People

Education
Ph.D, Mechanical Engineering (2014)
University of South Carolina
M.S., Materials Science and Engineering (2009)
University of Science and Technology of China
B.S., Materials Science and Engineering
Jilin University, China

Dr. Ding is primarily focusing on research in energy conversion and storage, such as fuel cell, hydrogen production, battery, electrocatalysis, additive manufacturing, and electrochemical processing. He graduated with PhD degree in mechanical engineering from Solis Oxide Fuel Cell EFRC Center at University of South Carolina in 2014, and worked in proton conducting SOFCs with dissertation “Material Synthesis and Fabrication Method Development for Intermediate Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells”. After graduation, he worked as CoosTek postdoctoral fellow in Colorado School of Mines until 2017 to focus on methane-fueled SOFC and proton conducting SOFC/SOEC for ARPA-E REBELS and NASA projects to deliver short-stacks demonstration. 

Before joining OU, he was a research scientist in Idaho National Laboratory working on hydrogen production with solid oxide cells. As one of the technical leads in INL, he has supported the material and electrochemistry development with significant involvement into DoE’s HydroGEN consortium by leading the efforts in material characterization and electrochemical measurements for 8 seedling projects from universities (Univ. Connecticut, Univ. South Carolina, West Virginia Univ., Northwestern Univ.) and industry (UTRC, Redox, Nexceris, Saint-Gobain) under high-temperature electrolysis category. Dr. Ding helped these project PIs with technical supports to succeed moving forward to next phases. He also worked for H2-2.0 project for performing fundamental study in understanding electron leakage and proton conduction in P-SOEC electrolytes. Dr. Ding actively worked for H2NEW and SuperNode projects for studying degradation behaviors and mechanisms for conventional oxide-ion conducting SOECs. He led one Laboratory Direct Research Development (LDRD) project focusing on developing electrocatalyst to be integrated into electrochemical membrane reactor for direct conversion of natural gases to aromatics and hydrogen. He was aslo co-PI for another LDRD project to investigate electronic leakage mechanism of P-SOEC electrolytes. 

Dr. Ding is actively working on hydrogen technologies. His current laboratory in OU has extensive capabilities in P-SOEC manufacturing, cell testing, and advanced characterizations. He is currently leading a DOE EERE project supported via Bipartisan Infrastructure Law grant to work on reducing hydrogen production cost by improving stability and manufacturing readiness of solid oxide electrolysis cell system. Dr. Ding is working with Idaho National Laboratories on two projects for developing high-entropy alloy catalyst for CO2 reduction to synthesize hydrocarbons and improving proton conductivity of new-type electrolyte materials.

Dr. Ding has published over 70 peer-reviewed papers in materials science, energy conversion, storage, and electrocatalysis since 2008, including the journals Nature, Nature Communications, Nature Synthesis, Advanced Materials, Materials Today, Advanced Functional Materials, Small, Joule and J. Power Sources. He has filed 5 US patents on hydrogen production and catalysts.

• PhD., The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 2023

• M.Sc., King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, 2020

• B.Eng., Federal University of Techology, Akure, 2015

Dr. Idris Temitope Bello is an experienced researcher specializing in advanced functional materials and clean energy technologies, with a particular focus on solid-state electrochemistry and materials informatics. He earned his Ph.D. in Advanced Energy Conversion and Storage Technologies from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Following his Ph.D., Dr. Bello worked as a Research Associate at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where he investigated the viability of polycrystalline high entropy ceramic oxides for CECs. He then served as an R&D Postdoctoral Researcher (Research Talent Hub recipient) at the Centre for Advances in Reliability and Safety (CAiRS) in Hong Kong, specializing in the diagnostics and prognostics of electrochemical energy storage systems. Dr. Bello has co-authored over 30 high-impact, peer-reviewed articles in electrochemical energy conversion and storage, published in SCI-Q1 journals such as Chemical Engineering Journal, Small,  Ecomat,Journal of Power Sources, Energy and AI, among others.

• PhD. University of Oklahoma, 2023/01~present

• M. S., Fuzhou University in Material Engineering 

• B. S., Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology in Material Engineering

PhD, Mechanical Engineering, University of Oklahoma, 2024/01- present

MSc., Mechanical Engineering, Tribhuvan University

B.E., Mechanical Engineering, Tribhuvan University

Research interest: Hydrogen Technologies, Fuel cells, Batteries, Techno-economic assessment 

• PhD. University of Oklahoma, 2024/08~present

• M. S., Shantou University in optical engineering

• B. S., Hunan Institute of Technology in Communication Engineering

• Ph. D. in Mechanical Engineering, University of Oklahoma, 08/2024 to Present

• M.Sc. in Material Science and Engineering, Tribhuvan University

• B.Sc in Chemistry, Tribhuvan University

Research Interests: Electrode materials, Hydrogen Technologies, Green Energy