Chenwei Hu

Chenwei is a third-year undergraduate student (College ’27) majoring in Molecular Engineering and Chemistry. He interned at Conservation X Labs in Washington, D.C., on the Extinction Solutions Index, focusing on innovative quantitative approaches to biodiversity loss. He is conducting research on fast-charging and anode materials for lithium-metal batteries in the Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversion under Professor Shirley Meng at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering.

Hu attended Climate Week NYC 2025 as part of the Institute’s first student delegation.

“My favorite panel was the Clean Energy Forum organized by Rystad Energy. I learnt that despite favorable market fundamentals, the execution risks for clean energy are still a concern as requisite upscaling tests existing supply chains, especially for relatively nascent energy sources like geothermal and nuclear. Synergy between utilities, energy tech companies, and global finance is critical for navigating rising global demand.”

He previously attended COP29, and was a finalist in the 2024 Climate Case Competition.

“I normally don’t touch on the accounting or economics part of green energy innovations that much in my curriculum studying physics. I mainly just study how to actually make solar panels, like the scientific, molecular part of hydrogen or solar panels. So this is was really interesting for me because I actually got to look at how solar panels and how hydrogen can have an impact on sustainability on a microscopic level.”