Electrification and Decarbonization of the Chemical Industry

Zachary Schiffer is currently a doctoral student in the Chemical Engineering Department at MIT. An NSF Graduate Research Fellow and an MIT Presidential Fellow, he is studying applications of electrochemistry to the nitrogen cycle in the Manthiram Lab. Zachary received a B.S.E. from Princeton University in Chemical and Biological Engineering with minors in applications of computing and materials science. As an undergraduate, he worked in Dr. Craig Arnold's lab studying the coupling of mechanics and electrochemistry in lithium ion batteries. Karthish Manthiram is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT. The Manthiram Lab develops technologies that enable modular and sustainable transformations of molecules. The lab is currently focused on the conversion of distributed feedstocks, such as air, water, carbon dioxide, and renewable electricity, into molecules that have an impact on our everyday lives. Examples include catalytic technologies through which farmers in developing countries can produce their own ammonia fertilizers and conversion of carbon dioxide into methanol to mitigate emissions that would otherwise contribute to global warming. Karthish received his bachelor's degree from Stanford University in 2010 and his Ph. D. from UC Berkeley in 2015, both in Chemical Engineering. Most recently, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the California Institute of Technology.