Jorge Gascon (born December 1, 1977) is a professor of chemical engineering at

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST; ') is a Private university, private research university located in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia. Founded in 2009, the university provides research and graduate training programs in English ...

, director of the KAUST Catalysis Center, and a group leader of the Advanced Catalytic Materials group.

Biography

He received his MSc. in industrial chemistry in 2002 and his PhD, ''cum laude'', in chemical engineering in 2006, both at the

University of Zaragoza The University of Zaragoza, sometimes referred to as Saragossa University () is a public university with teaching campuses and research centres spread over the three provinces of Aragon (Spain). Founded in 1542, it is one of the List of oldest u ...

. The topic of his PhD thesis was "Two zone fluidized bed reactors for

hydrocarbon In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons are examples of group 14 hydrides. Hydrocarbons are generally colourless and Hydrophobe, hydrophobic; their odor is usually fain ...

valorization." Then he moved to Netherlands, where he was a post doctoral student (2006-2009), assistant professor (2010-2012), associate professor (2012-2014) and Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Professor (2014-2017) of Catalysis Engineering at

Delft University of Technology The Delft University of Technology (TU Delft; ) is the oldest and largest Dutch public university, public Institute of technology, technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. It specializes in engineering, technology, computing, design, a ...

. In 2017, he moved to Saudi Arabia, where he is working as a professor and Director of Catalysis Center at

KAUST The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST; ') is a private research university located in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia. Founded in 2009, the university provides research and graduate training programs in English as the official ...

. His research interests fall at the interphase of

Chemical Engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of the operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials ...

and

Materials Science Materials science is an interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries. The intellectual origins of materials sci ...

, including the development and demonstration of new nano-structured materials and composites tackling the problems of global warming and renewable energy resources. He is particularly interested in application of porous materials, such as Metal Organic Frameworks, Covalent Organic Frameworks and

zeolite Zeolites are a group of several microporous, crystalline aluminosilicate minerals commonly used as commercial adsorbents and catalysts. They mainly consist of silicon, aluminium, oxygen, and have the general formula ･y where is either a meta ...

s. Applications comprise membrane and adsorbent development, multifunctional

catalysis Catalysis () is the increase in rate of a chemical reaction due to an added substance known as a catalyst (). Catalysts are not consumed by the reaction and remain unchanged after it. If the reaction is rapid and the catalyst recycles quick ...

, Fischer Tropsch Synthesis,

methanol Methanol (also called methyl alcohol and wood spirit, amongst other names) is an organic chemical compound and the simplest aliphatic Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol, with the chemical formula (a methyl group linked to a hydroxyl group, often ab ...

olefins In organic chemistry, an alkene, or olefin, is a hydrocarbon containing a carbon–carbon double bond. The double bond may be internal or at the terminal position. Terminal alkenes are also known as α-olefins. The International Union of P ...

photo A photograph (also known as a photo, or more generically referred to as an ''image'' or ''picture'') is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor. The process and pra ...

- and electro-catalysis. He is also a member of editorial board of the ''Chemical Engineering Journal'' and editorial advisory board of ''ACS Catalysis Journal''.

Awards and honors

Gascon is a member of the board of the International Zeolite Association Commission on Metal–organic framework. He has been the recipient of the prestigious VENI (2010), VIDI (2013) and ERC Starting (2013) personal grants and of the 2013 ExxonMobil Chemical European Science and Engineering Award. He has co-authored more than 300 publications in peer-reviewed journals, several book chapters, patents and has edited the book ‘Metal Organic Frameworks as Heterogeneous Catalysts'. Gascon has been recognized as a highly cited researcher by Web of Science having the current

h-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with success indicators such as winning t ...

of 86. He is in the list of highly cited researchers 2019, 2020, 2021. Demonstrated by the production of multiple highly-cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in

Web of Science The Web of Science (WoS; previously known as Web of Knowledge) is a paid-access platform that provides (typically via the internet) access to multiple databases that provide reference and citation data from academic journals, conference proceedi ...

. Gascon was named Doctor Honoris Causa by La Universidad de Alicante in 2021.

Most influential publications

#Metal–organic framework nanosheets in polymer composite materials for gas separation #An Amine-Functionalized MIL-53 Metal−Organic Framework with Large Separation Power for CO₂ and CH₄ #Solution processable metal–organic frameworks for mixed matrix membranes using porous liquids #Structure–performance descriptors and the role of Lewis acidity in the methanol-to-propylene process #Evidence for a chemical clock in oscillatory formation of UiO-66 #Metal organic framework-mediated synthesis of highly active and stable Fischer-Tropsch catalysts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gascon, Jorge 1977 births Living people University of Zaragoza alumni Academic staff of the Delft University of Technology Academic staff of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology