Suffolk Reporter

Juan Jimenez Named Blavatnik Regional Awards Finalist

Sep 17, 2024

UPTON, N.Y. — The Blavatnik Family Foundation and the New York Academy of Sciences have recognized chemical engineer Juan Jimenez as a Finalist in the 2024 Blavatnik Regional Awards for Young Scientists. Jimenez’s catalysis science research at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory opens doors for turning climate change-driving gases into industrially useful materials.

The yearly honor is awarded to distinguished early career researchers at institutions in the New York Tri-State Area. Jimenez, a Goldhaber postdoctoral fellow in Brookhaven Lab’s Chemistry Division, was selected as a Chemical Sciences Finalist by a jury that considered 134 nominees. Only one Laureate and two Finalists were chosen for each of the three categories: chemical sciences, life sciences, and physical sciences and engineering. Jimenez will receive a medal along with $10,000 during the awards gala at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City on Tuesday, Oct. 1.

One of the grand challenges of our generation, climate change, “requires innovative and diverse solutions,” Jimenez reflected. “Being recognized as a Blavatnik Awards Finalist inspires me to elevate my field of clean energy, helping to make a brighter future for the next generation.”

He noted that his research falls firmly into the new DOE Energy Earthshots Initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a range of energy-intensive areas. “For 10 years now, I've been working on different parts of the same problem: converting carbon dioxide into some kind of useful product,” he said. The work contributes directly to DOE’s Clean Fuels and Products Shot, a subset of the broader Earthshots Initiative that aims to decarbonize the fuel and chemical industry.

Jimenez specializes in catalysts — clusters of atoms that expedite chemical reactions by lowering the energy required to get them started. He examined catalysts using X-ray techniques at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) at Brookhaven and the Advanced Photon Source at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory. These two DOE Office of Science user facilities produce intense beams of X-rays and other forms of light that researchers use to penetrate material samples and visualize atomic structures as well as materials’ electronic and chemical properties. Those studies give Jimenez insight into his catalysts' properties and how they bring reactants together by helping break and rearrange chemical bonds.

One part of Jimenez’s research recognized by the award centered on methane dry reforming, in which a catalyst helps transform methane and carbon dioxide into synthesis gas (syngas), an ingredient for making valuable chemicals and fuels.

“The techniques at NSLS-II are critical in understanding a catalyst’s properties under operating conditions,” Jimenez noted. One technique measures energy absorbed by each element in real time during reactions. “This allows us to pinpoint precise changes in atomic structure and chemical composition under real reaction conditions,” he explained.

“Currently, there are two ways to use methane at large-scale industrial production,” explained Jimenez. “There’s steam reforming... But dry reforming... is novel because it puts two greenhouse gases to use.”

Jimenez's work could enhance this process's efficiency.

An important aspect recognized by the award is minimizing hazardous byproducts through solvent-free processes.

Jimenez is also celebrated for his work on catalysts converting carbon dioxide into ethylene for sustainable aviation fuels.

Understanding catalysts helps scientists design them for various reactions and products necessary for climate change initiatives.

Jimenez aims to move discoveries into real-world applications through basic science combined with entrepreneurial efforts. At Brookhaven, he took an entrepreneurship course and filed patents related to methane conversion technology while mentoring students from minority-serving institutions on science entrepreneurship.

The Blavatnik Award recognizes these outreach efforts alongside contributions to diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility. As an adjunct professor at CUNY-CCNY teaching reaction engineering inspired him back when he was an undergraduate student there: "To go back... was very full circle," he said.

Recognizing global perspectives' importance in solving climate issues has led him to collaborate internationally: "You learn how different global regions view problems."

Jimenez earned his Bachelor’s degree from CUNY-CCNY (2015) & Ph.D from University South Carolina (2020). Joining Brookhaven (2020), winning Goldhaber Fellowship(2021), serving adjunct assistant professor(2022). His research featured prominently including journals ACS Catalysis & Journal American Chemical Society funded DOE Office Science.