Elizabeth Bergman, Chair of this year’s award jury, has announced Dr. Feng Jiao of the Department of Energy, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering at Washington University as the winner of the 2026 St. Louis Section ACS Award, recognizing outstanding contributions to chemistry and demonstrated potential to further advance the profession.
Dr. Jiao is internationally recognized for pioneering research on electrochemical devices that address critical challenges in energy storage, sustainable chemical production, and food security. His work focuses on two key areas: electrochemical systems for carbon utilization and novel materials for energy applications. His team developed electrochemical flow reactors that dramatically improve the conversion efficiency of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide into value-added chemicals, far exceeding conventional batch systems. His innovative synthetic methods for nanostructured materials have also opened new possibilities in morphology and composition, advancing the fields of electrocatalysis and electrode materials.
Feng Jiao earned his B.S. in Chemistry from Fudan University (2001) and his Ph.D. from the University of St Andrews, Scotland (2008). Following postdoctoral studies at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, he joined the University of Delaware in 2010 as a professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, rising to Director of the Center for Catalytic Science and Technology (2020) and full Professor (2021). In 2023, he joined Washington University’s Department of Energy, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering to direct the Center for Carbon Management and was named the Lauren and Lee Fiexel Distinguished Professor in 2025.
Dr. Jiao received an NSF CAREER Award (2014) and an Emerging Investigators Award from the Journal of Materials Chemistry A (2020). In 2023, he was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He received the 2025 ACS Energy and Fuels Mid-Career Award and was elected a Fellow of the American Chemical Society that same year. With an H-index of 73, he has published over 128 highly cited peer-reviewed articles in journals including Nature, Nature Chemistry, Nature Catalysis, and Nature Food. Having surpassed 26,000 citations, he was named a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate in 2023–2025. He holds three patents and cofounded the green chemistry company Lectrolyst in 2018.
Dr. Jiao actively serves the academic community as Executive Editor of the Chemical Engineering Journal and as an editorial or advisory board member for the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Materials Today Sustainability, Cell Reports Physical Science, and Trends in Chemistry. He served as Program Chair for the ACS Division of Energy & Fuels (ENFL) in 2023, where he established symposia for early-career and young researchers, and continues on its advisory board. Additionally, he served as a panelist at the Mission Innovation Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage Experts’ Workshop (2017) and testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works during the hearing on the Utilizing Significant Emissions with Innovative Technologies Act (2018).