Wayne State’s Eranda Nikolla to receive Parravano Award from Michigan Catalysis Society
Eranda Nikolla, professor of chemical engineering and materials science at Wayne State University, has been selected to receive the 2021 Giuseppe Parravano Memorial Award for Excellence in Catalysis Research and Development. She will receive the award during the 42nd annual Michigan Catalysis Society Fall Symposium to be held virtually on Wednesday, Sept. 29.
Nikolla will also present the symposium’s keynote address titled, “Embracing the Complexity of Heterogeneous Catalytic Structures: Catalysis by Nonstoichiometric Mixed Metal Oxides and Three-Dimensionally Engineered Metal Catalysts.”
Nikolla has established a leading research group in the area of heterogeneous catalysis and electrocatalysis at Wayne State University. She has contributed for over a decade to development of heterogenous catalysts and electrocatalysts. Her pioneering contributions to fundamentals of catalysis have broad impact to applications of thermal and electro-catalysis for processes related to chemical and energy conversion and storage processes.
The award is only the latest on an extensive list of Nikolla's professional distinctions. She has also received the National Science Foundation's CAREER Award and the Department of Energy's CAREER Award; the 2019 Rising Star Award from the American Chemical Society’s Women Chemists Committee; the 2016 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award; and the Young Scientist Award from the International Congress on Catalysis. She was also named an Influential Researcher by the editors of Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, a weekly journal published by the American Chemical Society.
The Michigan Catalysis Society sponsors two versions of the Guiseppe Parravano Award for Excellence in Catalysis in memory of the late professor of chemical engineering at the University of Michigan. This particular award is sponsored by the Parravano Memorial Trust Fund and given biennially in even numbered years to recognize outstanding contributions to catalytic science and technology by researchers in the greater Michigan area.