Loyola University Chicago
email: dan_killelea @ avs.org

DAN KILLELEA is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and Associate Dean for Grants in the College of Arts & Sciences at Loyola University Chicago.  His research focus is 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 B.S. 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, is currently Chapter Secretary, 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 ran annually until being folded into the Surface Science Division for 2024.  Dan was the AVS 66 Program Vice-Chair in 2019 with chair, Adriana Creatore, and the AVS 67 Program Chair with Mohan Sankaran.  Although AVS 67 was transformed due to COVID, a showcase was held in 2020 and a virtual AVS 67 in 2021.  Elected to the AVS Board of Directors in 2020, he served until the end of 2022.  

Dan received the AVS Graduate Research Award in 2006 and encourages his students to be active with AVS as well.  A student of his, Rachael Farber, was the winner of the 2016 Nellie Yeoh Whetten Award and the 2016 Morton Traum Surface Science Student Award and another, Marie Turano, received the 2021 Dorothy M. and Earl S. Hoffman Scholarship.  Dan is currently the secretary/treasurer for the Surface Science Division and has served on the CDG, DEI, and PLC committees.