Yayuan Liu, assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, has been appointed as the Russel Croft Faculty Scholar in the Whiting School of Engineering.
The Russel Croft Faculty Scholar Award was endowed by L. Gordon Croft ’56 to help the Whiting School of Engineering retain outstanding faculty members.
The Liu Research Group is an interdisciplinary research group that uses chemical engineering, materials science, and electrochemistry to tackle challenges in energy and environmental sustainability. The group designs and synthesizes materials at the molecular and the microscopic level, develops novel electrochemical processes using functional materials, and uses advanced characterization tools to correlate microscopic phenomena with macroscopic performance.
Yayuan has received many awards, including an NSF Career Award, a Packard Fellowship, and a Beckman Young Investigator Award. Liu has also been named an Innovator Under 35 by MIT Technology Review.
Liu earned her bachelor’s degree in materials science and engineering in 2014 from Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) and was a recipient of the Lee Kuan Yew Gold Medal for academic achievements. She earned her PhD in 2019 from Stanford University under the guidance of Prof. Yi Cui in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, supported by the Stanford Graduate Fellowship. Liu completed her postdoctoral training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working with Prof. T. Alan Hatton in the Department of Chemical Engineering.
“It is an honor to be appointed as the Russel Croft Faculty Scholar,” said Liu. “This is an amazing recognition, and I am excited to continue my work with the department”.