Prof Tianshou Zhao is an elected academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Cheong Ying Chan Professor of Engineering and Environment, Chair Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at HKUST, the Director of the HKUST Energy Institute, and the Senior Fellow of HKUST Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study. He is a Fellow of the American Society Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and a Highly Cited Researcher by Thomson Reuters (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020), and Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer.

Professor Zhao combines his expertise in research and technological innovation with a commitment to creating clean energy production and storage devices for a future. He has made seminal contributions in the areas of fuel cells, advanced batteries, multi-scale multiphase heat and mass transport with electrochemical reactions, and computational modeling. In addition to 5 edited books, 9 book chapters and over 70 keynote lectures at international conferences, he has published 383 papers in various prestigious Journals. These papers have collectively received more than 20,100 citations and earned Prof Zhao an h-index of 76 (Web of Science). In recognition of his research achievements, Prof Zhao has in recent years received many awards, including the 2014 Distinguished Research Excellence Award (HKUST), two State Natural Science Awards, the 2018 Ho Leung Ho Lee Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress, the Croucher Senior Fellowship award, the Overseas Distinguished Young Scholars Award (NSFC), and the Yangtze River Chair Professorship, among others.
 

Energy Conversion and Storage

Abstract

The combination of energy shortage and climate change is one of the most complex challenges the world, as a whole, has had to face. The next 50 years is a vital period for human civilization and it is imperative that we revolutionize the way we produce and store energy and incorporate renewables as our primary source of energy. This talk will provide a snapshot of the future of the sustainable energy landscape and identify several game-changing technologies that will facilitate the widespread deployment of renewables. In particular, we will highlight our recently invented e-fuel technology for storage of intermittent renewable energy.