Xiao Wang is a 2022 Canada Student Merit Award winner. He achieved this award for obtaining the highest standing of his class in the fourth and final year of his degree. Here is a brief biography of the winner.
Xiao was originally from China. He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from McGill University in 2022. During his undergraduate studies at McGill, he has learnt to develop a critical thinking mindset through different courses. Meanwhile, his interest in sustainability and energy has driven him to eagerly participate in the research on transforming polluting and energy-intensive processes into green industries.
At McGill, he worked in Prof. Ali Seifitokaldani’s lab as an undergraduate research assistant for more than two years, where he learnt how to perform Density Functional Theory studies and investigated the reaction mechanisms for many reactions. He deemed that computational tools will play an important role in the future for the discovery of multifunctional catalysts for sustainable reactions.
To further join in leading-edge research on converting exhausts such as carbon dioxide to value-added chemicals, he joined the Sargent group at the University of Toronto in the summer of 2021 and after his graduation from McGill. Here, he worked on electrocatalytic carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide reduction reactions to produce green fuels and chemicals. His experience in the Sargent group broadened his view on the technology related to carbon dioxide utilization and deepened his thinking in the future development of green catalysis.
Because of his interest in the research on sustainable reactions, he is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree at Massachusetts Institute of Technology advised by Prof. Yuriy Roman and Prof. Yang Shao-Horn. His current research focuses on plastic upcycling and nitrogen activation.
It is his honor to receive the SCI Canada Student Merit Award. He will continuously pursue his career in research to advance the development of sustainable industrial processes.
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