As of May 2022, Mr. Joshua Rivkind is a B.S. Chemistry major at Rowan University whose interest in chemistry began in the 6th grade and has evolved into a love of quantum chemistry which is highly conceptual, theoretical, mathematical and computational. Since Fall 2021, he has been exploring the complexity and beauty of quantum chemistry to explain chemical reactivity. He is one of the winners of the 2022 CME STEM Undergraduate Summer Research Scholarships.

Date of Research: June 6 – August 14, 2022
College Lab: Rowan University, Dept. of Chemistry & Biochemistry, 201 Mullica Hill Rd, Glassboro, NJ 08028
Research Advisor/Professor: Prof. Eric Hoy, Rowan University

Abstract Title: CO2 Catalysis

Conversion of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into harmless inert chemicals promises to be a mechanism to alleviate global climate change by removing CO2 from the atmosphere, however, an effective and efficient method to affect this conversion is unknown. This project will computationally explore conversion of CO2 on alloy surfaces using density functional theory.