The 2022 cohort of Washington Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship recipients rose from the largest group of applicants in the program’s five year history proposing solutions to address urgent areas of public need in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields. Jose Araujo, a postdoctoral scholar in Professor Daniel Gamelin’s group, was selected to develop new chemistries for grid-scale energy storage technology.
Jose was selected for funding by a national committee chaired by David Galas, Ph.D., a senior investigator at Pacific Northwest Research Institute. In addition to financial support, Fellows participate in networking and professional development events, including an annual symposium to present their research and to learn more about their colleagues’ work and potential collaboration opportunities.
Jose earned a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Southern California and his Ph.D. from the University of Washington. His doctoral work with Professor Daniel Gamelin focused on electronic doping and spectroelectrochemical measurements of semiconductor nanocrystals.
As a Clean Energy Institute Fellow (2014-16) and a Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Graduate Fellow (2015-16), Jose worked to make new semiconductor materials that incorporate impurity ions with desirable photoluminescence properties. Later, he shifted his focus to degenerately doped nanocrystals, which contain excess charges. He used spectroscopy and electrochemistry techniques to study the photophysical and redox properties of this important class of materials. As a Washington Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, he will be developing redox chemistries using inexpensive, abundant, and low-cost materials for clean energy storage. This project will have a strong impact on grid-scale energy storage technologies for long-duration discharge, which is an unsolved obstacle in the pursuit of a clean energy grid.
Outside of his work on energy storage technology, Jose enjoys music, fishing, and watching sports, especially college football since he is a fan of his alma mater, the Trojans.
Congratulations, Jose!