The Welch Foundation Announces 2025 Norman Hackerman Award Recipient
Dr. Haotian Wang recognized for pioneering contributions to electrocatalysis that enable a sustainable world
Houston, TX—DECEMBER 4, 2024—The Welch Foundation, one of the nation’s largest sources of private funding for basic chemistry research, has awarded the 2025 Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research to Dr. Haotian Wang for his exceptionally creative research on carbon dioxide (CO2) electrochemistry. His groundbreaking work enables sustainable energy solutions by leveraging the catalyst-electrolyte interface to efficiently capture and convert CO2 into high-value chemicals and fuels.
“Dr. Wang’s use of electrochemistry to close the carbon cycle and develop renewable sources of industrial chemicals directly intersects with the Welch Foundation mission of advancing chemistry while improving life,” said Fred Brazelton, Chair and Director of The Welch Foundation. “We are proud to recognize his creativity and productivity by selecting him as this year’s recipient of the Hackerman Award.”
Dr. Wang is an associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice University. The Wang Group—also called the “CAT” Group, a reference to his love of both cats and catalysis—studies fundamental reactions to develop novel nanomaterials and electrolyzers for energy and environmental applications, including energy storage, chemical and fuel generation, green synthesis and water treatment.
Electrifying Chemical Engineering for Sustainability
Dr. Wang’s studies have laid a robust foundation for a broad range of practical applications, including electrochemical carbon capture, carbon conversion and the electrosynthesis of clean fuels and chemicals.
His group was among the first to report how dispersed atoms of transition-metal catalysts show nearly 100% selectivity for CO2 reduction, unlike bulk or nanosized catalysts, which perform poorly. By dispersing metal catalysts as single atoms on substrates like carbon materials, Dr. Wang’s group achieved electrochemical CO2 conversion using less energy, at a lower cost and with fewer steps than conventional methods.
Dr. Wang also engineered a revolutionary porous solid-electrolyte reactor for continuous and direct CO2 reduction into pure liquid fuels at industrially relevant reaction rates, potentially reducing the electrochemical-synthesis costs by up to 80% by rendering the product purification steps redundant. He then extended his research using the reactor to continuous and direct carbon capture (published in Nature), sparking dynamic research in CO2 electrolysis and opening new opportunities to combat climate change.
Using the porous solid-electrolyte reactor, Dr. Wang also produced other key chemicals in a scalable, sustainable and economical way. For example, he synthesized hydrogen peroxide in the reactor using only air, electricity and water. Conventional synthesis methods require an energy-intensive, costly purification step, which the design of the reactor successfully eliminated.
“Dr. Wang’s extensive body of work and rigorous pursuit of efficient electrochemical solutions to practical problems set him apart as a top innovator among early-career researchers,” said Catherine J. Murphy, Chair of The Welch Foundation Scientific Advisory Board. “The Norman Hackerman Award recognizes rising stars in chemical research, and we look forward to watching Dr. Wang continue to shine brightly for many years to come.”
Propelling Economic Value in Decarbonizing Fuels and Chemicals
Dr. Wang is committed to translating his research into practical applications. He co-founded a startup, Solidec, Inc., in 2023 to scale up his innovations in low-carbon fuels, carbon-negative hydrogen and carbon-neutral peroxide from the lab scale to the commercial scale—proving the economic viability of a sustainable future. The company has been selected for the Chevron Technology Ventures’ catalyst program, a Rice One Small Step grant, a U.S. Department of Energy SBIR grant, and for the first cohort of the Activate Houston program.
This pursuit of impact—designing fundamental research questions to solve practical problems—defines Dr. Wang’s approach. Born in a small town in China, Dr. Wang earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Physics at the University of Science and Technology of China in 2011. He then chose Stanford University for his doctoral studies because he wanted to be at the cutting edge of research while also experiencing more of the world. Once there, he targeted renewable energy technologies as an exciting field where he could make an immediate impact. During his PhD studies, he showed early promise, creating novel catalysts. He also opened a new, interdisciplinary direction in electrocatalysis when he developed an electrochemical tuning technique for efficient catalysts inspired by lithium-ion battery studies. He obtained his PhD degree from the Department of Applied Physics at Stanford University in 2016, when he also received a Rowland Fellowship to begin his independent research career at Harvard University as a principal investigator. In 2019, he joined the faculty at Rice University.
“Dr. Wang has an exceptional ability to translate fundamental chemistry into marketable solutions and possible pathways to a product. Haotian is using the power of chemistry to prove CO2 capture can work at scale,” said Dr. Ramamoorthy Ramesh, Executive Vice President for Research at Rice University. “We are proud to have him at Rice. He’s using chemical engineering to solve a big problem for humanity, everything that the Welch Foundation stands for.”
Dr. Wang’s research excellence is underscored by numerous accolades, including the 2024 inaugural AAASE Rising Star Award, 2023 AIChE 35 Under 35, 2022 Hershel M. Rich Invention Award, 2021 Sloan Fellow, 2020 Packard Fellow, 2019 CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar and 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30. He has filed over 10 patents, published in Nature, Science and several Nature-family journals, and has been designated a Highly Cited Researcher every year since 2018.
The Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research
The Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research was established by The Welch Foundation to honor Norman Hackerman, its Scientific Advisory Board chair from 1982 to 2006. The award recognizes the accomplishments of chemical scientists in Texas who are early in their careers and dedicated to increasing our fundamental understanding of chemistry. Upon accepting the award, Dr. Wang will receive $100,000, as well as a bronze sculpture to commemorate the occasion.
Since 1954, the Houston-based Welch Foundation has contributed over $1.1 billion to the advancement of chemistry through individual research grants, departmental research and equipment grants, endowed chairs, program grants, collaborative pilot grants and support for other chemistry-related programs in Texas. For more information about the Foundation and a list of previous Hackerman Award recipients, please visit www.welch1.org.
###
PR Contact
Laura Jones, Dancie Perugini Ware Public Relations
ljones@dpwpr.com
713-224-9115