CAROLINE T SAOUMA portrait
  • Adjunct Assistant Professor, Chemistry
801-585-7335

Research Summary

The Saouma group is focused on advancing catalytic processes pertinent to tomorrow's energy needs. Current work entails the conversion of CO2 to fuels via thermal and electrochemical means and electrocatalytic conversion of biomass to fuels.

Biography

Caroline Saouma was born in Pittsburgh, PA and grew up between Boulder, Colorado and Lausanne, Switzerland. After visiting NIST as a second grader, she was hooked on science. She went to MIT to complete her bachelor’s degree (chemistry, 2005), where she did research with Steve Lippard on developing cisplatin analogues that target specific malignancies. She then went to Caltech to complete her PhD under the supervision of Jonas Peters, where she investigated iron-mediated reductions of CO2 and N2. Her postdoctoral work with Jim Mayer focused on PCET reactions of synthetic FeS clusters and MOFs. She joined the faculty at the University of Utah as an assistant professor in 2014, where her research is focused on mechanistic studies and catalyst design for CO2 reduction. Amongst other awards, she is the recipient of the NSF CAREER (2020) and is a Catalysis Science & Technology Emerging Investigator (2022). She enjoys the outdoors and is an avid cyclist and cross-country skier. She is a strong advocate to promote equity in the sciences, and has given COACh workshops, and also integrates diversity, equity, & inclusivity (DEI) discussions into her undergraduate courses. For this and her contributions to education, she was named a Utah Jazz “Most Valuable Educator” in 2022, one of only 21 educators selected from the entire state (and the first non-K-12).