Dr. Jinguang Hu | ALES Visiting Speaker Seminar

This is an ALES and AFNS Visiting Speaker Seminar by Dr. Jinguang Hu. This seminar is open to the general public to attend.

Seminar Title: “Biomass valorization by means of amorphogenesis and morphogenesis.”

Dr. Jinguang Hu – Assistant Professor, Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary

Seminar Abstract: In the same way that oil, coal and gas are composed of finite hydrocarbons, the carbohydrates in sustainably produced biomass found in forests and agricultural crops can be used as the feedstock for sustainably derived products such as bioenergy, biomaterials and biochemical. As a guideline for this development, nature presents enormous variation of examples that can inspire us to integrate engineering and biological sciences to fundamentally change material science, and thus influencing widely our society. During this talk, I will first introduce my previous research experience which has been through biomass amorphogenesis to morphogenesis, with the goals from opening up biomass structure for isolating and valorizing individual components to building up cellulose nanomaterial and proteins composites for improving material performance and engineering novel functionalities, respectively. I will then discuss the current focus of our research group: biomass photoreforming and biological modification of cellulose for energy, environmental, and biomedical applications.