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Our Researchers

Prof. Hua Chun ZENG

Nanocatalysts for Sustainable Energy Technology

Prof. ZENG Hua Chun obtained his B.Sc. in Chemistry from Xiamen University (1982), and Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from University of British Columbia in 1989 (with Prof. Keith A. R. Mitchell). Following postdoctoral work at University of Toronto (with Prof. John C. Polanyi, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 1986), then he joined NUS in 1991. Prof Zeng is an expert on synthetic architecture of nanomaterials with compositional and structural complexity. His research focuses on the exploratory design and synthesis of catalytic material systems with an emphasis on heterogeneous catalysis and sustainable energy technology. Prof Zeng was listed among Top 100 Chemists 2000-2010 by Thomson Reuters & Times Higher Education in support of the International Year of Chemistry 2011 proclaimed by UNESCO and IUPAC. In 2019, he was elected as Academician of Asia Pacific Academy of Materials (APAM). Prof Zeng was also on the list of Top 100 Scientists in Materials (2020 & 2021; Stanford University and Elsevier BV).

Email: chezhc@nus.edu.sg
Lab Website

Prof. Kian Ping LOH

Advanced Materials Convergence Technology

Prof. LOH Kian Ping is currently the Full Professor in NUS, an awardee of the President’s Science Award in 2014 and a well-established researcher in the field of advanced two-dimensional materials such as graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides, covalent organic frameworks and hybrid perovskites. He is head of the 2D materials group in NUS Centre for Advanced 2D Materials, and also a co-director of the Shenzhen-NUS Joint Collaborative Innovation Center for Optoelectronic Science & Technology. He is the lead PI for many CRP, NRF and MOE projects. Currently, he is the associate editor of the American Chemical Society journal Chemistry of Materials and holds a H index of 97 with a total citation of ~54,000. His team has established a universal flow system for energy applications to transform laboratory breakthrough into practical operation.

Email:chmlohkp@nus.edu.sg
Lab Website

Prof. Wei CHEN

Surface Catalytic Reaction Mechanism Investigation

Prof. CHEN Wei is currently a Full Professor in both Chemistry Department and Physics Department at NUS, and Director of NUS-TJU Joint Institute in Fuzhou. He received his Bachelor degree in Chemistry from Nanjing University (China) in 2001 and his PhD degree from the Chemistry Department at NUS in 2004. His current research interests include atomic scale interface engineering for molecular, organic electronics and 2D-materials based devices, as well as interface controlled nanocatalysis. Dr. Chen is a recipient of NUS Young Investigator Award (2010), Singapore Young Scientist Award (2012), NUS Dean’s Chair Professor (2016), NUS Faculty of Science Outstanding Scientist Award (2019) and Mitsui Chemicals-SNIC Industry Award (2020).

Email:chmcw@nus.edu.sg
Lab Website

Prof. Antonio H. CASTRO NETO

Sustainable Membranes Based on 2D Materials for H2 Separation and Purification

In 2010, Prof. Castro Neto founded and directed the Graphene Research Centre which, in 2014, became the Centre for Advanced 2D Materials (CA2DM) funded by the National Research Foundation of Singapore. In 2021, Prof. Castro Neto became the Founder and Co-Director of the Institute for Functional Intelligent Materials (IFIM) funded by the Ministry of Education, Singapore. Prof. Castro Neto is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Material Science Engineering and Physics, he is also Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, at the National University of Singapore (NUS). In 2003, Prof. Castro Neto was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and in 2011 he was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Prof. Castro Neto is also a Fellow of the National Academy of Science of Singapore and of the Brazilian Academy of Science.

