2021 Energy & Fuels Rising Star: Nicholas Brunelli

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Brunelli and Nitish Deshpande
Nicholas Brunelli

Early- and mid-career researchers (EMCRs) make up a significant portion of the research workforce and play critical roles in driving knowledge discovery and technological advances in the increasingly globalized research landscape.

To celebrate contributions of highly influential EMCRs in various areas of energy research, the American Chemical Society journal Energy & Fuels has established an annual recognition of Energy and Fuels Rising Stars, identified by their global team of editors and members of the editorial advisory board.

The inaugural cohort of the Energy & Fuels Rising Stars for 2021 includes Ohio State's H.C. "Slip" Slider Professor Nicholas Brunelli and 28 other researchers worldwide.

Professor Brunelli is emerging as an important thought leader in the field of catalysis. In 2017, his innovative research investigating zeolite synthesis earned him the prestigious and well-funded National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award, the pinnacle of achievement for junior faculty. The following year, the American Chemistry Society’s ACS Publications identified him as a member of its 2018 Class of Influential Researchers, and he was also named to the 2018 Class of Influential Researchers by Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research (IECR). This award acknowledges an international cohort of researchers for various scientific contributions, demonstrating the impact that his work has had on the scientific community at large. Recognition accelerated in 2019 with him being named an Emerging Investigator by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Reaction Chemistry and Engineering group; being included in the 2019 AIChE Futures program by the namesake AIChE Journal; and culminating with the prestigious 2019 Robert Augustine Award, given annually to the one person that embodies the field that is the focus of the Organic Reaction Catalysis Society (ORCS). Last May, Brunelli was among 21 faculty members from nine colleges and 18 departments chosen for the Ohio State Office of Research's 2021 Inaugural Cohort for the Growing Research Opportunities (GRO) AcademyProfessor Brunelli began his independent research career at Ohio State as an assistant professor in 2014.

Energy & Fuels, in celebration of its 2021 Rising Stars, created a virtual special issue (VSI) that features the invited research articles contributed by the honorees. As shown in Table 1, the list of papers published in this VSI includes 10 review (or mini-review) papers, 18 original research articles, and 1 communication. These papers cover various important topics within the scope of Energy & Fuels, including traditional fossil energy sources, unconventional energy sources, biomass and biofuels, environmental and CO2 issues, catalysis and kinetics, fuel cells, batteries and energy storage, water splitting and electrolysis, non-carbon-based fuels, and solar energy. 

Energy & Fuels is excited to witness these significant contributions from the 2021 Energy and Fuels Rising Stars as “catalysts” to “energize” the field of energy research for many years to come.

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Energy Fuels 2021, 35, 19, 15247–15248, Publication Date: October 7, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.energyfuels.1c03135

Category: Faculty