Héctor D. Abruña, Ph.D.

2024 Enrico Fermi Presidential Award Laureate

Honored for revolutionizing the fundamental understanding of electroanalytical chemistry and innovating characterization for development of batteries, fuel cells, and energy materials that have led to advancements for the electrical power grid and energy transformation and creation.

Biography:

Héctor D. Abruña, the Émile M. Chamot Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Cornell University, is an internationally recognized leader in electrochemistry and analytical chemistry. He did his early schooling in his native Puerto Rico and earned a BS in Chemistry from RPI in 1975. He completed his doctoral studies with Royce Murray and Thomas Meyer at UNC Chapel Hill in 1980 and was a postdoctoral research associate with Allen Bard at the University of Texas at Austin. After a brief stay at the University of Puerto Rico, he joined Cornell in 1983 and was Chair of the Department from 2004-2008.

Abruña is best known for revolutionizing the fundamental understanding of electrochemical interfaces by pioneering the development of operando techniques with emphasis on X-ray based methods, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and differential electrochemical mass spectrometry (DEMS). His group pioneered the development of non-precious metal based electrocatalysts for alkaline fuel cells as well as novel materials for batteries, supercapacitors, molecular assemblies and electrochemical sensors.

He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received numerous awards including the 2024 Global Energy Prize, the 2021 American Chemical Society Award in Analytical Chemistry, and the 2017 Gold Medal of the International Society of Electrochemistry. He is the co-author of over 600 publications and has given over 700 invited lectures world-wide. He considers his 65 Ph.D. students and over 70 Post-Doctoral associates as his most important professional achievement.