Zhongzheng Wang
Runner-Up
What encouraged you to submit your application to the 2025 Postgraduate Research Publication of the Year?
My initial motivation for applying was that I saw this award as an excellent opportunity to share my work with a wider research community, especially researchers working on electrochemical sensors, impedance measurement, and integrated circuit design.
When I first started working in this area, I faced many challenges because the project sits at the intersection of electrochemistry and electronics. There were not many references that could provide a clear understanding of both fields together. So I hope this paper can serve as a useful starting point for future researchers who are entering this interdisciplinary area.
For me, the application was not only about the award itself, but also about increasing the visibility of the work and helping others understand how electrochemical sensor modelling and IC design can be connected in a practical way.
What inspired you to choose the subject of your paper?
The main inspiration came from the need for a faster and lower-cost way to conduct electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, or EIS.
EIS is a very powerful technique for biosensing, but many existing approaches still have limitations. Some require a long measurement time, while others rely on complicated circuit architectures.
I was particularly interested in how this technique could support real-world applications, such as animal disease diagnostics using point-of-care devices, or virus detection in environmental monitoring. These applications require sensing systems that are not only accurate, but also fast, compact, and affordable.
That motivated me to explore a new EIS method and its circuit implementation, with the aim of making impedance-based sensing more practical for future diagnostic and monitoring systems.
What’s your paper about and how did you prepare for it? What role did research leadership play in your approach?
My paper is about bridging electrochemistry and electronics. More specifically, it covers the full process from understanding the chemistry and sensor behaviour, to developing a sensor model, proposing a new EIS method, and finally designing and implementing the integrated circuit and validating the EIS method.
One important contribution of this work is that it provides a more comprehensive understanding of the UMB sensor from both the electrochemical and electronic perspectives. At the same time, it offers a new angle for EIS circuit design, especially for applications where speed, cost, and circuit simplicity are important.
To prepare for this work, I first spent a lot of time understanding the sensor behaviour and the limitations of existing EIS methods. Then I worked on the modelling, circuit design, chemistry experiments, chip testing, data analysis, and paper writing. It was a very interdisciplinary process, so I had to constantly connect knowledge from different areas and make sure the whole system made sense, from the sensor level to the circuit level.
Research leadership played a very important role in my approach. My supervisors and I worked together to identify the key research problems, and I took the lead in developing the strategies to solve them. This included deciding how to model the sensor, how to design the circuit, how to verify the idea experimentally, and how to present the results clearly in the paper.
Another important part of research leadership was communication. Discussing ideas with people from different domains helped me keep an open mind and look at the problem from different perspectives. I think this was essential for an interdisciplinary project like this, because the best solution often comes from connecting ideas across fields.
In addition, I would say my supervisors helped a lot during this research process as well. Their provided supports in both doing experiments and daily guidance, patience, and discussions are very important as well.
The selection for Research Publication of the Year is extremely competitive. What is your advice for those aspiring for nomination next year?
My advice would be: go ahead without hesitation.
Sometimes PhD students may feel that their work is not ready, or that the competition is too strong. But I think the application process itself is very valuable. It gives you a chance to reflect on your research, understand the significance of your contribution, and explain your work to a broader audience.
I would also suggest choosing a publication that you are truly proud of, not only because of the results, but because of the research journey behind it. A strong paper is usually not only about technical performance; it is also about the problem you identified, the approach you developed, and the impact your work may have on the field, even, the arguments you had with colleagues or supervisors on a research question.
So my advice is to be confident, present your work clearly, and do not hesitate to put yourself forward.
What is the single most significant support Tyndall has been able to offer you in achieving your research goals?
I would say the most significant support Tyndall has provided is its friendly, open, and supportive research environment.
At Tyndall, there are many opportunities for PhD students to present and discuss their work, such as poster competitions, publication competitions, Wrixon Research Excellence Bursary, poster sessions, internal conferences, academic webinars, super star professors’ talks, demo events, and research presentations. These activities are very helpful because they allow students to share their research with people from different backgrounds and receive feedback from different perspectives.
For interdisciplinary research, this kind of environment is especially important. My work involves electrochemistry, sensor modelling, circuit design, and experimental testing, so discussions with researchers from different areas helped me refine my ideas and identify new directions.
Tyndall also gives PhD students the confidence to communicate their work independently. I think this is very important during a PhD, because independent research is not only about solving technical problems, but also about explaining your ideas, defending your approach, and learning from others.
View Zhongzheng’s research publication here ‘A Fast Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy With a Square Wave as Excitation Signal for Impedance-Based Biomedical Applications‘.