Youngwoo Choo

Dr. Youngwoo Choo is a Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Technology Sydney, affiliated with the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He previously worked at institutions including Seoul National University, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Yale University, and University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on functional nanomaterials, metal-organic frameworks, and electrochemical systems for ion separation and rare earth element recovery from unconventional sources like brine water and acid mine drainage.

• PhD, Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Yale University (2019)
• MS, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Seoul National University (2011)
• BS, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Seoul National University (2009)

His expertise spans electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and dynamic light scattering for nanomaterial characterization. Current research emphasizes polymer membrane design for highly selective ion uptake, particularly in capacitive deionization systems. He has published 35 peer-reviewed papers with over 1,200 citations (h-index 18) and serves as peer reviewer for journals including Desalination and ACS Applied Engineering Materials.

Key awards include the Korean National Science and Technology Scholarship and Frank J. Padden Symposium Finalist (American Physical Society). He leads funded projects like "Designing Advanced Membranes for Selective Rare-Earth Recovery" (2024) and "Next-generation membrane: Highly selective rare-earth element recovery from mining wastewater" (2022-2025). As of 2023-2024, he teaches Chemical Process Engineering and Fluid Mechanics at UTS.