Manos Mavrikakis to Deliver Next NERSC@50 Seminar

The NERSC@50 seminar series celebrating NERSC’s 50th anniversary continues Monday, May 20 at 1:30 p.m. PDT on Zoom, with Manos Mavrikakis of the University of Wisconsin-Madison discussing reaction-driven formation of novel active sites on catalytic surfaces.

Manos Mavrikakis is the Ernest Micek Distinguished Chair, James A. Dumesic Professor, and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has been a NERSC user for more than 24 years.

The NERSC@50 seminar series features past and current users presenting exciting and important research enabled by NERSC systems.

Of Mavrikakis’s research, he said: “Adsorption of reactants and reaction intermediates on solid catalytic surfaces can lead to significant changes of the surface structure, including, as shown in high-pressure Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) experiments, ejection of metal atoms and formation of metal clusters while the reaction is taking place. Depending on the specific system, these clusters provide new, more favorable reaction paths than the typically considered active sites. First-principles computations coupled with kinetic Monte Carlo simulations, all performed at large scale on NERSC resources, enable a more realistic picture of the catalyst’s surface and its active sites as a function of reaction conditions and the identity of reactants and that of key intermediates. Insights derived from our analysis can inform the design of new catalysts with improved activity, selectivity, and stability characteristics.”

NERSC@50 seminars are open to Berkeley Lab staff, NERSC users, and the public. Participants may join via Zoom.