Karthish Manthiram, professor of chemical engineering and chemistry, has been named one of five new Moore Inventor Fellows by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The honor comes with three years of funding, which Manthiram will use to develop next-generation catalysts that enable certain building-block chemicals to be synthesized in a safer and more sustainable manner.
"The Moore Inventor Fellowship supports scientist-inventors who create new tools and technologies with a high potential to accelerate progress in scientific discovery, environmental conservation and patient care," according to the initiative's website.
"The Moore Inventor Fellowship celebrates the ingenuity and creativity needed to meet today's challenges and shape a better future," said Harvey V. Fineberg, president of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, in a press release. [KF1] "We are proud to support these visionaries early in their careers as they develop technologies that can make a significant and positive impact on critical issues facing the world and its occupants."
Manthiram's research focuses on electrifying and decarbonizing chemical manufacturing. He says his goal is "to sustainably synthesize the physical world," beginning with water, air, and sunlight. As part of that effort, his group develops electrically powered catalysts that orchestrate a molecular-level dance in which molecules such as water, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide rearrange chemical bonds, ultimately forming new plastics, fuels, and fertilizers.
With the Moore Foundation's support, Manthiram plans to develop electrically powered catalysts that can drive the synthesis of epoxides.
Epoxides, such as propylene oxide, are important and versatile building-block chemicals used to manufacture plastics, adhesives, and coatings. However, they are also responsible for significant carbon footprints, and the current processes used to synthesize them rely on highly reactive, corrosive, or explosive chemical precursors.
"The electrically powered pathway we are developing would eliminate the safety hazards and carbon footprint incurred in epoxide manufacturing, providing a pathway to sustainable and safe chemical synthesis," says Manthiram, who is also a William H. Hurt Scholar.
"The Moore Inventor Fellowship enables risk taking in efforts that span the full spectrum, from fundamental scientific inquiry regarding how a specific catalyst works to engineering a fully functioning applied prototype," he says. "This is critical for our efforts in electrified epoxidation, which require the intimate integration of fundamental and applied efforts in order to accelerate innovation."
Manthiram earned his bachelor's degree at Stanford University in 2010 and his doctoral degree at UC Berkeley in 2015. He completed postdoctoral work in the lab of the late Robert Grubbs, Caltech's Victor and Elizabeth Atkins Professor of Chemistry, before joining the faculty at MIT in 2017. Manthiram then returned to Caltech as a full professor in 2021. He has been honored with numerous awards, including a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, a Department of Energy Early Career Award, a Sloan Research Fellowship, the American Chemical Society's Petroleum Research Fund New Investigator Award, and the Electrochemical Society's Daniel Cubicciotti Student Award. He was also won a number of teaching awards, including the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award.
