Student Spotlight: Yuanxing Liu

In this edition of our student spotlight, we feature Yuanxing Liu, whose research advances safety-aware process monitoring and control systems for green hydrogen production. Yuanxing has published in leading journals, including AIChE Journal and Chemical Engineering Journal, filed a patent application, and received multiple prestigious awards, including the 2025 Lamiya Zahin Memorial Safety Award and Lee Coleman and Keith Coleman Endowed Chemical Engineering Graduate Fellowship.

What motivates you about your research?

My research is driven by the critical need in our energy transition: making green hydrogen production safe and scalable for industrial deployment. While hydrogen holds immense promise for decarbonization, significant safety barriers prevent widespread adoption. I’m motivated by the opportunity to bridge fundamental science with practical impact. Through developing safety-aware process monitoring and control systems, I combine multiphysics modeling, process optimization, and control, with experimental validation to create solutions that industry can actually implement. What drives me daily is knowing that my work on thermal management and fail-safe protocols directly contributes to accelerating clean energy deployment. The intersection of process safety, advanced control, and sustainable energy represents exactly where meaningful innovation happens, translating academic research into technologies that can help build a more sustainable future.

What is a highlight in your PhD experience and what did you take away from the experience?

Building our experimental PEM electrolysis platform from the ground up stands out as my most rewarding accomplishment. Over two years, I designed the entire system, including custom electronics and real-time data acquisition, then developed closed-loop control algorithms achieving over 99% thermal regulation accuracy. Seeing my theoretical frameworks validated experimentally was incredibly fulfilling. Multiple cross-functional collaborations further taught me that breakthrough research requires both technical depth and strong communication skills. My key takeaway is that impactful research happens at the intersection of rigorous theory and practical validation. Success in graduate school demands growth not just as a researcher, but as a collaborator who can translate complex concepts into solutions that others can build upon and implement.

What advice do you have for current graduate students?

My foremost advice is to always validate your theoretical work with experiments or real-world data. Some of my most valuable learning came from investigating why experimental results differed from my models. Those discrepancies revealed insights no simulation could provide and ultimately strengthened my research credibility with both academic and industry audiences.

Second, think about practical impact from the beginning. Ask yourself who will use your research and how it addresses real problems. My Sanofi internship reinforced this perspective: seeing how modeling guides actual scale-up decisions made me more intentional about ensuring my PhD work has tangible value. Industry partners and funding agencies increasingly seek research that bridges fundamental science with implementation. Finally, remember that graduate school is a marathon. Prioritize your wellbeing alongside your research goals.

Could you tell us about your experience at your internship?

My summer 2024 internship at Sanofi in Cambridge was transformative for understanding how modeling translates to industrial practice. I worked on crystallization scale-up using multiphysics modeling and achieved 95% simulation accuracy through hydrodynamic experimental validation.

This experience taught me that industry values practical, reliable solutions and showed me how to communicate complex technical concepts to diverse professionals. Serving as Ocean Energy Safety Institute membership coordinator for 18 months connected me with industry and academia partners. This role developed my organizational and communication skills while exposing me to diverse safety challenges across the energy sector. Combined with extensive peer review contributions, these experiences taught me that successful researchers actively engage with and support their broader scientific community beyond their own publications.