People

Our Team

Principal Investigator

Jinguang Hu

Professor Jinguang Hu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Calgary and a Member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. He holds the Schulich Research Chair in Sustainable Energy and Materials. His research focuses on developing transformative technologies that convert biomass and renewable carbon resources into sustainable fuels, chemicals, and advanced materials. By integrating catalysis, biotechnology, photochemistry, and materials engineering, his group aims to establish energy-efficient pathways for transforming agricultural residues, forestry by-products, and other renewable resources into high-value products that support a circular and low-carbon economy.
Professor Hu’s research spans biomass photorefining, lignin and cellulose valorization, sustainable carbon materials, and renewable polymers. His work bridges fundamental science with industrial innovation, and he actively collaborates with partners across academia, industry, and government to translate laboratory discoveries into scalable technologies. Several technologies developed in his laboratory have advanced toward commercialization through industry partnerships and startup companies, contributing to emerging clean-technology and bioeconomy sectors.
Professor Hu has published extensively in leading journals in catalysis, energy, and materials science, and his research has received international recognition. His honors include the Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers, the CSChE Bao and Zhu Innovation Award, the CSChE Lectureship Award, the S.C. Trindade Award for Biofuels Research, and the Schulich Early Research Excellence Award.
Beyond research, Professor Hu is deeply committed to training highly qualified personnel and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration that accelerates the transition toward sustainable energy systems and renewable materials.

Spin-off & Start-up Leadership

Amir Varamesh - Ph.D.

CEO & Co-Founder, NovaCarbon Technologies Inc.

Dr. Amir Varamesh obtained his PhD in Chemical and Petroleum Engineering from the University of Calgary under the supervision of Dr. Jinguang Hu. His expertise spans advanced carbon materials for energy storage applications, as well as bio-based foams and aerogels for water treatment, thermal insulation, and environmental applications.

Dr. Varamesh has actively contributed to technology commercialization and entrepreneurship. He has participated in leading innovation programs including e2i, Lab2Market, and the i2I Skills Training program. He secured the Innovation Catalyst Grant (ICG) to support the commercialization of the group’s patented carbon materials technology.

He is the CEO and Co-Founder of NovaCarbon Technologies Inc., a University of Calgary spin-off company focused on commercializing advanced carbon materials derived from bitumen, biomass and plastic waste for next-generation energy storage applications.

Postdoc Fellows

Aiguo Wang

Dr. Aiguo Wang received his BSc degree at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2004 and MSc degree at Tsinghua University in 2007, China. Then he worked as a chemical engineer for 7 years in Key Laboratory of Industrial Separation and Environment Protection in China. He started his PhD programme at University of Calgary in 2015 and focused on the catalytic co-conversion of bio-derived compounds and methane to valuable chemicals. He has published over 30 peer-reviewed articles in Journals, including Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, ACS Catalysis, Energy Conversion ... His current research interest includes biomass valorization via thermo- photo- or electro-catalysis, natural gas utilization, catalyst development, chemical engineering and processing optimization, and non-thermal plasma chemistry, etc.

Pandeng Li

Dr. Pandeng (Felix) Li received his Ph.D. degree from Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) in 2021, Canada. During Ph.D. study, he focused on photoactive film’s optimization and charge separation mechanism of organic photovoltaic and synthesis of electrode materials at low temperature. After Ph.D. graduation, he joined into Prof. Gregory Welch’s group in University of Calgary to slot-die coated organic photovoltaic modules and photochromic dye-based UV-b dosimetry. He has published peer-reviewed articles in Journals, including Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., ACS Energy Lett., Small, Sol. RRL, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, etc. Since 2024, he joins into Prof. Jinguang Hu’s group in University of Calgary. His current research mainly focuses on large-scaled reactor devices based on biomass refinery to yield valuable chemicals concurrently with hydrogen production.

Zheng Li

Dr. Zheng Li received his B.S. degree from University of Science and Technology of China and Ph.D. degree from Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics. He has published peer-reviewed articles in Nature Catalysis, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, etc. He is currently an Eyes High Post-doctoral Research Fellow in the department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at University of Calgary under the guidance of Dr. Jinguang Hu and Dr. Zhangxing (John) Chen. His research mainly focuses on photo(electro/piezo/bio)-catalytic conversion of biomass-derived and energy-related molecules for the production of sustainable hydrogen and value-added chemicals.

