Principal Investigator

Jason S. Bates

Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering

Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Virginia

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Postdoctoral, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Chemistry, 2023

Ph.D., Purdue University, Chemical Engineering, 2019

B.S., University of Kansas, Chemical Engineering, 2014

Leadership and Service

Honors and Awards

Biography

Jason Bates grew up in Overland Park, KS, and received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Kansas in 2014. His interest in catalysis was sparked by undergraduate research experiences in Bob Davis's lab at the University of Virginia and in Bala Subramaniam's lab at KU. He also had the chance to spend the summer after graduating at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory working with Josh Schaidle. Jason received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at Purdue University in 2019, under the supervision of Rajamani Gounder. At Purdue, he studied the fundamental kinetic contributions of solvation and active site structure to dehydration reactions relevant to biomass upgrading using structurally well-defined Lewis acid and Brønsted acid zeolite catalysts. From 2020–2023, Jason was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the Department of Chemistry, under the supervision of Shannon S. Stahl. At UW, he bridged the fields of thermal and electrocatalysis through studies of catalysts consisting of atomically dispersed metals incorporated into nitrogen-doped carbon. Jason started his independent career at the University of Virginia in July 2023. His research explores the fundamentals of heterogeneous (electro)catalysis in areas relevant to decarbonization of the energy and chemical industries.

In his spare time, Jason enjoys hiking with his wife Jenna, playing tennis and other racquet sports, and reading postmodern fiction. You can check out what he's reading now on Goodreads!