NEWS
​
December 21, 2017
Prof. Román's paper titled "Tuning Redox Transitions via Inductive Effect in Metal Oxides and Complexes, and Implications in Oxygen Electrocatalysis" is published in Joule. Congratulations!
December 1, 2017
Prof. Román's paper titled "Selective Catalytic Olefin Epoxidation with Mn(II)-Exchanged MOF-5" is published in ACS Catalysis. Congratulations!
October 19, 2017
Taka's paper titled "Encapsulation of Molybdenum Carbide Nanoclusters Inside Zeolite Micropores Enables Synergistic Bifunctional Catalysis for Anisole Hydrodeoxygenation" is published in ACS Catalysis. Congratulations!
October 19, 2017
Eric and Mickey's paper titled "Flowthrough Reductive Catalytic Hydrogenation" is published in Joule. Congratulations!
July 31, 2017
Manish's paper titled "Computational Investigation on Hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of Acetone to Propylene on a-MoO3 (010) Surface" is published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C. Congratulations!
July 12, 2017
Manish successfully defends his thesis titled "Catalytic upgrading of biomass through the hydrodeoxygenation of biomass derived oxygenates." Congratulations Dr. Shetty!
May 26, 2017
Aaron's paper titled "Transition Metal Nitride Core-Noble Metal Shell Nanoparticles as Highly CO Tolerant Catalysts" is published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition. Congratulations!
May 25, 2017
Prof. Roman's collaborative paper titled "Heterogeneous Diels–Alder catalysis for biomass-derived aromatic compounds" is published in Green Chemistry. Congratulations!
May 23, 2017
Jen successfully defends her thesis titled "Cooperative Activation of Biomass-Derived Oxygenates with Lewis Acid Zeolites." Congratulations Dr. Lewis!
May 18, 2017
Karthick successfully defends his thesis titled "Molybdenum Trioxide and Molybdenum Carbide as Promising Hydrodeoxygenation Catalysts for Biomass Conversion." Congratulations Dr. Murugappan!
May 2, 2017
Prof. Roman's collaborative paper titled "Importance of Dimer Quantification for Accurate Catalytic Evaluation of Lactic Acid Dehydration to Acrylic Acid" is published in Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research. Congratulations!
April 12, 2017
Stan becomes the recipient of the Chyn Duog Shiah Memorial Fellowship. Congratulations!
​
April 11, 2017
Manish and Karthick's paper titled "Structural properties and reactivity trends of molybdenum oxide catalysts supported on zirconia for the hydrodeoxygenation of anisole" is published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. Congratulations!
​
March 29, 2017
Eric, Anthony, and Karthick's paper titled "Bifunctional Molybdenum Polyoxometalates for the Combined Hydrodeoxygenation and Alkylation of Lignin-derived Model Phenolics" is published in ChemSusChem. Congratulations!
​
March 28, 2017
Chris's paper titled "Electroactive Nanoporous Metal Oxides and Chalcogenides by Chemical Design" is published in Chemistry of Materials. Congratulations!
​
March 22, 2017
Hoyoung's paper titled "Heterogeneous Epoxide Carbonylation by Cooperative Catalysis in Co(CO)4--Incorporated Cr-MIL-101" in collaboration with Prof. Mircea Dinca is published in ACS Central Science. Congratulations!
​
March 17, 2017
Kimberly Dinh wins the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship! Congratulations!
March 3, 2017
Philipp Antkowiak joins the Roman group as a visiting Masters student from ETH Zurich. Welcome Philipp!
January 15, 2017
Mickey Stone joins the Roman group as a first year Chemical Engineering student. Welcome Mickey!
November 28, 2016
Karthik successfully defends his thesis on copper exchanged zeolites for methane oxidation reactions. Congratulations!
October 27, 2016
Chris, Sean and Maria's paper is published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. Congratulations!
Chris, Sean, and Maria's paper titled "Realistic Surface Descriptions of Heterometallic Interfaces: The Case of TiWC Coated in Noble Metals" is published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.
September 22, 2016
William's paper is published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C. Congratulations!
William's paper titled "Interrogating the Lewis Acidity of Metal Sites in Beta Zeolites With 15N Pyridine Adsorption Coupled With MAS NMR Spectroscopy" is published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C.
September 7, 2016
Sean, Maria and Stan's paper is published in Energy & Environmental Science. Congratulations!
Sean, Maria, and Stan's paper titled "Activating earth-abundant electrocatalysts for efficienct, low-cost hydrogen evolution/oxidation: sub-monolayer platinum coatings on titanium tungsten carbide nanoparticles" is published in Energy & Environmental Science.
September 3, 2016
Eric's paper is published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering. Congratulations!
Eric's paper titled "Reductive catalytic fractionation of corn stover lignin" is published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering.
September 1, 2016
Jen's collaborative paper is published in ChemistrySelect. Congratulations!
Jen's work with the Bell group results in a paper titled "Production of Hydroxyl–rich Acids from Xylose and Glucose Using Sn-BEA Zeolite" and is published in ChemistrySelect.
July 12, 2016
​Karthick and Manish's paper is published in Green Chemistry. Congratulations!
