Yifeng Shi
credit: Brittany Hosea-Small (she's so nice)

About me

I'm currently a postdoc working on DNA origami (what's this?) and its hybridization with plasmonic nanocrystals for  materials with arbitrary optical functions. As a graduate student, I focused on the synthesis and structural modification of palladium-based nanocrystals and their catalytic applications.  I love both fields, and in the future I would like to integrate my skills in colloidal synthesis and DNA nanotechnology for the development of hybrid material platforms. 

Outside research, I love reading, eating,  and making crafts. I have a lot of succulents at my place too. I received white tulip bulbs late October and am trying to follow the advice online to refrigerate them before planting. I hope I can see them blooming next spring. 

Research

Graduate Research

Metal nanocrystals --Shape, size, composition, and more

These tiny black rectangles are ~20 nm nanocubes made of a mixture of palladium and palladium hydride.  I learned how to synthesize these beautiful nanocrystals with different shapes, sizes, and compositions.  These features will affect their physicochemical properties and thereby their destination application. As a graduate student, I mainly focused on their applications on catalysis. 


Postdoc Research

DNA origami and customized self-assembly

This is a gel-electrophoresis image of different gold nanocrystals wrapped by a rectangular DNA origami. The band migration  indicates the mass and the charge a sample is carrying. The key concept in my postdoc research is to learn how to integrate the soft, programmable DNA origamis with  inorganic materials in multiple different ways.  I noticed the great opportunities hidden behind this field, and want to continue my future career on the related topics. 

Blog

November in UC Botanical Garden 

Quotes from Kafka on the Shore

My first experimental result for each scientific project

Gallery 

Things I see, made, and like. 
Crafts Squirrels There is a ....
astronomy
astronomy
astronomy
astronomy
astronomy
astronomy
math
math
WCRC art show
WCRC art show

Outreach

As a postdoc, I participated in a few voluntary activities in at different organizations, the two main ones are Women's Cancer Resource Center and Scientific Adventure for Girls, where I met a group of wonderful people with different culture and backgrounds.

Sometimes I participate as  a teaching assistant for elementary school students and join the class in person. I also join the "penpal" program  to exchange (physical) letters with curious kids to demystify the field STEM and life of scientists.  These experience are very cool and I 've learned more than I expected. 
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Contact

If you have any thoughts suggestions on my research projects or website design, feel free to leave a comment here. You can also just say hi if you want : )

yifengshi@berkeley.edu