Balbuena to speak at UC-Santa Barbara
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Perla Balbuena, professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been invited to speak at a workshop examining catalysis research at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Balbuena, an authority in the area of catalysis, will participate in the workshop “Grand Challenges in Electron Chemistry and Catalysis at Interface,” taking place Aug. 10-15. She will speak about “Challenges in the Design of Active and Durable Nanocatalysts.”
Balbuena’s research focuses on understanding and predicting thermodynamic, transport and kinetic properties of materials using state-of-the-art first principles computational chemistry and physics methods. Her work focuses on bulk and nanomaterials used as catalysts and electrolytes in power sources devices such as lithium-ion batteries and fuel cells.
The workshop aims to foster discussion among leading and new practitioners in heterogeneous catalysis and surface science about the most important challenges in designing selective and efficient catalysts. It will focus on new experimental methods, new computational approaches, new model systems and new applications of catalysis through a series of plenary and invited lectures as well as interactive sessions.
