For the first time since the establishment of the global Schmidt Science Fellowship in 2017, a UCLA student has been selected to join the program. Xintong Yuan, a chemical engineering doctoral student at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, has been selected to join the 2025 class of next-generation researchers in pursuit of postdoctoral studies.
The international fellowship. an initiative of the nonprofit organization Schmidt Sciences in partnership with the Rhodes Trust, which awards Rhodes Scholarships, has announced its latest 32 fellows representing 15 nationalities from 27 universities across the globe. They will join a community of 209 fellows from nearly 40 countries who are leaders in interdisciplinary science. The fellowship provides financial support for a postdoctoral placement of one to two years at a research institution selected by a fellow.
Yuan, on track to graduate in June, has been advised by chemical and biomolecular engineering assistant professor Yuzhang Li. As a member of his research group. Yuan has focused on technologies for next-generation batteries, exploring the fundamentals of lithium-metal deposition during battery cycling, as well as imaging the formation of the metal’s solid electrolyte interphase using cryogenic-electron microscopy.
For her postdoctoral fellowship, Yuan will pivot from chemical engineering to explore interfaces. She will examine how ions and electrons behave at the interfaces between liquids and solids in the presence of an electric field, with the aim of improving clean energy technologies. Ultimately, she hopes her work will contribute to safer, more efficient and sustainable energy storage solutions.
