(3dk) Science to Scalable Energy & Climate Solutions

Research Interests

One of the biggest challenges for the 21st century is to meet the needs of the growing world population with affordable energy, while mitigating climate change by decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. This requires scientific and technological innovations, and my mission is to leverage my diverse expertise in materials chemistry and mechanical engineering to solve those challenges.

To begin my academic career, I will focus on three lines of research for reducing carbon emission, storing renewable energy and converting renewable electricity. The first is to develop high throughput experimentation for discovering and understanding high-performance high-entropy oxides that produce greenhouse-gas-free hydrogen (H₂) at cost below $2/kg, leveraging the fast-growing data analytics knowledge. Additionally, I’d like to explore high-entropy materials for ammonia (NH₃) synthesis at ten times lower pressure than Haber-Bosch process, since NH₃ is a carrier of H₂ that can be easily stored and transported at a competitive cost. Thirdly, high temperature energy system is proposed for electrification of industrial heat demand, driven by carbon-free electricity.

Teaching Interests

Education is the hope for a more sustainable and equitable future. I am passionate about teaching a sustainability class with other faculty members for a general student body. The goal is to develop the mindset of scientific thinking, sustainability principles and life cycle analysis. Meanwhile, I am very interested in teaching core engineering classes and nurturing students' passion for research. Furthermore, starting from my background of mechanical engineering and materials chemistry, I will later (co-)develop a course that combines the scientific inquiries of sustainability from various disciplines. This is to enhance collaborations across different fields and among people with different background.