The American Chemical Society has awarded chemical engineering professor Dr. Manish Shetty the Doctoral New Investigator grant.
The award is bestowed to junior faculty in their first three years of appointment with a research focus in petroleum. The two-year grant of $110,000 will support Shetty’s research in catalyst materials.
“It's a good recognition of my early career,” Shetty said. “This puts me on a good footing with many peers in the community who have received this award and have been successful in their own right. So, it gives me confidence and backing from the community that I am one of them.”
According to the American Chemical Society, the goal of Doctoral New Investigator grants is to further develop the next generation of engineers and scientists and to promote the careers of young faculty by supporting research of high scientific caliber.
Shetty’s research on catalysis focuses on understanding how chemical conversions happen inside catalyst materials called zeolites.
Essentially, this makes catalyst materials more efficient, selective and reactive, Shetty said.
Through the research, Shetty and his team can make these materials for petroleum chemistry cheaper and more efficient.
“We're trying to understand how that happens on these classes of materials, whether we can make these materials more reactive and selective,” Shetty said. “Rather, we want to understand these metals or metal-oxides encapsulated inside zeolites perform and interact within dynamic chemical environments of zeolites.”
For the end consumer, Shetty’s goal is to make cheaper and more energy-efficient end products from hydrogenation reactions of petroleum-based precursors.
“This support will help us continue for the next several years, and hopefully we can get support from other federal agencies for more long-term support,” Shetty said. “I think this recognition helps!”