Materials and Society: Front Page
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Xingbo Liu: TMS’ “Energetic” 2010 Early Career Faculty Fellow
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By Lynne Robinson
Posted on:
1/18/2010 12:00:00 AM...
Xingbo Liu’s career path was revealed to him in the blink of an eye.
He was on a high school field trip to the Institute of Metal Research, about a mile from his home in Shenyang, northeastern China, when he peered through a transmission electron microscope (TEM) for the first time. “I remember seeing materials down to the atom scale and thinking, ‘That’s so cool.’ Then, I thought, ‘I want to do that,’” he recalled. “It was amazing to see something so tiny.”
It was little wonder that Liu was taken with the view through the TEM. With his father being a mechanical engineer and his mother a metallurgist, the lure of materials science was almost a genetic predisposition. His pursuit of “the cool” initially took him to the University of Science and Technology, Beijing, where he was ultimately drawn to research superalloys for jet engine turbines. “It was just really exciting for me to be able to help make something that could fly,” he said.
Now an assistant professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at West Virginia University, Liu has turned his attention to something that he finds not only exciting, but urgently needed—the development of sustainable sources of energy. Since joining TMS in 2002, he has worked diligently to “broaden awareness of new materials in new areas, such as renewable energy sources and fuel cells.”
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Liu hiking with his son, Ethan—“my new inspiration”—at Mary’s Peak in Oregon. (Click on images to enlarge.)
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Liu in his lab at West Virginia University.
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Currently the JOM advisor for the Energy Committee, Liu, who is now conducting research on solid oxide fuel cells for energy conversion, was also a founding member of the TMS Energy Conversion and Storage Committee and is vice chair of the High Temperature Alloys Committee. This year marks two new milestones in his TMS involvement. He is a lead symposium organizer for the first time at the TMS 2010 Annual Meeting, namely for Materials in Clean Power Systems V: Clean Coal-, Hydrogen Based-Technologies, Fuel Cells, and Materials for Energy Storage. And, he was named the 2010 TMS Early Career Faculty Fellow. Aimed at individuals employed in the position of assistant professor or equivalent at an academic institution, this award serves the dual purposes of recognizing professional accomplishment, while also providing the recipient with the technical and financial support needed to contribute to TMS activities and his or her own professional development.
As a requirement of the award, Liu is presenting the TMS Young Leader Tutorial Luncheon Lecture at the Annual Meeting and, not surprisingly, his topic is “Energy Materials—Past, Present, and Future.” Said Liu, “I’m going to make this fun. I plan to present a picture about how energy use has evolved, from ancient India, to the invention of the steam engine, to the impact of high temperature, nickel-based alloys, and the development of high efficiency fuel cells. I want to encourage broad interest in the topic so that the audience will want to learn the details on their own.”
As for the Materials in Clean Power Systems V symposium, Liu said, “This gave me an opportunity to create a forum to open people’s thinking to new materials and approaches.” Liu is particularly pleased that this year’s symposium, for the first time, features a strong energy storage component, focused primarily on energy conversion and generation.
The larger context for Liu’s scientific interests is currently shaped by his 18-month-old son, Ethan—“My new inspiration,” he notes. An avid reader of philosophical works, Liu is particularly intrigued by the contributions of Bertrand Russell, considered a founder of analytic philosophy and one of the leading logicians of the last century. “To me, philosophy is like reading a review paper about the universe,” he said. “Every time I study it, I find something new. It challenges me and keeps me from just focusing on what is going on today.”
Occasionally, Liu also finds time to play tennis, although since Ethan’s birth, he admits to “playing more Wii tennis.” His wife, Li Zhao, first taught him the sport in China in the late 1990s. “I started playing tennis with my friends and they became frustrated with me because I was a beginner and they wanted to play more competitive games. They said, ‘We know someone who is more patient who can teach you,’ and that’s how I met my wife. She taught me for half a year and then we started dating. Then she lost her patience.
“She never did teach me how to serve.”
Additional information on Liu’s Young Leader Tutorial Luncheon Lecture and the Materials in Clean Power Systems V symposium can be found on the TMS 2010 Annual Meeting Web site.
Lynne Robinson is a news and feature writer for TMS.
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