Reshma Rao, Imperial College London, UK, has been awarded the Clara Immerwahr Award by the Excellence Cluster “Unifying Systems in Catalysis” (UniSysCat). The award, which comes with a prize of EUR 15,000, recognize outstanding research by an excellent young scientist in the field of catalysis and and invites the winner to collaborate with UniSysCat groups. It is awarded annually on an international level and is sponsored this year by BASF. The award is presented in Berlin, Germany, on April 21, 2023, and honors Clara Immerwahr, the first woman in Germany to receive a doctorate in physical chemistry.
Reshma Rao and her team use advanced X-ray and optical spectroscopy to investigate electrochemical interfaces. With this knowledge, they develop active and stable catalysts for electrochemical energy conversion technologies.
From left to right: Laudation by Hendrik Bluhm, Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, Berlin, Germany; lecture by Reshma Rao on “Investigating the water oxidation mechanism on metal oxide electrocatalysts”; award presented to Reshma Rao by Arne Thomas, TU Berlin, Germany, and UniSysCat Speaker (Photos: Mario Müller).
Reshma Rao studied mechanical engineering at the University of Southampton, UK, and gained her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA, where she worked with Yang Shao-Horn. In January 2020, she moved to Imperial College London, to conduct her postdoctoral research with Professor James Durrant in the Department of Chemistry and Dr. Ifan Stephens in the Department of Materials. She is a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow in the Department of Materials.
Selected Publications
- Better together,
Reshma R. Rao, Camilo A. Mesa, James R. Durrant,
Nature Catalysis 2022, 5, 844–845.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-022-00861-9 - Human- and machine-centred designs of molecules and materials for sustainability and decarbonization,
Jiayu Peng, Daniel Schwalbe-Koda, Karthik Akkiraju, Tian Xie, Livia Giordano, Yang Yu, C. John Eom, Jaclyn R. Lunger, Daniel J. Zheng, Reshma R. Rao, Sokseiha Muy, Jeffrey C. Grossman, Karsten Reuter, Rafael Gómez-Bombarelli, Yang Shao-Horn,
Nature Reviews Materials 2022, 7, 991–1009.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-022-00466-5 - Spectroelectrochemistry of Water Oxidation Kinetics in Molecular versus Heterogeneous Oxide Iridium Electrocatalysts,
Carlota Bozal-Ginesta, Reshma R. Rao, Camilo A. Mesa, Yuanxing Wang, Yanyan Zhao, Gongfang Hu, Daniel Antón-García, Ifan E. L. Stephens, Erwin Reisner, Gary W. Brudvig, Dunwei Wang, James R. Durrant,
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022, 144(19), 8454–8459
https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.2c02006 - A Dual Functional Polymer Interlayer Enables Near-Infrared Absorbing Organic Photoanodes for Solar Water Oxidation,
Tack Ho Lee, Reshma R. Rao, Richard A. Pacalaj, Anna A. Wilson, James R. Durrant
Advanced Energy Materials 2022.
https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.202103698 - The kinetics of metal oxide photoanodes from charge generation to catalysis,
Sacha Corby, Reshma R. Rao, Ludmilla Steier, James R. Durrant,
Nature Reviews Materials 2021, 6, 1136–1155.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-021-00343-7 - Enhancing oxygen reduction electrocatalysis by tuning interfacial hydrogen bonds,
Tao Wang, Yirui Zhang, Botao Huang, Bin Cai, Reshma R. Rao, Livia Giordano, Shi-Gang Sun & Yang Shao-Horn,
Nature Catalysis 2021, 4, 753–762.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-021-00668-0 - Recommended Practices and Benchmark Activity for Hydrogen and Oxygen Electrocatalysis in Water Splitting and Fuel Cells,
Chao Wei, Reshma R. Rao, Jiayu Peng, Botao Huang, Ifan E. L. Stephens, Marcel Risch, Zhichuan J. Xu, Yang Shao-Horn,
Advanced Materials 2019.
https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201806296 - Perovskites in catalysis and electrocatalysis,
Jonathan Hwang, Reshma R. Rao, Livia Giordano, Yu Katayama, Yang Yu, Yang Shao-Horn,
Science 2017, 358(6364), 751–756.
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aam7092
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