Dr. Román is Professor and Robert T. Haslam (1911) Chair of Chemical Engineering in the Chemical Engineering department of MIT’s School of Engineering. His research interests lie at the interface of heterogeneous catalysis and materials design and include energy: biomass conversion, biofuels and CO2 utilization. Prior to joining MIT, he worked on synthesis and characterization of microporous and mesoporous materials.

 

Currently, his group applies a wide range of synthetic, spectroscopic, and reaction engineering tools to study the chemical transformation of molecules on catalytic surfaces. He was awarded an NSF Early CAREER award in 2015 on molecular catalysis for waste valorization as well as the ACS Early Career in Catalysis Award in 2019.