Quite some time has passed since the last entry, and in March 2012, the Ph.D. title has been conferred on Dr Yuan Dan, who will return to China very soon. “Farewell, and all the best for your future endeavours!” On the other hand, we welcome Xie Xiaoke as a new Ph.D. student and Ng Ai Zi Sheena Wijaya, Lim Miao Hui and Sim Jia Wen (co-supervisor Assc. Prof. Brian WilliamDymock) as new Honours students of our group. In addition, we also have/had international visitors, which include Julia Schneider (Uni Tübingen) and Susanne Bähr (FU Berlin) from Germany and Dr Nguyen Thi Thanh Chi (Hanoi National University of Education) from Vietnam. Below is a current group picture, however, without Jan, who is currently in Dr. Gilles Frison lab at École Polytechnique at Palaiseau (France) to learn computational chemistry.

At the end of 2011, Uma and Linfei left us and went back to their homes in India and China, respectively. On the other hand, our small team was strengthend by Dr. Lee Chen-Shiang from Taiwan, who joined in November 11. Hopefully, his stay will be fruitful for himself and our research. Early 2012, we have already some good news. Haresh has published the results of his final year project as his first paper in Organometallics, and Yuan Dan has finally had her Ph.D. defence yesterday after a very long waiting time. Soon she will be Dr. Yuan Dan. Congratulations!

The beginning of 2011 has seen some changes of our group again. Daniel has left the group after finishing his “Diplomarbeit” in November. Dr Han Yuan has also left the group after almost 6 years and accepted a job in the chemical industry. We wish both of them all the best and great success for their future.
In January, Jan C. Bernhammer from Germany joined the team as a new Ph.D. student with a SINGA scholarship. Hopefully, Jan can quickly adapt to the weather, life and working style in Singapore and produce great results for the group.

During the last few months, I have attended a few conferences and visited a few universities to give some talks. These trips offered me the possibility to meet many old friends and also to make new friends. Particularly enjoyable was the attendance of the 24th ICOMC 2010 in Taipei (Tawain), which was followed by a visit to the National Dong-Hwa University, Shoufeng, Hualien. In August/September, I also spent some time at the Hong Kong University hosted by Prof Patrick Toy as part the ACP lectureship program. Finally, I attended my first alumni meeting of the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation in Hanoi, Vietnam early this November.

Since August 2010, the Huynh Research Group has luckily grown back to a healthier size, and so Carbene Chemistry “Made in Singapore” will continue to thrive for the next few years. The new team members are Teng Qiaoqiao (Ph.D.), Guo Shuai (Ph.D.), Tang Haoyun (Ph.D.), Haresh S/O Sivaram (Hons), Ng Ping Siang (Hons), Yeo Chee Keong (Hons), Cliffton Ong Xiong Zheng (Hons), Wu Wenqin (UROPS) and Chong Chiew Mei (UROPS). In addition, the two new “senior” members Uma Maheswari and Xiao Linfei just joined the group this October. On the other hand, Hong Lee has submitted his M.Sc. thesis in August and is awaiting his graduation.

After a short stint of 2 months, Andrew Yeung left for the US early July to pursue his Ph.D. studies at Texas A&M with Donald J. Darensbourg. Now, there’s no one to treat me dinner at the Guild House. Anyway, we wish Andrew and Mel all the best in their new “home” for the next few years in College Station, TX.

On 30th of June 2010, the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY has been conferred to Basu as a 2nd member of this group. Dr Ramasamy Jothibasu has published 7 good papers so far and will start his postdoctoral position at KAUST towards the end of 2010, for which I wish him all the best.

During the last weekend of June (25-27) in 2010, we had our 2nd group retreat on the beautiful island of Tioman, Malaysia. The objective this time was to update our group manual with new additions and improvements and of course to have fun together. Although our group has shrunken compared to last year (Dr Han Yuan, Yuan Dan, Hong Lee and me), we had additional participants/visitors who joined in for the fun. Thus we enjoyed the company of my long-term study friends Drs Peter Maier and Phu Qui Nguyen, whom I have not seen for ~8 years. Our exchange student Daniel Upmann and his wife also came along. During those three days, we really enjoyed our time relaxing on the beach, snorkeling, feeding fishes and finishing numerous bottles of Tsingtao beer.

Congratulations to Han Yuan for being a finalist for the Reaxys PhD Prize, which awards original and innovative research in organic, organometallic and inorganic chemistry in a worlwide competition. As a finalist she is invited to participate in a special poster session and reception at the 3rd EuCheMS Chemistry Congress in Germany.