Jesús Velázquez

Research in the Velázquez group is centered on the rational 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 and synchrotron-based methods and will facilitate the development of structure-function correlations that will iteratively inform materials design.

Education, Awards and Professional Highlights

• Cottrell Scholar Award, Research Corporation for Science Advancement (2020)
• Scialog Fellow, Research Corporation for Science Advancement (2017)
• CAMPOS Faculty Scholar, UC Davis (2016-2017)
• Appointed to UC Davis faculty (2016)
• NRC-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

• 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.
• Velázquez, J. M.; Saadi, F.; Pieterick, A.; Spurgeon, J. M.; Soriaga, M. P.; Brunschwig, B. S.; Lewis, N. S., Synthesis and Hydrogen-Evolution Activity of Tungsten Selenide Thin Films Deposited on Tungsten Foils. Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry 2014, 716, 45-48.
• Spurgeon, J. M.; Velázquez, J. M.; McDowell, M. T., Improving O2 Production of WO3 Photoanodes with IrO2 in Acidic Aqueous Electrolyte. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 2014, 16 (8), 3623-3631.
• Saadi, F. H.; Carim, A. I.; Velázquez, J. M.; Soriaga, M. P.; Lewis, N. S.; Operando Synthesis of Macroporous Molybdenum Diselenide Films for Electrocatalysis of the Hydrogen-Evolution Reaction. ACS Catalysis 2014, 4 (9), 2866-2873.
• Velázquez, J. M.; Baskaran, S.; Gaikwad, A. V.; Ngo-Duc, T.-T.; He, X.; Oye, M. M.; Meyyappan, M.; Rout, T. K.; Fu, J. Y.; Banerjee, S., Effective Piezoelectric Response of Substrate-Integrated ZnO Nanowire Array Devices on Galvanized Steel. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2013, 5 (21), 10650-10657.
• Velázquez, J. M.; Gaikwad , A. V.; Rout, T. K.; Rzayev, J.; Banerjee, S., A Substrate Integrated and Scalable Templated Approach Based on Rusted Steel for the Fabrication of Polypyrrole Nanotube Arrays. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces 2011, 3 (4), 1238-1244.
• Whittaker, L.*; Velázquez, J. M.*; Banerjee, S., A VO-Seeded Approach for the Growth of Star-Shaped VO2 and V2O5 Nanocrystals: Facile Synthesis, Structural Characterization, and Elucidation of Electronic Structure. Cryst Eng Comm 2011, 13 (17), 5328-5336.
• Velázquez, J. M.; Jaye, C.; Fischer, D. A.; Banerjee, S., Near Edge X-ray Absorption Fine Structure Spectroscopy Studies of Single-Crystalline V2O5 Nanowire Arrays. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 2009, 113 (18), 7639-7645.
• Velázquez, J. M.; Banerjee, S., Catalytic Growth of Single-Crystalline V2O5 Nanowire Arrays. Small 2009, 5 (9), 1025-1029.

(*joint first authors)