Southeastern professor awarded National Science Foundation grant
Wednesday, April 22, 2020 
by: Tonya Lowentritt
HAMMOND – Southeastern Louisiana University Professor of Organic Chemistry Jean
Fotie was awarded a $265,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. The purpose
of the grant is to develop greener and sustainable catalytic methods for the reductive
functionalization of carbon dioxide (CO2).
“Reducing the emission of carbon dioxide, one of the most significant long-lived
greenhouse gases, into the atmosphere is one of the major challenges of our time,”
said Fotie, a resident of Ponchatoula.
Despite remarkable advances toward the capture and storage of CO2, Fotie believes
that a large-scale transformation of the abundant and non-toxic feedstock into valued-added
chemicals could provide an important incentive for CO2 recycling.
“More than the obvious environmental remediation, this approach will be like
turning CO2 into cash, and there is no better incentive than that for the chemical
industry,” Fotie explained. “Of course, this requires the development of practical
and sustainable catalytic systems that can enable a streamline fixation and conversion
of CO2 into useful chemicals, preferably via continuous flow industrial processes.”
“Dr. Fotie has been one of our most productive researchers for years, so it is
no surprise that he has received this prestigious award,” said Dean of the College
of Science and Technology Dan McCarthy. “It is not just the quality of the work that
distinguishes his research, but it is the fact that he includes so many of our students
in his research. This grant will not only help the scientific community, but will
also lead to an outstanding educational experience for our students.”
“The project objective is to develop a better understanding of how a number of
active precious metals on one hand, and less active but earth-abundant metals on the
other hand, respectively nano-dispersed in a range of sol-gel-derived organically
modified silicates, would behave toward the reductive functionalization of CO2,” said
Fotie.
More importantly, Fotie said, these activities will provide a unique opportunity
to create a research environment that combines three very different groups of students
at different stages of their education, namely the high school students enrolled in
Southeastern’s Math-Science Upward-Bound program, Southeastern undergraduate students,
and Southeastern integrated science and technology master’s students.
“This distinctive learning environment is designed to enable the younger generation
to mirror their future through the lenses of their observations and interactions with
the advanced generation,” Fotie explained. “Hopefully, this amazing group of researchers
will be able to develop a new catalytic system that can enable the conversion of CO2
into important chemicals, a method that could eventually find application in continuous
flow industrial processes.”
