In the morning of March 15, 2024, Ms. Xiaohan Yang successfully passed her PhD research proposal exam. The title of her proposal is “Aggregation and settlement of microplastics in coastal waters”. Her profound knowledge and excellent presentation helped her win a good evaluation from the external examiner, Dr. Ivan Kantor, and other examining committee members (Drs. Biao Li, Jaehoon Hwang, and Chunjiang An).