Guihua Yu

Research Interests

Functional nanoarchitectured materials and their assembly, integration and nanomanufacturing to enable significant applications in energy, environmental, and healthcare technologies.

Bio

Dr. Yu earned his Ph.D. degree from Harvard University, after graduating from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) with the highest honor. After his postdoctoral research at Stanford University, Dr. Yu joined the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin as Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. He is currently Centennial Energy Chair Professor in Engeering and core faculty of Texas Materials Institute and UT Energy Institute.

Dr. Yu has received many prestigious national and international awards and honors for exceptional research achievements and teaching excellence, including 2025 Global Prize for Innovation in Water (GPIW) Grand Discovery Prize, Elected Member of European Academy of Sciences and Arts, UAE Global Water Award; National Collegiate Inventors Competition (CIC) Graduate Award Advisor by National Inventors Hall of Fame and USPTO, 'Atmospheric Water Harvesting Technology' Research Highlight by Science Magazine, Caltech Frontiers in Chemical Engineering Lecture; 2024 Falling Walls Science Breakthrough of The Year in Engineering & Technology, WYSS SDG World Scientist Award for UN Sustainable Development Goals, Featured Scientist as Climate Warrior by People Magazine, Gizmodo's Science Fair Award, Elected Fellow of IMMM (FIMMM), Advanced Materials Laureate by IAAM; 2023 Elected Fellow of AAAS (FAAAS), Blavatnik National Awards Honoree, RSC Horizon Prize, ‘Atmospheric Water Harvesting Technology’ Featured by Nature Magazine, 2023 Top 10 UT-Austin Annual Research Highlights, Top Research Breakthroughs by Texas Engineers, UN World Food Programme Innovation Award Finalist, Texas Global Engagement Research Highlight; 2022 MRS Fellow (FMRS), 2022 Blavatnik National Awards Honoree, Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research by The Welch Foundation, Viskanta Lectureship (Purdue University), Top Research Breakthroughs by Texas Engineers; 2021 Top 10 UT-Austin Annual Research Highlights, 2021 Blavatnik National Awards Honoree, Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award by Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering & Science, Invited Member of New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), TMS Brimacombe Medalist Award, IAAM Medal Award, IAAM Fellow (FIAAM); 2020 Polymer International - IUPAC Award for Creativity in Applied Polymer Science, Outstanding Young Scientist by World Laureates Forum (WLF); 2019 ‘Solar Water Purification Technology’ Featured by Science Magazine, Elected Fellow of Institute of Physics (FInstP), IUPAC Periodic Table of Young Chemists worldwide, Nano Energy Young Innovator Award; 2018 DOE Early Career Award, Nano Letters Young Investigator Award, ACS ENFL Division Emerging Researcher Award, Caltech's Resnick Young Investigator, Advanced Energy Materials Excellence in Energy; 2017 Royal Society of Chemistry Fellow (FRSC), Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, SMALL Young Innovator Award, TMS Society Early Career Faculty Award; 2016 Chemical Society Reviews Emerging Investigator Lectureship, Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship and Emerging Investigator by American Chemical Society; 2015 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award, American Chemical Society's ACS-PRF Young Investigator Award. He was recognized as one of the global 2014 Top Innovators under Age 35 by MIT Technology Review and 2014 Emerging Investigator by Royal Society of Chemistry. Additionally, Dr. Yu was awarded 2013 Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Award, 2010 International Prize for Young Chemists by International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) for best thesis research, MRS Outstanding Graduate Student Award by Materials Research Society, and Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award by Harvard University.

Dr. Yu's research has been broadly centered on creative design and synthesis of functional nanostructured materials, particularly organic and hybrid nanomaterials, fundamental understanding of their chemical and physical properties, and development of large-scale assembly and integration methodologies to enable their technologically important applications in energy, environment, and sustainability technologies. He has published ~400 papers in many prominent scientific journals including Science, Nature, PNAS, Nature Reviews Materials, Nature Reviews Chemistry, Nature Materials, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Energy, Nature Catalysis, Nature Sustainability, Nature Electronics, Nature Water, Nature Synthesis, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Communications, Science Advances, Chemical Reviews, Chemical Society Reviews, Accounts of Chemical Research, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Angewandte Chemie, Advanced Materials, Energy & Environmental Sciences, Chem, Joule, Matter, Nano Letters, ACS Nano, ACS Central Science, Chemical Science, Applied Physics Reviews, Materials Today, Nano Today, Advanced Energy Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, Materials Horizons, Nanoscale Horizons, etc. His publications have received total citation of ~130,000 times with H-index ~213. He has been consistently ranked as one of the global Top Highly Cited Researchers in both fields of Materials Science and Chemistry by Thomson Reuters (Web of Science) since 2017. In addition, Yu has published over 25 US and international patents and pending patents. His research works have been widely featured in over 300 major science and technology media worldwide, such as Nature News, Science News, ABC News, NBC News, CNBC News, Fox News, BBC News, Bloomberg, Axios, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Discovery, National Geographic, Scientific American, Thomson Reuters, World Economic Forum, Business Standard, Daily Mail (UK), The Times (UK), Sueddeutsche Zeitung (Germany), Frankfurter Allgemeine (Germany), La Repubblica (Italy), Al Jazeera (Arabic), France News, USA Today, XINHUA (China), SINA (China), SOHU (China), Tencent (China), The Indian Express, Times of India, Irish Times, Daily Telegraph (Australia), The Australian, News.com(Australia), DailyPost (Korea), National Post (Canada), Science Daily, R&D Magazine, MIT Technology Review, Popular Science, Ars Technica, Futurism, New Scientist, Reddit, Yahoo!, C&EN, Gizmodo, Gizmag, IEEE Spectrum, E&T, Design News, Phys.Org, SciTech Daily, Chemistry World, Materials World, Physics World, MRS Bulletin, Chemistry Views, Materials Views, Popular Mechanics, Texas Monthly, Daily Texan, Austin American-Statesman, Houston Chronicle, The Alcalde, etc. Currently, his main research interests include:

• Nano-architected functional materials for advanced energy storage and conversion: next-generation lithium batteries and beyond-Li batteries, supercapacitors, electrocatalysis, thermoelectrics, fuel cells;
• Sustainable organic nanomaterials for solar water purification and atmospheric water harvesting, solar desalination, wastewater treatment, sustainable agriculture;
• Self-assembled nanostructures and bio-inspired materials for advanced energy, healthcare and sensor technologies;
• Hybrid inorganic-organic nanomaterial systems for functional interfaces with smart biological systems;

The nature of research program in Dr. Yu's group is highly interdisciplinary, and it explores the basic principles in chemistry, physics, materials science and engineering to enable both fundamental understanding of novel materials with designed nano-architectures, and exciting development of their technological applications. Truly motivated graduate and undergraduate students and postdoc researchers are warmly welcome!

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