Leadership
Administration
Karen I. Goldberg
Energy Research Interests: The Goldberg group seeks to develop new catalytic systems to produce chemicals and fuels from a range of available feedstocks via environmentally responsible and economically viable processes. Ongoing projects include selective C-H oxidations, use of oxygen as an oxidant, and catalytic reductions of CO2 into useful chemical feedstocks and liquid fuels.
Nadine E. Gruhn
Dr. Gruhn has been with the Vagelos Institute since 2017. From 2008 to 2017 she was the Managing Director of the first NSF Center for Chemical Innovation, the Center for Enabling New Technologies through Catalysis, led by the University of Washington. Prior to that, she was a Staff Scientist at the University of Arizona and Director of the Center for Gas-Phase Electron Spectroscopy. She earned a B.S. degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, her Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Arizona, and did postdoctoral research at Indiana University.
Erika Martinez
Ms. Martinez has been with the Vagelos Institute since 2023. She received her B.A. in Chemistry and History from the University of Miami (FL) in 2011, and a M.A. in Modern European Studies at Columbia University in 2015. She spent the next few years working at the College of Central Florida, including two years as Dual Enrollment Coordinator working directly with high school students taking college credit courses. In 2023, she completed her M.S. in Education at Penn’s Graduate School of Education. She is also the administrative coordinator for the undergraduate, dual-degree Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research (VIPER).
Executive Committee
Zahra Fakhraai
Energy Research Interests: The Fakhraai group studies the effect of size, geometry, and interface interactions on the thermodynamics and optical properties of nanostructured materials. Understanding how interfaces and nanostructures affect material properties is crucial in many technological applications where soft materials are constrained at nanoscales, such as coatings, organic electronics, packaged biopolymers, and molecular catalysts. These studies include a detailed investigation of the evolution of morphology and dielectric properties of electrochemical interfaces, studies on the stability and surface properties of two-dimensional materials, and production of high-index coatings for applications such as AR displays.
Daeyeon Lee
Energy Research Interests: The Soft Materials Research and Technology (SMART) lab is dedicated to innovating soft matter systems and processes aimed at addressing critical challenges in energy and sustainability. We specialize in optimizing polymer-porous solid interactions for plastic waste upcycling, creating bicontinuous materials to enhance energy device efficiency, and fabricating polymer nanocomposite coatings/membranes for effective water, heat, and light management.
Thomas E. Mallouk
Energy Research Interests: The Mallouk group works on the synthesis of nanoscale inorganic materials and their applications to problems in renewable energy conversion. They are studying solar water splitting using dye-sensitized semiconductors, electrocatalytic CO2 reduction, and electrocatalysis in alkaline fuel cells. They are also developing the electrochemistry of bipolar membranes, which enable energy storage in redox flow batteries and related applications in electrochemical energy conversion and separations.
Eric J. Schelter
Energy Research Interests: Projects in the Schelter Group involve synthesis of inorganic and organometallic complexes for applications in sustainability. Current research interests include critical metals separations and recycling, synthetic lanthanide and actinide chemistry, quantum materials chemistry, and photochemistry.
Aleksandra Vojvodic
