Dominique Itanze completes his Ph. D. Thesis and is set to become Assistant Professor of Chemistry
On June 26 th 2024 Dominique S. Itanze defended his Ph. D. thesis “First-Principles Simulations for Catalysis for Sustainable Production of Fuels and Chemicals” and is scheduled to officially receive his Ph. D. from the Wake Forest University Department of Chemistry in August, 2024. Dominique’s work is interdisciplinary; mentored by Professors Scott Geyer and Patricia Dos Santos in Chemistry and Natalie Holzwarth in Physics. His committee also included Professors Akbar Salam and Elham Gadhiri in Chemistry and Stephen Winters in Physics. From the beginning of his graduate career, Dominique contributed to various projects in the Geyer laboratory through computer analysis and simulation, gradually increasing the sophistication of the computations. His most recent modeling work, some of which was presented to the Electrochemical Society shown in the picture, used newly available computational formalisms and codes which incorporate the effects of solvation and voltage at each step of the catalytic process. The manuscript “On the Mechanism of Butanol Formation from the Electrochemical Reduction of CO 2 on Phosphorus-Rich CuP 2 without *CO Dimerization: A Computational Study” was submitted to the Journal of Physical Chemistry C for consideration for publication. Based on an experimental report in the recent published literature, Dominique’s simulations provide insight into the detailed mechanisms of this complex multi-step process. Dominique is looking forward to continuing his research and to teaching and mentoring students in chemistry at Winthrop University.
