Carlos A. Carrero is a driven chemist academic, professional and engineer researching heterogeneous catalysis with industrial, laboratory and academic experience. Over 10 years of experience, Carlos’ interests have culminated in the synthesis of solid catalysts and kinetics, catalyst characterization and application of catalysis for several different industrially attractive reactions. Having starting his career as a junior researcher in PDVSA-INTVEP (Venezuelan´s oil company), he focused on learning ultra-dispersed catalysis for heavy and extra-heavy crude oil conversion. Developing fundamental and applied experiments to understanding the events governing the complex liquid-solid-gas system used to convert unconventional crude oil was the driving force during his time in the industry.
From this first contact with ultradispersed catalysis in the Venezuelan´s oil company, Carlos strove to continue in this area. His dedication and motivation awarded him a scholarship for a Ph.D. at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany. His PhD study focused on a kinetic investigation for the oxidative dehydrogenation of propane using metal oxide catalysts, specifically looking at synergeticeffects that positively improve the activity of metal oxides in the oxidative dehydrogenation of small hydrocarbons. During his graduate career, Carlos was awarded as a fellow member of the Bachelor International Graduate School of Natural Science Engineering (BIG-NSE). He was also invited as a researcher to Lehigh University and to the High Magnetic Field National Lab in Tallahasse to perform in-situ/operando Raman and high frequency electron paramagnetic resonance experiments, respectively. In parallel to his scientific work and academic responsibilities, Carlos has always been politically and socially active, participative, an engaged speaker. Carlos has also co-organized several events across Europe mainly related to topics involving both Venezuela and South America.
Upon a successful completion of his PhD, he joined the Max Plank Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion as a postdoctoral researcher. His work focused on the synthesis of energy carriers, mainly methanol, from CO2 and syngas. Carlos is inspired by the Methanol Economy concept previously proposed by the Nobel Prize laureate Professor George Olah. In addition, Carlos investigated new carbon-based catalysts for the oxidative dehydrogenation of small hydrocarbons for the production of olefins.
Carlos is currently a postdoctoral researcher at University of Wisconsin-Madison working on heterogeneous catalysis. His activities are based on covering the synthesis, characterization and testing of new multifunctional solid catalysts for gas-solid and liquid-solid reactions. Understanding the catalyst structure and mechanistic insights by using in situ and Operando Raman spectroscopy is his main goal. He designed a constructed an in situ/operando Raman facility to study the catalyst´s surface and mimic the active species participating during different catalytic reactions under real reaction conditions.
Carlos has and continues to supervise many technicians, undergraduate and graduate students from different backgrounds and nationalities. As a mentor, he strategically delegates different responsibilities for his mentees both in industry and academia. All of his previous undergraduate students have decided to continue their careers as researchers joining lauded PhD programs across the world. Carlos’ main strength is being a strong team player with the ability of connecting people from different research groups and backgrounds to reach interdisciplinary goals and collaborations.