Team News
Latest News from Dr. Yong Wang’s Team
- Our postdoc Wenda Hu, PhD student Gokce Gulfidan, and undergraduate student Logan Howard gives a lab tour for the 75th anniversary Celebration of Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering.

- Welcome Dr. William J. Thomson (Dr. Wang ‘s PhD supervisor) and Dr. Sherman J. Xu to visit our lab! Had very inspiring conversations.

- Group gathering at Rico’s! Grateful to have Dr. Jungkyu Choi from Korea University and his PhD student to join us — such an inspiring exchange of ideas and great conversations!

- April 2nd: research showcase- our postdoc, Wenda Hu, and graduate student, Gokce Gulfidan, presented their latest research.


- March 17th: Big congrats to Dr. Yong Wang for receiving WSU’s Distinguished Faculty Address Award!
- March 3rd: Congrats to our group members for their incredible achievements at the 29th North American Catalysis Society Meeting (NAM29)!
- Grad student Vannessa Caballero and undergrad student Clara Ehinger for receiving the Kokes Award!
- Feb 19th: Congratulations on Dr. Wang’s election to the National Academy of Engineering! NAE Website – National Academy of Engineering Elects 128 Members and 22 International Members

- Jan 9th: Congratulations to Ph.D. Candidate Gokce Gulfidan on successfully passing her preliminary exam!
- Sept 6th: Welcome to the group, Gunnar Loney, our new PhD student, and Kiersten Berry, our new undergraduate student!
- Aug 27th: Congrats to Wenda Hu, for clinching 3rd place at the Global NMR Online Conference!
- May 29th: Summer retreat! Our group had a good time having a BBQ and playing Frisbee


- April 16th: Congrats to our undergraduate student, Clara Ehinger, for receiving a National Goldwater Scholarship.
- Nov 15th: Congrats. Dr. Wang has been added to Web of Science’s 2023 list of world’s most Highly Cited Researchers. Seven WSU faculty recognized as Highly Cited Researchers | WSU Insider | Washington State University
- Oct 6th: congratulations on our newest publication in science regarding oscillatory behavior of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis over cobalt-ceria catalysts. The oscillating Fischer-Tropsch reaction | Science
- Sept 22nd: Welcoming our new group members-Zhiyu Qi and Yi Liu in Rico’s and introducing ourselves to Gene and Linda Voiland this week.


- October 2023 – Welcome to Ning Han, our newest postdoc to join the group!
- August 2023 – Welcome to our new PhD students Nickolas Riedel, Martin Affandy, Zhiyu Qi and Yi Li to the group!
- July 2023 – Congratulations to Junrui Li who accepted an Assistant Professor position at Clark Atlanta University.
- June 2023 – Congratulations to Anthony for receiving the Kokes Award, which will fund his travel to NAM28 in Providence, RI this year.
- May 2023 – Congratulations to Nicolas Rijhwani, who received the Best 1st Year Research Award at SURCA 2023!
- April 2023 – Welcome new PhD student, Gokce Gulfidan, to the group!
- November 2022 – Research highlighted in ACS Catalysis “Activation of Lattice and Adatom Oxygen by Highly Stable Ceria-Supported Cu Single Atoms”
- October 2022 – Research highlighted in Nature “Functional CeOx nanoglues for robust atomically dispersed catalysts”
- October 2021 – Research highlighted in “Catalyst advance improves natural gas cleaning technology“
- August 2021 – Welcome new PhD student, Shane Kosir, to the group!
- July 2021 – Congratulations Houqian Li for passing his final oral exam in partial fulfillment of his PhD. All the best at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Houqian!
- July 2021 – Congratulations to Anthony Savoy for passing his preliminary exams!
- January 2021 – Welcome new PhD student, Vannessa Caballero Perez, to the group!
- December 2020 – Congratulations to Wenda Hu for passing his preliminary exams!
- October 2020 – Research highlighted in AIChE CEP “Chemical Engineers Improve Biomass-to-Biofuel Process“
- August 2020 -Yong Wang has received the 2021 American Chemical Society’s (ACS) E.V. Murphree Award in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry
- August 2020 – Research highlighted in “A key to cheaper renewable fuels: keeping iron from rusting“
- August 2020 – Highlighted in article “Researchers receive Department of Energy grant to lower auto manufacturing costs“
- July 2020 – Congratulations Jianghao Zhang for passing his final oral exam in partial fulfillment of his PhD. All the best at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jianghao!
- November 2019 – Congratulations Xavier Pereira-Hernandez for passing his final oral exam in partial fulfillment of his PhD. All the best at PNNL, Nick!
- November 2019 – Congratulations Nick Jaegers for passing his final oral exam in partial fulfillment of his PhD. All the best at Berkeley, Nick!
- August 2019 – Welcome new PhD student, Anthony Savoy, and postdoctoral researcher, Yixiao Li, to the group!
- August 2018 – Welcome new postdoctoral research assistants, Nick Kaylor and Dong Jiang, to the group!
- August 2018 – Welcome new PhD students, Wenda Hu and Rui Zhang, to the group!
- July 2018 – Congratulations to Xavier Pereira-Hernandez for passing his preliminary exams!
- July 2018 – Congratulations to Houqian Li for passing his preliminary exams!
- July 2018 – Congratulations to Austin Winkelman for passing his preliminary exams!
- July 2018 – Congratulations to Zizwe Chase for passing his final oral exam in partial fulfillment of her PhD. All the best at Howard, Zizwe!

