Green Catalysis: Enabling A Sustainable Future

Date: 2022/10/14 - 2022/10/14

Academic Seminar: Green Catalysis: Enabling A Sustainable Future

Speaker: Yulian He, Assistant Professor, University of Michigan-Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute

Time: 10:00 - 11:30, October 14, 2022 (Beijing Time)

Location: via Feishu

Abstract

Catalysis is an important crystallization of human wisdom; it marks several most glittering chapters in the progress of human civilization and plays an essential role in both life and lifestyle. Today, nearly 90% of the product manufacturing processes involve at least one catalytic step. Overall, catalysis contributes to more than 40% of the global GDP from the petroleum sector, to energy production, chemical production, and the food industry. This talk will introduce the historical development of catalysis to general audience as a scientific discipline overall to begin with. Then, special emphasis will be given to the essential roles of catalytic techniques at the forefront in addressing several grand global challenges in energy and environment, including climate change, pollution control, sustainable energies, etc. Examples of nature-inspired design of novel catalytic systems will be showcased in details for effective methane utilization and carbon dioxide conversions.

Biography

Dr. Yulian He received her bachelor degree in Chemistry from Nankai University in 2016. She, then, went to Yale University in US for her PhD education in the area of Chemical & Environmental Engineering, with her primary research interests being catalytic methane combustion, reverse water gas shift reaction, structure-property relationships etc. After graduation, she was admitted to the SUNCAT center and the department of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University as a postdoctoral fellow, focusing on the partial oxidation of hydrocarbons and photothermal catalysis. Dr. Yulian He is currently an Assistant Professor at the joint institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and University of Michigan, as well as at the department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering by courtesy. She is the principal investigator of the Green Catalysis Lab, which focuses on the innovation of catalytic technologies towards sustainable energy and environmental applications.