Nathan S. Lewis

Nathan S. Lewis is the George L. Argyros Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). He specializes in functionalization of silicon and other semiconductor surfaces, chemical sensing using chemiresistive sensor arrays, and alternative energy and artificial photosynthesis.

Early life and education Lewis obtained his B.S. and M.S. degrees at Caltech under Harry B. Gray in 1977 studying the redox reactions of inorganic rhodium complexes. After that, he moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for his Ph.D. in 1981 under Mark S. Wrighton studying semiconductor electrochemistry.

Career

Early career Lewis worked at Stanford as an assistant professor from 1981 to 1985 and then as a tenured Associate Professor from 1986 to 1988, before returning to Caltech in 1988.

Cold Fusion and the 'Caltech Three'

In March of 1989, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announced their purported discovery of controlled cold fusion at a press conference. At Caltech, Lewis and his colleague, the physicist Charles Barnes, headed up a 17-member team that attempted to replicated the Pons-Fleishmann experiment. After investigation, Lewis and Barnes' cold fusion research group came to the conclusion that the Pons-Fleischmann electrochemical cells did not produce excess heat.

At the meeting of the American Physical Society in Baltimore in May of 1989 Lewis presented the findings of the Caltech group during a marathon session on cold fusion that ended up running for two nights. A week later a special session of the Electrochemical Society, Lewis appeared as one of ten speakers on a panel that included Pons and Fleischmann. He was the only speaker on the panel critical of their cold fusion research. The research of the Caltech group revealed serious deficiencies in cold fusion research and ultimately led to mainstream science's rejection of cold fusion.

His research interests include surface chemistry, particularly silicon surfaces and their photoelectrochemical performance. The study of electron transfer reactions, both at surfaces and in transition metal complexes, in response to light, has relevance for the creation of semiconductors and for artificial photosynthesis. A major focus of his research is solar energy. He is working on the development of components for a photoanode, photocathode, and ion-conducting membrane for a system for artificial photosynthesis that would use sunlight and water to produce hydrogen and oxygen. He is also engaged in "big-picture" thinking about the science and policy issues affecting solar conversion.

In addition, Lewis is involved in the creation and use of novel organic polymers and the creation of sensor arrays and pattern recognition algorithms for an "electronic nose" that can be used for detection of explosives and diagnosis of illness. He has been appointed chair of the Editorial Board for Energy and Environmental Science.

Awards 1977, Hertz Fellowship 1985, Sloan Research Fellowship 1985, Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards 1988, Presidential Young Investigator Award 1990, Fresenius Award 1991, ACS Award in Pure Chemistry 2003, Edward Orton, Jr. Memorial Lecture award 2003, Princeton Environmental Award 2008, Michael Faraday Medal of the Royal Society of Electrochemistry 2017, National Academy of Inventors Fellow