Ayman Karim
About
Ayman Karim is the incoming chair and professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and will assume his new role on Aug. 1, 2025. He is a notable catalysis researcher who has significant national laboratory leadership experience and a strong commitment to teaching and mentoring.
With an accomplished background in catalysis, Karim’s research focuses on designing heterogeneous catalysts for energy and environmental applications, using controlled synthesis, detailed kinetics measurements, and advanced in-situ and in-operando characterization techniques. His group has made significant advances in understanding the active site's structure of isolated atoms and subnanometer clusters and their reaction kinetics.
Karim is currently working on identifying design rules for selective bond activation on supported metal single atoms and subnanometer clusters through multiple funded projects from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Army Research Office.
Karim earned his Bachelor of Science in biomedical engineering from Cairo University in Egypt. He then moved to the U.S. and received his doctoral degree in chemical engineering from the University of New Mexico. This was followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Delaware in the Department of Chemical Engineering and a role as senior scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory from 2008-2014. Karim has served on the faculty of Virginia Tech since 2014.
Karim has received numerous accolades and awards, including the 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award and the Virginia Tech Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science Junior Faculty Award, both in 2015; recognition in the 2021 Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research Class of Influential Researchers; and the Virginia Tech College of Engineering Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research in 2022.
He is a co-principal investigator for the Synchrotron Catalysis Consortium (SCC) and a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of Energy Chemistry. He has co-authored over 70 peer-reviewed publications with an h-index of 41, holds one patent, and has delivered more than 40 invited lectures and presentations.
In 2024, Karim received the Virginia Tech College of Engineering Sporn Award, a student-led award which recognizes a member of the engineering faculty for demonstrated excellence in undergraduate instruction. The winner of this award is selected annually by students across all engineering departments through a nomination and voting process.
Education
Ph.D., Chemical engineering, University of New Mexico, 2007
M.S., Chemical engineering, University of New Mexico, 2003
B.S., Biomedical engineering, Cairo University, Egypt, 2000