Hamidreza Rezania

Hamid received a BSc degree in Chemistry, an MSc degree in Polymer Science, and a PhD in Organic Chemistry in Iran. His research focuses on the preparation of new anti-fouling ultrafiltration membranes, overcoming the trade-off between permeability/selectivity, and fouling mitigation of nanofiltration membranes (TFC), as well as the synthesis of novel polymers with different architectures and the study of their structure-property relationship. Currently, Hamid is a Mitacs industrial postdoctoral fellow at the University of Calgary (U of C) and Seppure company, where he is developing organic solvent nanofiltration membranes and preparing advanced membranes for hydrogen gas separation and the pervaporation process.

Wenping Li

Dr. Wenping Li received her B.S. degree from the Beijing University of Chemical Technology and Ph.D. degree from Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics. She has published peer-reviewed articles in Environmental Energy Science, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Electrochemical Energy Reviews, etc. She is currently a postdoc in the department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at University of Calgary under the guidance of Dr. Jinguang Hu and Dr. Zhangxing (John) Chen. Her research mainly focuses on carbon dioxide and methane conversion into high value-added chemicals by chemical looping process, plasma catalysis as well as electrochemical methods.

Qasim Khan

Qasim Khan earned his Ph.D. in Electronics Engineering from Southeast University, China, with a primary focus on the advancement of quantum nanomaterials and their utilization in optoelectronic devices. Following his doctoral studies, he joined the research group of Kevin Musselman at Waterloo, Canada, as a postdoctoral fellow in October 2019, where he contributed to the development of Energy up-conversion devices. Subsequently, he transitioned to the University of Calgary as a Research Fellow, currently collaborating with the Jinguang Hu group. In his current role, he specializes in Energy down-conversion quantum materials and their integration into Quantum Nanotechnology applications, particularly aimed at enhancing productivity in greenhouses and controlled agriculture environments.

Throughout his career, Khan has authored over 50 peer-reviewed research articles published in esteemed journals such as ACS Nano, Advanced Functional Materials, ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, and Nanoscale, among others. His research interests predominantly revolve around 0D materials and their multifaceted applications in lighting, photodetectors, and energy systems.

Chunhua Wang

Dr. Chunhua Wang received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from KU Leuven (Belgium), in 2022 studying environmental chemistry and sustainable chemical conversion under the supervision of Prof. Johan Hofkens. After postdoctoral stays with Prof. Ng at the City University of Hong Kong and with the late Prof. Mi at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (United States), focusing on carbon neutrality and clean fuel generation, he joined Prof. Hu’s group at the University of Calgary as a postdoctoral researcher, continuing his research on solar-driven chemical conversion and sustainable energy materials.

Graduates

Peng is currently a Ph.D. student, and completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Saskatchewan. In May 2023, He joined Professor Hu's research group to pursue his doctoral studies. During his Ph.D. study, he will focus on the bacteria rational design integrated with photocatalysis to produce high value-added products from organic waste. In his free time, He enjoys fitness and skiing.

Peng Teng - Ph.D

Brett Abraham - Ph.D

Brett graduated with distinction from the University of Calgary in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering specialized in biomedical engineering. He completed an honour thesis in the University of Calgary’s Pharmaceutical Production Research Facility where he helped to develop bioreactor protocols for the scale-up production of regenerative therapies with a focus on stem cell bioprocessing. His work he won first place at the 2018 Alberta Biomedical Engineering conference for best undergraduate poster presentation. In the Hu group Brett brings his knowledge of stem cell tissue culture to the focus of bacterial cellulose based tissue engineering and biomaterial functionalization. Brett enjoys snowboarding in the winter months and hiking and waterskiing in the summer.

Weilin Zhong received his B.Sc. (2019) and M.Sc. (2022) degrees in Power Engineering and Engineering Thermophysics from Guangdong University of Technology. His master’s research focused on the mechanism of surface-plasmon-induced photothermal effects for catalytic hydrogen production from biomass derivatives, and he published several papers in reputed journals. After graduation, he worked as a test engineer at a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) company, where he was responsible for fuel cell lifetime prediction and failure analysis. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. under the supervision of Dr. Jinguang Hu. His doctoral research focuses on the design and synthesis of functional photothermal catalysts for the conversion of greenhouse gases into syngas.

Weilin Zhong - Ph.D

Yangjie Zheng - Ph.D.

