UD prof wins prestigious catalysis award

Jingguang Chen, professor of chemical engineering and director of UD’s Center for Catalytic Science and Technology

9:44 a.m., June 24, 2004--Jingguang Chen, professor of chemical engineering, received the 2004 Catalysis Club of Philadelphia Award during the club’s annual spring symposium, held May 20, at Clayton Hall.

The award was given to Chen in recognition of his current research, which focuses on the physical and chemical properties of bimetallic and metal carbide surfaces and their applications to technologies ranging from catalysts to fuel cells. The award also recognized Chen’s impact on catalysis research at UD’s Center for Catalytic Science and Technology (CCST), where he has served as director since 2000.

Chen is well-known in the field of catalysis for his applications of near-edge X-ray absorption fine structures (NEXAFS) to elucidate the chemical and physical properties of model and practical catalysts, and of key reactive species on them. His 1997 monograph on NEXAFS investigations of metal oxides, nitrides, carbides and sulfides, published in Surface Science Reports, remains the key source in this area.

Besides the Catalysis Club of Philadelphia Award, Chen has won many other awards and fellowships. In 1983, he was selected as one of the top 40 Chinese chemistry students for the China-USA Graduate Fellowship to study in the United States, and, during his graduate studies at the University of Pittsburgh, he was awarded the 1986 Russell Varian Fellowship—an award given by the American Vacuum Society each year to recognize a graduate student in the field of surface science.

After working at the Exxon Corporate Research Laboratories for several years, Chen accepted a tenured faculty position in UD’s departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Chemical Engineering. He was promoted to the rank of professor in 2002 and currently directs CCST, one of the world’s leading academic catalysis centers. He was elected as chairperson of the prestigious Gordon Research Conference on Catalysis for 2002 and has authored more than 100 scientific papers and 15 patents.

Mark Barteau, UD’s Robert L. Pigford Professor of Chemical Engineering, was awarded the Catalysis Club of Philadelphia Award in 2001 for his contributions to the field of catalysis.

Article by Becca Hutchinson

E-mail this article

To learn how to subscribe to UDaily, click here.