Prof. Junwang (John) Tang research interests encompass photon-phonon co-driven catalysis for small molecule activation to produce zero-carbon fuels (eg. H2O to H2, N2 to NH3) and valuable chemicals (CO2 to alcohols and CH4 to long chain hydrocarbons), novel catalysts design and microwave catalysis (e.g. chemical plastic recycling), together with the investigation of the underlying charge dynamics and kinetics by state-of-the-art time-resolved spectroscopies. Prof Tang is a Member of the Academia of Europaea, a Royal Society Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellow, Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Fellow of IMMM and Honorary Fellow of CCS. He had been the Director of UCL Materials Hub and Professor of Materials Chemistry and Engineering in the department of Chemical Engineering at UCL for many years. He is currently the Director of Industrial Catalysis Center in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Carbon Neutrality Chair Professor of Materials Chemistry and Catalysis at Tsinghua University, China and a Visiting Professor at University College London, UK. He has published >250 papers in highly reputed journals, eg. Nature, Nature Catalysis, Nature Energy, Nature Materials, Nature Sustainability and he is also the Editor / Editor-in-Chief /Associate Editor of 5 journals, including Applied Catalysis B, Chin J. Catal.,Carbon Future and EES Solar etc

1991 ~ 1995 BSc. in Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Northeastern University, China

1995 ~ 1998 MSc. in Inorganic Materials, Institute of Metal Research, China

1998 ~ 2001 PhD in Heterogeneous Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP), China

2002 ~ 2005 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Research Fellow and NIMS Researcher, National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan

2005 ~ 2009 Senior Research Associate, Chemistry, Imperial College London

2009 ~ 2011 Lecturer in Energy (Tenure), Chemical Engineering, University College London (UCL)

2011 ~ 2014 Senior Lecturer in Energy (Tenure), Chemical Engineering, UCL

2014 ~ 2017 Reader in Energy, Chemical Engineering, UCL

2017 ~ 2022, Professor of Materials Chemistry and Engineering, Chemical Engineering, UCL

2016 ~ 2019, Director of University Materials Hub, UCL

2022 ~ now Chair Professor of Materials Chemistry and Catalysis, Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University

Photon-phonon co-driven catalysis, Heterogeneous catalysis, microwave catalysis, H2 and NH3, plastic recycling, time-resolved spectroscopies

1. Xie, J., Fu, C., Quesne, M.G., Guo, J., Wang, C., Xiong, L., Windle, C.D., Gadipelli, S., Guo, Z.X.*, Huang, W.*, Catlow, C.R.A.*, Tang, J.*, Methane Oxidation to Ethanol by a Molecular Junction Photocatalyst, Nature, 2025, 639, 368-374.

2. Zhao, J., Liu, B., Xiong, L., Liu, W., Wang, D., Ma*, W., Jiang, L., Yang, J., Wang, P., Xiao*, T., Zhao, S., Edwards, P.P., Tang, J.*, Highly selective upcycling of plastic mixture waste by microwave-assisted catalysis over Zn/b-ZnO, Nature Communications, 2025, 16, 1726.

3. Xu, Y., Wang, C., Li, X., Xiong, L., Zhang, T.*, Zhang, L, Zhang, Q., Gu, L., Lan, L.*, Tang, J.*, Efficient methane oxidation to formaldehyde via photon-phonon cascade catalysis, Nature Sustainability, 2024, 7, 1171–1181.

4. Tang, J.*, An economic way to achieve all-weather CO2 reduction, National Science Review, 2024, 11( 3), nwad330.

5. Li, X., Li, C., Xu, Y., Liu, Q., Bahri, M., Zhang, L., Browning, N.D., Cowan, A.J.*, Tang, J.*, Efficient hole abstraction for highly selective oxidative coupling of methane by sputtering Au on TiO2 photocatalyst, Nature Energy, 2023, 8, 1013–1022. Doi: 10.1038/s41560-023-01317-5.

6. Xie, J., Li, L., Guo, J., Luo，L., Delgado4, J.J., Martsinovich, N., Tang, J.*, Highly Selective Oxidation of Benzene to Phenol with Air at Room Temperature Promoted by Water, Nature Communications, 2023，14, 4431.

7. Wang, H., Qi, H., Sun, X., Jia, S., Li, X., Miao, T.J., Xiong, L., Wang, S., Zhang, X., Liu, X., Wang, a., Zhang, T., Huang, W., Tang, J.*, High quantum efficiency of hydrogen production from methanol aqueous solution with PtCu-TiO2 photocatalysts, Nature Materials, 2023, 22, 619–626.

8. Li, X., Wang, C., Tang, J.*, Methane Transformation by Photocatalysis, Nature Reviews Materials, 2022, 7, 617–632.

9. Ma, J., Miao, T., Tang, J.*, Charge Carrier Dynamics and Reaction Intermediates in Heterogeneous Photocatalysis by Time-Resolved Spectroscopies, Chemical Society Reviews, 2022, 51, 5777-5794.

10. Thangamuthu, L., Ruan, Q., Ohemeng, P.S., Luo, L, Jing, D.*, Godin, R.*, Tang, J.*, Polymer Photoelectrodes for Solar Fuel Production: Progress and Challenges. Chemical Reviews, 2022, 122 (13), 11778-11829.

11. Luo, L., Gong, Z., Xu, Y., Ma, J., Liu, H., Xing, J., Tang, J.*, Binary Au–Cu Reaction Sites Decorated ZnO for Selective Methane Oxidation to C1 Oxygenates with Nearly 100% Selectivity at Room Temperature, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2022, 144 (2), 740–750.

12. Han, Q.,* Wu, C., Jiao H., Xu, R., Wang, Y., Xie, J., Guo, Q., Tang, J.*, Rational Design of High-Concentration Ti3+ in Porous Carbon-Doped TiO2 Nanosheets for Efficient Photocatalytic Ammonia Synthesis, Advanced Materials, 2021, 33, 2008180.

13. Wang, Y., Liu, X., Han, X., Godin, R.*, Chen, J., Zhou, W., Jiang, C., Thompson, J.F., Bayazit, M., Shevlin, S., Durrant, J.R., Guo, Z.*, Tang, J.*, Unique hole-accepting carbon-dots promoting selective carbon dioxide reduction nearly 100% to methanol by pure water, Nature Communications, 2020, 11, 2531.

14. Ruan, Q., Miao, T., Wang, H., Tang, J.*, Insight on shallow trap states introduced photocathodic performance in n-type polymer photocatalysts, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2020, 6, 2795-2802.

15. Wang, Y., Vogel, A., Sachs, M., Sprick, R.S., Wilbraham,L., Moniz, S.J.A., Godin, R., Zwijnenburg, M.A.*, Durrant, J.R.*, Cooper, A.I.*, Tang, J.*, Current understanding and challenges of solar-driven hydrogen generation using polymeric photocatalysts, Nature Energy, 2019, 4, 746-760.

16. Xie, J., Jin, R., Li, A., Bi, Y., Ruan, Q., Deng, Y., Zhang, Y., Yao, S., Sankar, G., Ma, D. *, Tang, J*., Highly Selective Oxidation of Methane to Methanol at Ambient Conditions by Titanium Dioxide-supported Iron Species, Nature Catalysis, 2018, 1, 889-896.