Miguel A Modestino

Miguel A. Modestino is a Venezuelan-born chemical engineer and co-founder of Sunthetics along with Myriam Sbeiti and Daniela Blanco. Sunthetics uses artificial intelligence to optimize chemical reactions by inducing electrical pulses, from renewable energy, into the reaction instead of just heating them. Modestino is a part of the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, which is a group focused on reducing the need for fossil fuel by developing solar fuels as a direct alternative. Modestino also formed a group called the Modestino Group, which specialize in developing state of the art electrochemical devices to optimize and tackle the issues revolving renewable energy at New York University (NYU), where he is the Donald F. Othmer Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering and the Director of Sustainable Engineering Initiative. After he obtained a Ph.D., Modestino did his postdoctoral research at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) from 2013 to 2016. used in energy conversation technologies.

Sunthetics Modestino co-founded Sunthetics, along with NYU graduates Myriam Sbeiti and Daniela Blanco.

Sunthetics is a startup company whose goal is to reduce to reliance on fossil fuels for heating chemical reactions and instead using electrical pulses to supply energy for various chemical reactions to occur. Initially the idea was coined by Blanco as part of her PhD thesis at NYU. The goal was to apply this to nylon, however due to the lack of support from nylon manufacturing companies the idea pivoted to Artificial Intelligence to drive chemical reactions through renewable energy. This led to machine learning optimizing this technology to be applied across several industries.

Modestino Group The Modestino Group focuses on the development of electrochemical devices, which are devices used in energy conversion technologies and chemical processes. Through these devices the group can address a wide range of issues such as carbon dioxide reduction, improving grip flexibility characterizing multiphase flow in reactors and developing sustainable clothing. The group has expertise in manufacturing, developing, processing and characterizing composite materials which they use to refine electrochemical reactors in industrial applications. The group has a number of projects under their hood such as solar textiles, materials for electrochemical catalyst layers, advanced electrolysis devices, and multiphase-flow micro-electrochemical reactors. The group consists of Modestino as the leader and head of team, and several Ph.D. students, M.S. students, B.S. students and Alumni.

Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis While at Berkeley, Modestino participated in a project that harnessed solar energy to convert carbon-dioxide from the air into fuel similar to that of plants this process is call solar fuels as part of his Ph.D. program. At Berkeley, he joined a group called Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP).

In 2017, Modestino won the Global Change Award with Daniela Blanco and Myriam Sbeiti for their work on Sunthetics.

In 2018, Modestino was awarded $110,000 in the Doctoral New Investigator Award by the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund, to commemorate his work with Ionic Liquid-Polymer Gel Electrolytes for Electrochemical Olefin Separations.

In 2019, Modestino was awarded National Science Foundation Career Award.

In 2020, Modestino was awarded the Goddard Junior Faculty Fellowship Award in New York University. Modestino earned the reward as a tenure-tract faculty member who has successfully pass their three-year review, the reward is either one course deduction to focus on research or scholarships or $5,000 towards their scholarship.