“UCLA CBE has given me the space, mentorship, and community to grow from a student learning the fundamentals into an independent researcher.”
Bo Liu, a fifth-year Ph.D. student in UCLA Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering advised by Professor Yuzhang Li, will join Stanford University as a Stanford Energy Postdoctoral Fellow after completing her Ph.D. at UCLA. At Stanford, she will work with Professor Steven Chu and Dr. Yan-Kai Tzeng at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, continuing her work on aqueous batteries, interphase science, and safer energy storage technologies.
At UCLA, Bo’s Ph.D. research has focused on active interfaces in lithium metal and aqueous zinc batteries. These interfaces are where many of the most important processes in batteries happen: ions move, protective layers form, side reactions occur, and degradation begins. Understanding these nanoscale regions is essential for designing batteries that last longer and operate more safely. “Electrochemical energy storage is essential for transportation electrification, grid-scale storage, and broader energy sustainability,” Bo said. “In many next-generation batteries, performance and lifetime are governed not only by bulk materials, but also by active interfaces.”
Her work has examined how interfacial transport controls battery performance and how interfacial reactions drive degradation. During her Ph.D., Bo contributed to a quantitative framework for understanding transport through the solid electrolyte interphase in lithium metal batteries, strategies for engineering ultrafast aqueous zinc cathodes, and mechanistic studies of calendar aging and corrosion in zinc metal anodes. Her research has appeared in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Advanced Materials, and ACS Energy Letters, with related work accepted in principle at Nature Communications.
For Bo, one of the most meaningful parts of graduate school has been the process of becoming an independent scientist. “One major highlight has been developing from a student learning electrochemistry and characterization into an independent researcher who can identify important scientific questions, design experiments, and connect mechanistic understanding with practical battery design,” she said. That growth also came through challenges. “During my Ph.D., I learned that rejection and uncertainty are also part of becoming a scientist,” Bo said. “Not every experiment works, and not every application or manuscript receives the outcome you hope for. But those experiences taught me resilience, patience, and how to improve through feedback. Looking back, I think those moments were just as important as the successes in shaping how I approach research and my future career.”
Mentorship and collaboration have also shaped her UCLA experience. “Another highlight has been mentoring younger students and working closely with collaborators across UCLA and beyond,” Bo said. “Seeing those projects and people grow has been one of the most rewarding parts of my Ph.D.”
As she prepares for her next step at Stanford, Bo is excited to join a community of researchers working across the clean energy transition. Her postdoctoral work will build on the ideas she developed at UCLA, with the goal of advancing safer and longer-lasting energy storage technologies. “I’m especially grateful for the opportunity to work on challenging scientific questions while learning how to collaborate, mentor, and communicate science more effectively,” she said.
Congratulations to Bo Liu on this exciting next step.