Michele L. Sarazen, PhD
she/her/hers
Assistant Professor, Chemical and Biological Engineering at Princeton University
Associated Faculty, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, Department of Chemistry, High Meadows Environmental Institute, Princeton Materials Institute
Faculty Advisor, Princeton Women in CBE (https://cbewomen.princeton.edu/)
A319 Engineering Quad (office); G104-106 Engineering Quad (labs)
609.258.8331
Postdoctoral Fellow, Georgia Institute of Technology, Chemical Engineering, 2016-2018
PhD, University of California, Berkeley, Chemical Engineering, 2016
BS, Pennsylvania State University, Chemical Engineering, summa cum laude, 2011
Honors and Awards
NSF CAREER Award, 2024
AIChE 35 under 35, 2023
Featured Researcher “Women at the Forefront of Energy Research” in ACS Energy Letters, 2024
Featured Researcher in AIChE Journal Futures Issue, 2023
The Catalyst Review “Movers and Shakers”, 2022
MSDE Outstanding Early Career Paper Award, 2021
Pioneer of AIChE Catalysis and Reaction Engineering, 2021
Princeton Engineering Commendation List for Outstanding Teaching, 2021
Princeton SEAS Howard B. Wentz, Jr. Junior Faculty Award, 2021
US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium from National Academy of Engineering, 2019
Catalysis and Reaction Engineering AIChE Graduate Student Award, 2015
Heinz Heinemann Prize for Graduate Research in Catalysis, UC Berkeley, 2015
Robert J. Kokes Award, North American Catalysis Society, 2011
NSF Graduate Student Research Fellow, 2011
Service
current
(Past)-Chair: Catalysis Society of Metropolitan New York, 2021-
Program Chair: ACS Catalysis Science and Technology (CATL) Division, 2023-
Journal of Catalysis Early Career Board, 2023-
AIChE Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Diversity Task Force, 2022-
AIChE Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Mentor, 2022-
Executive Committee for the Program in Sustainable Energy, ACEE Princeton, 2019-
past
Director: AIChE Catalysis and Reactor Engineering Division, 2020-2023
Chair: Princeton CBE Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion Committee, 2022-2023
Invited participant: Journal of Catalysis Future of Catalysis Workshop, 2023
Invited panelist: The Role of Mentorship in Shaping your Professional and Personal Development as you Navigate your Career in CRE, 2023
Invited speaker in ACS CATL division Catalysis Summer School, 2022
Invited panelist: “Rigor and Reproducibility in Thermal Heterogenous Catalysis”, 2022
Organizing Committee Secretary, Technical Program Committee Member, Diversity Efforts Chair: NACS NAM27, 2019-2022
Organizer: “Catalyzing Diversity” Luncheon, NAM27, 2022
Program Chair: Northeast Corridor Zeolite Association Annual Meeting, 2021
Organizer: Catalysis Society of Metropolitan New York Annual Symposium, 2021
Panel Organizer/Moderator: “Catalyzing Sustainability through Material Design” at Princeton University Materials Science Symposium, 2021
Discussion leader: Diversity and Inclusion in Catalysis and Reaction Engineering, 2020
Poster Session Chair/Virtual Symposium Organizer: Northeast Corridor Zeolite Association (NECZA), 2020
Discussion leader: "Mentorship and Career Guidance" Panel at Carbon Capture, Utilization & Storage Gordon Research Seminar, 2017
Organizer: 1st Annual UC Berkeley Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Student Symposium, 2016
Michele Sarazen grew up as a Sharon Tiger in Sharon, PA. She received her BS in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Chemistry at the Pennsylvania State University, where she researched under Robert Rioux. She received her PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley under Enrique Iglesia. Her PhD research focused on a molecular understanding of alkene and alkane chain growth on zeolites and other solid acid catalysts. Her work was recognized with the Heinz Heinemann Prize for graduate research in catalysis from UC Berkeley’s College of Chemistry and the National Science Foundation GRFP. She then became a postdoctoral fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology, working with Christopher Jones. Her research included both the synthesis of aminopolymers and their use in adsorbents for the direct air capture of CO2 as well as metal-organic framework mediated synthesis of catalysts for propane dehydrogenation.