Dr. ZHU Shangqian, a 2020 PhD graduate from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (CBE), won the School of Engineering (SENG) PhD Research Excellence Award 2019-20. Dr. LIU Dongyu from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and Dr. LIN Yuanjing from the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, both 2019 graduates, were named finalists.

Dr. Zhu’s research mainly focuses on electrochemical energy conversion and storage technologies, which aim to solve the global climate change and energy depletion issues nowadays. He has made significant contributions to the design of advanced electrocatalysts for fuel cell and CO2 electrochemical reduction reactions, and the fundamental understanding of such reactions’ mechanisms by using advanced in situ spectroscopic and electrochemical techniques. These works have led to 11 publications in top journals, including Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), Advanced Energy Materials, and ACS Energy Letters. One of his publications has been selected as ACS Editors’ Choice, and a cover article as well as one of the most read articles of ACS Energy Letters in 2019. Notably, his works have been cited over 470 times during the past four years.

Besides a remarkable publication record, Dr. Zhu also had presented his works at five international conferences, including three times at The Electrochemical Society Biannual Meetings, which are regarded as the most important conferences in the electrochemistry community. These achievements are a clear recognition of his high-quality research.

Established in 2011, the SENG PhD Research Excellence Award recognizes PhD students and recent graduates who have made influential contributions to their discipline during PhD studies at HKUST.

Dr. Zhu is currently a postdoctoral fellow at HKUST. Joining HKUST in 2014 as an MPhil student in the same department, he earned his MPhil degree in 2016 and subsequently started his PhD studies.