- December 2017 – Congratulations to Jianghao Zhang for passing his preliminary exams!
- November 2017 – Congratulations to Nick Jaegers and Xavier Pereira-Hernandez for earning the AIChE Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division Travel Award!
- June 2017 – Congratulations to Dongmin Yun and Xavier Pereira-Hernandez for earning the Kokes Award for NAM 25!
- April 2017 – Congratulations to James Song for passing his oral exam for his masters degree! All the best, James!
- December 2016 – Congratulations to Berlin Sudduth and Nick Jaegers for passing their preliminary exams!
- November 2016 – Congratulations to Rebecca Baylon for passing her final oral exam in partial fulfillment of her PhD. All the best, Rebecca!
- July 2016 – Congratulations to Mahfuzur Rahman for passing his oral exam for his masters degree! All the best, Mahfuzur!
- March 2016 – Lei Du, Junming Sun and Yong Wang’s paper “Advanced catalyst supports for PEM fuel cell cathodes” was published in Nano Energy.
- February 2016 – Congratulations to Yongchun Hong for passing his final oral exam in partial fulfillment of his PhD. All the best at Berkeley, Yongchun!
- February 2016 – Rebecca Baylon’s paper – “Beyond ketonization: selective conversion of carboxylic acids to olefins over balanced Lewis acid-base pairs,” has been accepted to Chemical Communications.
- December 2015 – Junming Sun and Colin Smith’s patent (Renewable olefins from a mixture of acetic acid and propionic acid) in conjunction with our collaborators at Archer Daniels Midland Company was granted by the US Patent Office.
- December 2015 – Junming Sun’s paper – “Key Roles of Lewis Acid-Base Pairs on ZnxZryOz in Direct Ethanol/Acetone to Isobutene Conversion” has been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
- October 2015 – Stephen Davidson, Junming Sun and Yong Wang’s paper “The effect of ZnO addition on H2O activation over Co/ZrO2 catalyst” was published in Catalysis Today.
- October 2015 – Ning Yu, He Zhang, Stephen Davidson, Junming Sun and Yong Wang’s paper “The effect of ZnO facets on ethanol steam reforming on Co/ZnO” was published in Catalysis Communications.
- October 2015 – Md. Mahfuzur Rahman’s paper, “Effect of Water on Ethanol Conversion over ZnO” has been published in Topics in Catalysis.
- October 2015 – Congratulations to Junming Sun and Changjun Liu on getting their patent issued from the U.S. Patent Office!
- August 2015 – Changjun Liu, Junming Sun and Yong Wang’s paper “Aqueous Phase Hydrodeoxygenation of Polyols over Pd/WO3-ZrO2: Role of Pd-WO3 Interaction and Hydrodeoxygenation Pathway” was published in Catalysis Today.
- August 2015 – Congratulations to Ning Yu for passing his oral exam for his masters degree! All the best, Ning!
- August 2015 – Congratulations to Stephen Davidson, the Wang group’s first PhD student, for passing his final oral exam in partial fulfillment of his PhD! All the best, Stephen!
- August 2015 – Helen Zhang’s paper “Distinct Water Activation on Polar/non-polar Facets of ZnO Nanoparticles” has been accepted to Journal of Catalysis.
- July 2015 – Welcome to visiting student Filippo Bossola from Univerista degli Studi dell’insubria/ISTM-CNR in Italy! He will be joining us for six months.
- July 2015 – Congratulations to Yan Li for passing her final oral exam in partial fulfillment of her PhD! We wish you the best Yan!
- April 2015 – Yan Li’s paper, “Effect of Oxygen Defects on the Catalytic Performance of VOx CeO2 Catalysts for Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Methanol,” has been accepted to ACS Catalysis.
