University of Tennessee
Materials Science & Engineering Department


Dr. Lu Yu's Graduation Picnic & Hooding Ceremony
Knoxville, TN, May 19-20, 2022



As is the tradition in the Harper-Keffer research group, upon graduation Dr. Lu Yu received a t-shirt with one of her astounding research results on it, in this case deep blue lignin-based carbon quantum dots.


Dr. Yu was advised by Prof. David Harper (left) in the Center for Renewable Carbon at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture and co-advised by Prof. David Keffer (center) in the Materials Science & Engineering Department at the University of Tennessee. UTK MSE Prof. Orlando Rios (right) served on her dissertation committee.


In the past four years, Lu performed research that led to serious scientific advancements, but this picnic was somewhat less serious.


Colleagues and friends celebrated the successful completion of the PhD not only by Dr. Yu but also by her roommate, Dr. Luna Liang (standing to the left of Lu in this picture) in the UTK Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering department.


The next morning the hooding ceremony took place. The two advisors managed to successfully get Dr. Yu hooded.


Presenting Dr. Lu Yu.

For the interested, here are links to just a couple papers from Lu's dissertation:
  • Yu, L., Hsieh, C.-T., Keffer, D. J., Goenaga, G., Dai, S., Zawodzinski, T., Harper, D.P., “Hierarchical Lignin-Based Carbon Matrix and Carbon Dot Composite Electrodes for High-Performance Supercapacitors”, ACS Omega 6(11) 2021 pp. 7851-7861, doi: 10.1021/acsomega.1c00448 (Open Access).
  • Yu, L., Seabright, K., Bajaj, I., Keffer, D.J., Alonso, D.M., Hsieh, C.-T., Li, M., Chen, H., Dai, S., Gandomi, Y., Maravelias, C., Harper, D.P., “Performance and Economic Analysis of Organosolv Softwood and Herbaceous Lignins to Activated Carbons as Electrode Materials in Supercapacitors”, Frontiers in Energy Research 10 2022 article #849949, pp. 1-15, doi: 10.3389/fenrg.2022.849949. (Open Access).

More photos on the Keffer research group site.