Prof. John M. Vohs graduated with his B.S. in Chemical Engineering in 1983 from the University of Illinois, his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering in 1988 from the University of Delaware, was a postdoctoral fellow at Facultes Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix in Namur, Belgium, and began his career at the University of Pennsylvania in 1989. John served as the served as Associate Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science from 1997-2001. He teaches courses in Electrical Energy Conversion and Storage, Advance and Introductory Chemical Engineering, as well as the VIPER seminar.
In his research, John concentrates on understanding the relationships between the local atomic structure of surfaces and their chemical reactivity. He and his group are developing molecular level descriptions of these important surface phenomena, and using insights obtained in fundamental studies of model systems to design nanoscale materials that have reactivities tailored for applications ranging from selective oxidation catalysis to electrodes for solid oxide fuel cells and other electrochemical devices.