Kenneth R. Poeppelmeier, a Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Center for Catalysis and Surface Science at Northwestern University, has been appointed as a foreign member to the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences and as an honorary member to the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSEQ). Founded in 1847, the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences is dedicated to the study and research of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and related sciences.
Poeppelmeier accepted the two awards on May 10th and 11th at symposia in Madrid, Spain. There, he presented research published in 2016 with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) describing how noncentrosymmetric structures containing racemic (equal amount of molecules) combinations of chiral (non superimposable) building units can display circular dichroism. The team was the first to measure that, in the solid state, racemates can be optically active. Their findings have applications in many common electronic and medical devices.
Poeppelmeier was a visiting professor at the Complutense Univesity of Madrid in 2009 and has served as a distinguished lecturer internationally including at Universities in China, France, and Japan. His research focuses on the synthesis and structure of new materials, the physical properties of new materials, and the technological advances that result from these discoveries. Poeppelmeier’s research has widespread use in energy-related applications across diverse fields such as heterogeneous catalysis and solar energy.