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Washington State University
The Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering

Faculty & Staff

Jean-Sabin McEwen, PhD

Jean-Sabin McEwen

Jean-Sabin McEwen, Ph.D.
Associate Professor

Atomistic modeling of catalytic processes for energy applications

Office: 257 Wegner Hall đź“ž509-335-8580

Website: Dr. McEwen’s Website
Twitter: @mcewen_group

The Gene and Linda Voiland
School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering
1505 Stadium Way, Room 105
P.O. Box 646515
Washington State University
Pullman, WA 99164-6515

Graduate Students

Ariel Whitten
Carrington Moore
Charles Umhey
Isaac Onyango
Naseeha Cardwell

Undergraduate Students

Eva Arm
Grace Miller
Maggie Rickman

Graduate Student Alumni

Prof. Alyssa Joy Rose Hensley
Prof. Fanglin Che
Dr. Greg Collinge
Dr. Michael Ayiania
Dr. Neeru Chaudhary
Dr. Nisa Ulumuddin
Kyle Groden
Ian de Joode
Breanna Wong

 

Postdoc Alumni

Prof. Alyssa Joy Rose Hensley
Dr. Dezhou Guo
Dr. Renqin Zhang

Research Interests

The depletion of natural resources, rising fuel costs, and increasingly stringent environmental regulations have created a need for new and diverse forms of energy. Heterogeneous catalysis has played and will continue to play an important role both in the generation and use of energy to ensure a sustainable future, but a number of open questions remain to exploit the full potential of such catalytic systems. In order to do this, one needs not only to understand, but also to control materials at the nanometer length scale and far away from thermodynamic equilibrium.

In my research group, we model such systems from an atomistic (using ab initio quantum chemistry tools) and macroscopic (using Monte Carlo and Transfer Matrix methods) point of view. We also link these methods with corresponding multi-scale models. Our work is done in close collaboration with experimentalists. Some areas of interest to me are listed below.

  • Heterogeneous Catalysis in High Electric Fields
  • Theory of Surface Processes

Biographical Information

Jean-Sabin McEwen earned his B. Sc. in Physics at McGill University, Canada. He then went on to earn his M. Sc. and his Ph.D. in Physics at Dalhousie University, Canada. He spent about two years as a postdoctoral fellow in Belgium at the ULB and three years in Belgium at the F.R.S.-FNRS. He went on to obtain a position as research assistant professor at the University of Notre Dame for two years. He is now an associate professor at Washington State University.

Education

  • Ph.D. Physics, Dalhousie University (Canada), 2005
  • M.Sc. Physics, Dalhousie University (Canada), 2002
  • B.Sc. Physics, McGill University (Canada), 2000

Selected Awards, Honors, and Societies

  • 2023 Peter M. A. Sherwood Mid-Career Professional Award (American Vacuum Society Applied Surface Science Division)
  • Anjan Bose Outstanding Researcher Award (2022)
  • President, Pacific Coast Catalysis Society (2019-Present)
  • ACS Catalysis Early Career Advisory Board Member (2018-2019)
  • 2018 Class of Influential Researchers (Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, ACS)
  • National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2017-2022)
  • Secretary, Pacific Coast Catalysis Society (2015-Present)

Professional Experience

  • Associate Professor – Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, Washington State University, 8/2018–present
  • Assistant Professor – Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, Washington State University, 1/2012–8/2018
  • Research Assistant Professor – Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Notre Dame, 10/2010–12/2011
  • Honorary Postdoctoral Researcher – Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique F.R.S.-FNRS, ULB (Belgium), 10/2010–10/2011
  • Postdoctoral Researcher – Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique F.R.S.-FNRS, ULB (Belgium), 10/2007–10/2010
  • Postdoctoral Researcher – Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems, ULB (Belgium), 01/2006–09/2007
  • Postdoctoral Researcher – Deparment of Physics and Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University (Canada), 09/2005–12/2005

Collaborators

  • A. Alexandrova (University of California Los Angeles, USA)
  • C. Campbell (University of Washington, USA)
  • C. Chin (University of Toronto, Canada)
  • R. Denecke (Universität Leipzig, Germany)
  • F. Gao (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA)
  • M. Garcia-Perez (Washington State University, USA)
  • P. Gaspard (ULB, Belgium)
  • S. Ha (Washington State University, USA)
  • H. J. Kreuzer (Dalhousie University, Canada)
  • N. Kruse (Washington State University, USA)
  • F. Mittendorfer (Univesität Wien, Austria)
  • E. Nikolla (Wayne State University, USA)
  • F. H. Ribeiro (Purdue University, USA)
  • M. Saeys (Ghent University, Belgium)
  • J. Szanyi (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA)
  • W. F. Schneider (University of Notre Dame, USA)
  • S. Scott (University of California Santa Barbara, USA)
  • D. Shantz (Tulane University, USA)
  • C. Stampfl (University of Sydney, Australia)
  • H.-P. SteinrĂĽck (Universität Erlangen-NĂĽrenberg, Germany)
  • E. C. H. Sykes (Tufts University, USA)
  • Y. Wang (Washington State University/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA)
  • J. Wintterlin (Universität MĂĽnchen, Germany)
  • D. Wu (Washington State University, USA)
  • Y. Xu (Lousiana State University, USA)

