Richard Farmer's Daily Email Briefing

ACCESS BACK ISSUES
HERE

NEWS AND VIEWS
Australia

Other Countries

Professor Gaoqing (Max) Lu

Project : Band-gap engineered visible light photocatalysts: Enabling technologies for sustainable energy and the environment.

Current institution : The University of Queensland .

Host institution : The University of Queensland .

Primary research field : Interdisciplinary engineering.

Professor Lu is Chair of Nanotechnology in Chemical Engineering at The University of Queensland and Research Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Functional Nanomaterials.

His research program has the potential to transform Australia 's energy and environmental industries and to speed up our transition from a fossil fuel economy to a renewable energy economy. Professor Lu's goal, to develop a new class of photocatalysts with high visible light activity, could lead to cost effective solar energy conversion to electricity or hydrogen, and the development of efficient processes for water purification or carbon dioxide conversion to liquid fuels.

Professor Lu is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and has served as a member of the ARC College of Experts. He has also been a member of two Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council working groups, playing a key role in developing the National Nanotechnology Strategy.

The recipient of several awards, Professor Lu has been honoured most recently with the 2007 Exxon Mobil Award , the Royal Australian Chemical Institute R.K. Murphy Medal in 2003, the Australian Academy of Science Le Fevre Prize in 2002, the Orica Award for Excellence in Chemical Engineering in 2001 and the International Union of Materials Research Societies Young Scientist Award in 1997.

This is his second Federation Fellowship .