Karthick and Manish's paper titled "Supported molybdenum oxides as effective catalysts for the catalytic fast pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass" is published in Green Chemistry.
July 1, 2013
Shiran Zhang joins the Román group as a postdoc. Welcome Shiran!
June 23, 2016
​Sean's collaborative paper with the Brushett group is published in ChemSusChem. Congratulations!
Collaborative paper titled "Electrocatalytic-Hydrogenation of Oxygenates using Earth-Abundant Transition-Metal Nanoparticles under Mild Conditions" is published in ChemSusChem.
June 16, 2016
​Congratulations to Maria for winning the 1st prize at the Postdoc Poster Competition at the 2016 Gordon Conference on Catalysis!
June 13, 2016
Karthik, Kenta, and Kimberly's paper published in ACS Central Science. Congratulations!
Karthik, Kenta, Kimberly's paper titled "Catalytic oxidation of methane into methanol over copper-exchanged zeolites with oxygen at low temperature" appears in ACS Central Science.
May 20, 2016
MIT News and C&En News highlight our work on nanoparticle catalysts with reduced noble metal loadings published in Science.
May 20, 2016
Sean, Maria, and Chris' paper is published in Science. Congratulations!
Sean, Maria, and Chris' paper titled "Self-assembly of noble metal monolayers on transition metal carbide nanoparticle catalysts" appears in Science. Big thanks to our collaborators Ana Alba-Rubio and Prof. James Dumesic at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for their help with nanoparticle visualization.
May 12, 2016
Congratulations to the Román group's newest doctor!
Helen Luo has successfully defended her thesis. Congratulations Helen!
May 10, 2016
Congratulations to the Román group's newest doctor!
Yuran Wang has successfully defended her thesis. Congratulations Yuran!
May 9, 2016
Congratulations to the Román group's newest doctor!
Sean Hunt has successfully defended his thesis. Congratulations Sean!
April 29, 2016
Helen and Jen's paper published in the Annual Review of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Congratulations!
Helen and Jen's review article titled "Lewis acid zeolites for biomass conversion: Perspectives and challenges on reactivity, synthesis, and stability" appears in the Annual Review of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
April 11, 2016
C&En News highlights our acticle on the synthesis of itaconic acid ester analogs published in ACS Catalysis.
March 30, 2016
Yuran and Jen's editor's choice paper published in ACS Catalysis. Congratulations!
Yuran and Jen's paper titled "Synthesis of itaconic acid ester analogs via self-aldol condensation of ethyl pyruvate catalyzed by hafnium BEA zeolites" appears in ACS Catalysis. This paper was chosen as the editor's choice.
February 5, 2016
Kimberly Tam Dinh and Stan Wang join the Román group. Welcome Kim and Stan!
December 21, 2015
David's paper published in Solar Energy. Congratulations!
David's paper titled "Solar molten salt heated membrane reformer for natural gas upgrading and hydrogen generation: A CFD model" appears in Solar Energy.
November 27, 2015
Sean's paper published in the Journal of Visualized Experiments. Congratulations!
Sean's paper titled "Reverse microemulsion-mediated synthesis of monometallic and bimetallic early transition metal carbide and nitride nanoparticles" appears in the Journal of Visualized Experiments. Check out how Sean prepares his catalysts here.
September 17, 2015
Helen's paper published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Congratulations!
Helen's paper resulting from a collaboration with Professor Jeff Rimer at the University of Houston, titled "SSZ-13 crystallization by particle attachment and deterministic pathways to crystal size control" appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
September 15, 2015
Manish and Kartick's paper published in the Journal of Catalysis. Congratulations!
Manish and Karthick's paper titled "Reactivity and stability investigation of supported molybdenum oxide catalysts for the hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of m-cresol" appears in the Journal of Catalysis.
September 3, 2015
Stijn's paper published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition. Congratulations!
Stijn's paper titled "Metalloenzyme-like zeolites as Lewis acid catalysts for C-C bond formation" appears in Angewandte Chemie International Edition.
August 25, 2015
Christopher Hendon joins the Román group as postdoc. Welcome Chris!
August 13, 2015
Jen's and Helen's posters at the Nanoporous GRC get selected for oral presentations. Congratulations!
July 22, 2015
Helen's paper published in Chemical Science. Congratulations!
Helen's paper titled "One-pot synthesis of MWW zeolite nanosheets using a rationally designed organic structure-directing agent" appears in Chemical Science.
July 6, 2015
Sean has his interview with the Business News Network in Toronto
Sean is interviewed about the scarcity of platinum group metals and what that means for green energy research. Check out the video here!
July 3, 2015
Jen's paper published in Angewandte Chemie International edition. Congrats!
Jen's paper titled "Acid-Base Pairs in Lewis Acidic Zeolites Promote Direct Aldol Reactions by Soft Enolization" appears in Angewandte Chemie International edition.
May 29, 2015
Prof. Román is elected as president of the New England Catalysis Society
