The Ralph O’Connor Sustainable Energy Institute (ROSEI) recently created two new programs that aim to provide enhanced research experiences for Read more
This is the ROSEI bi-weekly funding digest summarizing external funding opportunities of interest to ROSEI and the JHU community. ROSEI Read more
The US Electric Power Innovation for a Carbon-free Society (EPICS) Center celebrated its first year with an all-day summit at Read more
Two recently released reports from the Ralph O’Connor Sustainable Energy Institute (ROSEI) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and the University Read more
The Ralph O’Connor Sustainable Energy Institute (ROSEI) hosted its third annual summit (Summit) for sustainable energy research at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) on January 15. The Read more
This article is part of a series featuring Q&As with Ralph O’Connor Sustainable Energy Institute (ROSEI)-affiliated researchers. Next up is Read more

Events

10:30 am / 11:30 am
February 18
Note: This talk is available over Zoom. Title: Transforming Materials and Molecular Discovery with Data-Driven Approaches Abstract: Tackling global challenges like water scarcity and sustainable synthesis demands innovative approaches that integrate functional materials design with AI-driven tools. In this seminar, I will first describe how I engineered metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)—a class of porous crystalline solids—for atmospheric water harvesting, a critical step toward addressing the water–energy nexus. By combining gas sorption measurements with structural characterization techniques (e.g., X-ray diffraction and spectroscopic analyses), I established key design rules for hygroscopic MOFs, optimizing pore size, working capacity, energy efficiency, and scalability. These findings led to the development of portable water-capture devices, successfully field-tested in the extreme conditions of Death Valley National Park, underscoring their real-world potential. In the second part, I will introduce the integration of large language models (LLMs) into closed-loop porous materials discovery and electrochemical synthesis planning, respectively. As a prime example of human-AI collaboration, my work has enabled efficient literature data mining, accelerated inverse design, and automated synthesis and characterization. By streamlining the exploration of synthesis-structure-property relationships, such LLM-assisted workflows not only expedite material development but also hold great promise for advancing self-driving labs, paving the way for scalable, autonomous, and sustainable solutions in chemical engineering. Bio: Dr. Zhiling (Zach) Zheng obtained his B.A. in Chemistry from Cornell University, having worked as an undergraduate researcher in the laboratory of Professor Kyle Lancaster. During his Ph.D. under Professor Omar Yaghi as a Kavli Graduate Student Fellow at UC Berkeley, Dr. Zheng developed water harvesting MOFs, while opening a new window into LLM-driven materials research. In his postdoctoral work at MIT ChemE, Dr. Zheng worked with Professor Klavs Jensen to integrate machine learning with automation platforms, aiming to accelerate reaction discovery in electrochemistry. More recently, he became a BIDMaP Fellow at UC Berkeley EECS where he explores deep learning to advance materials discovery.
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12:00 pm / 1:00 pm
February 20
Note: This talk is available on Zoom. Title: Advancing Towards a Smarter and More Sustainable Transportation System Abstract: Transitioning to more livable and sustainable smart cities requires improving today’s transportation system to be smarter, safer, and more resilient. In this talk, Corey Harper will discuss how emerging trends in transportation could change the way we envision our cities and communities and the importance of putting people’s needs at the forefront. In the first part of his talk, he will discuss how connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) could impact parking economics and energy use in our downtown urban cores. In the second part, he will discuss how micromobility modes could impact transportation congestion, emissions, and energy use. Finally, he will discuss future research opportunities and directions related to equity, ridesharing, and vehicle electrification. Bio: Corey Harper is an Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Heinz School of Information Systems and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. In his role as the director of the Future Mobility Systems Lab he leads a team of researchers who explore the infrastructure, policy, and equity implications of emerging transportation technologies (e.g., autonomous vehicles and micromobility). He is a recipient of multiple Department of Energy awards and is also an Associate Editor for the Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems. Before becoming a professor, he was a consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, helping the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) and Department of Defense (DOD) with the integration of connected and automated vehicles.
