A chemical engineer working at the carbon interface
Final-year PhD candidate turning electrochemistry into a practical route from captured CO₂ to fuels and feedstocks.
I came to this field through a stubborn question — if we can capture carbon, why is it still so hard to do anything useful with it? Most CO₂-reduction work looks beautiful on a rotating disk electrode and falls apart the moment you ask it to run at industrial current density. So I spend my time on the unglamorous middle of the stack: gas-diffusion electrodes that don't flood, membrane-electrode assemblies that don't salt out, and copper catalysts that stay selective for ethylene and ethanol instead of quietly making hydrogen.
The "why" is simple. Decarbonization needs more than clean electrons — it needs a way to store them as molecules. If electrochemical carbon conversion is ever going to leave the bench, someone has to connect surface science to a techno-economic floor and prove the whole chain holds together. That connective work is the research I want to keep doing for the rest of my career.
The short version
Everything a collaborator, search committee, or journalist usually asks for, in one place.
- Name
- Maya R. Calderón
- Role
- PhD Candidate (ABD)
- Department
- Chemical & Biological Engineering
- Institution
- The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL
- Advisor
- Prof. Daniel H. Whitford
- Lab
- Electrochemical Carbon Lab (ECL)
- Focus
- Electrochemical CO₂ reduction to C2+ products; Cu catalysis; GDEs & MEAs
- Office
- 2034 SEC, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487
- Expected PhD
- May 2026
Where the training happened
A straight line from process fundamentals to electrochemical reactor design.
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2021 – 2026 (expected)PhD, Chemical & Biological Engineering — The University of Alabama
Dissertation: Selective, durable, and economical electrochemical CO₂ conversion to multicarbon products. Advised by Prof. Daniel H. Whitford in the Electrochemical Carbon Lab. Advanced to candidacy (ABD) in 2023.
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Summer 2023Visiting researcher — National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO
Ten-week graduate internship on flooding-resistant membrane-electrode assemblies and accelerated stress-test protocols for CO₂ electrolyzers, in collaboration with the Chemistry & Nanoscience Center.
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2020Exchange semester — Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), Netherlands
Coursework and a research project in electrocatalysis and operando spectroscopy that first pointed me toward the CO₂-reduction interface.
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2017 – 2021B.S., Chemical Engineering — Georgia Institute of Technology
Graduated with highest honors. Senior thesis on gas-diffusion electrode mass transport. Minor in Materials Science & Engineering.
Recognition along the way
Fellowships and awards that funded the work and validated its direction.
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2024Award ECS Joseph W. Richards Summer Fellowship
The Electrochemical Society, supporting summer research on pulsed-potential stabilization of copper active sites.
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2024Award AIChE Separations Division Graduate Student Award
Recognizing work on membrane-electrode assemblies that resist flooding at industrial current densities.
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2023Award UA College of Engineering Outstanding Researcher
College-wide award for graduate research impact and publication record.
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2022Fellowship NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
Three years of National Science Foundation support for the broader carbon-utilization research program.
What's on the bench right now
A snapshot of the work filling my final year, updated June 2026.
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Writing my dissertation and preparing to defend in spring 2026. -
Scaling the tandem Cu–Ag gas-diffusion electrode from 5 cm² to a 25 cm² short stack. -
Extending the ethylene techno-economic model to include captured-CO₂ feed costs and carbon pricing. -
Mentoring two undergraduate researchers and interviewing for postdoc and industry roles.
Read deeper, or reach out
The full record lives on the CV, the publication library, and my inbox. I answer every serious message.