First PhD graduates Nguyen Vu Hong Thai and Zhou Tongyu.

Nguyen Vu Hong Thai, from Vietnam, and Zhou Tongyu, from China, graduated alongside around 250 other postgraduate students at the University’s annual graduation ceremony.

Thai, who gained his first degree in Finance, Accounting and Management from The University of Nottingham, completed his thesis in less than three years, spending time at both UNNC and the University’s UK campus.

His thesis focuses on research into China’s finance and banking system – a subject of personal interest to Thai having spent a year working for HSBC bank in Vietnam.

Since submitting his thesis, he has secured a job as a lecturer at Tan Tao University in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

He said: “I really enjoyed my stay at UNNC. I love Chinese culture and food and have made true friends here.

“I’ve had very professional supervision from my supervisors and have learnt different perspectives from them all. They have different expertise which has been helpful with my research.”

Zhou Tongyu’s PhD formed part of a major scientific breakthrough that saw his research team develop a material that would cut the amount of energy a building uses by more than one-third.

The material has the quality of being able to retain and release heat according to the specific temperature requirements for a building and could help dramatically reduce heating and cooling bills. It was developed by Zhou Tongyu and colleagues from the University’s Centre for Sustainable Energy Technologies (CSET).

Zhou Tongyu, who joked that coffee is a doctoral student’s best friend, hopes to continue his research work into the material’s potential.

He said: "I am still studying future developments in the field in order to continue to improve the material’s performance. We hope we can put in on the market in the near future.”

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