Founders Lecture

The Founders Lectures in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering are made possible by the Founders Lectureship Fund, established by the families, friends, and former students of Dr. Sheldon Friedlander and Dr. Ken Nobe. The lecture series alternates annually in honor of Drs. Friedlander and Nobe, celebrating their lasting contributions to the field.

Upcoming Lectures

Abstract

Over the next decades, science advances are needed to enable scalable technologies for i) capture of dilute CO2 at the gigaton scale and ii) CO2 reduction to fuels, chemicals, and materials, powered by renewable energy or directly by sunlight. I will discuss materials and device advances needed for a scalable energy-efficient route to direct ocean capture of CO2, via an electrochemical pH swing. This scheme utilizes bipolar membrane electrodialysis to create the pH swing required to capture CO2 drawn down into the ocean in the form of dissolved inorganic carbon. I will also explore approaches for directly generating liquid fuels from carbon dioxide, sunlight, water. This requires new photoelectrodes, electrocatalysts and thermocatalytic structures to facilitate transfer of electrons, protons, and reactants, to selectively yield multicarbon products at semiconductor photoelectrode surfaces and catalytic sites. Tandem reaction schemes for liquid solar fuel generation from CO2 will be discussed, including i) three-terminal tandem photoelectrodes with monolithically integrated but distinct catalytic centers operating at independent potentials to yield products via a cascade reaction, and ii) tandem photoelectrochemical/solar thermocatalytic cascades that first electrochemically synthesize ethylene, carbon monoxide and hydrogen which are then used to form multicarbon products (butene, hexene, and heavier hydrocarbons) via solar-driven thermocatalytic reactions.

Biography

Harry Atwater is the Otis Booth Leadership Chair of the Division of Engineering and Applied Science, and the Howard Hughes Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science at the California Institute of Technology. Atwater’s scientific effort lies at the junction energy conversion processes and nanoscale light-matter interactions. His current research in energy centers on high efficiency photovoltaics, photoelectrochemical processes for generation of solar fuels, and carbon capture and removal,. His research has resulted in world records for solar photovoltaic conversion and photoelectrochemical water splitting. Atwater was an early pioneer in nanophotonics and plasmonics; he gave the name to the field of plasmonics in 2001. His current research also spans fundamental phenomena in nanophotonics, low-dimensional materials and plasmonics.

Currently Atwater is the Director for the Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA), a Department of Energy Hub program for solar fuels. From 2014-2020, he served as Director of the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP), the DOE Energy Innovation Hub for solar fuels. Atwater is a Member of US National Academy of Engineering, and a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher from 2014-2025. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the von Hippel Award of the Materials Research Society. He is also a Fellow of the APS, MRS, Optica, SPIE, and the National Academy of Inventors. He is also the founding Editor in Chief of the journal ACS Photonics. Atwater is also founder of 5 early-stage companies, including Captura, which is developing scalable approaches to carbon dioxide removal from oceanwater, and Alta Devices, which set world records for photovoltaic cell and module efficiency.

About the Founders

Dr. Sheldon Friedlander

The late Dr. Sheldon Friedlander was a pioneering scientist in aerosol science and air quality. He was the founding chair of the UCLA Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department in 1983, the UCLA Parsons Professor of Chemical Engineering, and the director of the Air Quality/Aerosol Technology Laboratory. In 1982, he co-founded the American Association for Aerosol Research and later established the Friedlander Award to recognize outstanding doctoral dissertations in aerosol science and technology.

Before joining UCLA in 1978, Dr. Friedlander held faculty positions at Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University, and the California Institute of Technology. While at Caltech, he devised a method to analyze the chemical composition of smog particles, enabling researchers to trace pollution sources such as power plants, refineries, and automobiles. A dedicated educator, he introduced innovative courses on air pollution and authored the seminal text Smoke, Dust and Haze: Fundamentals of Aerosol Dynamics, now in its second edition.

Dr. Friedlander’s contributions earned him numerous honors, including a Fulbright Scholarship (1960), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1969), election to the National Academy of Engineering (1975), the Fuchs Memorial Award (1990), and the Junge Memorial Award (2000).

Dr. Ken Nobe

A native of Berkeley, California, the late Dr. Ken Nobe was a distinguished scientist in catalysis and electrochemical engineering. He earned his B.S. from UC Berkeley and his Ph.D. in engineering from UCLA in 1957, after which he joined UCLA’s engineering faculty. He served as chair of the Chemical, Nuclear, and Thermal Engineering Department (1978–1983) and was the founding chair of the UCLA Chemical Engineering Department (1983–1984).

Dr. Nobe was a leader in catalytic air pollution control, developing methods to reduce emissions from automotive and industrial sources. His work also advanced the understanding of electrochemical processes, including electrodissolution kinetics, corrosion, electrochemical energy systems, and electrodeposited nano-sized high-performance magnetic materials. His research shaped the fields of environmental and materials electrochemistry, with lasting impacts on energy storage and industrial applications.

A dedicated mentor and educator, Dr. Nobe received the UCLA Distinguished Teacher Award (1962) and the Linford Award from the Electrochemical Society (1992). In 2000, he and his wife, Mary, endowed the William F. Seyer Chair in Materials Electrochemistry at UCLA, honoring his graduate research advisor, William Seyer.

Past Founders Lectures

• 2021-2022 Donna Blackmond (Nobe)
• 2022-2023 Doraiswami Ramkrishna (Friedlander)
• 2023-2024 Lynden Archer (Nobe)
• 2024-2025 James Liao (Friedlander)