News

	Yao group news collection on UH’s Cullen College of Engineering website link
FEB 16 2022	Cullen College of Engineering Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Yan Yao and his research team were awarded $3.4 million to develop a lithium and transition metal-free battery with high-energy and fast charging. DOE UH Renewable Energy World
FEB 8 2018	Congratulations to Xiaowei Chi and Yanliang Liang for the recent paper in Angewandte Chemie Int. Ed. as the Front Cover.
JAN 20 2018	Yao, Dawlaty and Goyal recently received a Scialog Award from Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA).
JAN 15 2018	Congratulations to Hui Dong for winning Best Poster Award in Nature Conference on Materials Electrochemistry: Fundamentals & Applications held in Shenzhen, China.

OCT 1 2017	We received DOE funding from Vehicle Technology Office’s Battery500 consortium.
SEP 1 2017	Prof. Yan Yao is promoted to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure.
AUG 24 2017	Congratulations to Sam Yoo and the Mg team for the Nature Communications paper
JUN 19 2017	Congratulations to Yanliang Liang and the aqueous battery team for the Nature Materials paper
APR 6 2017	First year graduate student, Karun Rao, is selected by NASA to receive prestigious NASA Space Technology Research fellowship.
APR 5 2017	Prof. Yan Yao is selected as a Scialog Fellow on Energy Storage by Research Corporation for Science Advancement.

JUL 14 2016	Congratulations to Rongguang and Swami on their paper as the Front Cover of Nanoscale.
JAN 5 2016	Congratulations to Saman Gheytani on his first paper as the cover of the Journal of Materials Chemistry A. Saman discovered a method for a light-weight and corrosion-resistant coating for aqueous batteries.

DEC 14 2015	We are excited to be part of a team for a new ARPA-E 2015 FOA project titled “Low Cost, Safe, and Efficient All Solid State Sodium Batteries for Grid-scale Energy Storage and Other Applications“, in collaboration with Iowa State, Colorado Univ. Boulder, Washington State, and Solid Power Inc. This was part of a set of 41 grants (funded out of over 2000 proposals) announced by Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz ahead of COP21 in Paris. ARPA-E News, UH News
DEC 6 2015	Dr. Yao is the organizer for 229th ECS meeting to be held at San Diego, CA, May 29-June 3, 2016 together with Prof. Jie Xiao (Univ. of Arkansas), Prof. Ping Liu (UCSD) and Dr. Jame Wu (NASA). On behalf of symposium A5 organizers on “Electrochemistry and Batteries for Safe and Low-cost Energy Storage”, we invite you to present your group’s current research activities on energy storage. The theme of this symposium is to discuss the scientific gap between academic research and industry need. Program
DEC 5 2015	Dr. Yao has served as the leading organizer for the Symposium LL in MRS Fall Meeting — “Materials and Architectures for Safe and Low-Cost Electrochemical Energy Storage Technologies” together with Prof. Jie Xiao (Univ. of Arkansas), Prof. Ping Liu (UCSD) and Dr. Steve Harris (LBL). 77 oral talks and 77 posters were presented during the 4-day meeting. Best oral presentation award and best poster award were selected for two students. Yifei Li and Yan Jing did a great job as symposium assistant. Program
OCT 25 2015	Congratulations to Len Liang for winning the Silver Nano Research Poster Award at the 10th Sino-U.S. Symposium on Nanoscale Science and Technology in June! Liang’s poster titled, “Rational Nanostructure Design for Efficient Mg Rechargeable Batteries,” was among more than 200 posters submitted and was one of only eight that earned awards. The symposium, sponsored by Tsinghua University Press, attracted more than 1,000 attendees. News
APR 6 2015	Our recent work on N-Type polymer for ultrafast organic batter has been highlighted by online sites include UH, ScienceDaily, EurekaAlert, Phys.org, etc.
MAR 30 2015	Congratulations to Len Liang for his paper published in JACS Communication! The article is to be featured in JACS Spotlights and selected as ACS Editors’ Choice Article for open access! This is a great honor for us. Link
MAR 26 2015	Magnesium-ion batteries in the fast lane!Congratulations to Len Liang and Sam Yoo for our first paper in Nano Letters! Link

MAY 3 2014	Dr. Yao, Yanliang, and Sam Yoo served as judges for 2014 I-SWEEP Energy Competition. Two special awards were nominated and sponsored by TcSUH. Link
APR 29 2014	Congratulations to Yifei Li for his recent two awards! He received the “Urvish Medh” award for the best overall presentation at the UH ECE Graduate Research Conference and the third place in the TcSUH’s 47th Semiannual Student Symposium with total $600 prize. Good job, Yifei!
APR 24 2014	Congratulations to Yan Jing for passing his qualify exam! Well done, Yan!
APR 1 2014	Based on the battery technology developed at our lab, students from Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship won the first place in the New Venture competition and the third place in the 4th Annual Richards Barrentine Values and Ventures Business Plan Competition. Link Energetik Pitch Lands Bauer Entrepreneurship Students First Place at UNL New Venture Competition. Link Undergraduates Win $25,000 in Awards at Rice, TCU Business Plan Competitions. Link
JAN 17 2014	Dr. Yao is co-organizing a Symposium of Batteries and Fuel Cell Technologies: Challenges and Solutions Towards Global Stewardship (ENFL Division of Energy and Fuel) at 248th ACS Meeting during the week of August 10-14, 2014 at San Francisco.

