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Satish Lakhapatri is a chemical engineer in San Francisco, California, investigating ways to get the most value out of natural gas-a domestically produced energy source. Fie joined Sigma Xi in 2013.
Tell us about your educational background, including your doctoral research.
My interest in both chemistry and engineering began as a high school student, which eventually culminated in my admittance to the bachelor's program at the Institute of Chemical Technology in Mumbai, India. Following my bachelor's degree, I worked in the chemical industry for about a year before moving to the United States for my PhD in chemical engineering. My doctoral research was centered on maximizing the efficiency of a fuel cell system operating on a liquid fuel. In particular, I was researching the mechanism of how a catalyst deactivates, the knowledge of which can then be used in formulating a better catalyst for producing hydrogen used in a fuel cell-powered system.
Some of the key results from my doctoral research, elucidating mechanisms of catalyst deactivation, were...