Florida State University has a new champion in the race toward a cleaner, more sustainable future. Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Yan Zeng has earned the distinguished 2025 Materials Today Rising Star Award, becoming the first FSU researcher ever to receive this prestigious recognition. Her work is helping reshape how we power our daily lives, from the phones in our pockets to the electric vehicles on our roads.

Zeng is one of only nine researchers worldwide selected for this honor, which celebrates early career scientists poised to become future leaders in materials science and engineering. What makes her achievement even more remarkable is the real-world impact her research promises to deliver for millions of people.

"Our goal in the Zeng Research Lab is to create better materials for storing energy, which ultimately affects everyday technologies," Zeng explained with characteristic warmth. "Even though the chemistry is complex, the goal is simple: make energy safer, cleaner, and more reliable for everyone."

Her humility shines through in her response to the award. "It is an honor to be recognized by the community, and I feel thankful to everyone who has supported my work," she said, noting that the recognition encourages her to keep pushing forward as a researcher.

In early 2024, Zeng joined an ambitious $50 million U.S. Department of Energy initiative called the LENS Consortium, which is working to develop sodium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. This innovative approach addresses some critical challenges facing our planet. While lithium-ion batteries have helped reduce emissions, mining lithium requires vast amounts of water in already dry areas, damages ecosystems, and produces significant greenhouse gases during manufacturing.

Sodium-ion batteries offer a wonderful alternative. They're more eco-friendly, more affordable, and rely on materials that aren't in short supply. The main challenge is that sodium is heavier than lithium, meaning these batteries currently provide less energy for the same weight and size. That's where Zeng's creativity comes in. She's designing entirely new element and structure combinations that could allow sodium-ion batteries to actually outperform their lithium-ion predecessors.

The Ripple Effect: What makes Zeng's work especially exciting is her innovative approach to scientific discovery. She's pioneering the integration of artificial intelligence and robotics in her lab, using an automated robotic arm to handle repetitive tasks like individual chemical reactions. After each successful creation of a new substance, she employs AI to explore how the material might be optimized further.

This cutting-edge methodology is attracting international attention. "Dr. Zeng is a pioneer in her field for integrating AI with robotics," said Wei Yang, chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. "Designing solid-state materials has been challenging due to chemical complexity, and gaining empirical knowledge via human repetitive work is very costly and time consuming."

By accelerating the research process, Zeng's approach means cleaner, safer energy solutions could reach consumers faster than ever before. Her work doesn't just promise better batteries. It represents a pathway to reducing our dependence on materials that strain both the environment and global supply chains.

"I am most inspired by the possibility of discovering entirely new materials that could transform energy technologies," Zeng shared. "The combination of creative chemistry, data-driven tools, and curiosity-driven exploration keeps the work exciting every day."

As the first FSU researcher to receive this distinguished recognition, Zeng is blazing a trail that will inspire countless students and fellow scientists while helping build a cleaner, more sustainable world for all of us.