DEC 1 2013	Welcome Dr. Yoo, Dr. Jian, and Xiangyue join our group.
Aug 21 2013	We are very excited to receive ARPA-E funding for developing advanced aqueous lithium-ion batteries. List of ARPA-E funded RANGE Projects.
July 30 2013	Experiential Learning: Undergrad Research in Energy Storage. David is featured in UH Engineering News. Link.
Jun 27 2013	Photos: Inside ECE Professor Yan Yao’s Laboratory. Our newly renovated lab is featured in UH Engineering news. Link.
Jun 21 2013	Dr. Yao hosted a lab tour for the STEP Forward Summer Camp. A group of high school students showed strong interests in the fuel cell car and battery demo David Pineda conducted. The information for STEP Forward camp can be found here.
Jun 19 2013	Dr. Yao led UH first SURF graduate and professional round-table discussion. Dr. Yao served at the table of Materials Science to discuss career interests with SURF students.
Jun 17 2013	Tiffany Au, Jamie Bassett from St. Agnes High School and Kyle Affeldt from Lansing High School joined the group for a two-week summer research.
Jun 3 2013	David Pineda joined the group as a SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship – UH) student. For more information, check the SURF website.
May 22 2013	Dr. Yao receives Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award. Link
May 21 2013	Joeseph Whitehouse from UT San Antonio joined the group as a REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) student. He will stay in the group for conducting 10-week research. The link for REU program at UH CCE can be found here.
May 09 2013	Dr. Yao presented an invited talk at Schlumberger, Sugar Land Technology Center. He is very excited to meet many UH ECE alumni there!
Apr 14 2013	Yao group set up a booth at Houston’s Earth Day Event in the Downtown Discovery Green field. We demonstrated lemon batteries towards K-12 students.
Apr 11 2013	Dr. Yao presented an invited talk at 245th American Chemical Society Meeting at New Orleans, LA in the ENFL division.
Mar 27 2013	Dr. Yao is awarded 2013 Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research for “Developing Multivalent Ion Intercalation Batteries as High Energy and Safe Marine Distributed Power Sources”. link
Mar 13 2013	Dr. Yao presented an invited talk at Southwest Research Institute, Advanced Vehicle & Hydraulic Vehicle Technology.
Mar 1 2013	Dr. Yao served as a judge in 2013 Science and Engineering Fair of Houston for the 9th Grade Engineering Students. He nominated two awards sponsored by TcSUH.
Feb 24 2013	Dr. Yao attended 4th annual energy innovation summit in Washington DC.
Jan 17 2013	Dr. Yao presented an invited talk in Mechanical Engineering at University of Houston
Jan 15 2013	Dr. Yao served in a panel in the National Science Foundation.

Dec 24 2012	Yan Jing joined the group. Welcome!
Dec 06 2012	Dr. Yao served as a reviewer for UCLA first annual review of engineering student scholarship applications.
Dec 04 2012	Dr. Yao served as a judge for UH Capstone Design Conference.
Nov 01 2012	Yanliang Liang joined the group as the first postdoc. Welcome!
Oct 20 2012	Yao group set up a booth at the Houston’s annual Energy Day, and demonstrated energy innovation towards K-12 students.
Oct 11 2012	Dr. Yao served as a session chair in 222nd Electrochemical Society Conference for Lithium-Ion Batteries Session.
Sep 17 2012	Dr. Yao presented an invited talk at the workshop on Materials Science and Materials Chemistry for Energy in Peking University
Sep 15 2012	Yifei Li joined the group as the first student. Welcome!
Sep 05 2012	Dr. Yao was awarded the Roberts A. Welch Professorship by the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston (TCSUH)! link
Sep 01 2012	Dr. Yao joined the University of Houston as the Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He has a joint appointment in the Materials Engineering Program.

Yan’s previous work in the news at Stanford, Polyera, and UCLA

Feb 07 2012	Yan’s image ‘SEM of nc-Si nanoshells’ was chosen by the Nature Communications editorial team to be the current Featured Image. Yan’s paper is also highlighted in Nature. link
Feb 07 2012	Yan’s paper titled “Broadband Light Management Using Low-Q Whispering Gallery Modes in Spherical Nanoshells” is published in Nature Communications. The research is reported by Stanford News, SLAC News, Stanford Engineering News, Forbes.com, EurekAlert!, ScienceNewsline, Nanowerk, etc
Feb 03 2012	Yan gave an invited seminar at the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) in Singapore. link
Feb 01 2012	Polyera reported a certified world-record 9.1% efficient polymer/fullerene organic solar cell in an inverted bulk heterojunction architecture using its newest proprietary material. Yan was the first senior scientist to start the OPV program at Polyera. link

Dec 02 2011	Yan gave an invited masterclass at Printed Electronics USA 2011 Conference. link
Oct 05 2011	Yan’s paper titled “Electrically Conductive, Mechanically Robust and Electrochemically Inactive TiC/C Nanofiber Scaffold for High Performance Silicon Anodes Batteries” is published online on ACS Nano.
Sep 30 2011	Yan presented in Nanomaterials for Energy Symposium held at the University of Toronto.
Sept 21 2011	Yan presented his research in ABAA-4 in Beijing, Sept 21-23, 2011.
Jun 28 2011	Yan’s paper titled “Effects of solvent mixtures on the nanoscale phase separation in polymer solar cells” is the most-cited Advanced Functional Materials paper during recent three years, with over 400 times of citations up to date.
Jun 14 2011	Yan’s paper titled “Interconnected Silicon Hollow Nanospheres for Lithium-Ion Battery Anodes with Long Cycle Life” is published online in Nano Letters.
Apr 26 2011	Yan gave two talks on Si light trapping and energy storage in MRS Spring Meetingat San Francisco.

Dec 21 2010

Yan’s first review paper in Stanford titled “One dimensional Si/Sn – based nanowires and nanotubes for lithium-ion energy storage materials” is published in J. Mater. Chem.