Jesús M. Velázquez

Research in the Velázquez group is centered on the design of well-defined dimensionally reduced materials, ranging from monolayers, bilayers, nanocrystalline thin films, and free-standing mesoporous monoliths. The target materials have immediate applications in nanoelectronics, energy conversion devices and environmental remediation. Characterization of the physicochemical properties of these materials involves a combination of microscopy, spectroscopy, electrochemistry, photoelectrochemistry and synchrotron-based methods and will facilitate the development of structure-function correlations that will iteratively inform materials design.

Education, Awards and Professional Highlights

• Jean Dreyfus Lectureship – Idaho State University (2024)
• Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow (2023)
• Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2022)
• American Physical Society – Stanford R. Ovshinsky Sustainable Energy Fellowship (2021)
• ACS Chemistry of Materials "Up and Coming" Early Career Scientist Special Issue (2021)
• ACS Axial I&EC "Class of Influential Researchers" (2021)
• C&EN’s Talented Twelve (2021)
• National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2020)
• Royal Society of Chemistry, Journal of Materials Chemistry C, Emerging investigator (2020) 
• Scialog Fellow, RCSA Negative Emission Science (2020)
• Cottrell Scholar Award, RCSA (2020)
• Journal of Coordination Chemistry, Emerging Leader (2019)
• Scialog Fellow, RCSA Advance Energy Storage (2017)
• CAMPOS Faculty Scholar, UC Davis (2016-2017)
• Appointed to UC Davis faculty (2016)
• NASEM-Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, California Institute of Technology (2014)
• NASA-Harriet G. Jenkins Fellowship, University at Buffalo-SUNY (2010)
• NSF-Bridge to the Doctorate Fellowship, University at Buffalo-SUNY (2007-2009)
• Ph.D. University at Buffalo-SUNY (2012)
• B.S. University of Puerto Rico-Cayey (2004)

Representative Publications

• Perryman, J.T.; Velázquez, J.M.*, Design Principles for Multinary Metal Chalcogenides: Towards Programable Reactivity in Energy Conversion, Chemistry of Materials 2021, 33 (18), 7133-7147. (Invited Perspective: “Up and Coming” Early Career Scientist Issue)
• Lam, A.; Hyler, F.; Stagg, O.; Morris, K.; Shaw, S.; Velázquez, J.M.*; Navrotsky, A.*, Synthesis and thermodynamics of uranium-incorporated α– Fe2O3 nanoparticles, Journal of Nuclear Materials 2021, 556 153172.
• Singstock, N.R.; Ortiz-Rodríguez, J.C.; Perryman, J.T.; Sutton, C.; Velázquez, J.M.*; Musgrave, C.B.*, Machine Learning Guided Synthesis of Multinary Chevrel Phase Chalcogenides, Journal of the American Chemical Society 2021, 143 (24), 9113–9122.
• Lilova, K.*; Perryman, J.*; Singstock, N.*; Subramani, M.; Lam, A.; Yoo, R.; Ortiz-Rodríguez, J.; Musgrave, C.; Navrotsky, A.; Velázquez, J. M., A Synergistic Approach to Unraveling the Thermodynamic Stability of Binary and Ternary Chevrel-Phase Sulfides, Chemistry of Materials, 2020, 32 (16), 7044-7051.
• Ortiz-Rodríguez, J.*; Singstock, N.*; Perryman, J.; Hyler, F.; Jones, S.; Holder, A.; Musgrave, C.; Velázquez, J. M., Stabilizing Hydrogen Adsorption Through Theory-Guided Substitution in Chevrel-Phase Mo6X8 (X=S, Se, Te) Electrocatalysts, ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 2020, 12 (32) 35995-36003.
• Hussain, F.; Zamora, J.; Ferrer, I. F.; Kinyua, M.; Velázquez, J. M., Adsorption of Crude Oil from Crude Oil-Water Emulsion by Mesoporous Hafnium Oxide Ceramics, Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology, 2020, 6, 2035-2042.
• Perryman, J. T.; Kulkarni, A. R.; Velázquez, J.M., Direct Solid-State Nucleation and Charge-Transport Dynamics of Alkali Metal-Intercalated M2Mo6S6 (M = K, Rb, Cs) Nanorods, Journal of Materials Chemistry C, 2020, 8, 10742-10748 (Featured on the Inside Back Cover of Emerging Investigators Special Issue)
• Zaheer, W.; Andrews, J. L.; Parija, A.; Hyler, F. P.;  Jaye, C.; Weiland, C.; Yu, Y.; Shapiro, D. A.; Fischer, D. A.; Guo, J.; Velazquez, J. M.;  Banerjee S., Reversible Room-Temperature Fluoride-Ion Insertion in a Tunnel-Structured Transition Metal Oxide Host, ACS Energy Letters, 2020, 5 (8), 2520-2526.
• Perryman, J. T.; Ortiz-Rodríguez, J.C.; Jude, J.W.; Hyler, F.P.; Davis, R.C.; Mehta, A.; Kulkarni, A. R.; Patridge, C. J.; Velázquez, J. M., Metal-promoted Mo6S8 clusters: a platform for probing ensemble effects on the electrochemical conversion of CO2 and CO to methanol. Materials Horizons 2020, 7 (1), 193-202.
• Perryman, J. T.; Hyler, F. P.; Ortiz-Rodríguez, J.C.; Mehta, A.; Kulkarni, A. R.; Velázquez, J. M., X-ray absorption spectroscopy study of the electronic structure and local coordination of 1st row transition metal-promoted Chevrel-phase sulfides. Journal of Coordination Chemistry 2019, 72, 1322- 1335. (Featured on front cover of Emerging Leader Special Issue)
• Francis*, S. A.; Velázquez*, J.M.; Ferrer, I. M.; Torelli, D. A.; Guevarra, D.; McDowell, M. T.; Sun, K.; Zhou, X.; Saadi, F. H.; John,  J.; Richter, M.;  Hyler, F.P.; Papadantonakis, K. M.; Brunschwig, B. S.; Lewis, N. S., Reduction of Aqueous CO2 to 1-Propanol at MoS2 Electrodes. Chemistry of Materials 2018, 30 (15), 4902-4908
• Wiensch, J. D.; John, J.; Velázquez,J. M.; Torelli, D. A.; Pieterick, A. P.; McDowell, M. T.; Sun, K.; Zhao, X.; Brunschwig, B.; Lewis, N. S., A Comparative Study in Acidic and Alkaline Media on the Effects of pH and Crystallinity on the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction on MoS2 and MoSe2. ACS Energy Letters 2017, 2 (10), 2234-2238
• Horrocks,G.A.; Braham, E.J.; Liang, Y.; De Jesus, L.R.; Jude, J.; Velázquez, J.M.; Prendergast D.; Banerjee, S., Vanadium K-Edge X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy as a Probe of the Heterogeneous Lithiation of V2O5: First Principles Modeling and Principal component Analysis. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 2016, 120 (42), 23922-23932
• Velázquez, J. M. *; John, J. *; Esposito, D.; Pieterick A.; Pala, R. A.; Sun, G.; Zhou, Z; Ardo, S.; Soriaga, M. P.; Brunschwig, B. S.; Lewis, N. S., A Scanning Probe Investigation of the Role of Surface Motifs in the Behavior of p-WSe2 Photocathodes. Energy & Environmental Science 2016, 9 (1), 164-175.

(*joint first and corresponding authors)