Iryna Zenyuk, Associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, UC Irvine

Iryna Zenyuk

Associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, UC Irvine

As director of UCI's Zenyuk Lab, she pioneered a novel approach to convert and store electrochemical energy in an effort to reduce the world's carbon footprint. For this, she was named the Emerging Innovation/Early Career Innovator of the Year at UCI's fourth annual Innovator Awards ceremony. IN THE NEWS: Since the February 2022 start of the war in Ukraine, Zenyuk, who immigrated to America at age 15, has raised over $200,000 for UCI's Scholars at Risk program to host Ukrainian scholars. IN HER WORDS: "As the days passed by, I felt the need to do something to help fellow Ukrainians, and an idea came to mind to host academics here at UCI."