Kyriaki Polychronopoulou is Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Khalifa University of Science and Technology (UAE), and Visiting Professor at ETH-Zurich (Switzerland). She is also the director of the Center for Catalysis and Separations (CeCaS) at Khalifa University, the first center of its kind in the UAE, established in 2018. She holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Cyprus (2005). Before her appointment at Khalifa University she was Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University (IL, USA) and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (IL, USA). While at Khalifa University, she has received many awards and distinctions for her teaching and research contributions, such as Belt and Road Scholarship for International Talents (China), KU Faculty Teaching Excellence Award 2018, KU Certificate of Commendation 2018 for Faculty Research Excellence, KU Faculty Excellence Award 2015 for Outstanding Research, Advanced Award for Research Excellence (AARE) in three consecutive years 2019, 2017, 2015 from Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge (ADEK). Other distinctions include her shortlisting for the Women in Science L’oreal-Unesco Award 2021, the Fulbright Scholarship for Advanced Research in the USA (2007), and the British Council Scholarship (2009).

Most research interests for a scientist

Her research contribution is focused on the development of catalysts for production of fuels with emphasis on blue hydrogen, porous adsorbents for gas separation processes, design of materials for environmental remediation (pollutants removal) as well as porous materials for H2 storage, and CO2 capture. She has authored/co-authored more than 140 publications which attracted >4500 citations (h-index: 40).

Specialization

• Heterogeneous Catalysis for fuels production (e.g. hydrogen), and fuels upgrading.
• CO2 valorization catalysis
• Mechanistic studies over the catalysts using sophisticated techniques
• Porous materials for adsorptions and separations