Email: c2dhead@nus.edu.sg
Lab Website

Prof. Zhiqun LIN

Green Hydrogen Production

Dr. Zhiqun Lin is currently Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He received his BS degree in Materials Chemistry from Xiamen University in 1995, Master degree in Macromolecular Science from Fudan University in 1998, and PhD degree in Polymer Science and Engineering from University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2002. He did his postdoctoral research at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Iowa State University as an Assistant Professor in 2004 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2010. He moved to Georgia Institute of Technology in 2011, and become a Professor in 2014. He relocated to National University of Singapore in 2022. His research interests include photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, batteries, solar cells, block copolymers, conjugated polymers, functional nanocrystals, hierarchically structured and assembled materials, and surface and interfacial properties.

Email: z.lin@nus.edu.sg
Lab Website

Prof. Jianping XIE

Metal Nanoclusters-based Model Catalysts

Prof. XIE Jianping is a full professor at the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at National University of Singapore (NUS). Prof. Xie joined NUS in 2010 and established the Noble Metal Nanoclusters research group. His group is known for the work on engineering atomically precise metal nanoclusters for biomedical and catalytic applications. His current research interests include noble metal nanoclusters, nanomedicine, and nanocatalysis. Prof. Xie’s recent research award includes Highly Cited Researcher from 2018 to 2022 (by Clarivate Analytics), Zasshikai Lectureship from University of Tokyo (2020), Dean’s Chair from Faculty of Engineering, NUS (2020), and Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) (2019). Prof. Xie is an Associate Editor of Aggregate, Wiley.

Email:chexiej@nus.edu.sg
Lab Website

Prof. Jason Zhichuan XU

Small Molecule Electrocatalysis and Mechanism Studies

Prof. XU Zhichuan (Jason) is a Professor of electrochemistry in the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University. His research work is with a focus of energy related catalysis, such as reactions in fuel cells and hydrogen production. His team work on the small molecule electrocatalysis and related mechanism studies. He is a pioneer researcher in revealing fundamentals of transition metal spinel oxides for heterogenous catalysis. He is also a world-leading researcher in the fundamental research of magnetism and spin related oxygen electrocatalysis. Dr. Xu has received several awards such as Chun-Tsung Endowment Outstanding Contribution Award - Excellent Scholar at 2018 and the Zhaowu Tian Prize for Energy Electrochemistry by International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE) in 2019. He was awarded Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) on Nov. 2017. He serves as the president of ECS Singapore Section. Dr. Xu has been a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics, Web of Science since 2018.

Email: xuzc@ntu.edu.sg
Lab Website

Assoc. Prof. Sibudjing KAWI

Catalytic Membrane Reactor for Hydrogen Production

Prof. Kawi Sibudjing is a meticulous researcher, publishing more than >300 international peer-reviewed journal articles. Prof. Kawi's research focuses on the design and synthesis of nano-catalysts for sustainable energy and environmental applications using thermal, plasma, photo- and electro-catalytic processes such as biomass conversion, CO2 mitigation and utilization, low-carbon H2 production, light hydrocarbon conversions (reforming, pyrolysis and dehydrogenation), water gas shift reactions, and integrated catalytic membrane reactors. His core expertise lies in developing highly active, exceptionally coke resistant, stable noble/non-noble metal based catalysts and catalytic systems for sustainable development, and the development of novel catalytic membrane reactors for wide range of applications.

Email:chekawis@nus.edu.sg
Lab Website

Assoc. Prof. Qing WANG

Redox-mediated Energy Conversion and Storage

Prof. WANG Qing is currently an Associate Professor in Materials Science and Engineering Department at NUS. He received his Bachelor degree in Applied Chemistry from Harbin Institute of Technology (China) in 1997 and his PhD degree in Physics from Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2002. His research interest is “Charge Transport in Mesoscopic Energy Conversion and Storage Systems”. Prof. Wang is a recipient of NUS Engineering Young Researcher Award (2014), NRF Investigatorship (2018), and NUS Dean’s Chair Associate Professor (2021). Currently his group is extensively working on a new research platform — redox targeting-based flow batteries and beyond. These also include decoupled on-demand H2 production and spent battery materials recycling, etc.

