Professor Gao is teaching CHE 205, Chemical Process Principles, the first core course of the chemical engineering curriculum, to sophomores this year

teaching

Yuxin joins the SuPER Lab as a PhD student from Virginia Tech. Welcome, Yuxin!

people

Professor Gao gave an invited seminar at the Department of Chemistry, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, South Korea

talkseminar

Professor Gao gave a talk at the ACS Northwest Regional Meeting (NORM 2026), Boise, ID, on "Transition metal halide complexation and metal deposition reactivity in aqueous electrolytes"

talkconference

Professor Gao attended the NIST Artificial Intelligence for Materials Science (AIMS) 2026 workshop, Gaithersburg, MD

meeting

Jaemin joins the SuPER Lab as a postdoctoral researcher from WPI. Welcome, Jaemin!

people

Santhana joins the SuPER Lab from Wayne State University. Welcome, Santhana!

people

Professor Gao gave an invited talk at the MRS Spring Meeting, Honolulu, HI, on "Transition metal halide complexation and the reactivity of metal deposition in aqueous electrolytes"

talkconference

Professor Gao gave a research seminar at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, on "Control charge transfer reactions for electrochemical energy storage and separation"

talkseminar

Jaydip joins the SuPER Lab from the Chemistry department. Welcome, Jaydip!

people

Professor Gao gave the Separation Seminar at the U of Utah Chemistry department, Salt Lake City, UT, on "Control charge transfer reactions and flow for electrochemical separation"

talkseminar

Professor Gao gave a guest lecture in the U of Utah Sustainability course, Salt Lake City, UT

talk

Professor Gao gave a research seminar at Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, on "Understand and control charge transfer reactions for electrochemical energy and manufacturing"

talkseminar

Professor Gao gave the ARCS seminar, Salt Lake City, UT, on "Iron metal battery for grid-scale energy storage"

talkseminar

Professor Gao gave a research seminar at the Departments of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering, Penn State University, State College, PA, on "Understand and control charge transfer reactions for electrochemical energy and manufacturing"

talkseminar

Professor Gao gave a research seminar at the School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, Indianapolis, IN, on "Understand and control charge transfer reactions for electrochemical energy and manufacturing"

talkseminar

Professor Gao gave a research seminar at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, on "Understand and control charge transfer reactions for electrochemical energy and processing"

talkseminar

Professor Gao gave a research seminar at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, NC State University, Raleigh, NC, on "Understand and control charge transfer reactions for electrochemical energy and processing"

talkseminar

Professor Gao presented a poster at the Gordon Research Conference on Electrochemistry, Ventura, CA

talkconference

Professor Gao gave a research seminar at the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN, on "Understand charge transfer reactions in electrochemical energy storage and processing systems"

talkseminar

Thomas Webb joins the lab as a graduate research assistant

people

Professor Gao gave a 15-minute talk at the AIChE Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, on "Thermodynamics of transition metal deposition in concentrated electrolytes: experiment and theory"

talkconference

Professor Gao gave a graduate seminar at the Department of Chemical Engineering, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA, on "Understand charge transfer reactions in electrochemical energy storage and processing systems"

talkseminar

Professor Gao gave talks at the ECS Fall Meeting, Chicago, IL, on "High-efficiency low-temperature electrolytic ironmaking in acidic environment" and on "Metal-chloride complexation and its effect on the thermodynamics and transport of aqueous electrolytes"

talkconference

Xzavier, Andrew, and Alexandra join the lab as undergraduate researchers

people

Jing's paper on electrolytic ironmaking published in Electrochimica Acta

paper

Induja joins the lab as a graduate research assistant from CECRI, India

people

Professor Gao gave an invited talk at the Utah Electrochemistry Symposium, Salt Lake City, UT, on "Iron electro-deposition in concentrated aqueous electrolytes: applications, mechanisms and theory"

talkconference

Professor Gao receives the NSF CAREER Award to study the electro-reduction of Fe ions and oxides in aqueous electrolytes

$550K from NSF to study Fe electro-reduction in aqueous electrolytes — foundational chemistry for green ironmaking and Fe metal batteries.

