People

Principal Investigator

Prof. Shu Hu

  • Postdoc Caltech, Chemistry
  • PhD Stanford, Materials Sciences
  • B.S. Tsinghua, Materials Sciences

Shu Hu is an assistant professor of Chemical & Environmental Engineering at Yale University, and is also affiliated with the Energy Sciences Institute at Yale West Campus. His work spans fundamental and applied research areas in nanoscale materials epitaxy, atomic-layer deposition, solid-electrolyte interfaces, and photocatalytic photonic devices for artificial photosynthesis.  His group is known for tunable “leaky” coatings for efficient and stable semiconductor/liquid interfaces, and for non-equilibrium models for photochemical processes involving photocatalyst/co-catalyst/liquid particulate interfaces. Dr. Hu has been awarded several honors for his work, including the Ross N. Tucker Award and the ECS Young Investigator Award.  

Email: shu.hu at yale.edu
Phone: Office - (203) 737-6521, Lab - (203) 737-6521
Address: 810 West Campus Drive, West Haven, CT 06516
Location: Office - 17 Hillhouse Rm 431, Lab - Energy Sciences Institute - II, Yale West Campus

Postdoctoral Associates

Dr. Chengxing He

Chengxing is a postdoc associate in both the Hu lab and Tang lab in Electrical Engineering. He received his B.S. in Optics from the University of Science and Technology of China and his PhD in Physics from the University of Virginia. His expertise is in optics and his PhD research focused on atom-light interactions. Chengxing now focuses on creating photonic devices utilizing next generation materials. Craving speed, Chengxing enjoys high performance driving, Go-Karting, road cycling, and alpine skiing.

Email: chengxing.he at yale.edu

Dr. Bin Liu

Bin Liu joined the group as a postdoctoral associate in 2022. He received his PhD in Chemical Technology from Tianjin University. His PhD research focused on photoelectrochemical water splitting and CO2 reduction. He is currently working on CO2 reduction using III-V semiconductors in seawater. Bin enjoys playing basketball, Go-Karting, and travel.

Email: bin.liu.bl738 at yale.edu

Dr. Saumya Gulati

Saumya joined the Hu lab as a postdoctoral associate in 2023. She received her PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Louisville, KY. There she worked with Dr. Josh Spurgeon on the investigating light management strategies and photochemistry of Si/TiO2 tandem microwire slurries for solar hydrogen generation. She completed her M.S in Chemical Engineering in 2017 from Columbia University, NY.  There she worked with Dr. Daniel Esposito on studying the effects of electrolyte induced inversion layer on Si photocathodes for hydrogen evolution. She received her B.Tech in 2015 from Harcourt Butler Technological Institute, India. Outside of work Saumya loves to travel, play with dogs, and watch cricket.

Email: saumya.gulati at yale.edu

PhD Graduate Students

Rito Yanagi

Rito Yanagi has been a PhD student in Hu lab since Fall 2018. He received his B.E. in Applied Chemistry from Waseda University in Tokyo and his M.S. in Chemical Engineering from New York University. His research at NYU focused on the synthesis and characterization of semiconductor nanocrystals for electrochemical applications. He is currently working on developing novel semiconductor materials for photocatalytic systems. Besides doing research, he enjoys skiing, biking, and spending time in parks.

Email: rito.yanagi at yale.edu

Jake Heinlein

Jake is a PhD student in both the Hu Group and the Pfefferle Group. He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Brown University. Currently, his research focuses on the synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials for catalyzing reactions, such as the electrochemical partial oxidation of methane to methanol. Outside of research, Jake enjoys playing soccer, skiing, and flying trapeze.

Email: jake.heinlein at yale.edu

Haoqing Su

Haoqing is a PhD Student in the Hu’s lab since 2019. He received his B.S. in Physics at Nankai University in China. He have been studying energy conversion and storage processes. At Nankai University, he studied photo-electrical devices and electron behaviors in ferroelectric crystals. As a visiting student at Harvard University, he also worked on all-solid-state lithium-ion battery projects. Currently, he is working on III-V semiconductor protection. In his leisure time, he likes racing, go-karting and skiing.

