Yosra Badiei, Ph.D.

Dr. Badiei obtained her Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry in 2009 from Georgetown University in Washington DC and was the recipient of the Harold Glassman Award for Best Dissertation in Sciences in 2010. She further pursued her postdoctoral studies at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and Brookhaven National Laboratory in NY. She has published many articles in international peer-reviewed journals and presented her worked in various symposia and conferences. Dr. Badiei actively performs research with undergraduate students, and her research interests are in molecular catalysis, inorganic and organic synthesis, coordination chemistry, water-oxidation, electrode fabrication and catalyst immobilization for making sustainable energy fuels. Dr. Badiei is also the co-PI of the NSF Robert NOYCE grant which aims at recruiting and preparing STEM students to pursue a career in teaching K-12. Dr. Badiei is also involved in an NSF HSI STEM grant at Saint Peter’s University which aims at connecting and involving students in career opportunities in industry. Dr. Badiei is also actively working on outreach projects with high school communities to enhance their learning experience of energy and sustainability topics.

Dr. Badiei’s research interests are in molecular catalysis, inorganic and organic synthesis, coordination chemistry, water-oxidation, electrode fabrication and catalyst immobilization for making sustainable energy fuels.

Solar-to-chemical energy conversion, also known by artificial photosynthesis, can lead to the storage of solar energy in the form of chemical bonds such as hydrogen from water and produce new biomass C1 building blocks (for e.g. methane, methanol) from CO2 to help in fuel growth and recycling of CO2 emission. This is a highly-promising strategy for the development of clean and sustainable fuel technologies. Progress in this field, however, will heavily rely on the use of catalysts made of cheap materials and earth-abundant metals to make it an economically viable energy resource.

My research focuses on the design and synthesis of new molecular catalysts for water-splitting, and the investigation of the details of catalytic mechanisms by exploring the structure, spectroscopy and kinetics of catalytic intermediates. Emphasis is placed on exploring new earth-abundant transition metal-complexes that can replace the widely known expensive noble metal catalysts.