David Kisailus
Winston Chung Endowed Professor in Energy Innovation
Professor, Chemical & Environmental Engineering
Ph.D. Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2002
About
Dr. David Kisailus is the Winston Chung Endowed Chair of Energy Innovation and Professor in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering as well as the Materials Science and Engineering program at the University of California at Riverside. Dr. Kisailus, a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences and Member of UNESCO Chair in Materials and Technologies for Energy Conversion, Saving and Storage (MATECSS), received his Ph.D. in Materials Science from the University of California at Santa Barbara (2002) M.S. from the University of Florida in Materials Science and B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Drexel University. After his Ph.D., Dr. Kisailus was appointed as a post-doctoral researcher in Molecular Biology at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Following this, he was a Research Scientist at HRL Laboratories and then joined UC Riverside as a faculty member. His research interests include biomimetics and bio-inspired materials synthesis of semiconducting materials, structure-functional analyses and biomimetic demonstration of impact and abrasion resistant materials, solution phase precursor synthesis of ceramic and semiconducting materials for photocatalytic membranes, nanoparticle synthesis and self-assembly.His research has focused on two areas that are complementary to one another. Based on influences from research in ceramic processing (both colloidal and thin film) as well as biological materials, his hybridized laboratory: "Biomimetic and Nanostructured Materials Laboratory" investigates biomineralized composites in order to derive not only structure-functional relationships (for development of light-weight and tough materials), but also in interpreting mineralization pathways that dictate resulting ultrastructures.
Based on these investigations, the Kisailus lab focuses on gleaning inspiration from these biological systems, or directly using biological constructs, to develop / utilize solution-based processes to synthesize nanoscale materials for energy based applications. This includes trying to understand the relationships between the solution precursor, solvent, and solution conditions (e.g., pH, temperature, etc.) on the nucleation and growth of these materials and their resulting structures and performance. The ultimate goal is to be able to leverage lessons from Nature to develop next generation materials for energy conversion and storage as well as for environmental applications.