Jesse Matthews | Student Spotlight

Jesse Matthews

PhD Candidate
Chemical Engineering
Jaramillo Lab

“I’ve always been deeply curious about how the world around us works, so chemical engineering was a natural fit. Everything from massive chemical plants to nanometer-scale computer chips can be understood and designed from chemical engineering fundamentals. I am also strongly motivated by sustainability and combating climate change, and my chemical engineering education has equipped me with the skills to design and implement new sustainable technologies.

At Stanford, I’m part of the Jaramillo lab and SUNCAT, where I work on converting CO2, together with electricity and water, into fuels and chemicals. This work is critical for reducing our dependence on fossil fuels as feedstocks and for closing the carbon cycle by repurposing CO2 emissions back into useful products. In particular, I apply surface-sensitive infrared spectroscopy to directly probe the reaction interface and uncover reaction mechanisms, guiding the rational design and improvement of CO2 electrolyzers.

One of my proudest accomplishments during my PhD was designing a new reactor for CO2 electrolysis that is integrated with our spectroscopic measurements. Learning CAD software to turn ideas into reality, prototyping and iterating on the design to develop a working product, and ultimately applying the reactor to my research and others’ research has been immensely gratifying. In the future, I aspire to work at a startup in the energy and sustainability field, where I hope to scale promising electrochemistry and catalysis technologies into real-world products that can help solve global sustainability challenges.

Outside of my research, I’ve greatly enjoyed serving as a teaching assistant to help first-year graduate students through a rigorous math course, mentoring junior lab members in their research, and participating in outreach and mentorship programs for local high school students. My favorite memories at Stanford center around bonding outside the lab and classes, such as winning 10+ intramural sports championships with my cohort-mates, having lunch with my labmates every day, and engaging with visiting international researchers and helping them experience American culture."