Yayuan Liu, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering with a secondary appointment in materials science, has been selected to the class of 2023 Packard Fellows for Science and Engineering by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

As the nation’s largest nongovernmental research fellowship, the Packard Fellowship is designed to support creative and innovative lines of research by early career scientists. Liu, who was recently named to 2023’s MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators Under 35 list for groundbreaking research focused on significantly reducing carbon emissions through innovative electrochemical processes, is one of 20 nationwide to receive the prestigious award, which is accompanied by a grant of $875,000 over five years.

“It’s a special honor to join the Packard community and I am grateful for the generous support from the foundation,” said Liu, also a researcher at the Whiting School of Engineering’s Ralph O’Connor Sustainable Energy Institute. “The flexible funding will allow my lab to think big and do some interesting, risky research for energy and sustainability.”

Liu adds this fellowship to a growing list of recognition, including a National Science Foundation Early CAREER Award, young investigator awards from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation and The Electrochemical Society, and inclusion on Clarivate Analytics’ annual list of Highly Cited Researchers.

Since its founding, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation has awarded fellowships to 17 scientists and engineers (including, this year, Liu) affiliated with Johns Hopkins.

Liu earned her bachelor’s degree in materials science and engineering in 2014 from Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), her PhD in 2019 from Stanford, and completed her postdoctoral training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

This story was written by Jonathan Deutschman and originally appeared in the Hub.