Bio

Dan Killelea
Loyola University Chicago
 

Dan Killelea is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at Loyola University Chicago.  His research focus is on the chemical properties of metallic surfaces relevant to heterogeneous catalysis.  Of particular interest to his research group is how the relationships between the structure and chemistry of metal surfaces evolve upon oxidation and with increasing oxygen incorporation into the near surface region.  Such studies inform the larger goal of understanding the mechanisms and dynamics of gas-surface reactions. 

Originally from Milwaukee, Dan received his BS in Chemistry from UW–Milwaukee in 2000.  He then moved to Medford, MA for graduate study in Chemistry at Tufts University.  As a graduate student, Dan gave his first AVS presentation at the 2005 International Symposium in Boston, and has been an active member of AVS ever since.  In 2007, he received his PhD and from there, returned to the Midwest for a postdoctoral position at The University of Chicago. 

Dan began his independent career at Loyola in the fall of 2011.  Since then, he has been active with the AVS Prairie Chapter, serving as Chapter chair and vice chair from 2016-2019, and co-hosted the annual Prairie Chapter Symposia in 2014 and 2018.  Dan’s start with the National AVS was as the champion for the Fundamental Discoveries in Heterogeneous Catalysis Focus Topic (HC) for AVS 63 in 2016, and then co-ran the HC Focus Topic until he was nominated to be the AVS 66 Program vice-Chair in 2018. 

Dan will serve as the AVS 67 Program Chair, for the meeting now to be held in 2021.  Dan received the AVS Graduate Research Award in 2006, and encourages his students to be active with AVS as well.  A student of his was the winner of the 2016 Nellie Yeoh Whetten Award and the 2016 Morton Traum Surface Science Student Award.