Monthly Mind - Dr. Majewski

This month's Monthly Mind Initiative features Dr. Majewski! His research on solar energy conversion illustrates the connection between his personal experiences in nature and his cutting-edge research for sustainable chemical solutions. Dr. Majewski's journey from nature enthusiast to impactful researcher is truly inspiring. Thank you for sharing your insights!

The Solar Energy Conversion Group at Concordia University is working on the discovery, preparation, and characterization of molecules and materials that can be used to capture and convert sunlight. One focus in our research is the development of molecularly sensitized photoelectrodes that can be used as heterogeneous catalysts to drive organic transformations to yield feedstock chemicals that typically come from petroleum refining. In the pursuit of decarbonization, it will be important for chemists to develop alternative, sustainable processes to produce these chemicals.

I grew up in Saskatoon (BSc, University of Saskatchewan, 2007) and was fortunate enough to spend many years canoeing, camping, and hiking in northern Saskatchewan’s boreal forest. Those experiences began to shape my perspective on the importance of sustainability—although at the time I wasn’t necessarily considering this with respect to research, but I was wondering to myself what steps can be taken to preserve this beautiful landscape. This perspective was further fostered when I moved to Vancouver for my PhD at the University of British Columbia (with Prof Michael Wolf, 2013), where I first began to learn about photochemistry while spending time outside the lab in the wilderness of the coastal mountains.

Before coming to Concordia as an Assistant Professor (January 2018), I was a postdoctoral researcher and the Assistant Director of Operations and Outreach at the Argonne-Northwestern Solar Energy Research (ANSER) Center (with Profs Michael Wasielewski, Joseph Hupp, and Omar Farha). This was a U.S. Department of Energy funded Energy Frontier Research Center where I started to grasp the real impact that we, as researchers, can have on shaping the future. Our research interests at Concordia are built on this foundation.