Yangjie Zheng is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Calgary, under the supervision of Professor Jinguang Hu. She obtained her Master’s degree in Biochemical Engineering from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2024 and her Bachelor’s degree in Food Quality and Safety from Jilin University in 2021. Her master’s research focused on enzyme mining and functional identification. Currently, her research explores the integration of photocatalysis and enzymatic catalysis to improve heavy oil desulfurization and plastic degradation efficiency.

Yingying Fan - Ph.D

Yingying Fan received a master's degree in Environmental Science and Engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology in 2021. Her main research interests during her master's degree were the synthesis of nano materials, photocatalytic hydrogen production and degradation of organic pollutants. She has published several research articles in reputed journals. At present, she is a PhD student in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at University of Calgary, under the guidance of Dr. Jinguang Hu and Dr. Zhangxing Chen. Her research focuses on designing photocatalytic materials based on TMDs for sustainable hydrogen production.

Yunzhe Wen - M.Sc.

Yunzhe Wen received her BSc degree in Bioengineering from Jiangnan University in 2022. Her graduate project was achieving endoglucanase with high heat resistance from recombinant strain and its side-directed mutants.

She then worked as a technician in the laboratory animal centre of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, helping students to conduct animal experiments.

She is currently an MSc student in the Department of Chemical Engineering under the supervision of Dr. Jinguang Hu. Her research focuses on the production of high-value compounds using carbon dioxide as a substrate through metabolic engineering.

Yukai Qiao - Ph.D.

Yukai Qiao received his M.Eng. degree from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, where he focused on biomass valorization and heterogeneous catalysis, specifically the transformation of γ-valerolactone to butene/butadiene using zeolites as catalysts. His research led to peer-reviewed publications in ChemSusChem and other journals. Prior to that, he earned his B.Eng. degree from the China University of Petroleum (East China). He is now a Ph.D. student under the supervision of Dr. Jinguang Hu, with research interests in bio-oil upgrading and green hydrogen production.

Hui Wang - Ph.D

Hui Wang is a PhD student under the guidance of the Dr. Hu. She obtained her MSc degree in Light Industry Technology＆Engineering from Tianjin University of Science & Technology in 2021. In this year, she was awarded by China Scholarship Council to pursue her PhD degree. Her MSc project mainly focus on the sustainable preparation of functional Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and its application in stabilizing Pickering emulsion. Currently, her research interest is 3D bioprinting of nanocellulose for tissue engineering

Hangtian Hu - Ph.D.

Hangtian Hu received his B.Sc. degree and M.Sc. degree from Zhejiang University with a major in Energy Engineering in 2020 and 2023, respectively. His M.Sc. project mainly focused on designing highly efficient absorbents to capture carbon dioxide and had several publications in reputed journals. He is currently a CFREF-funded PhD student in the department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at University of Calgary under the supervision of Dr. Jinguang Hu. His research mainly focuses on the design and synthesis of functional photocatalysts to convert carbon dioxide into value-added products.

Hangtian Hu - Ph.D

Hui Zheng received her master's degree in Materials and Chemical Engineering from Jiangnan University in 2024. Her master's project focused on the electrocatalytic conversion of nitrogen. She has published several papers in prestigious journals. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Calgary, Canada, under the supervision of Dr. Jinguang Hu. Her research focuses on the design and synthesis of high-function electrocatalysts for nitrogen and CO2 conversion.

Hui Zheng - Ph.D.

Yiran Liu- Ph.D

Yiran Liu is a PhD student in Department of Chemical and Petroleum engineering in University of Calgary under the supervision of Dr. Jinguang Hu. Her research focus on development of cathode active material integration process for Lithium-ion batteries. She work as a Master student from 2022 to 2023 in University of Calgary on electrochemically exfoliate graphene.

Visiting Scholars

Jianyu Wang joined Dr. Hu’s group in March 2024 as a visiting student. He has earned his master’s degree from the East China University of Science and Technology, and he is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Technology at Chongqing University. His research mainly focuses on biomass conversion and valorization, sustainable drop-in fuel, and water treatment.

Jianyu Wang

Dongpo He joined Dr. Jinguang Hu's research group as a visiting student in August 2025, concurrently pursuing his Ph.D. at Jiangnan University. His research focuses on the development and application of low-dimensional solid materials for the photoreduction of carbon dioxide.

Dongpo He

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