People

Our Team

Principal Investigator

Jinguang Hu

Dr Jinguang Hu is an Associate Professor and Schulich Research Chair in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Calgary, Canada. He leads “Biomass & Biorefinery Research Lab” at UCalgary. His current research focus on biomass valorization, sustainable energy and bioinspired materials/systems for Energy, Environmental and Biomedical application. He has published >280 peer-reviewed papers (h-index 53) including top journals such as Chem. Soc. Rev., Energy Environ. Sci., Nature Commun., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Adv. Energy Mater., ACS Catal. etc. He has received the Chemical Institute of Canada’s Bao and Zhu Innovation Award, presented annually to a single early-career researcher across Canada for distinguished contributions to chemical engineering; the Schulich Early Research Excellence Award; and the S.C. Trindade Award. He is an External Advisory Board member of the Canada Biomass Energy Network, a member of the “China-Canada Joint Centre for BioEnergy”, a Research Fellow of Grizzly Bear Institute of Canada (GBIC), and serves on the editorial boards of several journals.

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.

Qingshan Meng

Dr. Qingshan Meng is currently working as a postdoctoral associate under-supervised by Dr. Jinguang Hu and Dr. Edward Roberts. He received his Ph.D degree at Dalian University of Technology in 2019. Then he worked as postdoctoral associate in Shanghai Jiao Tong University for 2 years, and a senior engineer in Bloomage Biotech Corp., LTd for bioactive compound development, respectively. His research interests focused on synthetic biology, especially bioactive compound production through metabolic engineering and then scale-up it in industrial level. He has published 4 peer-reviewed articles in Journals, and 1 book-chapter. His current research project is to construct a high efficient and selective photo/electro-enzyme hybrid system for converting lignocellulosic biomass to value-added biochemicals.

Liquan Jing

Dr. Liquan Jing received his Ph.D. degree from Jiangsu University majored in Environmental Science and Engineering in 2021, China. He focused on photocatalytic wastewater treatment, photocatalytic hydrogen production, and antibacterial fields. He has published over 10 articles (first author) in Journals, including Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, Chemical Engineering Journal, Journal of Hazardous Materials, ACS Sustainable Chemistry&Engineering... His current research mainly focuses on the design and synthesis of functional photocatalysts for sustainable hydrogen, conversion of biomass into other high value-added biological products, and methane conversion..

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.

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.

Siwei Ma

Dr. Siwei Ma is currently working as a Research Associate in the department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at University of Calgary under the guidance of Dr. Jinguang Hu and Dr. Zhangxing (John) Chen. He received his Ph.D. degree from McMaster University in 2019, and then worked as postdoctoral fellow in University of British Columbia from 2021-2024. He has published over 20 peer-reviewed articles in Journals and applied 2 US patents, including ACS Energy Letters, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, etc. His current research mainly focused on integrated CO2 capture and utilization system, CO2 electrolysis design and automatization, and catalysts synthesis.

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.

Graduates

Amir Varamesh - Ph.D.

Amir received his B.Sc. degree in Petroleum Engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology in 2014 and the M.Sc. degree in Petroleum Reservoirs Engineering from the University of Tehran in 2018. He did his master thesis on thermodynamic modeling of asphaltene precipitation in the presence of metal oxide nanoparticles using cubic plus association equation of state. Amir has been involved in multiple research projects during his academic career and he has co-authored several publications in reputed journals. Also, he received several prestigious national and international awards and scholarships. Amir currently is working on the application of green nanoparticles derived from biomaterials for producing green foams. His research is co-supervised with Dr. Steven Bryant.

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.

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.

Behina Tabatabaei - M.Sc.

Behina completed her bachelor's degree in Polymer Engineering at the Amirkabir University of Technology in 2022, earning the distinction of graduating with honors. Her primary focus lies in biomaterials and their modification to achieve remarkable advancements in biomedical applications. Presently, as a graduate student in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Calgary, she is actively involved in utilizing biomaterials for the purpose of wound healing applications.

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

Hongguang Zhang- Ph.D

Hongguang received his MSc degree in Chemical Engineering from the Ocean University of China in 2020. His research interest mainly focused on the synthesizing of the nanomaterials, HER and organic pollutant removal using photocatalysis technology. He has published several research articles in the reputed journals. Also, he received Chinese National Scholarship for Graduate Student in 2019. Prior to joining in the Dr. Hu’s group, he worked as a research assistant in the Shandong Analysis and Test Center and Pilot National Laboratory Currently, He is a MSc student under the guidance of the Dr. Hu and Dr. Kibria and working on the biomass photoreforming using MXene-based photocatalyst.

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.

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

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

I am an MSc student specializing in Chemical Engineering - Energy & Environment at the University of Calgary. My academic journey commenced with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Azad University, Science and Research Branch, followed by the acquisition of a Master of Engineering degree in Environmental Engineering from University of Windsor.

At present, my scholarly pursuits are centered within the Biomass & Biorefinery Research Lab. I am dedicated to exploring the cutting-edge realm of amino regeneration for carbon capture, utilizing advanced and modified membrane technologies. This compelling research forms the cornerstone of my thesis, an undertaking undertaken in close partnership with SepPure Technologies Ltd., a prominent industry player.

Pardis Nazemizadeh Ardakani - M.Sc.

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.

Visiting Scholars

Fuyan Kang joined Dr. Jinguang Hu's group as a visiting student in October 2024. He is pursuing his doctorate at Northeast Forestry University. His research interests are focused on biomass photorefining and photocatalytic pollution degradation.

Fuyan Kang

ChihChieh (Jason) Cheng joined Dr. Hu's group in March 2024 as a visiting student. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in the Department of Chemical Engineering at National Tsing Hua University. His research primarily focuses on the development of high-performance electrocatalysts for water splitting.

ChihChieh (Jason) Cheng

Dr. Ruixuan Zhao joined Dr. jinguang Hu's group as a visiting scholar in November 2024. She is working as an assistant professor at Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Her research interests are focused on biomass refinery.

Ruixuan Zhao

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

Qi Gao joined Dr. Hu’s group in January 2024 as a visiting student. He received his B.Eng degree at Sichuan Agricultural University in 2019. He is pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Chinese Academy of Forestry. His research mainly focuses on the biomass pyrolysis and biochar.

Qi Gao

Guojie Song joined Dr. Hu's research group as a visiting student in October 2024. He earned his Bachelor's degree from Qilu University of Technology and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Fermentation Engineering at Jiangnan University. His research primarily focuses on the conversion and valorization of lignocellulosic biomass, especially in developing “lignin-first” pretreatment methods, enzymatic hydrolysis, and synthesizing lignin-based carbon dots.

Guojie Song

Photos Gallery

Lab Alumni Members