Joaquin Resasco has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award for his work, “Engineering the Reactivity of Single Atom Electrocatalysts Beyond their Active Site.” The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award supports early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education. The award was funded through NSF’s CBET (Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems) Catalysis program.
The Resasco Catalysis Lab seeks to develop a fundamental understanding of electrochemical catalysis over ‘single-atom’ catalysts (SACs,) and use this understanding to design new materials with improved performance and precious metal usage efficiency. Why? As electricity generation from renewable sources, such as wind and sunlight, becomes increasingly cheap and more available, technologies are needed that can leverage this renewable electricity to produce useful chemicals and fuels with low carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Read the full abstract here.
In addition, this research will be integrated with educational efforts aimed at engaging students from underrepresented groups, particularly LatinX students, and exciting them about the role of catalysis in sustainability.
In 2023, Resasco won the Young Investigator Award from the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) and was recognized as part of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ 35 Under 35 group (AIChE).