grantnsfcareer

Professor Gao gave a research seminar at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, MA, on "Physical insights into critical phenomena in electrochemical systems for next-generation energy storage and beyond"

talkseminar

Yueyang joins the lab as a summer research intern from the University of Pennsylvania

people

Yana Qin featured as a student innovator by the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute for her low-cost battery work

recognition

Professor Gao gave an invited talk in the 'Advances in Electrochemistry' symposium at the ACS Spring Meeting, San Diego, CA, on "Iron redox chemistry in concentrated aqueous electrolytes: applications, mechanisms and theory"

talkconference

The lab launches an Army SBIR project on wide-temperature Li-ion battery electrolytes

grantdod

Faezeh joins the lab as a visiting scholar from Italy

people

Professor Gao gave an invited talk at the Electronic Materials and Applications Meeting, Denver, CO, on "Iron redox chemistry in concentrated aqueous electrolytes: applications, mechanisms and theory"

talkconference

Co-invented patent on electrochemical separation of radionuclides in wastewater is granted

patent

DOE awards the lab a project to develop a sustainable lithium-production process from Utah brine

grantdoe

Yana Qin successfully defended her PhD proposal on electrolyte engineering for low-cost energy storage

milestone

Sreedeep Sreekumar joins the lab as a postdoctoral researcher

people

First patent on lithium extraction is published

patent

First patent on sustainable ironmaking is published

patent

Professor Gao receives Highly Cited Researcher recognition by Clarivate for cross-field research

recognition

Professor Gao gave a talk at the Materials Science & Technology (MS&T) 2024 meeting, Pittsburgh, PA, on "Iron (Fe) redox chemistry in acidic anion-rich electrolytes: fundamental discovery and ironmaking application"

talkconference

The lab kicks off a 1U4U Future of Sustainability Seed Grant on ion-conductive membranes for industrial electrochemical production

grant

Professor Gao gave a talk at the International Battery Materials Association (IBMA) meeting, Halifax, Canada

talkconference

Professor Gao gave a graduate seminar at the U of Utah Chemical Engineering department, Salt Lake City, UT, on "Iron (Fe) redox chemistry in anion-rich electrolytes: fundamental discovery and decarbonization applications"

talkseminar

Professor Gao attended the DOE FECM Carbon Management Project Review meeting

talkreview

Professor Gao gave an invited virtual talk at the TASME 2024 conference (online) on "Carboxylate ester-based electrolytes for Na-ion batteries"

talkconference

First sustainable-ironmaking manuscript by Jing posted on ChemRxiv

paper

U of Utah Faculty Small Grant Program funding for Na-ion battery research

grant

Yana's first paper on Na-ion batteries published in Chemical Science

paper

Professor Gao attended the DOE FECM Spring Project Review meeting

talkreview

Energy Accelerator Program seed grant for fast-charging and low-temperature Li-ion batteries

grant

Professor Gao recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate (2023)

recognition

Professor Gao gave a graduate seminar at the University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, on "Electrochemical energy storage for grid and transportation: is electrolyte a solution?"

talkseminar

Professor Gao gave a seminar at the Bazant group, MIT, Cambridge, MA, on "Lithium deposition on graphite, Si and Cu in carbonate electrolytes"

talkseminar

Professor Gao gave a talk at the AIChE Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL, on "Aqueous electrolytes for iron batteries"

talkconference

Professor Gao gave an online graduate seminar at New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, on "Li-ion batteries: state-of-the-art, challenges and the future"

talkseminar

Lab members attended the ACS Rocky Mountain Regional Meeting in Laramie, WY

talkconference

Professor Gao receives the Emerging Investigator Award from Journal of Materials Chemistry A (RSC)

recognitionrsc

Professor Gao gave a graduate seminar at the U of Utah Chemical Engineering department, Salt Lake City, UT, on "Li-ion batteries: state-of-the-art, challenges and the future"

talkseminar

Zach's paper on single-oxygen-linear-ether (SOLE) electrolytes accepted by Journal of Materials Chemistry A

paper

The lab is awarded a DOE STTR grant to develop technology for making green steel

grantdoe

Professor Gao gave a talk at MRS-Singapore, Singapore, on "Li-ion battery electrolytes and aqueous electrolytes for iron batteries"

talkconference

NSF grant awarded to study electrolyte design for Mg-organic redox flow batteries

grantnsf

Professor Gao attended the DOE AMMTO and IEDO Annual Peer Review meeting

talkreview

Hannah, Thomas, and Seong-Gyu join the lab as undergraduate researchers

people

Professor Gao gave a 15-minute talk at the MRS Spring Meeting, San Francisco, CA, on "Li deposition mechanism: a perspective by combining imaging with theoretical analysis"

talkconference

U of Utah College of Engineering seed grant for novel acid-in-clay proton membrane development

