Mengyao Yuan

Mengyao is a third-year PhD student in the Department of Energy Resources Engineering at Stanford University. Her research focuses on the development of a nitrogen-selective membrane technology with potential applications in carbon capture from power plants. On the microscopic level, Mengyao investigates the behavior of the membrane materials under real flue gas conditions using a variety of material characterization techniques. On the macroscopic level, she performs process modeling and optimization to assess the techno-economic feasibility of the nitrogen-selective membrane as well as the broader concept of nitrogen selectivity for carbon capture.

Mengyao holds a BEng in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Humanities from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and an MS in Environmental Engineering and Science from Stanford. Her technical knowledge and skills have allowed her to combine her professional interests with traveling. Mengyao has worked as a research intern on metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) at the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in Taiwan and as an R&D intern on lifecycle assessment (LCA) for Carbon Recycling International in Iceland. More recently, she worked as a MAP Sustainable Energy Fellow (now the Schneider Fellows) at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in Beijing, where she was part of the Energy Efficiency team and contributed to a report assessing the potential of integrating electric vehicles with demand-side management (DSM) and renewable energy in selected cities in China.

An engineer by training, Mengyao is interested in an integrative approach to energy and environmental issues and seeks to extend her experience beyond science and technology. One of her most recent non-engineering endeavors is serving as an editor and later the editor-in-chief of the Stanford Energy Journal. Run by an amazing team of likeminded Stanford students and scholars, the journal strives to inform the general public of pressing issues in energy and the environment and has achieved a worldwide readership.