May 26, 2015
Mark's paper published in Environmental Science & Technology. Congrats!
Mark's paper on "Natural Gas and Cellulosic Biomass: a Clean Fuel Combination? Determining the Natural Gas Blending Wall in Biofuel Production" appears in Environmental Science & Technology..
May 18, 2015
Sydney receives the ChemE UROP award.
May 18, 2015
Helen's paper published in Journal of Catalysis. Congrats!
Helen's paper on "Toward rational design of stable, supported metal catalysts for aqueous-phase processing: Insights from the hydrogenation of levulinic acid" appears in Journal of Catalysis.
April 16, 2015
Congratulations to Dr. William Gunther for successfully defending his PhD thesis!
March 31, 2015
Helen's paper published in Topics in Catalysis. Congrats!
Helen's paper on "Al-MFI Nanosheets as Highly Active and Stable Catalysts for the Conversion of Propanal to Hydrocarbons" appears in Topics in Catalysis.
March 11, 2015
Yuran's paper published in ChemCatChem. Congrats!
Yuran's paper on "acid-catalyzed oxidation of levulinate derivatives to succinates under mild conditions" appears in ChemCatChem.
January 28, 2015
David's paper published in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. Congrats!
David's paper on a "Computational fluid dynamics study of hydrogen generation by low temperature methane reforming in a membrane reactor" appears in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy.
January 14, 2015
David's paper published in Applied Catalysis B: Environmental. Congrats!
David's paper on "Ultra-low loading Ru/γ-Al2O3: A highly active and stable catalyst for low temperature solar thermal reforming of methane" appears in Applied Catalysis B: Environmental.
January 8, 2015
David's paper published in Catalysis Science & Technology. Congrats!
David's paper on "Solar thermal catalytic reforming of natural gas: a review on chemistry, catalysis and system design" appears in Catalysis Science & Technology.
January 6, 2015
Karthik's paper published in JACS. Congrats!
Karthik's paper on "Methane to acetic acid over Cu-exchanged zeolites: mechanistic insights from a site-specific carbonylation reaction" appears in JACS.
January 6, 2015
Stijn's paper published in ACS Catalysis. Congrats!
Stijn's paper on "Solid Lewis acids catalyze the carbon−carbon coupling between carbohydrates and formaldehyde" appears in ACS Catalysis.
December 12, 2014
Prof. Román receives NSF CAREER award. Congrats!
December 1, 2014
Hoyoung Park joins the Roman Group. Welcome Hoyoung!
November 11, 2014
Helen's paper published in Journal of Catalysis. Congrats!
Helen's paper on the "Investigation of the reaction kinetics of isolated Lewis acid sites in Beta zeolites for the Meerwein–Ponndorf–Verley reduction of methyl levulinate to γ-valerolactone" appears in Journal of Catalysis.
October 23, 2014
Prof. Román is featured in the latest issue of the MIT SPECTRVM newsletter.
October 21, 2014
Anthony and Herui's paper published in ACS Catalysis. Congrats!
Anthony and Herui's paper on "Cascade reactions for the continuous and selective production of isobutene from bio-derived acetic acid over zinc-zirconia catalysts" appears in ACS Catalysis.
September 13, 2014
Prof. Román selected to teach in the Heterogeneous Catalysis School for the Iberoamerican Catalysis Society.
July 8, 2014
​Jen and Stijn's paper published in ChemSusChem. Congrats!
Jen and Stijn's paper on "A continuous flow strategy for the coupled transfer hydrogenation and etherification of 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural using Lewis acid zeolites" appears in ChemSusChem.
July 6, 2014
​Prof. Román writes an editorial for a special issue on biomass conversion for the journal Catalysis Science & Technology that he co-edited with Prof. Pieter C. A. Bruijnincx.
June 27, 2014
​Congratulations to William for winning the Gary McVicker Poster Award at the 2014 Gordon Conference on Catalysis!
May 9, 2014
​Teerawit's paper published in Energy & Environmental Science. Congrats!
Teerawit's paper on "Insights into the catalytic activity and surface modification of MoO3 during the hydrodeoxygenation of lignin-derived model compounds into aromatic hydrocarbons under low hydrogen pressure" appears in Energy & Environmental Science.
Our EES paper is selected for the Back Cover!
Apr 4, 2014
William’s paper published in JACS. Congratulations!
William's paper on "Dynamic nuclear polarization NMR enables the analysis of Sn-Beta zeolite prepared with natural abundance 119Sn precursors" appears in J. Am. Chem. Soc.
Apr 2, 2014
Sean’s paper published in Angewandte Chemie. Congratulations!
Sean's paper on "Engineering Non-sintered, Metal-Terminated Tungsten Carbide Nanoparticles for Catalysis" appears in Angewandte Chemie Int. Ed.
The article was covered by MIT News!
Mar 14, 2014
We welcome our first-year PhD students, visiting Masters students, and UROP: Aaron, Eric, Daniel, Caroline, Lukas, and Alejandro.
Feb 18, 2014
Prof. Román delivers invited lecture at Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI), Berkeley
Prof. Román a lecture on "Innovations in Molecular Engineering to Design and Probe New Catalysts for the Production of Renewable Chemicals".
Jan 31, 2014
Prof. Román delivers invited lecture at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Brown university.
Nov 3-8, 2013
Prof. Román presents at the AIChE Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA
