Umit Ozkan is a College of Engineering Distinguished Professor and Chair of the William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Her pioneering research into hydrogen fuel cell catalysts led to the development of the first heteroatom-doped carbon-nanostructures (CNx) to be used for the acidic oxygen reduction reaction in proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells. The catalysts developed in her lab were patented and are being commercially produced by pH Matter, LLC. The discovery of these CNX materials was a key milestone in the development of non-precious metal catalysts for a variety of electrochemical applications in renewable energy technologies. These materials could be synthesized with wide-ranging morphologies such as graphitic sheets, stacked cups and nanotubes. CNx can also be used in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC) and air-metal batteries.
A faculty member at Ohio State since 1985, Ozkan served as the associate dean for research in the College of Engineering between 2000 and 2005. In 2017, Dr. Ozkan was the first woman recipient of the Henry H. Storch Award in Fuel Science, given by the ACS Division of Energy & Fuels. She has published over 200 refereed articles, edited eight books, and has seven patents. She is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), American Chemical Society (ACS) and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Submitted by the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering