Quick Facts
Biography
Franklin Feng Tao (born August 28, 1971) is a chemical engineer who has been a Miller Associate Professor at the University of Kansas since 2014. His research areas of specialization are heterogeneous catalysis, energy chemistry, nanoscience and surface science. He published over 180 papers in international journals. He received the National Science Foundation Career Award by the Chemical Catalysis Program for research and became a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2013.
He served on advisory boards of Chemical Society Reviews and Catalysis Science & Technology.
Education
Tao received his Ph.D. in the field of Physical Chemistry from Princeton University, followed by his postdoctoral research in catalysis at University of California at Berkeley.
Research and career
Tao did research on the In Situ studies of chemistry & structure of materials in reactive environments, and conducted his further studies on reactor for tracking catalyst nanoparticles in liquid at high temperature under a high-pressure gas phase with X-ray absorption spectroscopy.
Tao started his career as an Assistant Professor at the University of Notre Dame. During his tenure at the University of Kansas, he became Miller Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering and Chemistry and also serves as the Director of Nanocatalysis for Chemical and Energy Transformations Lab.
Awards and honors
- 2018, Bellow Scholar Award
- 2017, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
- 2014, Miller Research Award
- 2014, NSF Career Award
- 2013, Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
- 2012, AVS Paul Holloway Award
- 2011, Finalist prize of Gerhard Ertl Young Investigator Award
- 2010, Eugene P. Wigner Fellowship
- 2007, IUPAC Young Chemists Award