Bio


When in school, I won a nationwide competition in China to make art out of trash. I built a miniature “Olympic stadium” from styrofoam, a winning submission whose prize was a week-long trip to Hong Kong to learn about recycling. Visiting the city’s recycling facilities changed my life: growing up in the heavily polluted city of Xi’an in the 90s, Hong Kong’s cleanliness shocked me. It was my first encounter with the term “sustainability” and determined my career’s trajectory.

Carbon-capture materials, hydrogen-producing catalysts, energy-efficient aluminum production: all the products and processes that I developed and commercialized at Australia’s national lab have eliminated millions of tons of carbon dioxide and saved clients millions of dollars in energy expenses. I also helped two battery startups commercialize their technologies, and I evaluated hundreds of climate tech companies at an early-stage venture capital firm.

Equipped with ten years experience commercializing deep tech from zero to one in the sustainability and climate space, I want to build and scale high-efficiency, mass-market climate solutions after Stanford. Interested? Let’s chat.

Education & Certifications


  • MBA/MS, Stanford University, MBA and MS in Sustainability
  • BE&ME, University of Queensland, Australia, Chemical Engineering

All Publications


  • Performance study and comparison between catalytic static mixer and packed bed in heterogeneous hydrogenation of vinyl acetate JOURNAL OF FLOW CHEMISTRY Zhu, Y., Sultan, B., Nguyen, X., Hornung, C. 2021; 11 (3): 515-523