Assistant Professor Joaquin Resasco of the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering has been selected to receive the prestigious Department of Energy (DOE) Early Career Research Award. The Award recognizes his research to expand fundamental knowledge of how electric fields influence the reactivity of thermochemical and electrochemical catalysts.
Resasco is among the more than 80 scientists and engineers selected from across the United States to receive significant research funding as part of the DOE Office of Science’s Early Career Research Program.
Resasco's work focuses on heterogeneous catalysts, which play an essential role in producing fuels and chemicals vital to modern society. Strategies for optimizing their performance have predominantly focused on tailoring composition and structure of catalytic active sites. He has shown that the environment surrounding these active sites–especially, local electric fields–also significantly impacts performance.
“Our work leverages state-of-the-art experimental and computational tools to gain molecular-level insights into the role of electric fields on catalytic performance,” said Resasco, “and by leveraging these insights, we are developing new technologies that can use electric fields to significantly enhance catalytic performance and selectivity.”
This award is a testament to the significance of his work. Resasco also received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award in 2024–the most prestigious research grant program of the NSF that supports junior faculty–for his work, “Engineering the Reactivity of Single Atom Electrocatalysts Beyond their Active Site.” In 2023, Resasco won the Young Investigator Award from the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) and in 2020 was recognized as part of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ 35 Under 35 group (AIChE) and Forbes 30 under 30 list for Science.
The DOE Office of Science is the nation’s largest long-term supporter of basic research in the physical sciences. The DOE Office of Science‘s Early Career Research Program, designed to strengthen the nation’s scientific workforce, supports career researchers at U.S. academic institutions, DOE national laboratories and Office of Science user facilities for five years through annual funding. Under the program, university-based researchers will receive grants for at least $175,000 per year for five years.
This research was selected for funding by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences.
