EI-CBE Joint Workshop on Chemical Process and Conversion

Prof. Jesse Zhu is a Distinguished University Professor and Canada Research Chair in the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Western University.  He received his Bachelor Degree from Tsinghua University in 1982 and his PhD from the University of British Columbia in 1988.  After working several years at Shell Central Laboratory in Amsterdam, he decided to return to academics.  At Western University, he established the Particle Technology Research Centre in 1999 and developed a very successful Research Chair Program in Particle Technology Applications, through which he has trained over 250 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, including 30+ professors world-wide and 3 Fellows of Canadian Academy of Engineering.  With 500+ journal publications and 50+ patents, he has worked on a very wide range of R&D projects, many from the industry.  In addition to fundamental research, he is particularly active in technology development and transfer, with several inventions commercialized or being commercialized. 

Dr. Zhu is a Fellow of Royal Society of Canada and Canadian Academy of Engineering.  He has also received many awards including the highest career (R.S.Jane) award from the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering, the highest Particle Technology (Elsevier) Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the highest research award (Hellmuth) from Western University, and two major medals from Engineering Institute of Canada and Professional Engineers of Ontario. 

Prof. Huijun Zhao is the Director of the Centre for Catalysis and Clean Energy at Griffith University, the elected Fellow of Australian Academy of Science (FAA) and Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering (ATSE), the Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) and the Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (FRACI). He has extensive expertise in functional materials, energy conversion and storage, catalysis and sensing technologies. He has published over 550 refereed journal papers and gained 68 international patents within 8 world-wide patent families. One of his current pursuits is to explore new ways to unlock the catalytic capabilities of nonprecious materials as high performance catalysts for important catalysis reactions.

Prof. Shi-Zhang Qiao joined the School of Chemical Engineering of the University of Adelaide (UoA) in March 2012 as the inaugural Chair professor of Nanotechnology. He is the founding Director of Centre for Materials in Energy and Catalysis (CMEC). His research expertise is in nanostructured materials for new energy technologies (electrocatalysis, photocatalysis, batteries, fuel cell). He has co-authored more than 496 papers in refereed journals, including Nature, Nature Energy, Nature Materials, Nature Catalysis, Nature Communications, Science Advances, Angew Chem Int Ed, J. Am. Chem. Soc, Advanced Materials (over 91,020/105,215 citations, h-index: 154/165, Web of Sci./Google Scholar).

In recognition of his achievements in research, he was honoured with the South Australian Scientist of the Year (2021), inaugural UoA Vice-Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Research (2019), prestigious ARC Australian Laureate Fellow (2017), ExxonMobil Award (2016), ARC Discovery Outstanding Researcher Award (DORA, 2013), Emerging Researcher Award (2013, ENFL Division of the American Chemical Society) and UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award (2008). He has also been awarded an ARC ARF Fellowship, an ARC APD Fellowship and an inaugural UQ Mid-Career Research Fellowship.

Dr Qiao is currently an Editor-in-Chief of EES Catalysis (RSC), Associate Editor of Journal of Materials Chemistry A; a Fellow of Institution of Chemical Engineers (FIChemE), Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) and Royal Australian Chemical Institute (FRACI). Dr Qiao is a Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher (with 123 highly cited papers) in three categories of Chemistry, Materials Science, Environment and Ecology.