Dr. Liangbing Hu is the Carol and Douglas Melamed Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering & Materials Science at Yale University, where he also serves as the founding director of the Yale Center for Materials Innovation. He joined Yale’s faculty in July 2024 after serving as a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Dr. Hu’s research group specializes in materials innovation, device integration, and advanced manufacturing, with current projects in electrified ultrahigh-temperature synthesis, next-generation energy storage beyond lithium-ion, and novel wood nanotechnologies.
He has authored ~ 500 peer-reviewed publications, including more than 10 articles in Science and Nature, with an h-index of 200. His work has been recognized with several prestigious awards, including the ACS Anselme Payen Award, the MRS Medal, five R&D 100 Awards, and the Nature Spinoff Prize. He is a Fellow of the Materials Research Society (MRS) and the American Chemical Society (ACS).
Dr. Hu earned a B.S. in Physics from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2002 and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2007. Based on his doctoral research on carbon nanotube thin films, he became a founding scientist at Unidym, a Silicon Valley startup specializing in printed electronics. From 2009 to 2011, Dr. Hu completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University. In 2011, he joined the University of Maryland, where he launched his independent academic career.
List of Awards
- 2026 R&D 100 Winner, Electrified Plastic Pyrolysis Reactor (EPPR) for Jet Fuel and Diesel Production
- 2026 Member, the European Academy of Engineering
- 2026 Ackerman Teaching and Mentoring Award, Yale University
- 2025 MRS Medal
- 2025 R&D 100 Winner, Uniform, ultrahigh-temperature, stable plasma apparatus
- 2025 Fellow, American Chemical Society
- 2025 The Anselme Payen Award (ACS)
- 2024 The HUJI Nano center Dan Maydan prize for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
- 2023 Distinguished University Professor
- 2022 R&D 100 Winner, Expanded Cellulose Super Ion Conductor
- 2022 Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry Nano Technical Award
- 2022 American Chemical Society Energy & Fuels (ENFL) Research Excellence Award in Electrochemical Energy Storage
- 2021 Kirwan Faculty Research and Scholarship Prize
- 2021 Nature Spinoff Prize by Nature
- 2021 R&D 100 Winner, ultrafast high-temperature sintering (UHS)
- 2021 Distinguished Scholar-Teacher Award
- 2021 Materials Research Society (MRS) Fellow
- 2020 Board of Regents Faculty Award, University of Maryland
- 2020 R&D 100 Winner, High Entropy Alloy Catalysts
- 2020 Herbert Rabin Distinguished Professor, University of Maryland College Park
- 2019 Young Innovator Award, Wiley-Small
- 2019 Minta Martin Professor of Engineering, University of Maryland
- 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists Honoree
- 2019 TAPPI Nano Middle Career Award
- 2019 Exemplary Research Recognition (the only one in the engineering school of UMD)
- 2018 2019 Young Innovator Award in NanoEnergy, Journal of Nano Research
- 2018 R&D 100 Winner, Super Wood: Stronger and Lighter Than Steel
- 2018 HIVE 50 Innovator (Innovator Transforming Housing)
- 2018 Henry J.E. Reid Award (NASA Langley)
- 2017 The 2018 Highly Cited Researchers list by Clarivate Analytics
- 2017 ACS Nano Letter Young Investigator
- 2017 KINGFA Young Investigator Award, ACS Division of Cellulose and Renewable Materials
- 2016 Energy Ideas to Change the World by DOE ARPA-E
- 2016 Emerging Investigator Award, ACS Division of Energy and Fuel
- 2016 ONR Young Investigator Award
- 2013 Air Force Young Investigator Award (AFOSR YIP)