{"id":570,"date":"2026-04-15T13:05:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T20:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/mcewen\/?page_id=570"},"modified":"2026-04-15T13:52:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T20:52:44","slug":"atomistic-modeling-of-catalytic-processes-for-energy-applications","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/mcewen\/","title":{"rendered":"Atomistic Modeling of Catalytic Processes for Energy Applications"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jean-Sabin McEwen, Ph.D.<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Professor
VCEA Dean’s Faculty Fellow <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Office:<\/strong> 257 Wegner Hall 509-335-8580
js.mcewen AT wsu.edu
Website:<\/strong>Dr. McEwen\u2019s Website<\/a>
Twitter:<\/strong>@mcewen_group<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering<\/strong>
1505 Stadium Way, Room 105
P.O. Box 646515
Washington State University
Pullman, WA 99164-6515<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n\n

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\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\tResearch Highlights\t\t\t<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\tEducation & Professional Experience\t\t\t<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Biographical Information<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Jean-Sabin McEwen earned his B. Sc. in Physics at McGill University, Canada. He then went on to earn his M. Sc. and his Ph.D. in Physics at Dalhousie University, Canada. He spent about two years as a postdoctoral fellow in Belgium at the ULB and three years in Belgium at the F.R.S.-FNRS. He went on to obtain a position as research assistant professor at the University of Notre Dame for two years. He is now an associate professor at Washington State University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research Interests<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The depletion of natural resources, rising fuel costs, and increasingly stringent environmental regulations have created a need for new and diverse forms of energy. Heterogeneous catalysis has played and will continue to play an important role both in the generation and use of energy to ensure a sustainable future, but a number of open questions remain to exploit the full potential of such catalytic systems. In order to do this, one needs not only to understand, but also to control materials at the nanometer length scale and far away from thermodynamic equilibrium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my research group, we model such systems from an atomistic (using ab initio quantum chemistry tools) and macroscopic (using Monte Carlo and Transfer Matrix methods) point of view. We also link these methods with corresponding multi-scale models. Our work is done in close collaboration with experimentalists. Some areas of interest to me are listed below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n