Email:msewq@nus.edu.sg
Lab Website

Assoc. Prof. Ning YAN

N2 and CO2 Derived Hydrogen Carrier

Prof. YAN Ning is Dean’s Chair Associate Professor at Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at NUS. He received B.Sc. and PhD degrees in Chemistry from Peking University working with Prof. Yuan Kou. After a Marie Curie Fellowship at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland with Prof. Paul Dyson, he joined NUS in 2012 and established the Lab of Green Catalysis. Prof. Yan works actively in advanced catalysis, renewable energy, and sustainable chemistry, for which he was duly recognized by recent awards from the Royal Society of Chemistry, American Chemical Society and National University of Singapore, among others. He is listed as a Highly Cited Researcher 2020 (Chemistry) by Clarivate, and is awarded the NRF Investigatorship (Class of 2022).

Email: ning.yan@nus.edu.sg
Lab Website

Assoc. Prof. Chun ZHANG

Theoretical Modelling and Computational Simulation

Prof. ZHANG Chun is currently an Associate Professor in both Department of Physics and Department of Chemistry at NUS. He received his Bachelor (1996) and Master (2000) degrees in Physics from Fudan University (China), and his PhD degree in computational physics in University of Florida in 2004. Before joining NUS, he worked as a postdoc fellow at Georgia Institute of Technology from 2005 to 2008. His current research interests include the development of first-principles theories for materials at various scales, computational design of two-dimensional functional materials, nanoscale electronics and spintronics, and catalysis at nano- or atomic scale.

Email: phyzc@nus.edu.sg
Lab Website

Assoc. Prof. Jiong LU

Hydrogen Production and Materials Characterization

Prof. LU Jiong is an Associate Professor at Department of Chemistry and Institute for Functional Intelligent Materials at NUS. He received his Bachelor degree from Fudan University (China) in 2007 and Ph.D. degree from National University of Singapore in 2011. His current research interests include atomic-scale materials design and investigation of atomic-scale science in low-dimensional functional materials towards next-generation solid state devices and atomically-precise catalysts for renewable energy applications. Prof. Lu is a recipient of JMCA Emerging Investigators 2019, JACS Emerging Investigators 2021 and NUS Faculty of Science Young Scientist Award (2021). His team has developed a versatile synthetic platform for the scalable and automated production of ultra-high-loading single-atom catalysts (UHD-SACs), which can be exploited for efficient and stable hydrogen production from water (Nature Nano 2021).

Email: chmluj@nus.edu.sg
Lab Website

Assoc. Prof. Bin LIU

Electrode and Catalyst Design for Clean Energy Technologies

Prof. LIU Bin is currently an Associate Professor in School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at NTU. He received his Bachelor and Master degrees in Chemical Engineering from NUS in 2002 and 2004, and his PhD degree from the Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Department at University of Minnesota in 2011. His current research interests include electrocatalysis, photocatalysis, in-situ/operando characterization, and electrochemical engineering. Prof. Liu is a recipient of emerging investigator by Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Royal Society of Chemistry in 2016 and class of influential researchers by Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, American Chemical Society in 2018. He was listed in the “Highly Cited Researchers” in Cross-Field in 2019 and Chemistry in 2020-2021 by Thomson Reuters.

Email: liubin@ntu.edu.sg
Lab Website

Asst. Prof. Sui ZHANG

Membranes for Hydrogen Purification

Dr. ZHANG Sui is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at NUS. She received her Bachelor degree from Fudan University in 2008, and her PhD degree from NUS in 2012. She is an expert in membranes for separations and purifications in relation to water, energy and environment. Her research focuses on understanding and engineering of transport at the nano/micro-level via 2D materials, microporous materials and surface patterns. Her group has recently developed new polymeric membranes for hydrogen separation in challenging conditions. She is the Young Editorial Board member for Journal of Membrane Science, Advanced Membranes, etc.

