Prof. Eranda Nikolla is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, MI. Prior to this, she was a Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at Wayne State University, Detroit, MI. She received her received her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from University of Michigan in 2009 working with Prof. Suljo Linic and Prof. Johannes Schwank in the area of solid-state high temperature electrocatalysis. She conducted a two-year postdoctoral work at California Institute of Technology with Prof. Mark E. Davis working on designing functionalized silica and zeolite catalysts for selective conversions of biomass derived feedstocks.

Her research interests focus on the development of heterogeneous catalysts and electrocatalysts for chemical and electrochemical energy conversion/storage processes. As an integral part of engineering catalytic structures, Nikolla has implemented a paradigm which involves a combination of controlled synthesis, advanced characterization, kinetic measurements, and quantum chemical calculations to unearth the underlying mechanism that governs their catalytic performance for targeted reactions. Her group’s impact to catalytic science has been recognized through the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the Department of Energy Early Career Research Award, Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, the Young Scientist Award from the International Congress on Catalysis, the 2019 ACS Women Chemists Committee (WCC) Rising Star Award, the 2021 Michigan Catalysis Society Parravano Award for Excellence in Catalysis Research and Development, the 2022 ACS Catalysis Lectureship for the Advancement of Catalytic Science, the 2023 Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos Award for Creativity in Catalysis and the 2024 Excellence in Catalysis Award from Catalysis Society of Metropolitan New York.

Prof. Susannah Scott is a Distinguished Professor in both Chemical Engineering and in Chemistry & Biochemistry at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She received her Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Iowa State University, under the direction of Jim Espenson and Andreja Bakac, for her work on the activation of O2 and transition metal-catalyzed oxidation mechanisms. She was awarded a NATO Postdoctoral Fellowship for work with Jean-Marie Basset at the Institut de recherches sur la catalyse (CNRS) in Lyon, France. In 1994, she joined the faculty of the University of Ottawa (Canada), where she was named a Canada Research Chair. In 2003, she moved to the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she currently holds the Duncan and Suzanne Mellichamp Chair in Sustainable Catalysis. She is an Executive Editor for ACS Catalysis, and a member of the Board of Reviewing Editors for Science.

Her research interests include the design of heterogeneous catalysts with well-defined active sites for the conversion of conventional and unconventional carbon-based feedstocks, including the use of renewable and recycled carbon; methods for the operando spectroscopic characterization of catalysts and the study of reaction mechanisms; and decarbonization strategies for the chemical industry.

For our 30th episode it is a pleasure to welcome Prof. Charles (Charlie) T. Campbell! Prof. Campbell is Professor Emeritus in Chemistry at the University of Washington, where he is also Adjunct Professor of Chemical Engineering and of Physics, and the Rabinovitch Endowed Chair in Chemistry since 2012. He received his BS (1975) and PhD (1979, under JM White) degrees at the University of Texas at Austin in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, then did postdoctoral research in Germany with Gerhard Ertl (2007 Nobel Prize Winner). He is the author of over 370 publications and two patents on surface chemistry, catalysis, physical chemistry and biosensing, with 40,000 citations and an h-index of 103 (Google Scholar). He is an elected Fellow of the ACS, the AVS and the AAAS, Honorary Fellow of the Chinese Chemical Society, and Member of the Washington State Academy of Sciences. He received the Arthur W. Adamson Award of the ACS, the ACS Award for Colloid or Surface Chemistry, the ACS Gabor Somorjai Award for Creative Research in Catalysis, the ACS Catalysis Award for Exceptional Achievements, the Gerhard Ertl Lecture Award, the Robert Burwell Award/Lectureship of the North American Catalysis Society, the Medard W. Welch Award of the AVS, the Gauss Professorship of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences, the Ipatieff Lectureship of Northwestern University and an Alexander von Humboldt Research Award. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of Surface Science Reports and Catalysis Reviews in Science and Engineering, and on the boards of Catalysis Letters, Surface Science and Topics in Catalysis. He previously served as Editor-in-Chief of Surface Science for over ten years.

