Zili Wu

Bio

Dr. Zili Wu is currently the Leader of Surface Chemistry and Catalysis Group (https://www.ornl.gov/division/csd/surface-chemistry) at Chemical Science Division and a Research & Development Staff member at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the Deputy Director of the recently funded DOE Energy EarthShot Research Center (EERC) - Non-equilibrium Energy Transfer for Efficienct Reactions (NEETER), and Thrust 2 Leader in the UNCAGE-ME Center, one of DOE’s Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs). He obtained his PhD in physical chemistry at Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics in 2001 and spent over 3 years at Northwestern University as a postdoctoral associate before joining the staff of ORNL in 2006. He has extensive experiences in heterogeneous catalysis, applied spectroscopy and nanomaterial synthesis. His research interests lie in the fundamental understanding of catalytic active sites on the surfaces and interfaces involved in heterogeneous catalysis, photocatalysis and electrocatalysis, establishing structure-catalysis relationships in catalytic solids as a function of time and space, using in situ and operando characterization methods, and fabricating nanomaterials with well-defined structures. He is an active ACS member and has organized more than 15 ACS Symposia in the area of fundamental catalysis and energy materials.

Awards

2023 ORNL Outstanding Research Output Team Award
2020 ORNL-CNMS Outstanding S&T Accomplishment Award
2019 Excellence in Catalysis Award from the Catalysis Society of Metropolitan New York

Publications