Bio:

Sayan Banerjee is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He was a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech with Prof. Jonas C. Peters, where his research focused on developing a mechanistic framework to understand electrocatalytic ammonia synthesis using a combination of first-principles investigations and experimental rate analyses. Sayan completed his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania under the supervision of Prof. Andrew M. Rappe. During his Ph.D., he first theoretically predicted that the curvature of two-dimensional materials can be harnessed to induce directional molecular motion, thereby opening new avenues for controlling surface chemistry. Additionally, he worked in theoretical catalysis and demonstrated how surface reconstructions under electrocatalytic conditions can be leveraged to achieve selective hydrogen evolution reaction vs. carbon dioxide reduction reaction. During his time at UPenn, Sayan was awarded the Vagelos Institute for Energy Science and Technology Graduate Fellowship. Under this fellowship, he worked with Prof. Thomas E. Mallouk on designing catalysts for fuel cells, which inspired him to further pursue experimental science for his postdoctoral research. During his pre-doctoral M.Sc. at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Sayan worked with Prof. Raghavan B. Sunoj on applying machine learning to predict the selectivity of organic reactions.

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Background:

Postdoctoral Scholar, California Institute of Technology (2023-2025)

Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania (2018-2023)        

M.Sc., Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (2016-2018)               

B.Sc., Jadavpur University (2013-2016)

 

Awards:​

• Vagelos Institute for Energy Science and Technology graduate fellowship (2021-2022)

• ACS Catalysis division graduate student travel award, ACS Fall 2023

• ACS COMP graduate student award for research excellence, ACS Fall 2023