grant

Professor Gao chaired the symposium 'Materials, Mechanisms and Methods in Battery Technology' at the ACS Spring Meeting, Indianapolis, IN, and gave invited talks on "Aqueous electrolytes for Fe metal batteries" and on "Li deposition mechanism: a perspective gained by combining imaging with theoretical analysis"

talkserviceconference

Partnership with NexGen Materials on lithium extraction process development

industry

Jing Liu awarded a competitive Graduate Research Fellowship

recognition

Zach (Zongjian) joins the lab as a PhD student

people

Professor Gao recognized as a 2022 Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate

recognition

Professor Gao recognized as a 2022 Rising Star of Science by Research.com

recognition

Professor Gao gave an invited talk at the ECS Fall Meeting, Atlanta, GA, on "Electrolytes for fast-charging Li-ion batteries" and a talk on "Li deposition mechanism: a perspective by combining imaging with theoretical analysis"

talkconference

Professor Gao gave an invited talk at the Telluride Science Workshop, Telluride, CO, on "Understand and design aqueous electrolytes for iron metal batteries"

talkconference

Professor Gao gave a graduate seminar at the U of Utah Materials Science & Engineering department, Salt Lake City, UT

talkseminar

Professor Gao receives the ACS Energy & Fuels Division Early Career Scientist Award

recognitionacs

Professor Gao chaired the symposium 'Electrolytes and cathode materials for rechargeable metal batteries' at the ACS Fall Meeting, Chicago, IL, and gave invited talks on "Li deposition mechanism: a perspective by combining imaging with theoretical analysis" and on fast-charging Li-ion electrolytes

talkserviceconference

Professor Gao chaired the symposium 'Materials and Mechanisms in Electrochemical Energy Storage' at the ACS Spring Meeting, San Diego, CA, and gave an invited talk on "Understanding Li deposition mechanism on graphite, silicon and copper for Li-ion and Li metal batteries"

talkserviceconference

Yana (Yunan) joins the lab as a PhD student

people

Professor Gao gave a virtual talk at the 72nd ISE Annual Meeting, Korea (virtual)

talkconference

Jing joins the lab as a PhD student

people

Professor Gao gave a talk at the ECS Spring Meeting (virtual) on "Lithium plating on graphite"

talkconference

Professor Gao gave a group seminar at the Xiaofeng Qian group, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX

talkseminar

SuPER Lab is founded

milestone

Professor Gao gave a group seminar at the Minteer group, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT

talkseminar

Professor Gao gave a graduate seminar at the University of Utah Chemical Engineering department, Salt Lake City, UT

talkseminar

Professor Gao gave a graduate seminar at Brigham Young University, Provo, UT

talkseminar

Tao Gao joins the University of Utah as an assistant professor in Chemical Engineering

milestone

Professor Gao presented a poster at the Toyota Research Institute AMDD meeting (virtual) on x-ray and neutron imaging of graphite electrodes

talkconference

Professor Gao gave a research seminar at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD

talkseminar

Professor Gao gave a virtual talk at the StorageX Symposium, Stanford University, Stanford, CA

talkconference

Professor Gao gave a virtual talk at the ECS Fall Meeting 2020 (virtual)

talkconference

Professor Gao gave a virtual talk at the ISE Annual Meeting 2020 (virtual)

talkconference

Professor Gao gave a 15-minute talk at the AIChE Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL, on "Active control of viscous fingering using electric fields"

talkconference

Professor Gao presented a poster at the ELKIN Conference, Eilat, Israel, on "Active control of viscous fingering using electric fields"

talkconference

Professor Gao gave a talk at the International Meeting on Lithium Batteries (IMLB), Kyoto, Japan

talkconference

Professor Gao gave a research seminar at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

talkseminar

Professor Gao gave a 15-minute talk at the AIChE Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA, on "Active control of viscous fingering using electric fields"

talkconference

Professor Gao gave a 2-minute soundbite at the Northeast Electrochemistry Forum (NECF), Cambridge, MA, on active control of viscous fingering

talkconference

Professor Gao gave a talk at the ECS Fall Meeting, National Harbor, MD, on metal-sulfur battery chemistry

talkconference

Professor Gao gave a seminar at the Bazant group, MIT, Cambridge, MA

talkseminar

Professor Gao gave a talk at the MRS Spring Meeting, Phoenix, AZ, on metal-sulfur battery chemistry

talkconference

Professor Gao gave a talk at the ISE Annual Meeting

talkconference