Shedding light on a more sustainable future

Across different industries—from automotives to electronics to cosmetics—companies use chemical reactions in creating their products. These reactions often employ methods requiring high temperatures and expensive noble metals to jumpstart the reaction process. These methods are currently widespread, despite their high energy intensity and environmental and material costs.

This is where research like that of Aisulu Aitbekova comes in. Joining Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Chemical Engineering as an assistant professor in 2025, Aitbekova specializes in investigating more environmentally friendly and efficient methods for propelling chemical reactions.

After receiving her bachelor’s degree in her native Kazakhstan and her master’s at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Aitbekova earned her Ph.D. in chemical engineering at Stanford University. At Stanford, she focused on developing catalytic materials for thermal heterogeneous reactions. For example, she developed a process to reduce the amount of palladium-platinum nanoparticles required to cut toxic emissions in catalytic converters, making less of these scarce metals necessary during everyday driving.  

As a postdoc student at the California Institute of Technology, Aitbekova began focusing on solar energy engineering. By pursuing research in different fields, she became particularly excited about the idea of coupling light and heat as driving forces to develop new catalytic processes. By bringing light into the equation, these chemical reactions would no longer require high-temperature heating, thereby reducing carbon footprints and energy intensity while lowering material costs.

For her research on this topic, Aitbekova was honored in May as one of Chemical and Engineering News’ Talented 12. This award recognizes 12 scientists tackling major challenges through chemistry, with Aitbekova selected from more than 500 nominations. The magazine highlighted her studies into fueling selective oxidations using light, as well as how this process could eliminate the need for rare metals like palladium to serve as catalysts in these sorts of reactions. 

To bring together innovators working at this intersection, Aitbekova has been co-organizing a symposium on emerging catalytic approaches coupling light and heat as driving forces, with support from CMU’s Department of Chemical Engineering and the Scott Institute for Energy Innovation. The symposium will take place at the American Chemical Society’s Aug. 23–27 meeting in Chicago. 

Aitbekova was drawn to CMU’s chemical engineering department because of the department’s historic strength in process and systems engineering (PSE), envisioning opportunities for collaboration. She has already begun collaborating with PSE faculty, including John Kitchin and Larry Biegler. She described a “natural synergy” in bridging her and her colleagues’ work.

Aitbekova appreciates the collegial spirit at CMU and the support as a junior member. This includes her co-teaching of the Introduction to Chemical Engineering course in the fall with Assistant Teaching Professor Joanne Beckwith. Aitbekova credits support like this as making a big difference in her first faculty role, saying it makes her “feel like a team member.” For her, “the most important thing in academia is the people you work with.”

 

For media inquiries, please contact Lisa Kulick at lkulick@andrew.cmu.edu.