Prof. Román delivers two prsentations in the meeting: 1) Domino Reaction for the Production of Gamma-Valerolactone Using Solid Bronsted and Lewis Acids, and 2) Effective Hydrodeoxygenation of Biomass-Derived Oxygenates by MoO3 Catalyst With Low H2 Pressures.
Nov 1, 2013
We welcome our new members - Dr. David Stanislav Simakov and Marco B. S. Wonink!
Sep 30, 2013
Prof. Román delivers invited lecture at Abengoa Research in Spain.
Sep 10, 2013
Prof. Román receives Outstanding Young Investigator Award from the SHPE Foundation.
The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) and SHPE Foundation have established an award to recognize the exemplary contributions made by a Hispanic scientist or engineer in his/her early scientific career. Read more...
Sep 06, 2013
William's paper published in Journal of Molecular Catalysis A: Chemical. Congrats!
William's paper on "Catalytic consequences of borate complexation and pH on the epimerization of L-arabinose to L-ribose in water catalyzed by Sn-Beta zeolite with borate salts" appears in J. Mol. Catal. A: Chem.
Aug 12, 2013
Yuran's paper published in Green Chemistry. Congrats!
Yuran's paper on "Insights into the stability of gold nanoparticles supported on metal oxides for the base-free oxidation of glucose to gluconic acid" appears in Green Chemistry journal.
Aug 09, 2013
Román Group hosts visit by Dr. Manuel Moliner
​Dr. Moliner (Instituto de TecnologÃa QuÃmica (ITQ)) visited our group and delivered a lecture on "Rational synthesis of zeolites with different architectures for their application in catalysis"
Aug 01, 2013
We welcome our new group member Dr. Anthony Crisci!
Jul 22, 2013
Linh's paper is featured on the cover of Angewandte Chemie and appears on MIT news !
Our team have devised a cheaper way to synthesize a key biofuel component, which could make its industrial production much more cost-effective. This work is featured on the inside cover of the journal issue 31, 2013. Read more...
Jun 11, 2013
Linh's paper published in Angewandte Chemie and has been selected as a HOT paper!
The paper titled "Domino Reaction Catalyzed by Zeolites with Brønsted and Lewis Acid Sites for the Production of γ-Valerolactone from Furfural" by Linh, Helen, and William was published in Angewandte Chemie and has been selected as a HOT paper. Congrats! This catalytic system offers an attractive streamlined strategy for the production of GVL from biomass-derived molecules.
Jun 10, 2013
We welcome our new UROP members: Ruifan and Tom
Jun 07, 2013
​Tarit presented at 23rd NAM meeting
Dr. Nimmanwudipong gave a talk regarding his work on selective HDO of biomass-derived oxygenates into olefins by using MoO3 catalyst at the 23rd North American Catalysis Society Meeting held in Louisville, KY during July 2-7, 2013.
May 31, 2013
​Prof. Román delivers invited lecture at Eastman Chemical Company
​
May 22, 2013
​Teerawit's paper is featured on the cover of Energy & Environmental Science
​The paper titled "Effective hydrodeoxygenation of biomass-derived oxygenates into unsaturated hydrocarbons by MoO3 using low H2 pressures" by Teerawit is features on the inside front cover of the journal issue 6, 2013. The image is describing the transformation of biomass-derived oxygenates into valuable hydrocarbons via redox catalytic cycles facilitating the selective oxygen removal. The concept represents the green process for renewable energy production from biomass feedstocks.
May 04, 2013
​Prof. Román is elected as vice president of the New England Catalysis Society
​The New England Catalysis Society (NECS) is a local club associated with the North American Catalysis Society. NECS provides a vehicle to promote the advancement and understanding of catalysis science by researchers in the New England area. Our members range from undergraduate students to experienced researchers from industry and academia. Participating institutions include Boston College, Brown, MIT, Northeastern Univ, Tufts, UConn, UMass, UNH, United Technologies, WPI and Yale.
Apr 24, 2013
​Stijn Van de Vyver received the DSM Science and Technology Award Europe 2013
Stijn received the Award for his PhD research on "Rethinking the design of heterogeneous catalysts for the conversion of cellulose". His work has made important accomplishments in the catalytic conversion of cellulose. He drastically improved conversion rates by increasing the accessibility of the catalytic centers, using carbon nano-fibers and hyper-branched polymers amongst others as catalyst support. Read more...
Apr 08, 2013
​Teerawit's paper published in Energy & Environmental Science. Congrats!
Teerawit's paper on "Effective hydrodeoxygenation of biomass-derived oxygenates into unsaturated hydrocarbons by MoO3 using low H2 pressures" appears in Energy & Environmental Science.
​Feb 05, 2013
​Román Group hosts visit by Dr. Gonzalo Prieto​
Dr. Prieto (Utrecht university, Netherlands) visited our group and delivered a lecture on "Controlling the nano-spatial distribution of supported metal particles: toward more stable catalysts"
Jan 30, 2013
Stijn's paper on adipic acid production appears in Catalysis Science and Technology. Congrats!
Stijn's paper on "Emerging catalytic processes for the production of adipic acid" appears in Catalysis Science and Technology.
Jan 15, 2013
We welcome our new group members: Jen, Karthick and Manish.


