Dr. James W. Harris

Dr. James W. Harris is Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at The University of Alabama and Director of the Institute for Catalytic Science and Engineering. He earned his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Virginia and his Ph.D. from Purdue University, and his group studies catalysis over metal surfaces whose properties evolve with their environment, and over acid sites confined within zeolite pores. His NSF-funded work on bifunctional zeolite catalysts for converting ethanol into sustainable aviation fuel sits directly upstream of my own.

I joined the Harris Laboratory in Spring 2023. Everything I know about designing a zeolite experiment properly — asking what the pore is actually doing, and refusing to accept a number I cannot explain — I learned at that bench. I am grateful for his patience with a student who arrived from a very different research tradition, and for the standard he holds the whole group to.