Selected Publications

  1. J.-S. McEwen, T. Anggara, W. F. Schneider, V. F. Kispersky, J.T. Miller, W.N. Delgass, F. H. Ribeiro, Integrated operando X-ray and DFT charaterization of Cu-SSZ-13 exchange sites during the selective catalytic reduction of NOx with NH3 Catalysis Today 184(2012) 129.
  2. J.-S. McEwen, P. Gaspard, T. Visart de Bocarmé and N.Kruse, Nanometric Chemical Clocks, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106 (2009) 3006–3010.
  3. J.-S. McEwen, P. Gaspard, F. Mittendorfer, T. Visart de Bocarmé and N.Kruse, Field-assisted oxidation of rhodium, Chemical Physics Letters 452 (2008) 133–138.
  4. J.-S. McEwen and A. Eichler, Phase diagram and adsorption-desorption kinetics of CO on Ru(0001) from first principles, Journal of Chemical Physics 126 (2007) 094701.
  5. J.-S. McEwen, S.H. Payne, H.J. Kreuzer, M. Kinne, and R. Denecke, and H.-P. Steinrueck, Adsorption and desorption of CO on Pt(111): a comprehensive analysis, Surface Science 545 (2003) 47–69.
  6. J.-S. McEwen, S.H. Payne and C. Stampfl, Phase diagram of O/Ru(0001) from first principles, Chemical Physics Letters 361 (2002) 317–320.

Research Funding

American Chemical Society - Petroleum Research FundDepartment of Energy, United States of AmericaNSF - National Science FoundationDAAD: Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (German Academic Exchange Service)Washington State University International ProgramsJCDreamARCS - Advancing Science in America
Renewable Energy Scholarship Foundation Logo CeRCaS Logo Washington Space Grant Consortium

Computational Resources

Argonne National LaboratoryPNNL - Pacific Northwest National LaboratoryNERSCXSEDE Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment

Research News

To read the latest news about our research, please see the McEwen Group on Twitter (use this link for accessible content) or view feed below.

 

Research Highlights

The Journal of Physical Chemistry A cover, December 21, 2023.
The collaborative research between the McEwen group and the Wang group is highlighted on the cover of Journal of Physical Chemistry A.

Cover of the Journal of Physical Chemistry July 27th, 2023. The collaborative research between the McEwen group and the Wang group is highlighted on the cover of Journal of Physical Chemistry C.

Front cover of ChemPhysChem 2023.The collaborative research between the McEwen group, the Shantz group and the Karim group is highlighted on the cover of ChemPhysChem.

Journal of Chemistry Cover Vol 125 Number 51 The collaborative research between the McEwen group, the Scott group, Dr. Bare and Dr. Vila is highlighted on the cover of Journal of Physical Chemistry C.

JACS Magazine Cover September 2021 The collaborative research between the McEwen group and the Wang group is highlighted on the cover of JACS Au.

The collaborative research between the McEwen group and PNNL is highlighted on the cover of ACS Catalysis. Read more about Dr. McEwen’s research in environmental catalysis.ACS Catalysis Cover July 2020 Vol 10 Number 14 The collaborative research between the McEwen group and the Wang group is highlighted on the cover of ACS Catalysis. Read more about Dr. McEwen’s collaborative research with Dr. Wang’s group.

The Journal of Physical Chemistry Cover, April 2, 2020. Vol 124 Issue 13 The collaborative research between the McEwen group and the Wang group is highlighted on the cover of Journal of Physical Chemistry C. Read more about Dr. McEwen’s research on biofuels

The Journal of Physical Chemistry cover, January 2020

The collaborative research between the McEwen group and the Wang group is highlighted on the cover of Journal of Physical Chemistry C. Read more about Dr. McEwen’s research on biofuels

 

Cover of Nature magazine featuring Catalysis: Visualizing single-site reactivity
The collaborative research between the McEwen group and the Sykes group is highlighted on the cover of the March 2018 issue of Nature Catalysis. See the report on WSU news and Tufts now.

The Journal of Physical Chemistry cover, March 2018
The McEwen, Denecke, SteinrĂĽck and Wang groups combine their efforts to identify the decomposition mechanism of guaiacol on a platinum surface. See the report on WSU news.

Angewande Chemie cover, 2017-56/13

The collaborative research done between the McEwen group and the Ha group is highlighted in Angewandte Chemie. See Murrow News 8 report and the report on WSU News.

Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research journal cover, February 8, 2017 - 56/5

The collaborative research done between the McEwen group and the Ha group is highlighted in I&EC. See virtual issue of the best presentations at the 251 ACS meeting.

Cover: The Journal of Physical Chemistry

The collaborative research between the McEwen and the Ha group is highlighted on the cover of Journal of Physical Chemistry C. Read more about Dr. McEwen’s research in electrocatalysis

Cover: Catalysis Science & TechnologyThe collaborative research between the McEwen group and PNNL is highlighted on the cover of Catalysis Science and Technology. Read more about Dr. McEwen’s research in environmental catalysis

Cover: The Journal of Physical ChemistryThe collaborative research between the McEwen and the Sykes groups sheds light on an important catalyst structure. Read more about Dr. McEwen’s research in environmental catalysis

Cover: ACS CatalysisThe collaborative research done between the McEwen and Wang groups is highlighted on the cover of the October issue of ACS Catalysis, which illustrates a Pd/Fe catalyst and its hydrodeoxygenation capability using m-cresol. Read more about Dr. McEwen’s research on biofuels

Research Team

2023 McEwen Group Photo
Top row: Naseeha Cardwell, Carrington Moore and Isaac Onyango. Middle row: Ariel Whitten, Charles Umhey and Nisa Ulumuddin. Bottom row: Zoe McEwen, Jean-Sabin McEwen.

2022 Group Photo

2021 Group Photo

2020 Group Photo

2019 Group Photo

2018 Group Photo

2017 Group Photo

2016 Group Photo

2015 Group Photo

2014 Group Photo

2013 Group Photo