When I look back at my academic career so far, I am very proud to say that its trajectory has been highly oriented by the IAMS. From 2000 to 2006, I studied for my master’s degree and worked as a research assistant for my military service under Prof. K.-C. Lin at the IAMS. During this period, I learned the methods of molecular spectroscopy and utilized them to investigate the reaction dynamics of key species in atmospheric chemistry. In 2006 I left the IAMS and pursued my Ph.D. degree at the University of Oxford under the supervision of Prof. M. Brouard, where I utilized Zeeman quantum beat spectroscopy to probe the stereodynamics in molecular collisions and photodissociation. In 2011, I worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher in Center for Free-Electron Laser Science under the supervision of Prof. J. Küpper, where I spatially separated quantum states and isomers of gas-phase molecules by means of the Stark effect and utilized such purified samples to investigate conformer-specific reactivity. My study and work experiences in the IAMS indeed help me to overcome various challenges and perform research smoothly during this period of study and work abroad.
After I returned to Taiwan, during 2015 to 2017, I worked as a Research Technician in the IAMS under the supervision of Dr. Jim J.-M. Lin, where I built a mid-infrared-laser-based transient absorption spectrometer to measure the reaction kinetics of the simplest Criegee intermediate, as well as its high-resolution spectra, with the help of Prof. A. Merer. During this period of time, I received very welcome support from members of other faculties of the IAMS, such as the Chemical Dynamics and Spectroscopy Department, as well as the lunchtime fellowship group, Dr. T.-Y. Yu, Dr. M.-S. Chang, Dr. Y.-C. Chen, and so on. Of course, the encouragement and guidance from Prof. Y. T. Lee helped me keep my faith in fundamental science research. Also, I would like to express my deepest gratitude and respect to the highly professional and experienced technicians of the facilities at the IAMS. I learn a great deal from them in my study period, such as how to build a scientific apparatus from scratch, until eventually I finished my “roaming pathway” and then went through the “exit channel” in the “reaction coordinates” of the IAMS in 2017.
In 2017 I joined the faculty of the Department of Chemistry at the National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU). As encouraged by Dr. Jim J.-M. Lin and Prof. Chia. C. Wang, I start to dedicate my research to exploring the physicochemical properties of aerosols at the single-particle level, such as by utilizing optical tweezers to levitate single micro-droplets. The knowledge of microscopy that I gained in Prof. K.-C. Lin’s lab decades ago definitely helped me to build up the apparatus in the NSYSU. Thus, my academic career still benefits from the valuable experiences obtained in the IAMS, including the connections and even collaborations with PIs I met during my stay there. Finally, I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to the IAMS and Prof. K.-C. Lin again for their “efficient catalysis”, as I also met my wife during my study period at the IAMS. We finally completed a “bimolecular reaction” and created a naughty “reaction product” in 2015.
