Date & Time: Feb 5 2025 | 11:30am - 12:30pm Location: iSTEM Building 2, Room 1218 Developing catalysis platforms for efficient chemical transformations requires either building upon useful empirical evidence or studying unexplored design spaces. Importantly, both approaches benefit from merging different research fields to solve new challenges. Here, I will discuss how materials design parameters can be applied to molecular electrocatalysts in the form of porous supramolecules to mimic confined enzyme/nanomaterial catalysis. Then, I will show how biological design elements can be implemented to augment synthetic catalyst activity through inverse confined catalysis. Finally, I will describe how nanotechnology can transform materials synthesis by confining the volume of reactors to the attoliter scale. This can yield thousands to millions of catalyst candidates on a single chip for testing, and varied molecular sensors prove to be critical in rapidly testing and identifying top performing materials catalysts. Type of Event: Departmental Colloquium Materials Chemistry and Nanoscience Seminar Research Areas: Materials Chemistry and Nanoscience Department: Department of Chemistry Northwestern University Learn more about Dr. Smith and his work https://chem-smith.com/