Personal Statement
Dr. Xue Yong received her Ph.D. in the Department of Physics at the University of Saskatchewan in 2016. Subsequently, she joined the Institute of High-Performance Computing, A*STAR, Singapore, where she served as a Scientist I from 2017 to 2019. In 2019, following the receipt of a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Postdoctoral Fellowship, she relocated to the University of Calgary. Dr. Yong was awarded a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship and commenced at the University of Sheffield in 2023.

In 2024, she joined the Department of Electrical Engineering & Electronics at the University of Liverpool with her Early Career Fellowship and was appointed as a lecturer. Her research group primarily focuses on the computational design of novel functional materials for energy applications, with a specific emphasis on energy conversion, energy storage, and plasma/electrochemical catalysts for small molecular conversions of CO2, H2O, and N2.

Research Overview
Computational design of novel catalysts and materials for energy conversion and storage using density functional theory (DFT), molecular dynamics simulations, and machine learning for:

1. Plasma catalysis toward CO₂/NOₓ/biomass conversion.
2. Electrocatalysis for CO₂/NOₓ/biomass conversion.
3. Direct air CO₂ capture.
4. Sustainable aviation fuel properties pre-screening.
5. Functional materials: Carbon nano dots, quantum materials, thermoelectric materials, and superconductors.