At the end of August 2026, BIG-NSE alumnus Prof. Gengwen Tan visited EC²/BIG-NSE and the group of his former PhD supervisor, Prof. Dr. Matthias Driess, where he gave a talk. His trip also took him to Oldenburg, where he had been invited to speak at a conference.
Gengwen belongs to the WS11 BIG-NSE batch. He completed his PhD in Matthias Driess's group between January 2012 and April 2015, with Prof. Arne Thomas as second supervisor. His thesis was titled "Synthesis and reactivity of low-valent Group 13 and 14 (semi)metal complexes".
After his doctorate at TU Berlin, Gengwen held postdoctoral and associate professor positions at Chinese universities, including Nanjing University and Soochow University, before being appointed full professor at Sun Yat-Sen University in 2023. His research focuses on low-coordinate and low-valent main group chemistry and on main group element-based radicals. He has co-authored more than 60 peer-reviewed papers in international journals, including Nature Chemistry, JACS, Angewandte Chemie, Chem, and National Science Review.
During his stay, Gengwen also paid a visit to the BIG-NSE office, where we exchanged the latest news. It was a great pleasure to see him again, and also to meet his family, who accompanied him on the trip. Dear Gengwen, we wish you all the best for the future, which will undoubtedly be a bright one. We look forward to seeing you again soon!