Professor Xinbo Yang's research centers on extractive metallurgy, with a focus on developing sustainable technologies for the recovery of critical resources. Her group works on innovative processes and functional materials to extract rare earth elements, battery metals, and other critical resources from waste and recycled products such as spent batteries and electronic waste.

Undergraduates who join the lab get to be part of the process. Students gain hands-on experience by:

- Running real experiments on samples from waste streams and recycled materials.

- Learning modern lab techniques for separating and analyzing metals.

- Collaborating with graduate students and industry partners on urgent sustainability challenges.

- Seeing how discoveries move from the lab bench to pilot-scale and industrial solutions.

This is an opportunity to explore how science and engineering turn waste into valuable resources and to contribute to building a more sustainable future.