Email: chezhangsui@nus.edu.sg
Lab Website

Asst. Prof. Huangwei ZHANG

Hydrogen Combustion and Safety

Dr. Huangwei Zhang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at NUS. He received his bachelor’s degree in engineering mechanics and master’s degree in fluid mechanics in 2007 and 2009, respectively from Beihang University. He worked as a research associate in The State Key Laboratory of Turbulence and Complex Systems, Peking University from 2009 to 2011. He obtained his PhD degree in energy and combustion from the Department of Engineering and Churchill College at University of Cambridge in 2015, funded by Rolls Royce UK. He then stayed on from 2015 to 2017 at University of Cambridge to take up a postdoctoral research associate position on multiphase combustion, collaborated with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan. His research covers gas turbine combustion, internal combustion engines, detonation engines, alternative fuels, as well as thermal management and electrochemistry of lithium-ion batteries. He is the senior member of The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and member of The Combustion Institute.

Email: huangwei.zhang@nus.edu.sg
Lab Website

Asst. Prof. Ming Joo KOH

Synthesis of Hydrogen Carriers

Dr. KOH Ming Joo is President’s Assistant Professor in the Chemistry Department at NUS. He graduated from Nanyang Technological University with a B.Sc. degree (first class honors) in 2012, before heading to Boston College for his Ph.D. and post-doctoral studies. In June 2018, he joined the Chemistry Department at NUS. His main research focuses on developing sustainable solutions that address critical challenges in chemical synthesis (e.g., LOHCs), through homogeneous base metal catalysis and radical chemistry. Dr. Koh has established a team equipped with state-of-the-art research capabilities for innovative synthesis, purification and analysis. He is a recipient of the NUS Inauguration Grant (2019), Asian Core Program Lectureship Award for China and Thailand (2019), Innovators Under 35 Asia Pacific Award from MIT Technology Review (2021) and Thieme Chemistry Journals Award (2022).

Email: chmkmj@nus.edu.sg
Lab Website

Asst. Prof. Sergey KOZLOV

Computational Catalysis

Dr. KOZLOV Sergey is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering of the National University of Singapore. His group develops unique expertise in electronic structure simulations of nanostructured and nanocomposite materials for catalysis and electrochemistry. Currently, his research focuses on understanding of the reaction mechanisms on nanostructured catalysts and the exploitation of interfacial interactions between metal nanoparticles, oxides, and carbon-based materials to design highly active catalysts for hydrogen energy and green fuel technologies. He was awarded fellowship by the National Research Foundation of Singapore in 2021.

Email: sergey.kozlov@nus.edu.sg
Lab Website

Asst. Prof. Qian HE

Electron Microscopy and Nanocatalysts

Dr. HE Qian obtained his B.Sc. and M.Sc in Materials Science and Engineering from Tsinghua University in 2008 and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Lehigh University in 2013 (with Professor Christopher J. Kiely). Following postdoctoral work at the Oak Ridge National University (with Dr Albina Borisevich), and a lecturer position in the School of Chemistry at Cardiff University, he joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2019. Dr He’s research focused on developing and applying electron microscopy techniques for energy- and environment-related material research, especially nanocatalysts. He was awarded fellowship by the National Research Foundation of Singapore in 2019.

Email: mseheq@nus.edu.sg
Lab Website

Asst. Prof. Lei WANG

Electrocatalysis for Green Hydrogen Technology

Dr. WANG Lei is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at NUS. He is an expert in photo- and electro-catalysis aimed at producing sustainable fuels and chemicals from abundant molecules. In particular, his research focus on converting water and carbon dioxide into fuels and chemicals utilizing renewable energy, and the reverse processes which convert fuels back into the form of electricity, with an emphasis on understanding the interplays among the chemistry/physics of the catalyst-materials, the reaction microenvironments and the performance of the catalytic reactions of interest. He received the Wallenberg-Stanford fellowship in 2016 and the Singapore NRF fellow in 2021.

