Prof. Ya-Huei (Cathy) Chin is Professor and Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Advanced Catalysis for Sustainable Chemistry at the University of Toronto. She joined the University in 2011, after receiving her Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Before then, she was a research engineer (2000-2002) and then senior research scientist (2002-2005) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), one of the ten National Research Laboratories for the U.S. Department of Energy. Her recent research focuses on establishing mechanistic linkages between catalytic events and different reaction microenvironments for the sustainable synthesis of fuels and chemicals. In particular, she is interested in the dynamics of catalyst surfaces and catalytic pathways at vapor–solid and liquid–solid interfaces, as well as in bridging thermocatalysis and electrocatalysis.

She serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Catalysis and as an advisory board member for several leading journals in the field, including Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, Reaction Chemistry and Engineering, Chem Catalysis, and the Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering. Within the ACS Catalysis Division, she has served as a Member-at-Large and as an Alternate Councilor and Councilor, and has contributed to the organization of the Division's Educational Seminar Series.

Her service to the catalysis community extends nationally and internationally. For the Canadian Catalysis Society, she has served as President, Vice-President, and Treasurer. She currently serves as Director-at-Large of the North American Catalysis Society and the Humboldt Association of Canada, and as Secretary of the International Association of Catalysis Societies (IACS). She is also Co-Chair of the 30th North American Catalysis Society Meeting (2027).

Across these roles, her goal is to foster a diverse, strong, and vibrant catalysis community—one that connects researchers across disciplines and generations, without borders, in the shared pursuit of science. When she is not choreographing molecular dances, breaking bonds, or crossing transition states, she is dancing ballet herself.

It is our great pleasure to welcome Prof. Cathy Chin to PodCAT!

Dr. Javier Guzman is the Executive Vice President for Research at the Tecnológico de Monterrey Education Group in Mexico. He oversees the research enterprise for three university systems (Tecnologico de Monterrey (ranked #1 in Mexico and #4 in Latin America), TecSalud (academic and research hospital system), and TecMilenio (stackable and flexible competency-based education model)). Before joining Tecnológico de Monterrey in July 2025, he worked in a variety of technical and leadership roles in the private sector and academia in the U.S. for more than two decades. Most recently, he was the senior technology advisor at Corporate Strategy and Planning at ExxonMobil. He also serves the academic community in leadership roles such as the President of the North American Catalysis Society, Advisor to the U.S. Department of Energy in the Basic Energy Science Advisory Board, and as an advisor to many research centers around the world. It is our great pleasure to welcome Dr. Javier Guzman to PodCAT!

Prof. Juliana Carneiro is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Columbia University, where she leads the Carneiro Research Group. Her research examines how catalyst structure and interfacial chemistry govern heterogeneous catalytic and electrochemical reactions, with the goal of developing more efficient and resilient technologies for sustainable chemical production and energy conversion. Her group combines materials synthesis, advanced characterization, electrochemical measurements, and spectroscopy to study reactions involving carbon dioxide, water, methane, nitrogen, and other environmentally important molecules.

Prof. Carneiro earned her B.S. in Environmental Engineering from Universidade Tiradentes in Brazil and her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Wayne State University, where she worked with Prof. Eranda Nikolla. She subsequently completed postdoctoral research at the Georgia Institute of Technology with Prof. Christopher W. Jones before joining Columbia in 2023. She has been named a Scialog Fellow in both Negative Emissions Science and Sustainable Minerals, Metals, and Materials. She currently serves as Chair of the Catalysis Society of Metropolitan New York and on the early-career editorial boards of Energy & Fuels and Applied Catalysis A: General. It is our pleasure to welcome Prof. Carniero to PodCAT!