Successful Hosting of the 2nd Low Carbon Clean Energy Workshop at QUB
The 2nd Low Carbon Clean Energy Workshop ( LoCar’s ) was successfully held on November 26-27, 2024, at Queen’s University Belfast....
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Sustainable Catalysis for chemical transformations and processes
UK-China Newton researchers Link workshop
Welcome to C1 Chemistry Workshop!
The theme of the workshop is around the catalytic chemistry and chemical Technology in C1 process, and its applications in the areas of Sustainable Energy and Environment.
The workshop will provide a unique opportunity for sharing research expertise and networking. During the workshops early career researchers will have the opportunity to present their research and discuss this with the established researchers from the UK and the partner country. There will be a focus on providing mentorship for participated ECRs and developing links for future cross-disciplinary and international collaborations.
News
Organizer
Dr Meilan Huang
Queen’s University of Belfast, Senior Lecturer
Dr Meilan Huang is a Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry. As a member of the Faculty Internationalisation Working Group, she was the 2017 recipient of a QUB Student Union Education Excellence Award. She works closely with experimentalists and industry and is the Co-PI of the interdisciplinary biotechnological project “Development of a computational and molecular biology platform between QUB and Almac” (2015-2019) and INSIGHT "IN Silico-Informed metaGenomic Harvesting Technology" (2021-2024). As the principle supervisor, she has led the computational team in several interdisciplinary research projects in the rational design of biocatalysts and functional materials, and has published more than 70 articles on high-impact journals such as J Am Chem Soc, Nature Communications and ACS Catalysis, Chem Comm, etc.
Plenary speakers
Dr David Willock
University of Cardiff
Dr David Willock is a Reader in Theoretical and Computational Chemistry in Cardiff University and heads up a computational chemistry group within the Cardiff Catalysis Institute at the University of Cardiff.
His research relies on a strong integration of experimental and theoretical approaches. He has published more than 140 papers in reputed journals and given lectures and taught in summer schools on catalysis and simulation in the UK and beyond.
Dr Xiaolei Fan
The University of Manchester
Dr Xiaolei Fan focuses on the research in heterogeneous catalysis and reaction engineering. His research broadly encompasses the heterogeneous catalysis, porous materials, catalytic reaction engineering, process intensification and structured catalysts/reactors. Currently, he focuses specifically on development and characterisation of porous materials, ranging from microporous zeolites/MOFs, through zeolites with mesoporosity, to macroporous cellular foams, for applications in catalysis and separation.
His research was recognised internationally with several awards such as the Lee Hsun Young Scientist Lecture award on Materials Sciences by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2018), RSC Emerging Investigators (2019) and ACS I&EC Research 2020 Influential Researchers (2020).
Prof Stuart James
Queen’s University of Belfast
Prof Stuart James‘s research focus is Porous Liquids and Mechanochemical Synthesis, in which chemical reactions can be performed effectively by grinding together solid reagents with little or no solvent.
He is the Chair of Inorganic Chemistry and one of the leaders of the Research Centre in Sustainable Energy, and has published more than 110 articles in major journals.
Prof Peijun Hu
Queen’s University of Belfast
Prof Peijun Hu was appointed a lectureship at Queen’s University of Belfast in 1995 and promoted to Reader in 2001 and to Professor in 2004. In 2009, he was elected as a member of Royal Irish Academy. Since he joined Queen’s University, he has developed a strong research group with interest in theoretical chemistry, especially in heterogeneous catalysis. He has published over 300 papers with an H-index of 79, including papers in Nature, Nature Catalysis, Nature Chemistry, Nature Communications, J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angwe. Chem., and Phys. Rev. Lett.
Dr Michail Stramatakis
University College London
Dr Michail Stamatakis's research revolves around the development and application of multiscale modelling methods for understanding complex phenomena in catalysis and materials science. Within this context, he has studied catalytic materials based on transition metals and alloys, but also dichalcogenides and carbides as “niche” formulations, for reactions encountered in biomass conversion to fuels and chemicals, gas (methane) upgrade to synthesis gas and liquid fuels, as well as emissions control.
The kinetic Monte Carlo software Zacros that he has established for the simulation of surface phenomena and chemical reactions on heterogeneous catalysts. The software has been commercialized by UCL Business and is now licensed to more than 600 users worldwide.
Early Career Researchers
Dr Nicholas Dummer
University of Cardiff
Dr Nicholas F. Dummer is a Research Fellow at Cardiff University. He obtained his PhD under the supervision of Graham Hutchings CBE FRS in 2005 at Cardiff University. In 2012 he was appointed as a Special Assistant Professor in Wataru Ueda’s group in the Catalysis Research Center of Hokkaido University, Japan. Following this in 2013 he was awarded a Senior Research Fellowship in Wollongong University, Australia. In 2015 he returned to Cardiff University and is presently a MaxNet Research Fellow and local coordinator for the Max Planck Centre in Cardiff University. He has co-authored over 65 articles on heterogeneous catalysts and their applications.
Dr Maoshuai Li
Tianjin University, China
Dr Li Maoshuai is a lecturer and doctoral supervisor at the School of Chemical Engineering in Tianjin University.
He is engaged in C1 chemistry and chemical engineering, heterogeneous catalysis and green chemistry process technology research, His research encompasses the catalytic laws and principles in the process of C1 molecule conversion, syngas catalytic conversion to synthesize high value-added chemicals and carbon dioxide catalytic hydrogenation to synthesize low-carbon fuels; published more than 20 articles in Appl Catal B, J Catal, Chem Eng J, etc.