Dec 14, 2012
Román Group receives MISTI grant to begin an MIT-Japan collaboration
Prof. Yuriy Román receives a MISTI grant in collaboration with Prof. Mircea Dinca (Chemistry) to begin a collaboration with Prof. Tatsuya Okubo (University of Tokyo) and Prof. Susumu Kitagawa (Kyoto University) on the In situ investigation of reactive intermediates in porous materials.


Dec 05, 2012
Prof. Román delivers invited lecture at BASF


Nov 26, 2012
Román Group hosts visit by Prof. Tatsuya Okubo
Prof. Okubo visited our group and delivered a lecture on "New directions for the synthesis of zeolites without the use of OSDAs"


Nov 05, 2012
Stijn’s paper published in ACS Catalysis. Congrats!
​​

Oct 31, 2012
Helen’s paper published in ACS Catalysis. Congrats!
​

Oct 28, 2012
William and Yuran presented at AIChE in Pittsburgh, PA.
​

Oct 09, 2012
William and Yuran's paper is published in Nature Communications
Our team has found a way to use inorganic catalysts in place of the enzymes to generate sugar epimers in a simple and robust manner. The catalytic system involves using a tin-substituted microporous silicate (Sn-Beta zeolite) combined with a borate salt.
​

Oct 12, 2012
Prof. Román lectures at the 2012 PIRE-ECCI Summer School in DICP in Dalian, China ​
​

Sep 05, 2012
Welcome our new group members Tarit and Balkrishna!
​
​
Aug 15, 2012
Sean attends practice school
​

Jul 30, 2012
Welcome our new group member Dr. Stijn Van de Vyver!
​
​
May 25, 2012​
Mark’s paper on techno-economic analysis published in Biofuels, Bioproducts, and Biorefining!
​
​
May 23, 2012
​MIT-ITQ Valencia collaboration on high-throughput methodology for the synthesis of catalytic porous materials​ with Prof. Avelino Corma begins!
​
​
​May 20, 2012
Paper on Lewis acid zeolites with Prof. Mark Davis published in PNAS!
​