Principal investigator

Rajamani Gounder

R. Norris and Eleanor Shreve Professor of Chemical Engineering

Director, Purdue Catalysis Center

Charles Davidson School of Chemical Engineering, Purdue University

CV | Faculty Profile | Google Scholar | rgounder@purdue.edu

Postdoctoral, California Institute of Technology, Chemical Engineering, 2013

Ph. D., University of California-Berkeley, Chemical Engineering, 2011

B. S., University of Wisconsin, Chemical Engineering, 2006

Leadership and Service

Purdue University

Journal Editorial and Advisory Boards

Editorships

Advisory Boards

Advisory Boards (Past)

Honors and Awards

Purdue University

Biography

Raj Gounder was born in Milwaukee, WI in 1984. He received his BS in Chemical Engineering with a double major in Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin in 2006, where his interest in catalysis was sparked while performing research under Jim Dumesic. He received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from UC-Berkeley in 2011, completing his dissertation research under Enrique Iglesia on acid strength and confinement effects in zeolite catalysis. He then completed a postdoctoral stay at Caltech with Mark Davis to research zeolite synthesis and catalysis in liquid media. He started his independent scientific career at Purdue in 2013, and received early promotion both to the ranks of associate professor with tenure in 2018 and full professor in 2021. He currently holds the R. Norris and Eleanor Shreve Chair in Chemical Engineering, and serves as Director of the Purdue Catalysis Center.

He leads a research group that is recognized for studying the kinetic and mechanistic details of catalytic reactions, for synthesizing and designing zeolites and porous materials with tailored site and surface properties, and for developing methods to characterize and titrate active sites in catalytic surfaces. His group studies the fundamental science of catalysis, and its practical applications to help protect our environment and to develop sustainable, lower-carbon footprint routes to synthesize chemicals and fuels needed for society.

His research has been recognized by the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, the ACS CATL Division Early Career in Catalysis Award, the ISCRE Rutherford Aris Award, the NSF and DOE Early Career Awards, and Purdue's College of Engineering Faculty Excellence Award for Early Career Research. His teaching has been recognized by Purdue ChE's Shreve (undergraduate) and Wankat (graduate) awards for teaching excellence, and his mentoring by Purdue ChE's Outstanding Mentoring of Engineering Graduate Students award. 

He has served as president and director of the Catalysis Club of Chicago, and has organized the technical programs for the North American Catalysis Society Meeting (NAM26 Chicago, 2019), the AIChE CRE Division Area 20A in catalysis (2020, 2021), the Catalysis Club of Chicago (2020), and the 17th International Catalysis in Congress (ICC San Diego, 2020). He is an Associate Editor for Science Advances and Reaction Chemistry & Engineering, and serves on the editorial advisory boards of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, ACS Catalysis, and Catalysis Reviews.