I grow medicinal mushrooms in my renewable-energy laboratory

“The world’s demand for energy is rapidly growing. The goal of my research is to make fuel cells — electrochemical devices that convert chemical energy into electricity — cheaper and more efficient.

My work focuses on a group of advanced catalysts based on titanium metal oxides, which are denser and more durable than conventional carbon materials. This results in a higher current and better performance in fuel cells. Now, I am exploring how to commercialize these materials and scale up production so that they can be readily used in renewable-energy technologies.

The opportunity to contribute to my community is what drives my research. I love training my students here at Nguyen Tat Thanh University in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, because young people need to understand renewable energy and how to make the environment cleaner.

It’s not easy working in Vietnam, because it’s still a developing country. When I returned from Taiwan just a couple of years ago, it was difficult to get funding and access to the equipment I needed, such as centrifuges and autoclave reactors. But we now have better facilities, and I can do everything in my laboratory.

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Nature 638, 574 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-00409-4

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

This story originally appeared on: Nature - Author:Gemma Conroy