Spotlight: Dr Feiyue Gao

In 2025, Feiyue was awarded an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) to develop corrosion-resistant catalysts for stable seawater electrolysis. More broadly, his research focuses on the design and mechanistic understanding of electrocatalysts for fuel cells and seawater electrolysis, with a particular interest in nanomaterials and energy conversion technologies.

Feiyue is supervised by Centre Deputy Director Prof Shizhang Qiao and Chief Investigator, Prof Yao Zheng.

 Tell us something about yourself that you think few, if any, people know.

 I describe myself as a frontier technology enthusiast, particularly with generative AI. While I may not have a deep technical background in computer science, I am an eager early adopter who loves testing commercial tech products in their very early stages. I enjoy pushing these tools to their limits to understand their potential and constraints. I’m always looking for ways to integrate emerging tech into my workflow and hope to collaborate with professionals in this space.

What do you love about your role with COECSI?

 What I cherish most is the collaborative atmosphere within the Centre. As an Early Career Researcher, the internal exchange and cooperation are incredibly valuable to me. It goes beyond just technical support for my experiments; it also provides a unique platform to build connections and expand my professional network with experts and peers across different institutions.

How does being part of COECSI help support your research?

 The most direct benefit comes from the regular meetings and events organized by the Centre. They are a constant source of inspiration for my research ideas and have significantly helped me refine my oral presentation skills. Furthermore, the Centre provides incredible support in disseminating my research outcomes, ensuring my published work reaches a wider audience. I am truly grateful for the effort the team puts into promoting our discoveries

What are your career and aspirations?

 I aspire to lead research that is genuinely innovative. To me, meaningful innovation consists of one of two things: it is either curiosity-driven—exploring unknown mysteries that intrigue us as researchers—or application-driven and solving problems that deliver more immediate tangible value to society.

Looking even further ahead, I aim to merge my dual background as a scientist and an engineer. By integrating product thinking with the industrial upgrades brought by AI, I hope to eventually explore tech entrepreneurship, transforming scientific breakthroughs into practical commercial solutions.

What gets you out of bed in the morning?

It’s a mix of curiosity and potential impact. Professionally, the excitement comes from the unknown—waking up to check the latest data from an overnight experiment and seeing if a hypothesis holds true is incredibly motivating. On a broader scale, knowing that my research contributes, even in a small way, to a sustainable energy future keeps me going. Of course, the promise of a good cup of coffee helps too.

Favourite thing(s) to do on the weekend?

I relax by watching movies. One of my all-time favourite films is The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. I was deeply touched by the motto in the film: “To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, to draw closer, to find each other and to feel. That is the purpose of life.” It resonates a lot with me.

I enjoy going for a run and I visit the gym for strength training occasionally. I’m not an expert at strength training yet, but I really enjoy the challenge and I am willing to invest the time to learn the proper techniques and improve myself step-by-step.