Yuhua Duan, Ph.D., a research physical scientist at NETL, has been named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), a professional society based in the United Kingdom with more than 54,000 members worldwide.

RSC awards the designation of Fellow to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the chemical sciences.

RSC, founded in the UK in 1841, is an internationally renowned not-for-profit publishing and knowledge organization that advances excellence in the chemical sciences. It maintains a reputation as an influential champion for the chemical sciences. RSC partners with industry and academia, advises governments on policy, and promotes the talent, collaboration, innovation, information, and ideas that lead to advances in science.

Duan obtained a B.S. in chemistry, an M.S. in chemical physics, and a Ph.D. in condensed matter of physics from the University of Science and Technology of China. He earned another M.S. in computer engineering from the University of Minnesota. He has also completed two U.S. Department of Energy Leadership Career Development Programs and an Executive Potential Program from Graduate School USA.

His research interests focus on development of technologies for carbon dioxide (CO2) capture, energetic materials that can be applied to batteries and solar cells, exploration of the mechanisms of biological enzyme catalysis and high-temperature gas sensors, and multi-scale modeling of energy systems.

Duan began his career working in the fields of condensed matter of physics, chemical physics, environmental science, and bioinformatics at several international research groups in China, Brazil, Switzerland, and the United States.

He began working at NETL as a contractor scientist in October 2005. He developed a theoretical methodology to identify and design sorbents for CO2 capture applications and theoretical studies of high-temperature gas sensor material mechanisms. Duan began his federal career as a physical scientist in 2010.

His research accomplishments include the development of sorbents for gas separation technologies and energetic materials for novel batteries and fuel cells, sensors for harsh environmental applications, multi-scale modeling of energy systems, and quantum information science (QIS) application to energy-related research and technology development.

Duan’s expertise and interest span both atomistic scale simulations with machine learning techniques and multi-scale modeling of materials and processes applied to energy technologies. He has also established broad collaborations with in-house scientists and internationally recognized experts in the field of fossil energy.

He has secured external funding to research functional materials for broad energy-related applications. He has authored/co-authored more than 155 peer-reviewed papers that were published in leading scientific journals, 11 book chapters, 17 technical reports, and more than 50 articles for a range of conference proceedings.

Duan has given/co-given more than 160 oral and poster presentations at various scientific conferences and institutions. Currently, he leads NETL’s Quantum for Energy Systems & Technologies (QUEST) work group to develop quantum sensing and quantum computing capabilities.

As an active researcher, Duan serves as editor-in-chief of Micro and Nanosystems, and associate editor of AIP Advances, IET Quantum Communications, and Science Letters Journal.

Duan won a Federal Executive Board Excellence in Government Silver Award in 2016, Parsons and NETL On-the-Spot Awards in 2009, 2011, 2017-2022, and is listed among the top 2% of scientists worldwide both for career-long impact and for single-year impact (2020-2023).

NETL drives innovation and delivers technological solutions for an environmentally sustainable and prosperous energy future. By using its world-class talent and research facilities, NETL is ensuring affordable, abundant, and reliable energy that drives a robust economy and national security, while developing technologies to manage carbon across the full life cycle, enabling environmental sustainability for all Americans.