Prof. Michael Janik

Prof. William Schneider earned his PhD studying Inorganic Chemistry at The Ohio State University. Following his PhD he spent over a decade working at the Ford Motor Company, where he researched strategies for mitigating the environmental impact of automotive emissions. He joined the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Notre Dame in 2004 and he has served as the department chair since 2020. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and is an Executive Editor of J Phys Chem C. In 2009, he received the BP Foundation Outstanding Teacher Award, which happens to be the same year the Tom took Bill's Physical Chemistry course. Tom can attest that the award was well deserved!

Prof. Lea Winter is an Assistant Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at Yale University. Lea earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Yale and received her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University as a NSF graduate research fellow, working under the supervision of Professor Jingguang Chen - sharing academic lineage with Marc. Lea then returned to Yale as a nanotechnology enabled water treatment distinguished postdoctoral fellow and started her independent career as an assistant professor in 2022. We are thrilled to welcome Prof. Lea Winter to PodCAT!

On this episode of PodCAT we welcome Prof. Yuriy Román from MIT. Yuriy Román is the Robert T. Haslam Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT. Yuriy earned his B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 2002 and received his Ph.D. in Chemical and Biological Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2008, working under the supervision of Professor James A. Dumesic. He then moved to the California Institute of Technology to do postdoctoral research with Professor Mark E. Davis. Yuriy has won numerous prestigious awards throughout his career, including the recent 2024 Paul H. Emmett Award in Fundamental Catalysis from the North American Catalysis Society. It is a pleasure to have Yuriy as our guest on PodCAT!

On this episode of PodCAT we welcome Prof. Sheima Khatib from Virginia Tech. Sheima exemplifies the complete professor: successful research, top-notch teaching, and recognized service to the profession. For her research in natural gas upgrading she received the NSF CAREER award, for her teaching she received the Rawls Outstanding Undergraduate Educator award, and she was the 2023 programming chair for AICHE’s Catalysis & Reaction Engineering (CRE) division. Sheima does it all!

On this episode of PodCAT we welcome Prof. Alexis T. Bell. We discuss how Prof. Bell entered the field of catalysis and went out on a limb to secure a faculty position at UC Berkeley. We also discuss strategies for maintaining a successful research program and how to respond to reviewer comments. Fun fact, Prof. Bell was Ezra's PhD advisor!

Prof. Bell is the Dow professor of Sustainable Chemistry in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley. He was a two time Department Chair. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Prof. Bell has won numerous awards including the Paul H. Emmett Award in Fundamental Catalysis and the Michel Boudart Award from the Catalysis Society.

Welcome to the new season of PodCAT! Our first episode of 2023-24 is a deep dive into submitting your first proposal. Where should you apply? What are strategies for dealing with rejection? No worries, PodCAT is here to help.

On this episode of PodCAT we welcome a very special guest, Prof. Cathleen Crudden. We discuss how Prof. Crudden entered the field of catalysis and rose to Editor in Chief of ACS Catalysis. We also discuss mentoring strategies and philosphies, with important tips for early career researchers.

Prof. Crudden is the AV Douglas Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada. She also holds a position as a Research Professor at Nagoya University in Japan. Since 2021, she has been the Editor in Chief of ACS Catalysis. Prof. Crudden is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Chemical Institute of Canada and Royal Society of Chemistry. She has earned more prestigious accolades than we can count and importantly, takes great pride in mentoring her students. 

What do you need to be successful? Estimating start-up costs and negotiating an offer is no sweat with PodCAT in your corner. Tune in for the last installment of our series on the faculty application process.

On this episode we welcome a very special guest, Prof. Paul Dauenhauer. We discuss details of how Prof. Dauenhauer became interested and excited about catalysis with some tips and strategies for early career researchers.

Prof. Dauenhauer received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His PhD was under the guidance of Lanny Schmidt at University of Minnesota in Chemical Engineering. He is currently the Lanny & Charlotte Schmidt Professor at University of Minnesota in the Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Department. His research group focuses on developing and understanding catalysts for biomass conversion, and more recently we've heard him pioneer topics of dynamic catalysis and catalytic condensers.