Catalysis club honors Mavrikakis

Manos Mavrikakis, the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor and Paul A. Elfers Professor in chemical and biological engineering, received the 2019 Herman Pines Award from the Catalysis Club of Chicago. The annual award recognizes outstanding contributions in the catalysis research area, a wide-ranging discipline that can improve production efficiency for a variety of industrial and consumer products. Mavrikakis, who is currently on sabbatical at the University of California, Berkeley, as the Visiting Miller Research Professor, was honored for his innovative application of computational modeling to catalysis research. His work has not only revealed new insights into the molecular details of how catalysts speed up chemical reactions but has also helped identify improved catalytic materials. He will describe his research in the talk, “Molecular modeling of heterogeneous catalysis: Insights on the nature of the active site and improved catalysts,” at the Catalysis Club of Chicago’s annual spring symposium on April 16, 2019.