Xile Hu

Xile Hu was born in 1978 in Putian, southeastern China. He entered the Peking University in Beijing in 1996. Besides learning too little chemistry, his biggest regret in the college was not able to correct his southern accent in Mandarin. After graduated from PKU, he went to the United States and began his doctoral studies at the University of California, San Diego. In December 2004, he finished with a Ph.D. in chemistry and some fond memories of the beautiful city of San Diego. He then moved to the Los Angeles area and become a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology. There he enjoyed numerous stimulating scientific (and other) discussions with friends and colleagues. He also made plenty of friends outside the campus and was a frequent in many local Chinese restaurants. In 2007, after two pleasant visits to Switzerland, he decided to move across the continent one more time and join the faculty of the école Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). He now directs the Laboratory of Inorganic Synthesis and Catalysis and is interested in developing chemistry for synthesis, energy and sustainability. Teaching & PhD PhD Students Enora L'Hostis, Nadia Yasmina Ben Sayed, Jiaming Tian, Pardis Naderasli, Fangqi Di, Ji Hee Yun, Lasha Khutsishvili, Ai-Lin Chan Past EPFL PhD Students Oleg Vechorkin, Peng Ren, Daniel Andreas Merki, Heron Vrubel, Jan Breitenfeld, Pablo Marcelo Perez Garcia, Yeonji Oh, Gerald Bauer, Simona Mazza, Carlos Gilberto Morales Guio, Thomas Clément Di Franco, Ivan Buslov, Lucas-Alexandre Stern, Fedor Zhurkin, Laurent Liardet, Aliki Moysiadou, Runze Mao, Marten Leendert Ploeger, Murat Alkan, Guido Barzanò, Weiyan Ni, Lichen Bai, Xiangli Yi, Albert Claude Jean-Pierre Daubry, Céline Jasmin Prange, Xingyu Wu, Lara Lavrencic, Weijin Wang, Miyeon Chang, Ariana Serban Courses Catalysis for energy storage CH-421 This course covers the fundamental and applied aspects of electrocatalysis related to renewable energy conversion and storage. The focus is on catalysis for hydrogen evolution, oxygen evolution, and CO2 reduction reactions. Both homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts are discussed. Catalyst design for synthesis CH-422 This course on homogeneous catalysis provide a detailed understanding of how these catalysts work at a mechanistic level and give examples of catalyst design for important reactions (hydrogenation, olefin metathesis, cross-coupling). Frontiers in Sustainable Chemical Synthesis CH-629 The students will become familiar with the most recent progress in sustainable synthetic chemistry, covering a broad rang of topics such as catalysis, heterocyclic chemistry, stereoselective synthesis and new synthetic tools. Preparative chemistry II CH-329 Advanced chemistry laboratoryAdmission to the TP is conditional on the successful completion of 2 of the 3 courses: CH-222 Coordination chemistry, CH-223 Organometallic chemistry, CH-233 Fonctions et réactions organiques Awards Robert K. Grasselli Award for Catalysis European Federation of Catalysis Societies (EFCATS) 2023 IUPAC-Zhejiang NHU International Award for Green Chemistry International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) 2023 Swiss Green & Sustainable Chemistry Award 2021 Homogeneous Catalysis Award Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) 2019 2016 Bau Family Award in Inorganic Chemistry 2016 2017 Organic Letters Outstanding Publication of the Year Lectureship Award from the American Chemical Society (ACS) Division of Organic Chemistry and Organic Letters 2017 Tajima Prize International Society of Electrochemistry 2017 National Latsis Prize Latsis foundation 2017 Werner Prize Swiss Chemical Society 2010 Member, Academia Europaea 2020 Fellow, European Academy of Sciences 2019 Resonate Award for Sustainability Science, Caltech 2018 Young Research Award European Federation of Catalysis Societies 2015 Fellow, Royal Society of Chemistry 2014 European Medal for Bio-Inorganic Chemistry 2014 Organometallics Young Investigator Fellowship American Chemical Society 2014 Rising Star, International Conference on Coordination Chemistry 2014 Chemical Society Reviews Emerging Investigator Lectureship Royal Society of Chemistry 2013 Member of the Young Academy of Europe 2012 Extraordinary Young Scientist, World Economic Forum 2012 International Catalysis Award International Association of Catalysis Societies 2020