Young-Shin Jun
Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering
- Phone
314-935-4539 - Office
Brauer Hall, Room 1024 - Lab location
Brauer 2029
Google ScholarEducation
PhD, Harvard University, 2005SM, Harvard University, 2003
MS, Ewha Woman’s University, 1999
BS, Ewha Woman’s University, 1997
Expertise
Uses nanoscale interfacial reactions and nucleation to solve important energy and environmental challenges
Research
Young-Shin Jun utilizes advances in nanoscale interfacial chemistry and solid nucleation to tackle important challenges in energy and the environment, focusing on three areas:
- Energy-related chemical systems, including CO2 capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) and subsurface engineering, such as geologic CO2sequestration, underground storage of hydrogen and enhanced geothermal energy.
- New resource recovery methods. These methods encompass the recovery of critical elements (rare earth elements, nickel, cobalt and lithium) that are essential to clean energy technologies, the extraction and recycling of phosphorus and nitrogen nutrients for a sustainable circular economy, and the generation of useful chemical stocks from water desalination.
- Nanomaterials and nanotechnologies for purifying drinking water and remediating contaminated water and soil. These materials benefit water reuse, managed aquifer recharge and membrane processes such as reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration. We also examine the fate and transport of these nanomaterials (inorganic and organic nanomaterials or nanoplastics) in the environment.
Biography
In 2008, Professor Jun joined the faculty at Washington University in St. Louis, where she directs the Environmental NanoChemistry Laboratory. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Ewha Womans University (South Korea), holds master’s and PhD degrees in Environmental Chemistry from Harvard University, and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California-Berkeley/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She investigates chemical reactions at solid-water interfaces in energy-related subsurface and water systems. Further, based on nanoscale interfacial chemistry and solid nucleation, her research group unlocks unique interfacial properties for engineering applications and develops new techniques and nanomaterials for more sustainable energy and environmental systems. Professor Jun received a 2008 Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award, a 2011 U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER award, the 2020 James M. Lee Memorial Award, the 2022 Jackson Award, and a 2022 Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors’ Distinguished Service Award. She was named a 2015 Kavli Fellow by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a 2016 Frontier of Engineering Fellow by the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, a 2018 Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and a 2019 Fellow of the American Chemical Society (ACS). She serves on ACS’s Committee on Science as the Chair of the Science & Technology Subcommittee, is an Editorial Board Member of ACS ES&T: Engineering, RSC Advances, the Journal of Hazardous Materials (2019-2022), Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering, Geochemical Transactions(2016-2023), and Scientific Reports (2022-2023). She is an Advisory Board Member of Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts.
To promote global engagement and broader impact, she serves as Washington University’s McDonnell International Scholars Academy Ambassador to Seoul National University, South Korea. She is the inaugural faculty advisor for Washington University’s student chapter of the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE), and was the first Faculty Fellow of the Institute for School Partnership for broader K-12 outreach efforts.
Affiliations
