Education

PhD Chemical Engineering, University of California Santa Barbara, 2015

BS Chemical Engineering,  University of California Riverside, 2010

Research Interests

Discovering improved catalysts and materials has never been more needed than today. The world is facing a growing population, mass consumerism, and rising greenhouse gas levels, all the while people strive to increase their standard of living. Computational modeling of catalysts and materials aids the process to design new systems because it provides a valuable way to test hypotheses and understand design criteria. The Goldsmith lab focuses on understanding catalytic systems and advanced materials for use in sustainable chemical production, pollution abatement, and energy storage & generation. They use atomistic modeling (e.g., density-functional theory), molecular simulation, and data science tools to extract key insights of catalysts and materials, with the goal to help create a platform for their design. Current lab research thrusts include: (i) Thermo, electro, and plasma catalysis for air and water pollution reduction and sustainable chemical conversion; (ii) Machine learning to accelerate catalyst and materials design; and (iii) Transition metal ion redox chemistry for renewable energy storage.

Responsibilities

At Michigan

Faculty Advisor for AIChE Student Chapter (2020 – )

Chemical Engineering Advisory Council Representative (2020 – )

Graduate Curriculum Committee (Co-chair) (2018 – )

External

Chem Catalysis, Journal Advisory Board Member (2020 – )

President of Michigan Catalysis Society of the North American Catalysis Society (2022 – )

Biography

Professional Experience

University of Michigan
Department of Chemical Engineering
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Dow Corning Assistant Professor, 1/2020 – 12/2022
Assistant Professor, 9/2017 – Present

Affiliations:
Michigan Institute for Computational Discovery and Engineering
Michigan Institute for Data Science
Michigan Catalysis Science and Technology Institute

Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society
Theory Department
Berlin, Germany

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, 2015 – 2017

Awards

NSF CAREER Award, 2023

ACS OpenEye Outstanding Junior Faculty Award, 2022

Featured as a “Movers & Shakers” in Catalysis, The Catalyst Review magazine, 2022

American Institute of Chemical Engineers 35 under 35 Award (Energy/Environment Category), 2020

ACS Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral New Investigator, 2020

Dow Corning Assistant Professorship in Chemical Engineering, 2020

U.S. Delegate to the 67^th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting on Chemistry, 2017

Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, 2016

Publications

Selected Recent Publications
* = corresponding author, ^‡ = Goldsmith lab members,  ^# = undergraduate author,    ^ = equal contributions;   ^& = co-advised

Interpretable machine learning for knowledge generation in heterogeneous catalysis, J. A. Esterhuizen^‡,&, B. R. Goldsmith*, S. Linic*, Nat. Catal. 5, 175 (2022). [doi]

Metal oxynitrides for the electrocatalytic reduction of nitrogen to ammonia, S. Young^‡, B. Ceballos, A. Banerjee, R. Mukundan, G. Pilania*, B. R. Goldsmith*, J. Phys. Chem. C. 126, 12980 (2022). [ACS Editors’ Choice] [doi]

Explaining the structure sensitivity of Pt and Rh for aqueous-phase hydrogenation of phenol, I. Barth^‡, J. Akinola, J. Lee^#,‡, O. Y. Gutiérrez, U. Sanyal, N. Singh*, B. R. Goldsmith*, J. Chem. Phys. 156, 104703 (2022). [Emerging Investigator Special Issue] [doi]

Accelerating the structure search of catalysts with machine learning, E. Musa^#,‡, F. Doherty^‡, B. R. Goldsmith*, Curr. Opin. Chem. Eng. 35, 100771 (2022). [Invited opinion article] [doi]

Recent advances in computational materials design: methods, applications, algorithms, and informatics, G. Pilania*, B R. Goldsmith, M. Yoon, A. M. Dongare J. Mater. Sci. 57, 10471 (2022). [Special Issue Editorial] [doi]

Why halides enhance heterogeneous metal ion charge transfer reactions, J. Florian^#,‡, H. Agarwal, N. Singh*, B. R. Goldsmith*, Chem. Sci. 12, 12704 (2021). [doi]

Uncovering electronic and geometric descriptors of chemical activity for metal alloys and oxides using unsupervised machine learning, J. A. Esterhuizen^‡,&, B. R. Goldsmith*, S. Linic*, Chem Catalysis 1, 1 (2021). [doi]

Perovskite oxynitrides as tunable materials for electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction to ammonia, S. D. Young^‡, A. Banerjee, G. Pilania*, B. R. Goldsmith*, Trends in Chemistry 3, 694 (2021) [Invited Forum Article]. [doi]

Rhodium single-atom catalysts on titania for reverse water gas shift reaction explored by first principles mechanistic analysis and compared to nanoclusters, F. Doherty^‡, B. R. Goldsmith*, ChemCatChem 13, 3155 (2021). [doi]

Increasing electrocatalytic nitrate reduction activity by controlling adsorption through PtRu alloying, Z. Wang^‡,&, S. D. Young^‡, B. R. Goldsmith*, N. Singh*, J. Catal. 395, 143 (2021). [doi]

Theory-guided machine learning finds geometric structure-property relationships for chemisorption on subsurface alloys, J. Esterhuizen^‡,&, B. R. Goldsmith*, S. Linic*, Chem 6, 1 (2020). [doi]

Nanocluster and single-atom catalysts for thermocatalytic conversion of CO and CO₂, F. Doherty^‡, H. Wang, M. Yang*, B. R. Goldsmith*, Catal. Sci. Technol. 10, 5772 (2020). [doi]

Adsorption energies of oxygenated aromatics and organics on rhodium and platinum in aqueous phase, J. Akinola, I. Barth^‡, B. R. Goldsmith*, N. Singh*, ACS Catal. 10, 4929 (2020). [doi]

Role of electrocatalysis in the remediation of water pollutants, N. Singh*, B. R. Goldsmith*, ACS Catal. 10, 3365 (2020). [Invited Viewpoint] [doi]

Surpassing the single-atom catalytic activity limit through paired Pt-O-Pt ensemble built from isolated Pt₁ atoms, H. Wang, J.-X. Liu^‡, W. Li, L. F. Allard, S. Lee, J. Wang, H. Li, J. Wang, X. Cao, M. Shen*, B. R. Goldsmith*, M. Yang*, Nat. Commun. 10, 1 (2019). [doi]

Understanding activity and selectivity trends in electrocatalytic nitrate reduction, J.-X. Liu^‡, D. Richards, N. Singh*, B. R. Goldsmith*, ACS Catal. 9, 7052 (2019). [doi]

Machine learning for heterogeneous catalyst design and discovery, B. R. Goldsmith*, J. Esterhuizen^‡, C. J. Bartel, C. Sutton, J.-X. Liu^‡, AIChE J. (2018). [doi]

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