- April 2015 – Rebecca Baylon’s paper, “Conversion of Ethanol to 1,3-Butadiene over Na doped ZnxZryOz Mixed Metal Oxides,” has been accepted to Catalysis Today.
- April 2015 – Junming Sun’s paper, “The effect of cobalt particle size on acetone steam reforming.” has been accepted to ChemCatChem.
- March 2015 – Congratulations to Jamie Holladay for successfully passing his final oral defense exam. All the best, Dr. Holladay!
- March 2015 – Welcome visiting scholars, Dr. Jingjing Li from Southwest Petroleum University, Dr. Dongmei Tong from Sichuan University, Dr. Weiyan Wang from Xiangtan University in China. They will be at WSU for 1 year.
- March 2015 – Welcome visiting scholar, Dr. Moon il Kim from Pusan National University from South Korea, who will be with us for 6 months working on pyrolysis oil steam reforming.
- February 2015 – Congratulations to Yan Li and Rebecca A.L. Baylon for receiving the Kokes Award. They will receive a travel award for attending the North American Catalysis Meeting in Pittsburgh, PA in June this year.
- January 2015 – Jamie Holladay’s paper, “A Review of Recent Advances in Numerical Simulations of Microscale Fuel Processor for Hydrogen Production,” was accepted to the Journal of Power Sources.
- January 2015 – Congratulations to Zhehao Wei for successfully passing his final oral defense exam. All the best, Zhehao!
- January 2015 – Welcome new PhD students, Nicholas Jaegers and Berlin Sudduth, to the group!
- January 2015 – Welcome new Masters student, James Song, to the group!
- Office of Science Website: “New Catalyst Could Improve Biofuels Production” – (science.energy.gov under University Research News)
- Seattle PI: “New Catalyst Could Mean Cheaper Biofuels Production” – (http://www.seattlepi.com/default/article/New-Catalyst-Could-Mean-Cheaper-Biofuels-5837511.php)
- Reddit – (http://www.reddit.com/r/science/new/)
- PNNL Currents scientific newsletter
- PNNL website – (http://iic.pnnl.gov/)
- WSU News – (https://news.wsu.edu/2014/10/15/new-catalyst-could-improve-biofuels-production/#.VH-gVjHF-T8)
- November 2014 – Changjun Liu’s review article, “Catalytic fast pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass” was published in ChemSoc Rev and was selected as the inside cover of November’s issue.
- November 2014 – Congratulations to Yan Li for receiving a 2014 AIChE Catalysis and Reaction Engineering (CRE) Travel Award! She will be attending the AIChE conference from Nov. 16–21st.
- October 2014 – Yongchun Hong’s ACS Catalysis paper was selected for the cover of October’s issue.
- September 2014 – Congratulations to Dr. Yong Wang on co-editing a special issue of Catalysis Today. (http://iic.pnnl.gov/highlights/highlight.asp?id=3788)
- September 2014 – Welcome new PhD students, Xavier Isidro Pereira-Hernandez and Ye Tian, to join our group!
- July 2014 – A research paper entitled “Synergistic Catalysis between Pd and Fe in Gas Phase Hydrodeoxygenation of m-Cresol” by Yongchun Hong et al. was published in ACS Catalysis.
- July 2014 – A research paper entitled “New insights into reaction mechanisms of ethanol steam reforming on Co-ZrO2” by Dr. Junming Sun et al. was published in Applied Catalysis B: Environmental.
- July 2014 – Congratulations to Rebecca Long and Zizwe Chase for successfully passing their prelim examinations.
- June 2014 – A research paper entitled “Influence of ZnO Facets on Pd/ZnO Catalysts for Methanol Steam Reforming” by Dr. Helen Zhang et al. was published in ACS Catalysis.