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3:00 pm / 4:00 pm
February 20
Note: This talk is available over Zoom. Title: Data-Driven Advances in Wind Energy: From Observations to Machine Learning Abstract: The rapid expansion of wind energy—both onshore and offshore—presents unprecedented challenges and opportunities in atmospheric science, engineering, and data science. Understanding the complex interactions between wind farms and the atmosphere is essential for optimizing wind energy production and integrating it effectively into the energy system. In this seminar, I will present results from a multidisciplinary approach that combines field observations, numerical modeling, and machine learning (ML) to advance wind energy research. Since my October 2024 JHU seminar provided an in-depth look at my research focused on field observations and numerical modeling, in this seminar I will only provide a brief summary of key insights from large-scale field campaigns, including the American WAKE ExperimeNt (AWAKEN) and the third Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP3). I will briefly discuss how these observations inform numerical simulations and international benchmarking efforts, ultimately enhancing our ability to predict wind farm performance under diverse atmospheric conditions. However, as observational datasets continue to grow, there is a pressing need for advanced data-driven approaches. The core of this seminar will therefore highlight the transformative role of ML in wind energy applications. With increasing access to atmospheric observations, ML offers novel approaches to addressing key challenges. I will start with a brief introduction to ML in Earth sciences, followed by two case studies demonstrating its impact on wind energy. The first investigates the use of random forests for improving wind speed vertical extrapolation to turbine rotor heights, revealing the importance of rigorous cross-validation techniques for realistic performance assessment. The second explores an ML-based approach to estimating modeled offshore wind resource uncertainty, leveraging floating lidar and buoy observations to enhance long-term numerical data reliability. Bio: Dr. Nicola Bodini is a senior atmospheric scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). With a PhD in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences from the University of Colorado Boulder, Dr. Bodini specializes in observations of the atmospheric boundary layer and machine learning application to wind energy. He is currently involved in two large field campaigns as he serves as the science lead for the American Wake Experiment (AWAKEN), and he is the NREL Principal Investigator for the Wind Forecast Improvement Project part 3 (WFIP3). He has also recently led the creation of the 2023 National Offshore Wind data set, which is NREL’s state-of-the-art offshore wind resource assessment product.
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10:30 am / 11:30 am
February 25
Title: Catalyst Discovery at the Intersection of Molecules, Materials, and Nanotechnology Abstract: Developing catalysis platforms for efficient chemical transformations requires either building upon useful empirical evidence or studying unexplored design spaces. Importantly, both approaches benefit from merging different research fields to solve new challenges. Here, I will discuss how materials design parameters can be applied to molecular electrocatalysts in the form of porous supramolecules to mimic confined enzyme/nanomaterial catalysis. Then, I will show how biological design elements can be implemented to augment synthetic catalyst activity through inverse confined catalysis. Finally, I will describe how nanotechnology can transform materials synthesis by confining the volume of reactors to the attoliter scale. This can yield thousands to millions of catalyst candidates on a single chip for testing, and varied molecular sensors prove to be critical in rapidly testing and identifying top performing materials catalysts. Bio: Peter Smith is a Postdoctoral researcher at Northwestern University working with Prof. Chad Mirkin in the Department of Chemistry and the International Institute for Nanotechnology. He completed his graduate studies in Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley with Prof. Chris Chang where he developed supramolecular porphyrin catalysts and redox mediators for electrochemical small molecule conversion. His current research merges nanofabrication and molecular sensing to synthesize and screen thousands to millions of new catalysts per experiment, helping to accelerate our materials discovery workflow.
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10:30 am / 11:30 am
March 4
Title: Operando Insights into Catalyst-Electrolyte Interfaces for Electrochemical CO₂ and N₂ Reduction Abstract: Transitioning to sustainable energy solutions requires innovative approaches to producing essential chemicals like ethanol and ammonia. Electrochemical methods offer a promising alternative by using electricity, ideally from renewable sources, to convert carbon dioxide and nitrogen into valuable products. However, making these processes efficient and selective remains a challenge. This work employs advanced operando spectroscopic techniques to investigate catalyst dynamics at the electrode-electrolyte interface, offering real-time insights into reaction mechanisms under reaction conditions. For CO2 reduction (CO2RR), time-resolved X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS)1 and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS)2 revealed how pulsed electrochemical techniques modulate Cu oxidation states and hydroxide co-adsorption, enhancing ethanol selectivity. Alloying Cu with Ag3 or Zn4 improved catalytic stability and promoted favorable reaction pathways, highlighting the importance of dynamic catalyst restructuring under operating conditions. For lithium-mediated nitrogen reduction to ammonia (LiNRR), operando Raman spectroscopy tracked the formation and evolution of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI), showing how electrolyte composition influences lithium deposition, nitrogen activation, and ammonia yield. Transitioning from LiClO4 to LiFSI in tetrahydrofuran/ethanol-based solvents significantly lowers the lithium plating potential, reducing side reactions such as hydrogen evolution and improving overall reaction performance.5 By integrating operando insights with strategic catalyst and electrolyte design, this work advances the understanding of dynamic interactions at the catalyst-electrolyte interface for both CO2RR and NRR. Bio: Dr. Antonia Herzog is a researcher in renewable electrochemical energy conversion. She earned her PhD with distinction from the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society under Prof. Beatriz Roldán Cuenya, where her work on Cu-based catalysts provided key insights into the formation of multi-carbon products during CO2 electroreduction. Dr. Herzog’s innovative approach, combining insights from operando Raman spectroscopy and synchrotron X-ray methods, has redefined the field by linking catalyst structure to real-time reactivity. Currently, as a postdoctoral associate at MIT’s Electrochemical Energy Lab under Prof. Yang Shao-Horn, Dr. Herzog is expanding her research to tackle key challenges in nitrogen activation for ammonia synthesis, lithium interfaces, and direct CO2 conversion into food. With around 25 publications in prestigious journals, including Nature Communications, Angewandte Chemie, and Energy & Environmental Science, she has made significant contributions to advance electrocatalysis.
