Hoon Choi
School of Energy Resources | Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
Assistant Professor and President's Distinguished Scholar
Hoon Choi is a School of Energy Resources Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering and a President’s Distinguished Scholar.
He teaches Thermodynamics and provides research expertise in the areas of separations, including bioprocessing, downstream process development, lithium and rare earth element (REE) extraction, and lignin valorization.
Earning his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University, Choi has amassed a research portfolio focused on materials separations. While at Purdue, he worked on extracting REEs from coal fly ash and purifying the individual elements out of the mixture.
By revitalizing ligand-assisted displacement chromatography—a mid-century technology platform originally studied from the Bureau of Mines—Dr. Choi successfully developed and patented a constant pattern design method for purifying rare earth elements (REEs). This process is now commercialized, providing a scalable, robust alternative to the industry-standard solvent extraction method.
Most recently, he worked as a separations engineer at the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR)—formerly NREL— where he led applied research on real feedstocks to develop economic and energy-efficient processes for real-world material separations. He was recognized with both NREL’s President’s Award and Director’s Award for his contributions to sustainable energy systems, critical mineral recovery, and the circular economy.