- June 2014 – A research paper entitled “Effects of CeO2 support facets on VOx/CeO2 catalysts in oxidative dehydrogenation of methanol” by Yan Li et al. was published in Journal of Catalysis.
- March 2014 – A review paper entitled “Supported metal catalysts for alcohol/sugar alcohol steam reforming” by Stephen Davidson et al. was published in Dalton Transactions.
- January 2014 – Welcome the new PhD graduate student, Md. Mahfuzur Rahman, to join our group!
- November 2013 – Congratulations to Karthi Ramasamy for successfully definding his PhD’s thesis.
- October 2013 – Welcome the new PhD graduate, Daniel (Miki) Santosa to our group!
- August 2013 – A research paper entitled “Conversion of biomass-derived small oxygenates over HZSM-5 and its deactivation mechanism” by Karthi Ramasamy, et al, was published in Green Chemistry.
- August 2013 – A research paper entitled “State of Supported Pd during Catalysis in Water” by Zizwe Chase , et al, was published in J. Phy. Chem. C..
- August 2013 – Zhehao Wei won the CRE Travel Award for travel to the AIChE Annual Meeting in San Francisco, November 3rd through 8th, 2013.
- August 2013 – Rebecca Long tied for second place for the ChEGSA Lightning Presentation Competition of WSU on Friday, August 16th 2013.
- August 2013 – Congratulations to Yongchun Hong and Karthi Ramasamy for successfully passing their prelim examinations.
- July 2013 – A research paper entitled “Carbon Supported Bimetallic Pd-Fe Catalysts for Vapor-phase Hydrodeoxygenation of Guaiacol” by Dr. Junming Sun, et al, was published in Journal of Catalysis.
- July 2013 – A research paper entitled “A Study of ZnxZryOz Mixed Oxides for Direct Conversion of Ethanol to Isobutene” by Dr. Changjun Liu, et al, was published in Applied Catalysis A.
- July 2013 – A research paper entitled “Vapor phase ketonization of acetic acid on ceria based metal oxides” by Dr. Changjun Liu, et al, was published in Topics in Catalysis.
- July 2013 – A research paper entitled “Ethanol steam reforming on Co/CeO2: the effect of ZnO promoter” by Stephen Davidson, et al, was published in Topics in Catalysis.
- June 2013 – A research paper entitled “Minimizing the formation of coke and methane on Co nanoparticles in steam reforming of biomass-derived oxygenates” written by Dr. Junming Sun et al is featured as the cover of the 2013 June issue of ChemCatChem. (Cover Picture: Minimizing the Formation of Coke and Methane on Co Nanoparticles in Steam Reforming of Biomass-Derived Oxygenates)
- May 2013 – Welcome the new PhD graduate student, Ning Yu, to join our group!
- May 2013 – Dr. Yong Wang was elected as Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).
- May 2013 – Congratulations to Dr. Junming Sun for winning the “2013 New Faculty Seed Grant” Award. http://informer.ogrd.wsu.edu/RecentFacultyAwards.aspx
- April 2013 – Congratulations to Colin Smith for successfully defending his Master’s thesis.
- March 2013 – Yan Li and Yongchun Hong won Kokes Awards for 23rd North American Catalysis Society Meeting (NAM). http://www.nam23.org/2013_nam_website_006.htm
- March 2013 – Dr. Yong Wang was elected as Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC).
- February 2013 – A research paper entitled “The effect of sodium on the catalytic properties of VOx/CeO2 catalysts for oxidative dehydrogenation of methanol” by Yan Li, et al, was published in J.Phy.Chem.C.
- February 2013 – Zizwe Chase won the William R. Wiley Research Award at the William R. Wiley Graduate Research Exposition at WSU.
- September 2012 – A review paper entitled “Bimetallic nanocatalysts hydrogen generation” by Zhehao Wei, et al, was published in Chem.Soc.Review