Sustainable Energy & Fuels Blog

Sustainable Energy & Fuels Best Oral Presenter Prize

Siti Nur Asmah binti Md Shuhimi (Universiti Sains Malaysia – Kejuruteraan, Malaysia)
Title: “Structural Evolution of Marine Microalgae-Derived Biochar during Fe-Catalysed Graphitization: Optimization of Iron Loading and Effect of Purification on Biochar”

Siti Nur Asmah Md Shuhimi is a second-year PhD student at the School of Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Zainovia Lockman. She previously completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia. Her PhD research focuses on developing graphene-like biochar from marine microalgae through Fe-catalysed graphitization and investigating its structural evolution and functional properties. She is particularly interested in understanding the influence of iron loading and purification on carbon structure and Fe-containing phases. Her research further explores the integration of marine biomass-derived carbon with TiO₂ nanotubes and other semiconductor materials to develop hybrid nanocatalysts for photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical hydrogen production. Through this work, she aims to contribute to the development of sustainable carbon-based materials from marine biomass for renewable energy applications.

Sustainable Energy & Fuels Best Oral Presenter Prize

Uma P.I. (Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, India)
Title: “Coupling Mn₃O₄ Nanospheres with Rapidly Ultrasonicated 2D Ni-MOF Nanosheets for Accelerated Photocatalytic CO₂ Reduction”

Addressing global carbon emissions through catalyst engineering, Dr. Uma P I leverages nano-photocatalysis to transform CO₂ into sustainable value-added resources. She received her BSc in Chemistry from Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, India, and completed both her MSc and PhD at the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), India. She is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati, India. Her current work centres on engineering 0D/2D nano-heterojunction architectures involving 2D metal-organic frameworks for enhanced photocatalytic CO₂ conversion efficiency.

Sustainable Energy & Fuels Best Oral Presenter Prize

Majvell Kay Vequizo (Universiti Malaya, Malaysia)
Title: “Sustainable Mechanochemical and Thermochemical Succinylation of Microcrystalline Cellulose”

Majvell Kay Vequizo completed her BSc and MSc in Physics at the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology, Philippines. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Physical Science (Physics) at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia, under the Nanotechnology and Catalysis Research Centre (NANOCAT). Working under the supervision of Prof. Mohd Rafie Johan, Prof. Wan Haliza Abd Majid and Assoc. Prof. Nader Ghaffari Khaligh, her research focuses on cellulose functionalization, particularly sustainable modification methods and the development of cellulose-based functional materials. Her PhD study is supported by the Philippine Department of Science and Technology–Science Education Institute (DOST–SEI) through its Foreign Graduate Scholarship Program.