By Wendy PlumpDepartment of ChemistryJuly 21, 2022 Princeton Chemistry’s Paul Chirik is among the first chemists in the nation to receive funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s new “exploration phase” grants in support of green chemistry. Once considered an oxymoron, green chemistry has enjoyed a new vigor in recent years as chemists take…
By Wendy PlumpDepartment of ChemistryMarch 24, 2022 The Chirik Lab reports room-temperature, photocatalytic ammonia synthesis from a N2-derived terminal molybdenum nitride, using photodriven, proton-coupled electron transfer that allows for H2 as the terminal reductant. This has not been accomplished before. Building on a 2021 Nature Chemistry proof-of-concept paper in which the Chirik Lab reported that the…
By Wendy PlumpDepartment of ChemistrySeptember 13, 2021 The Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded new funding to a team of Princeton chemists and engineers led by Paul Chirik as part of its investment in national technology solutions to reduce plastic waste. The Chirik team received funding for their project “Chemically Recyclable Polyolefins,” which seeks to…
By Wendy PlumpDepartment of ChemistryJune 30, 2021 One of the main goals before scientists today is de-coupling food production from carbon. In part, this means finding a way to produce fertilizer through carbon-free ammonia synthesis. Can it be done without Haber-Bosch? Paul Chirik has taken an important step towards this possibility with a unique, fundamental…
By Mary Cummings-JordanWHYY Radio Times Regional RoundupFebruary 22, 2021 In this WHYY Radio Times Regional Roundup interview by Mary Cummings-Jordan, Paul Chirik discusses the discovery by the Chirik Group of a new molecule, (1,n’-divinyl)oligocyclobutane, informally referred to as “the polymer of squares,” that may prove to be a game-changer in the recycling of plastics. Listen to the…
By Wendy PlumpDepartment of ChemistryJanuary 25, 2021 As the planet’s burden of rubber and plastic rises unabated, scientists look to the promise of closed-loop recycling to reduce trash. Researchers from Princeton University’s Department of Chemistry have discovered a potentially game-changing new molecule with vast implications for fulfilling that promise. A team of scientists led by…
By Wendy PlumpDepartment of ChemistryAugust 20, 2020 Paul Chirik, the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Chemistry, has received the Gabor A. Somorjai Award for Creative Research in Catalysis, one of 60 national awards administered this month by the American Chemical Society (ACS) for 2021. The Somorjai Award recognizes outstanding theoretical, experimental, or developmental research resulting…
By Wendy PlumpDepartment of ChemistryMay 26, 2020 The Department of Chemistry is pleased to announce that Jose Roque has been awarded a Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, one of sixteen such fellowships awarded annually throughout Princeton University in disciplines spanning the sciences and humanities. Roque will join the Chirik Group. Roque is completing his Ph.D. at…
By Hillary RosnerOct. 15, 2012 In a lab in Princeton University’s ultra-sleek chemistry building, researchers toil in a modern-day hunt for an elusive power: alchemy. Throughout the centuries, alchemists tried in vain to transform common metals like iron and lead into precious ones like gold or platinum. Today, Paul Chirik, a professor of chemistry at…
By The Office of CommunicationsPrinceton UniversityWednesday, Apr. 17, 2019 Curiosity about the natural world and practical concerns guided Máté Bezdek’s research into the chemical bonds of nitrogen and hydrogen that make up ammonia. Earlier this year, Bezdek was named one of the four winners of the Porter Ogden Jacobus Fellowship, Princeton University’s top honor for graduate students.…