Email: haoqing.su at yale.edu

Devan Solanki

Devan joined the group as a PhD student in 2019. He is interested in solar energy research and aims to work at the interface of research and public policy after his PhD. Devan graduated from Rutgers University in 2019 with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry. His undergraduate research consisted of two different projects. The first was on the development of perovskite thin films for photovoltaic devices and the second involved the use of tantalum nitride as a photoanode for water oxidation. Outside of research, Devan is interested in 1920-1960s American Literature, poker, and political philosophy. Devan is very interested in speaking with any prospective undergraduate or graduate students. Feel free to email him with any questions or thoughts of collaboration.

Email: devan.solanki at yale.edu

Atsu Kludze

Atsu is from Manassas, Virginia, and is currently a Chemical Engineering PhD student in the Hu Research Group. He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University.

Honors: NSF Graduate Research Fellow & GEM Associate Fellow

Email: atsu.kludze at yale.edu

Wentao Zhang

Wentao joined the group as a PhD student in 2021. He received his B.Eng. in Chemical Engineering from the Cooper Union in New York City and his M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University. His research at Columbia focused on the transport of electroactive species contributed by ion migration in membrane coated electrocatalysts (MCECs). He is currently working on the development and characterization of ternary metal oxide coatings on III-V semiconductors for photocatalysis applications. In his free time Wentao enjoys skiing, playing tennis, Go-Karting, and helping his dog live his best life.

Email: wentao.zhang at yale.edu

Visiting Students and Scholars

Xinyang Tong

Xinyang is a rising senior majoring in materials physics at the University of Science and Technology of China. He will stay at the lab for 4 months, mainly focusing on photocatalyst design, synthesis, and lignin reformation. Xinyang enjoys jogging around the neighborhood, listening to classical and rock music, playing CS:GO, and writing to pen pals.

Email: cuzno at mail.ustc.edu.cn

Gouri Krishnan

Gouri is a high school senior at the King School in Stamford, CT. She is currently working on product quantification of organic compounds through NMR spectroscopy. She previously worked on FDTD modeling of electrochromic samples. Outside of research, Gouri plays soccer, and enjoys photography, reading, longboarding, and learning languages.

Email: gouri.krishnan at kingschoolct.org

Antonia Kolb

Antonia is a high school junior at the King School in Stamford, CT. She is currently working on methane oxidation. Antonia enjoys skiing, sailing, singing, and playing tennis. She is also the founder and creator of DETICKT IT, an app on the App Store that quickly identifies ticks and provides a tick risk analysis.

Email: antonia.kolb at kingschoolct.org

Undergraduate Students

Matthew Cheng

Matthew Cheng is a junior in Stiles from Irvine, California majoring in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. He currently focuses on modeling photocatalysis reactions on COMSOL. Outside of lab, Matthew serves as president of Korean American Students at Yale and participates very passionately in IM basketball. He also enjoys playing classical piano, cooking, and trying new foods.

Email: matthew.cheng at yale.edu

Brandon Tong

Brandon (he/him) hails from Mission Viejo, California, and is a rising senior majoring in Chemical Engineering. He is currently working on an electrochemical cell to promote methane oxidation. Outside of the lab, Brandon is a FroCo and participant in both the Yale taekwondo club and YETI, as well as IM sports for Trumbull college. In his free time, he enjoys cooking and playing the piano.

Email: brandon.tong at yale.edu

Marcelo Lejeune

Marcelo is a sophomore in Saybrook College majoring in Chemical Engineering. He is passionate about Negative Emissions Technologies and is currently doing research on ocean carbon dioxide removal with the Hu lab. Marcelo also enjoys learning languages, skiing, playing soccer, and going on spontaneous excursions with friends.

