Xiaolin Pan Wins This Year’s N.E.T. Academic Excellence Award

This year marks the establishment of NYU Shanghai’s first annual series of N.E.T. Awards for Academic Excellence. The N.E.T. Award for academic excellence aims to stimulate students’ progress in academic research and recognize students who have made outstanding achievements in their work. From a competitive pool of talented applicants, 5 recipients were selected across disciplines. 

Recently, the N.E.T. Program Award Committee was honored to announce ECNU Ph.D. candidate Xiaolin Pan as this year’s recipient of the new N.E.T. Award for Academic Excellence. According to Pan, the N.E.T. Award “is a great encouragement, and it is a recognition and affirmation for my recent scientific research work.”

Xiaolin Pan
NYU Shanghai - ECNU Joint Graduate Training Program (N.E.T.)
Ph.D. Candidate in Physical Chemistry

What is the current focus of your research? Is there a particular lab you are affiliated with? Who has most influenced you in your work?

I am a member of Professor John Zenghui Zhang’s research team. My current research direction is computer-aided drug design, which is a discipline that combines chemistry, informatics and computer science. It aims to develop advanced simulation methods and drug design methods, and use computer technology to accelerate drug discovery. I started the N.E.T. Program 2 years ago and I have co-authored 7 articles with my faculty advisor, Professor Zhang, and the center’s research team, among which I am the first author of 2 articles.

Can you describe the support and mentorship that you have received from your faculty advisors?

I have received guidance from faculty members in the NYU-ECNU Center for Computational Chemistry at NYU Shanghai (hereafter referred to as “Center”), which helped me a lot. When I first started my research, I was mainly guided by Professor Changge Ji. Professor Ji was instrumental in helping me to learn programming and new software like Python to get me started. Professor Zhang was influential in helping me to grasp the overall direction of my research and frequently followed up with me on my progress. The support that I receive from my faculty advisors has brought both clarity and direction to my work.

We also have weekly group meetings where participants update one another on the progress of their research and offer advice and feedback. The weekly group meetings have been very helpful to students. During the meetings, Professor Zhang usually helps us derive physical formulas, provides us with research suggestions, and teaches us how to analyze and solve problems.  Professor Changge Ji and Professor Tong Zhu always conduct in-depth exchanges with us, comment on our research, and tell us what new methods we can use.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced as a researcher and how did you meet it?

In the beginning, it was very difficult for me because the field of computational chemistry was a new area of study for me that I only began to pursue through of my Ph.D. program. There were many theories that I had not studied, and many software tools that I had not used before, likePython that was brand new to me. Professor Ji however, greatly helped me through this transition.

Publishing articles has been another big challenge. Luckily, I received hands-on guidance from my advisors. For example, in terms of article structure, Professor Zhang and Professor Ji both provided me with many revision suggestions on how to tell the research story. They carefully reviewed my research arguments, wordings, charts, and formulas. If they spotted anything that was not right, they would help me correct it. Professor Zhang is very sensitive to formulas, and would provide me with face-to-face explanations using the blackboard in his office. After receiving their guidance, and after rounds of revisions, my articles greatly improved.

Xiaolin Pan (second from the left)

 

What do you find unique about the N.E.T. Program? How has being a member of the N.E.T. community affected you and your research?

I highly recommend the N.E.T. Program to students who aspire to do scientific research. First of all, N.E.T. students can enjoy the international platform provided by the Center. We receive joint guidance from professors at the Center, and we also have opportunities to have direct collaboration with Professors from NYU.

In addition, the Center regularly organizes seminars to help us broaden our horizons and understand the development of the field. For example, during the weekly “Online Computational Chemistry Seminar Series,” the professors at the Center invite experts in the field to talk about AI, deep learning and drug design. These topics are very related to my research, so it helps a lot.

It is also worth mentioning that the diversity and knowledge backgrounds of faculty and students in our lab provide us with the opportunity to come together to discuss our ideas and inspire one another through collaboration.

Last but not least, the Center’s computing resources, especially the supercomputers have greatly accelerated my research progress.