At 1:30 pm on May 11, 2023, the 23rd Ph.D./Master's Dissertation Defense Meeting of our group was held in Conference Room I, Advanced Materials Building, Jiangwan Campus, Fudan University.

The defense committee was composed of Professor Fuyou Li (chairman) of Shanghai Jiaotong University, Professor Tao Yi of Donghua University, Professor Daoyong Chen of Fudan University, Xiaoyu Huang Research Fellow of Shanghai Institute of organic Sciences, and Professor Yuanjin Zhao of Southeast University.

Yaoqing Feng took the lead in defending her master's dissertations, and summarized in an orderly manner that she used azobenzene linear liquid crystal polymer with photofluidization properties, combined with athermal light welding method and photo-orientation technology to construct functional flexible 3D actuators with reversible photodeformation properties and dual-mode patterned security films. Her data during her master's degree is substantial and logically complete, which was unanimously affirmed by the defense committee.

Bo Peng and Yao Lu defended their doctoral dissertations one after another. Bo Peng prepared flexible arch-shaped artificial photoreceptors by combining photodeformable liquid crystal polymers with piezoelectric materials and upconversion luminescent materials, which solved the problems of small photoelectric signal, excessive response light intensity and inability to recognize colored light, and successfully restored the visual function of blind mice, and promoted the development of liquid crystal polymers in the field of implantable devices. On the basis of the previous work of our group, Yao Lu modified the linear liquid crystal polymers according to the needs of protein analysis, proposed a new strategy of solid-liquid manipulation in the optical flow control system, broke through the key problems of nano-upgrading sample measurement, fusion and detection. A prototype of a liquid crystal polymer optofluidic device that can be used for all-optical protein analysis was built and demonstrated on site. The rich work content of the two students during their doctoral period was unanimously affirmed by all the defense experts.

In the final announcement of the decision, the three students thanked their supervisor, Professor Yanlei Yu, other teachers and students in the research group, and the defense committee. Professor Yu also shared and recalled how she and the three students learned from each other in teaching and daily life. She wished the graduates a bright future and would go back to visit the group often!

Congratulations to the graduates of the 23nd session!