Nicholas E. Thornburg

Dr. Nicholas (Nick) Thornburg is a chemical reaction engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Nick has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University, in addition to industrial R&D experience with The Dow Chemical Company and 3M. Nick's doctoral research at Northwestern sought to understand heterogeneous transition metal oxide catalysts for applications in sustainable chemical manufacturing, while his postdoctoral research at NREL emphasized particle-scale reaction engineering and multiphase chemical reactor design and optimization for biomass deconstruction. Nick's current research interests at NREL lie in multiphase reaction engineering for advanced mobility applications and for renewable small-molecule chemicals and fuels.