Dr. Tan Lling-Lling (Carynn) received her BEng (Hons.) and Ph.D. degrees in Chemical Engineering from Monash University in 2012 and 2015, respectively. She then worked as an assistant professor in the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences at Heriot-Watt University. Currently, she is a senior lecturer in the School of Engineering (Chemical) at Monash University.

Dr. Tan’s research focuses on the rational design and development of advanced photocatalytic materials for environmental remediation and energy generation. Examples of these applications include CO2 photoreduction into solar fuels, water splitting, pollutant/dye degradation and N2 fixation. Apart from materials design, her research also aims to elucidate the fundamental aspects underlying high efficiency for solar energy utilization, with the ultimate goal of realizing the commercialization of sunlight-driven photocatalysis. To date, Dr. Tan has published close to 30 scientific papers in high impact journals such as Applied Catalysis B: Environmental and Chemical Reviews. She currently holds an h-index of 21 with over 4500 citations. From 2015 – 2017, she was part of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM) Working Group on Emerging Science, Engineering and Technology (ESET) to develop an integrated Foresight report for the area of Nanotechnology. In 2017, she received the Young Researcher Award from IChemE Malaysia, in recognition of her work in the field of photocatalysis.

With the growing awareness of environmental protection, researchers are driven to search for sustainable alternative sources of energy, particularly solar energy, to replace exhaustible fossil fuels. In recent years, heterogeneous photocatalysis has garnered tremendous research interest due to its powerful potential applications in tackling many important energy and environmental challenges at a global level. This state-of-the-art technology can not only be used in reactions involving small molecules such as CO2 (reduction to solar fuels) and H2O (water splitting), but also in the synthesis of valuable fine chemicals. With the end goal of industrializing photocatalytic systems, my research focuses on the smart engineering and rational design of advanced nanomaterials with tunable structural, electronic and optical properties. The research also targets at elucidating the fundamentals mechanisms underlying high efficiency for the utilisation of solar energy. Apart from these, I am currently interested in exploring the development of novel photo(electro)catalytic systems for solar-driven nitrogen fixation.