Burcu Gurkan

Dr. Burcu Gurkan is the Nord Distinguished Associate Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Case Western Reserve University. Her research focuses on deep eutectic solvents and ionic liquids for applications in separations, energy conversion and storage. She completed her PhD from the University of Notre Dame in 2011 and postdoctoral trainings at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2011-13) and The University of Akron (2014-15). She is the recipient of United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration Early Career Faculty and National Science Foundation CAREER awards. In relation to these awards, her team develops materials for CO2 separations and studies the role of hydrogen-bonded electrolytes in CO2 electroreduction reaction. She is a thrust leader in BEES (Breakthrough Electrolytes for Energy Storage) – a Department of Energy Frontier Research Center. In this role, she leads a highly collaborative research effort that aims to understand solvation, transport, electrode-electrolyte interfacial structure, and electron transfer reactions in deep eutectic solvents.