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10:30 am / 11:30 am
March 7
Title: Building Structure-Function Relationships for the Catalytic Conversion of Light Alkenes and Carbon Dioxide Abstract: The valorization of CO2 and shale gas-derived light alkenes will be key components of technologies for decarbonizing the fuel and chemical industries. Light alkenes can be oligomerized to transportation fuel-range alkenes over solid Brønsted acid catalysts, while CO2 can be converted to oxygenates (e.g., methanol) through hydrogenation on transition metal-derived catalysts. Regulating rates and directing selectivity during the thermocatalytic conversion of both feedstocks poses fundamental challenges for the industrialization of such processes. Herein, the influences of thermodynamic, kinetic, and transport barriers on the rates and selectivity of propene oligomerization and CO2 hydrogenation to methanol are evaluated. Propene oligomerization proceeds through dimerization and subsequent propene additions to yield oligomers with carbon numbers that are integer multiples of propene; concurrent β-scission cracking and co-oligomerization reactions form products of other carbon numbers. Medium-pore MFI zeolites synthesized with independently varied Brønsted acid site density (H+/u.c.) and crystallite size enabled evaluating the effects of these material properties on propene oligomerization rates and selectivity. Systematic decreases in propene dimerization rates on MFI samples of fixed H+/u.c. with crystallite size, transients in rates upon step-changes in reaction temperature and pressure, and reaction-transport formalisms together evidence that propene oligomerization rates and selectivity are strongly influenced by transport barriers imposed by products that occlude within the zeolitic micropores during catalysis. The composition of these products, and consequently the transport barriers they impose, evolve with reaction conditions and H+/u.c., providing new avenues to tune rate and selectivity in alkene oligomerization. Achieving high methanol yields during CO2 hydrogenation requires kinetically directing selectivity towards methanol and activating CO2 at low temperatures (< 423 K) where methanol conversion is not significantly limited by thermodynamic equilibrium. Unsupported Mo2C catalyzes continuous CO2 hydrogenation at low temperatures (348–408 K) with high selectivity to methanol (up to ~80%). Product formation rates measured over widely varying reactant and product concentrations in conjunction with reversibility formalisms afforded the dependence of forward kinetic rates on reactant and product concentrations, from which mechanisms of methanol synthesis, reverse water-gas shift, and methanation could be deduced. A kinetic model revealed that Mo2C surfaces are highly covered with partially hydrogenated CO- and CO2-derived intermediates during steady-state catalysis, the coverages of which dictate relative rates of methanation and methanol synthesis, respectively. Importantly, these findings suggest that COx- and H-derived intermediates do not compete for surface occupancy on Mo2C, but adsorb cooperatively, thereby enabling low temperature CO2 activation. Bio: Elizabeth Bickel Rogers received her Bachelor of Science degree with Distinction in Chemical Engineering from Tennessee Tech University in 2017. She earned her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University in 2022 under the supervision of Professor Rajamani Gounder. At Purdue her research focused on the synthesis of zeolite materials with well-defined properties and their application as catalysts for upgrading light alkenes. She is currently a postdoctoral scholar in Professor Aditya Bhan’s research group in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota where her research has centered on low temperature CO2 hydrogenation over transition metal carbide catalysts. Elizabeth is the lead author of seven journal articles and has been recognized for her research and mentorship with several honors, including the Kokes Award from the North American Catalysis Society, the Philips 66 Fellowship, and the Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award from Purdue.
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