Email: marcelo.lejeune at yale.edu

Neera Raychaudhuri

Neera Raychaudhuri is a sophomore in Berkeley College interested in majoring in chemical engineering. She will be working on producing bricks from seawater via negative emissions. Outside of lab work, Neera enjoys tutoring with YETI, cooking, folding origami, and playing anime theme songs on the piano.

Email: neera.raychaudhuri at yale.edu

Past Group Members

Graduated PhD Students

Dr. Xin Shen (2017-2022, now in technology sectors)

Dr. Yulian He (2016-2020, now Assistant Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

Visiting Professors

Prof. Shiming Zhou (University of Science and Technology of China)

Prof. Xihao Chen (Liaoning University)

Visiting Scholars

Doğa Şatır (University of Edinburgh)

Xiangyan Chen (Xi’an Jiaotong University)

Jiahui Li (Donghua University)

Yudong Xue (Chinese Academy of Science and Technology)

Xianbing Miao (University of Science and Technology of China)

Xiaomei Liu (Beijing University of Technology)

Junying Tang (Tongji Univeristy)

Postdoctoral Associates

Dr. Yuqi She (2022, now Process Engineer at ASM)

Dr. Zhaohan Li (2021, now Process Engineer at Lam Research)

Dr. Tianshuo “Leo” Zhao (2019-2020, now Assistant Professor at Hong Kong University)

Dr. Georges Siddiqi (2016-2017, now engineer at Northrop Grumman)

Dr. Zhenhua Pan (2017-2018, now Assistant Professor at Chuo University, Japan)

Dr. Jason A. Rohr (2018-2019, now Principal Scientist at UPenn)

Dr. Zackchary Fishman (2017-2019, now Research Staff at Institute for Defense Analyses)

Masters Students

Yifan Deng (Fall 2016,University of Pittsburgh)

Euan Gillham (2019, second Masters at Oxford University)

Meiqi Yang (2018-2020, Princeton PhD program)

Undergraduate Students and Summer Researchers

Phoebe Chu (2022, Valley Christian High School)

Pranav Parakh (2021, Yale undergraduate)

Anaís Nagle (2021, Yale undergraduate)

Halyn McKenzie (2021, Yale undergraduate)

Erick Marroquin (2021, Yale undergraduate)

Michael Lee (2021, Yale undergraduate)

Daniel King (2021, Texas A&M; UT Austin PhD program)

John Russell (2020-2022, King School High School; now at Harvard)

Chang Qiu (Summer 2020, University of Science and Technology of China undergraduate)

Sammy Hillenmeyer (2019-2020,  King School High School)

Grace Callander (2018-2019, Yale undergraduate; Stanford PhD program)

Dea Koco (Summer 2019, Yale undergraduate)

Peter Prastakos (Summer 2018, Yale undergraduate)

Jacob Miller (Summer 2018, Yale undergraduate)

Ian Billinge (2017-2019, Columbia University PhD program)

Roxie Trachtenberg (2017-2018)

Jiaye Chen (Summer 2019, University of Science and Technology of China)

Yulin Liu (Summer 2019, University of Science and Technology of China)

Yijie Xu (Summer 2019, Tsinghua University)

Yu Chen (Summer 2019, Peking Universikty)

Shuyu Dong (Summer 2019, Tianjin University)

Michael Mattessich (Fall 2017, Yale Chemical Engineering and Economics)

Yuzi Luo (Summer 2017, now at Stanford Materials Science Engineering)

Zuyang Ye (Summer 2017, now at UC Riverside)

Zhenya Luo (Summer 2017, University of Science and Technology of China)

Dawei Xi (Summer 2017, University of Science and Technology of China)

Avram Durling (Spring 2017-Summer 2017, Yale Intensive Physics, also currently Duke)

Daniel Raynor (Spring 2017, now at Ramboll Environmental Consulting)

Sheng Li (Fall 2016-Spring 2017, now at University of Toronto)

Xi Chen (Summer 2016, now at Brown University)

Constance Lam (Summer 2016, Yale Applied Mathematics)