Email: wanglei8@nus.edu.sg
Lab Website

Asst. Prof. Yanwei LUM

Hydrogen Production and Carrier

Dr. LUM Yanwei is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at NUS. He has a joint appointment at the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, A*STAR. He received his Bachelor degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Imperial College London (UK) in 2012 and his PhD degree in Materials Science and Engineering from University of California Berkeley in 2018. His research interests include electrocatalysis for CO2 conversion into chemicals and fuels, partial oxidation of small molecules with concurrent hydrogen production, and electro-organic chemistry for pharmaceutical production. He is a recipient of NUS Presidential Young Professorship (2021), Next ASEAN Innovator Award (2021) and National Research Foundation (NRF) Fellowship (Class of 2022).

Email: lumyw@nus.edu.sg
Lab Website

Asst. Prof. Hiang Kwee LEE

Hydrogen Production and Hydrogen Carrier

Dr. Hiang Kwee LEE is an Assistant Professor at the Division of Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, Nanyang Technological University. His research program combines chemistry, nanotechnology, material sciences, and in operando spectroscopy to develop next-generation catalytic ensemble to address global energy/environmental crisis. Prior to being a faculty at NTU, Hiang Kwee worked as a post-doctoral scholar at Stanford University under the Singapore Teaching and Academic Research Talent (START) scheme. He obtained both his doctorate and bachelor degrees in Chemistry from NTU in 2018 and 2013, respectively. He was the recipient of the Vebleo Fellow Award, College of Science International Postdoctoral Scholarship (NTU/MOE), and Dr and Mrs Alex Tan Pang Kee gold medal.

Email: hiangkwee@ntu.edu.sg
Lab Website

Dr. Jiangfeng HU

Surface Technology and Physical Vapor Deposition

Dr. Hu Jiangfeng is currently a Senior Scientist in surface technology group of SIMTech (A*Star) and Adjunct Associate Professor at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at NUS. He received his Bachelor degree and master degree from Xi’an Jiaotong University (China) and his PhD degree from the ECE Department at NUS. He has over 20 years of R&D experiences in thin film deposition and functional thin film material development, including material and coating layer structure design for thin film based devices, coating process development and optimization. He has collaborated with different companies on coating development for various applications.

Email: Hu_Jiangfeng@simtech.a-star.edu.sg

Dr. Zhi Wei SEH

Designing Electrocatalysts for Hydrogen Evolution

Dr. SEH Zhi Wei is a Senior Scientist at the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, A*STAR. He received his BS and PhD degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from Cornell University and Stanford University, respectively. His research interests lie in the design of new materials for energy storage and conversion, including advanced batteries and electrocatalysts. As a Highly Cited Researcher on Web of Science, he is widely recognized for the first experimental demonstration of 2D MXenes as electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution and carbon dioxide reduction. He also received awards including World’s Top 2% Scientists, Central Research Fund Award, Vebleo Fellow Award, Ten Outstanding Young Persons, Emerging Investigators, Singapore NRF Fellowship, Innovators under 35 Asia, MRS Graduate Student Award, and National Science Scholarship.

Email: sehzw@imre.a-star.edu.sg
Lab Website

Dr. Jia ZHANG

Theoretical Catalyst Simulations and Reaction Mechanism Studies

Dr. ZHANG Jia is currently a Senior Scientist as well as Group Manager of Catalysis & Chemistry Group, in the Department of Material Science and Chemistry, Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC), A*STAR, Singapore. She received her Bachelor degree (2000) and Master Degree (2003) in Chemistry from Nankai University (China) and her PhD degree from the Chemistry Department at NUS in 2007. Her current research interests are computational heterogeneous catalysis and material chemistry of solid catalysts. Some of her academic research on catalysis were highlighted by A*STAR Research which showcases the best research conducted in A*STAR (2012, 2015, 2016). In addition, the industry project on mixed metal oxide catalysts led by her was awarded the Best Industry Project Award (IHPC, 2013).

Email: zhangj@ihpc.a-star.edu.sg
Lab Website