Subdivision
| • | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | [X] |
| | 1 | Name: | Dr. Joseph S. Francisco | | | Institution: | University of Pennsylvania; Purdue University | | | Year Elected: | 2021 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1955 | | | | | | |
Joseph S. Francisco is the President's Distinguished Professor of Earth and Environmental Science and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his B.S. at the University of Texas at Austin, and he received his Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Francisco was a Research Fellow at University of Cambridge in England, and a Visiting Associate in Planetary Science at California Institute of Technology. His research has focused on bringing new tools from experimental physical and theoretical chemistry to atmospheric chemical problems to enhance our understanding of chemistry in the atmosphere at the molecular level. This work has led to important discoveries of new chemistries occurring on the interfaces of cloud surfaces as well as fundamental new chemical bonding controlling these processes. He has been an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow. He was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt U.S. Senior Scientist Award; appointed a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Bologna, Italy; Professeur Invité at the Université de Paris-Est, France; a Visiting Professor at Uppsala Universitet, Sweden; an Honorary International Chair Professor at National Taipei University, Taiwan; and an Honorary Professor, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, China. He served as President of the American Chemical Society in 2010. Dr. Francisco currently serves as Executive and Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society and on the Editorial Board of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Joseph S. Francisco was elected, to the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, as well as, a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2021. | |
| 2 | Name: | Dr. Daniel G. Nocera | | | Institution: | Harvard University | | | Year Elected: | 2021 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1957 | | | | | | |
Daniel G. Nocera is the Patterson Rockwood Professor of Energy at Harvard University. He moved to Harvard in 2013 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy and was Director of the Solar Revolutions Project and Director of the MIT Solar Frontiers Center. Nocera is recognized for his discoveries in renewable energy, originating new paradigms that have defined the field of solar energy conversion and storage. Nocera created the field of proton coupled electron transfer (PCET) at a mechanistic level by making the first measurements that temporally resolved the movement of an electron coupled to a proton. On this experimental foundation, he provided the first theory of PCET. With PCET as a guiding framework, he invented the Artificial Leaf and the Bionic Leaf. The Artificial Leaf comprises Si coated with catalysts to capture the direct solar process of photosynthesis – the use of sunlight to split water to hydrogen and oxygen from neutral water, at atmospheric pressure and room temperature. The Bionic Leaf comprises a bio-engineered organism interfaced with the catalysts of the Artificial Leaf to capture the dark process of photosynthesis – the combination of carbon dioxide and hydrogen to produce biomass and liquid fuels. The integration of the light and dark processes of the Artificial Leaf and the Bionic Leaf, respectively, allowed Nocera to develop a complete artificial photosynthesis — sunlight + air + water to biomass and liquid fuels — that is ten times more efficient than natural photosynthesis. Extending this approach, Nocera has achieved a renewable and distributed Haber-Bosch synthesis of ammonia from nitrogen in air by coupling solar-based water splitting to a nitrogen and carbon fixing bioorganism to produce a living biofertilizer, resulting in increased crop yields and early harvests. These science discoveries set the stage for the large scale and distributed deployment of solar energy fuels and food production using only sunlight, air and any water source. With such simple natural inputs, such discovery is particularly useful to the poor, where large infrastructures for fuel and food production are not tenable. Complementing his interest in solar energy conversion, Nocera has designed layered antiferromagnets to explore exotic states arising from highly correlated spins, creating the spin 1/2 quantum spin liquid on a kagomé lattice, a long-sought prize in condensed matter physics. His group has also created nanocrystal sensors for the metabolic profiling of tumors, a technique used by clinicians to develop new cancer drug therapies. Afield from chemistry, Nocera invented the Molecular Tagging Velocimetry to make simultaneous, multipoint velocity measurements of highly three-dimensional turbulent flows. This fluid physics technique has been employed by the engineering community to solve long-standing and important problems that had previously escaped characterization. Nocera founded Sun Catalytix, a company committed to developing energy storage technologies for the wide-spread implementation of renewable energy; the coordination chemistry flow battery technology invented by Sun Catalytix is now being commercialized by Lockheed Martin. A second company founded by Nocera, Kula Bio, is focused on the development of renewable and distributed crop production and land restoration; the technology also provides a low-cost curve for significant carbon sequestration. Nocera has been awarded the Leigh Ann Conn Prize for Renewable Energy, Eni Prize, Burghausen Prize, and the United Nation’s Science and Technology Award for his discoveries in renewable energy. On this topic, he has also received the Inorganic Chemistry, Harrison Howe, Mack, Remsen and Kosolapoff Awards from the American Chemical Society. He has received honorary degrees from Harvard University, Michigan State University and the University of Crete. In addition to membership in the American Philosophical Society, he is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Indian Academy of Sciences. | |
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