At WVU, as a director of Shale Gas Utilization Center, Dr. John Hu is responsible for all aspects of the research relevant to natural gas conversion. Dr. Hu specializes in catalysis and reaction engineering. He has demonstrated strong leadership in both academic research and industrial R&D, leading multi-disciplinary teams while working at PNNL, BP and Koch Industries. Dr. Hu has been undertaking a number of DOE and other US federal agency funded projects. While working at Koch Industries, Dr. Hu had led the innovation of natural gas upgrading and second generation biomass conversion, resulting in significant savings in capital investment and operating cost. Dr. Hu has published more than 100 journal articles, conference papers and received 29 US patents, all related to catalysis and reaction engineering.