Yu Huang
From atom to assemblage: a cross scale journey to a sustainable future
University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA
Abstract:
A sustainable energy future is crucial for addressing the pressing challenges of climate change, environmental degradation, and energy security. Hydrogen as a clean and versatile energy carrier has the potential to decarbonize various sectors, including transportation, industry, and energy generation, holding great promise in advancing the transition toward a more sustainable and environmentally friendly energy future. Electrocatalysis, accelerating the critical chemical transformation processes, plays a central role in hydrogen energy technologies. Despite significant progress, many electrocatalytic systems, such as hydrogen fuel cells, continue to face challenges related to insufficient catalytic efficiency, poor stability, and the high cost of precious metal catalysts. Rapidly advancing beyond trial-and-error methods is imperative to address the imminent energy and climate crisis. This presentation will cover the multifaceted efforts to address these challenges including the synthetic design of more active nanocatalysts, the understanding of the chemical and physical processes at electrode and electrolyte process, the development of experimentally attainable descriptors for the activity and stability of catalysts, and the incorporation and optimization of state-of-the-art catalysts in full-cell operation, thereby delivering the overall performance of the device.
Short Bio:
Dr. Yu Huang is the Traugott and Dorothea Frederking Endowed Chair in Engineering and the Department Chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at University of California Los Angeles. She received her Ph.D in physical chemistry from Harvard University, and held a joint postdoctoral position with Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a Lawrence Fellow. Her research focuses on mechanistic understanding of nanoscale phenomena and on exploiting the unique properties of nanoscale materials for various applications, including materials synthesis, catalysis, fuel cells, and future electronics. Dr Huang is elected Materials Research Society (MRS) Fellow, the Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), Highly Cited Researcher.
The recognitions she received include the ENI Award in Energy Transition, International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE) Prize for Experimental Electrochemistry, the International Precious Metal Institute (IPMI) Carol Tyler Award, Kavli Fellow, Sloan Fellow, National Science Foundation (NSF) Special Creativity Award, the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (PECASE), the National Institute of Health (NIH) Director’s New Innovator Award, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Young Faculty Award, the World’s Top 100 Young Innovators award, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Young Chemist Award, and the Nano 50 Award etc.