People

Principal Investigator

Yuan Yao, PhD

Associate Professor of Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Systems

Yale School of the Environment

Chemical & Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering & Applied Science

Download CV

Postdoctoral Scholars

Bingquan Zhang

Postdoctoral Scholar, Yale School of the Enviroment

Ph.D. in Bioenergy System Analysis, University of Groningen, Netherlands 

M.S in Plant Science, China Agricultural University, China

B.S. in Seed Science and Engineering, Shandong Agricultural University, China 

 
Zhengyin Piao
 
Postdoctoral Scholar, Yale School of the Environment
 

Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

M.S in Metallurgical Engineering, RWTH Aachen, Germany

B.E. in Metallurgical Engineering, University of Science and Technology, Beijing, China

Amit N. Shocron (Co-advised with Prof. Menachem Elimelech)
 
Postdoctoral Scholar, Yale School of the Environment & Chemical and Environmental Engineering
 

Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Israel

M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Israel

B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Israel

Students

Hannah Wang 

PhD student, Yale School of the Environment

Visiting scholar in Statistics, University of Wisconsin-Madison

M.S in Forestry & Resource conservation (Biomaterial group), National Taiwan University

B.S in Psychology and Forestry & Resource conservation, National Taiwan University

Jennifer Kroeger
 

PhD Student, Yale School of the Environment

NSF Graduate Research Fellow

Baccalaureate Fellow, Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI)

B.A. in Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences from Rice University

Amma Asantewaa, Agyei Boakye

Ph.D. Student, Yale School of the Environment 

MEM, Yale School of the Environment

B.Sc. Chemical Engineering, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology 

Youyi Xu

PhD student, Yale School of the Environment

Visiting scholar in Duke Marine Laboratory

M.S. in International and Public Affairs (Energy & Environment), Columbia University

B.S in Environmental Science, Tianjin University

Mochen Liao

PhD student, Yale School of the Environment

M.S. Forest Biomaterials, North Carolina State University

B.S. Applied Chemistry, South China University of Technology

Emma Hansen 

Visiting Assistant in Research, Yale School of the Environment

M.Sc. Environmental Engineering in Resource Management, ETH Zurich Switzerland

B.Sc. Environmental Engineering, ETH Zurich Switzerland

Alumni:

  • Fan Yang, Postdoctoral Scholar (2023-2025). Research Engineer, China National Offshore Oil Corporation
  • Konstantina Vasilakou, Visiting PhD student (2024). PhD student, University of Antwerp
  • Tessa Lee, MESc student (2021-2023), Postgraduate Associate (2023-2024). Analyst, Industrial Economics
  • Kai Lan, Postdoctoral Scholar (2021-2023), PhD student at NCSU (2017-2020). Assistant Professor, NC State University
  • Rodrigo Buitrago, PhD student at NCSU (2018-2023). Postdoctoral Fellow, Argonne National Laboratory
  • Darlene Echeverria, PhD student at NCSU (2018 - 2022), Master student at NCSU (2017-2018). Advanced Chemical Engineer, Circular Economy Integration Team, Eastman
  • Zhenzhen Zhang, PhD student at NCSU (2017-2021). Data Scientist, Revibe.
  • Na Wu, Postdoctoral Scholar (2021-2023). Research Assistant Professor, Zhejiang University
  • Hardik Pokhrel, Research Assistant (2020-2021). Associate, Sol Systems. 
  • Meghana Kharod, Research Assistant (2020-2022). Associate Consultant, WSP USA

Group Photos

 2025 Celebration Dinner -  Amma passed PhD qualifying exam and welcome to our new Postdoc Amit Shocron and visiting student Emma Hansen!

2025 Spring Gathering BBQ & Hotpot 

2024 Fall Gathering Dinner

2024 GRC Industrial Ecology Conference in Switzerland

2024 End of Semester Celebration 

2024 Spring Party to Welcome Our Visiting Student Konstantina Vasilakou

2023 Celebration Dinner - Kai will join NCSU as an Assistant Professor and Hannah passed PhD qualifying exam!

2023 Fall Semester Gathering 

Yao Lab at ISIE Leiden, 2023 Summer

2023 Summer Hike

2023 Spring End of Semester Celebration 

2022 Fall Holiday Dinner

2022 Welcome new members and fall semester dinner

2022 Summer GRC Conference

GRC Conference 2022   

2022 Summer BBQ

2021 Holiday Dinner