Dr. Chris Bradley is a Program Manager in Catalysis Science at the U.S. Department of Energy. He earned B.S. degrees in Chemistry and Biology at the University of Kentucky and a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Cornell University. He was then a postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley. His independent academic career involved stints as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Texas Tech University from 2008-2012 and at Mount St. Mary’s University from 2012-2016. After being promoted in 2016, Chris moved to his current role. While at DOE, Chris has been involved with several strategic planning efforts- many focused on sustainable chemistry. In 2023, he served as a half-time detail in the Office of the Under Secretary for Science and Innovation (S4). His main responsibility in the role involved lead coordination of the announcement and execution of the Clean Fuels & Products Energy Earthshot.

Prof. Suljo Linic was born in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he completed his
elementary and high school education. His family were forcefully displaced from Bosnia during
the Bosnian war of 1990s. He moved to the USA in 1994 after being awarded a faculty
scholarship from West Chester University in PA. Suljo obtained his PhD degree in chemical engineering in 2004 working with Prof. Mark Barteau at University of Delaware, specializing in surface and colloidal chemistry and heterogeneous catalysis. He was a Max Planck postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Dr. Matthias Scheffler at the Fritz Haber Institute, working on first principles studies of surface chemistry. He started his independent faculty career in 2004 at the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where he is currently Martin Lewis Perl Collegiate Professor of Chemical Engineering. Suljo’s research has been recognized through multiple awards. There are too many to list here, but some of the most prominent ones include the Gabor A. Somorjai Award by the American Chemical Society, the Emmett Award by The North American Catalysis Society, the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Forum Young Investigator Award by American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award awarded by the Dreyfus Foundation. Suljo has presented more than 200 invited and keynote lectures. He is also an associate editor of ACS Catalysis.

Prof. Phillip Christopher earned his B.S. in chemical engineering from University of California, Santa Barbara in 2006 and his M.S and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from University of Michigan in 2011 working with Prof. Suljo Linic. From 2011-2017 he was an Assistant Professor at University of California, Riverside. In 2017 he moved to the University of California, Santa Barbara where he is a Professor and Vice Chair for Undergraduate Affairs in the Chemical Engineering Department and the Mellichamp Chair in Sustainable Manufacturing. He serves as a Senior Editor for ACS Energy Letters. His research interests are in sustainable chemical conversion, heterogeneous catalysis by supported metals, dynamic behavior of catalysts, and photocatalysis by metal nanostructures. He has been given various awards including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), AIChE CRE Division Young Investigator Award, and Ipatieff Prize from the ACS.

Dr. Simon R. Bare is a distinguished scientist at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. He earned his B.Sc. in Chemistry and Ph.D. in Surface Chemistry from the University of Liverpool, UK. He was a postdoctoral fellow at both Cornell University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He then transitioned in industry and held various positions in catalyst research at The Dow Chemical Company over 10 years, and then at UOP, a Honeywell Company for 19 years. He then had a career change and joined Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in 2016.

His research is focused on in-situ/operando catalyst characterization using techniques available at synchrotrons, with a focus on X-ray absorption spectroscopy to develop structure-property relationships. He enjoys developing and applying new catalyst characterization techniques. His group, the Consortium for Operando and Advanced Catalyst Characterization via Electronic Spectroscopy and Structure (Co-ACCESS), develops methodology to allow any catalysis researcher to perform their experiments effectively, efficiently, and safely at Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL). His group currently collaborates with over 30 catalysis-focused research groups in the US and globally. He has authored over 200 publications and holds 10 US patents.

He is a fellow of the AAAS and had held many leadership positions including being a member of BESAC from 2008-2017. Mentorship, encouragement, and inclusivity are high on his value system. He fully embraces the concept that collaboration is the key to drive science forward of we are to meet the climate goals of 2030 and 2050. It was a pleasure to have Simon on PodCAT!

Dr. Sean Hunt is the co-founder and CTO of Solugen. He focuses on utilizing novel metal catalysts, scaling up proprietary chemienzymatic process technologies, and developing the framework for Solugen’s molecule factories: the Bioforge. His engineering endeavors have spanned a wide range of industries and applications, working as fuel cell engineer for the U.S. Navy, a vaccine and API process engineer for Merck in Singapore, and a Cocoa Puff engineer at General Mills. Sean holds a PhD in chemical engineering from MIT where he was advised by Prof. Yuriy Roman as an NSF graduate research fellow. He is a Forbes 30 Under 30 in Industry and Manufacturing and co-author on more than 20 peer-reviewed publications and patents, including first author publications in Science, Angewandte Chemie, and Energy and Environmental Science.