Dr Bin Zhang
Institute of Coal Chemistry, CAS
Dr. Bin Zhang received his PhD in Shanxi Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2013. Currently, he is mainly engaged in the directional transformation of carbon-based small molecules and the precise design of supported metal catalysts. He published more than 40 articles in The Innovation, Angew Chem Int Ed, ACS Catal, J Catal, Appl Catal B, Sci China Chem, etc. and gained 4 patents.
Dr Yibin Mu
The University of Leeds
Dr Yibing Mu received his PhD degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Manchester in 2021. During his PhD project, Yibing worked with Prof Christopher Hardacre and Dr Xiaolei Fan to study the carbon capture and utilisation by membrane separation technology and non-thermal plasma (NTP) assisted catalysis. In September, he joined the research group of Prof Paul Williams at University of Leeds as a research fellow. His research project now is contamination control by NTP technology.
Dr Shanshan Xu
The University of Manchester
Dr Shanshan Xu obtained her PhD degree from The University of Manchester in 2021 and continued to work as a Research Associate in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science at The University of Manchester. She is working with Prof. Christopher Hardacre and Dr. Xiaolei Fan to focus on the fundamental study of CO2 conversions by plasma catalysis and thermal catalysis. Her research was published on the peer-reviewed journals including ACS Catal and Appl Catal B.
Dr Yucheng Wang
Northumbria University
Dr Yucheng Wang joined the Faculty of Engineering and Environment at Northumbria University as a research fellow. He obtained his PhD in Mechanical and Construction at Northumbria University in 2021. Yucheng’s areas of interest about electrochemical engineering, fuel cell, catalyst, and polymer materials. Yucheng has published 6 articles in the high impact journals including ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, Small Methods and ASER etc., and one of his articles, ‘Porous Bilayer Electrode-Guided Gas Diffusion for Enhanced CO2 Electrochemical Reduction’, has been selected to be featured on the front cover of the issue. During his PhD, he organized the SCI Electrochemistry Postgraduate Conference in Newcastle University. He also successfully applied the Northern Accelerator Feasibility and Proof of Concept Projects Call.
Dr Yaolin Wang
University of Liverpool
Dr Yaolin Wang is a postdoc associate in plasma chemistry at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics, University of Liverpool. He won Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad in 2021, and was funded by the EU Horizon 2020 Marie Curie Fellowship from 2017 to 2020. His research interests are the development, diagnosis, in-situ characterisation, and optimisation of plasma-assisted chemical processes, mainly focusing on plasma catalysis for the synthesis of fuels and chemicals from carbon (CO2 hydrogenation, dry reforming of methane) and nitrogen sources (ammonia/nitrogen oxide synthesis), biomass gasification, and environmental clean-up. He has published over 20 papers, 2 book chapters, and filed 14 patents (3 UK patents and 11 Chinese patents) in the related fields. Currently, he is also active in the technical scaleup and commercialization for the patented technologies.
Dr Hui Yang
Imperial College London
Dr Hui Yang graduated with an Erasmus Mundus Master in Theoretical Chemistry and Computational Modelling (TCCM) from KU Leuven (Belgium). She was then awarded her PhD in Physics from University College London (UK). She is now a postdoctoral researcher at the Imperial College London (UK) working on thermal transport in batteries.
Dr Yikai Xu
Queen’s University Belfast
Dr Yikai Xu is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow (PI) based at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB). He obtained his BSc. in Applied Chemistry at East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST) and completed his PhD research at QUB. Dr Xu is the recipient of the 2019 Kathleen Lonsdale Royal Irish Academy Prize for the most outstanding PhD research in chemical science in Ireland. He is recognized as an “Emerging Investigator” by the Journal of Materials Chemistry C and Analyst published by the Royal Society of Chemistry and serves as a Community Advisor for Nanoscale Horizons (RSC). He currently acts as an Associate Editor for Carbon Capture Science & Technology (Elsevier). His research interests lie in the preparation and applications of plasmonic nanomaterials and their applications in sensing and catalysis. Dr Xu has co-authored 25 peer-reviewed articles in leading journals including Angew. Chem., JACS Au, Nano Lett., and Small, and 1 book chapter. His research has received more than 1000 citations.
Dr Hu Bai
Taiyuan University of Technology, China
Dr Bai Hui is an associate professor in Taiyuan University of Technology. She is engaged in using theoretical and computational chemistry methods to study heterogeneous catalytic reactions in C1 chemical industry. Focusing on syngas chemistry, by understanding the catalytic reaction mechanism, studying the modulation of the electronic properties of the catalyst structure and components, and realizing the atomic-scale catalyst design. She has published more than 40 papers in Angew Chem Int Ed, J Catal, Ind Eng Chem Res, etc.
Dr Xingchen Liu
(Institute of Coal Chemistry, CAS
Dr Xingchen Liu is an associate researcher in institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He has been engaged in basic theoretical calculations in the field of carbon-based resource conversion for a long time, focusing on the use of new methods to study the heterogeneous catalytic reaction process under in-situ conditions, and to explore unknown physical and chemical phenomena; research involving various heterogeneous catalysis and related processes, computational method development, ab initio and classical molecular dynamics simulation, as well as electronic structure calculation and analysis of molecules, solid materials.
Speakers
Agenda
The Venue
Lanyon building, Queen’s University Belfast
Old Staff Common Room: first door on the right outer wing of the Lanyon building.
Canada room: the first room to the left in the entrance hall of the Lanyon building.
Contact
Dr Meilan Huang
Room 0G.108 - David Keir Building
United Kingdom
+44 (0)28 9097 4698
Contact
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