineering and management in Hong Kong University of Science & Technology. And after I finished my master study, I moved to Xiamen, China, worked as research assistant in Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Now I’m here in Copenhagen, employed as a PhD fellow in Department of Plant and Environmental Science, University of Copenhagen. The aim of my PhD project is to design an arsenic smartchip with high-throughput qPCR system and apply this new approach to investigate the arsenic genes in the contaminated soil and test different remediation.

It was a long journey for me to come to Copenhagen, however, the happiest country didn’t fail me. I enjoy the calm and relaxing environment here in Copenhagen very much. Beside academic work, I normally spend time on yoga and being with friends. Although moving to a different country with totally different culture can be a big challenge for me, but I am sure there are more exciting sides waiting for me.