On the morning of March 20, 2026, Ms. Huifang Bi successfully defended her PhD thesis. The title of her thesis is “Development of Bio-based Hydrogel Coatings for Oil Removal from Coastal Regions and Investigation of Oil Transportation and Fate in Coated Shorelines”. Her profound knowledge and excellent presentation helped her win a good evaluation from the external examiner, Dr. Ning Yan, and other examining committee members (Dr. Nhat Truong Nguyen, Dr. Zhi Chen, Dr. Fuzhan Nasiri, and Chunjiang An).