Awardee Interviews | Biography: Francisco Zaera

Francisco Zaera

Francisco Zaera, University of California, Riverside, For far-reaching contributions to the molecular-level understanding of mechanisms of reactions on solid surfaces and the use of that knowledge for applications in heterogeneous catalysis and thin film deposition

Prof. Francisco Zaera is presently the Hartland H. Schmidt Founder’s Chair and a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Riverside, a Cooperative Faculty Member of the Chemical & Environmental Engineering Department, a Participating Faculty of the Materials Science and Engineering Program, the Director of the UCR Center for Catalysis, and the Assistant Director for XPS of the UCR Analytical Chemistry Instrumentation Facility.  Prior to Joining UCR, Zaera held an Assistant Chemist position at the National Synchrotron Light Source of Brookhaven National Laboratory, in a joint appointment with Exxon Research Laboratories.  He received his Licentiate degree in Chemistry from the Simón Bolívar University in Caracas, Venezuela in 1979, and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1984.

Zaera's interest in catalysis and in the development of a mechanistic understanding of reactions on solid surfaces started during his undergraduate degree, and led him to Prof. Gabor Somorjai's group at UC Berkeley, where he was introduced to what at the time was referred to as "modern surface science", an approach to the study of surface reactions on model surfaces and under ultrahigh vacuum conditions to exert great control on the nature of the reactive sites and to operate a combination of surface sensitive techniques.  Zaera's skills were later complemented with the use of synchrotron radiation during his stint at Brookhaven.  While at UCR, he has expanded his initial mechanistic studies with model surfaces to the design of novel catalysts using nanotechnology synthetic methods and to the characterization of atomic layer deposition (ALD) processes, mainly for systems of interest in microelectronics fabrication.

Zaera has authored approximately 450 articles in scientific publications, and has an h-index of 87.  Zaera is proud to have trained over 200 scientists in his laboratory, including undergraduates and graduate students, postdocs, and visitors.  He has extensive editorial experience, having been Senior Editor for The Journal of Molecular Catalysis A, The Journal of Physical Chemistry, and The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.  He has received several international awards: the ACS George A. Olah, Arthur W. Adamson, and Inaugural Exceptional Achievements in Catalysis Awards; the North American Catalysis Society Paul H. Emmett Award; a Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Senior Scientist Research Award; and the 2021 UC Riverside Faculty Research Lecturer Award.  He is a Fellow of the AVS, the ACS, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.