SEAS Graduate Students Recognized by Chinese Government

Engineering graduate students Shaoshuai Mou, Wenqing Xu, and Xiaokai Li received the 2014 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Students Abroad, which encourages research excellence through recognition of top Chinese Ph.D. students studying abroad. Established in 2003 by the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC), fewer than 500 students worldwide are granted the award each year.

The three Yale honorees represent a diverse set of research interests. Mou, a fourth year electrical engineering doctoral candidate, works in the lab of Dudley Professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science Stephen Morse. Mou’s research focuses on designing algorithms that run on interconnected computer processers, with a particular focus on how the processors “gossip” and reach consensus. Such algorithms can improve the efficiency of how complex computer networks solve distributed problems.

Xu is a fifth year environmental engineering doctoral candidate whose research seeks to understand and remediate the harmful contaminants found in water and soil. Through the application of environmental organic chemistry, Xu aims to engineer natural systems that can restore contaminated sediments, such as removing nitroglycerin residue from the soil of bombing ranges.

Recent graduate Li, who was awarded his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at Yale’s 2014 commencement ceremony, worked in the Transformative Materials & Devices lab with associate professor of chemical & environmental engineering André Taylor. His research focuses on improving the efficiency of silicon solar cells through the use of carbon nanotubes, a process that will make the production of solar cells much cheaper.

Mou, Xu, and Li were among the 30 recipients from their region honored at a ceremony at the Chinese Consulate in New York City on Friday, May 9th. Each student received a certificate from the CSC and a $5,000 scholarship to support their research.