Welcome to Hong Yang Research Group
The Hong Yang Research Group in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is interested in the synthesis, characterization, and application of nanomaterials for catalysis, sustainable chemical synthesis and energy conversion.
Our current research focuses on the design of nanostructures and the study of structure-property relationship in catalysis for fuel cell, water and chemical electrolyzer, biomass and chemical conversion, and manufacturing technology.
Research Highlights
Song, …, Yang, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2026
Ngo, …, Yang, Mater. Interfaces, 2025
Ghosh, …, Yang, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2024
Kim#, Shih#,…, Yang, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2017
Wu, …, Yang, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2012
Recent News
August 2026
Aaron received a Hanratty Travel Scholarship. Aaron will attend the American Chemical Society national meeting this month. Congrats!
June 2026
Congratulations to Aaron for receiving the A.T. Widiger Fellowship, Joe and Estella for the Grainger Engineering Scholarship, and Sarah for being a Merit program student.
May 2026
Yu-Chieh (Jay) Ting joined our group as a visiting PhD graduate student from National Tsing Hua University. He will work on oxygen reduction electrocatalysts. Welcome!
May 2026
Congrats to Estella and Joe for receiving GCOE Continuing Student Scholarship!
April 2026
Bidipta successfully defended her thesis entitled “Defect Engineering in Complex Metal Oxide Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Evolution Reaction.” She will join Applied Materials in California. Congrats, Dr. Ghosh!
January 2026
Josh Bohl joined our group as a PhD student in Chemistry. He received his B.S. degree from University of Rhode Island. Welcome!
January 2026
Harita received a High Pass in her PhD oral qualification examination. Congratulations!
August 2025
We welcome Harita Vasamsetti joining our group as the latest Ph.D. student! Harita received her B.S. from UC Davis and M.S. from Johns Hopkins University.
July 2025
Our paper on valorization of carbon dioxide using molybdenum carbide catalysts, published in Carbon Future (2024, 1, 9200011), was selected for an Excellent Paper Award.
July 2025
Dr. Yang was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
July 2025
Our work entitled “Upgrading biocrude oil into sustainable aviation fuel using zeolite-supported iron-molybdenum carbide nanocatalysts” was published in Science Advances. For details, see the press release.