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.