Associate Professor Wilson Smith comes to CU from Delft University of Technology where he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and co-founder of the e-Refinery initiative. He earned his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Georgia, where he completed his thesis in May of 2010. In addition to his position of Associate Professor here in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, he is also serving as a Senior Research Scientist in the Chemistry and Nanoscience Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and is a RASEI Fellow. Smith's research is focused on materials and systems for electrochemical conversion technologies including water splitting, CO2 reduction, and N2 reduction to ammonia. This places particular emphasis on using in situ/operando characterization techniques (spectroelectrochemistry and atomic force microscopy), while also having significant efforts in reactor engineering, process intensification and process/system integration.
Smith joined the department in August.