Recently, a PhD graduate of the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC), Samuel D. Widijatmoko received the record of being the Youngest Indonesian who obtain a doctoral degree from Higher Education in China.

Samuel D. Widijatmoko completed his PhD programme and received a PhD in Chemical Engineering in November 2020, at the age of 24 years and ten months.

Samuel had been living in Ningbo for almost 7 years for both undergraduate and PhD programmes. Before coming to UNNC, he attended the local school. However, after watching China’s significant progress in economy and science in the past few years, he decided to choose UNNC, a unique university in China, for further study. Samuel said that he personally like UNNC and Ningbo city very much. Ningbo is a very vibrant city and the taxi drivers are very friendly.

He thoroughly enjoyed the learning experience during his undergraduate years. After graduation, without a doubt, Samuel determined to remain in Ningbo to complete his doctoral research. He spent 7 hours a day doing experiments, followed by 3 hours writing lab reports. Due to his self-discipline and hard work, he completed his doctoral study in advance, under the supervision of Dr Philip Hall and Prof Michael W. George. Moreover, he received the “Best Presentation” award in Environmental Protection from the Institution of Chemical Engineers in 30th Symposium of Malaysian Chemical Engineers with the theme “Bridging the University-Industry Divide” in 2018.

The topic of Samuel’s doctoral research is Recovery of Positive Electrode Active Materials from Spent Lithium-ion Battery. This project mainly aims to recover cobalt from spent lithium-ion batteries (LIB) and then produce new LIB from the old. When we asked Samuel why he chose this project, he told us that battery recycling research is an important topic, especially concerning the current electric vehicles boom.

“Looking at fossil fuel, we always worry if we will run out of it. The rare earth metal is the same and even is potentially less abundant than fossil fuel. We may end up with having not enough of Ni and Co for future battery demand.” 

LIB recycling is certainly a way forward to prevent the potential bottleneck of rare earth metal needs. This project at UNNC is still under development; however, Samuel explained that the team has filed an invention patent and received external funds for large-scale development and future industry use.

When talking about becoming a professional engineer, Samuel is really proud of it. “The biggest difference between a chemist and a chemical engineer is what they can do. Chemical engineer magnify the innovation of chemists and put them into practice.”

Global warming, energy shortage, ecological deterioration… Entering the 21st century, human beings always face with the life-and-death struggle against nature, whereas, it is never what we want. We need responsible engineers to deliver solutions and make the world a better place.

In the nearly future, Samuel is going to join University of Nottingham UK as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to continue his scientific career.

“Samuel was a hard working student and I am really pleased that he has achieved this accolade. His research was very important in dealing with a hazardous waste material which is growing exponentially worldwide. His research showed a path to how all valuables resources in Lithium Ion batteries can be recovered and reused in the Circular Economy. I am also pleased to see Samuel has been appointed as a Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham in a very prestigious research group”, said Dr Philip Hall, the leading supervisor for Samuel's research.

Looking back on his experience in UNNC, Samuel believes that social skills and networking are very important part in the university life. He hopes that each UNNCer can make full use of the rich international resource in UNNC, make more friends, and lead a better life.