Joaquín Rodríguez-López has been named a University Scholar in recognition of excellence in teaching, scholarship and service.
Rodríguez-López, is one of five University of Illinois professors at the Urbana-Champaign campus to be named to the scholars program, which recognizes faculty excellence and provides $15,000 to each scholar for three years to enhance their academic careers. The money may be used for travel, equipment, research assistants, books or other purposes.
“The University Scholars program celebrates the remarkable achievements of the named individuals,” said Nicholas Jones, the University of Illinois System’s executive vice president and vice president for academic affairs. “Our faculty represent the strong foundation of the world-class academic experience that contributes to the betterment of society and draws students and researchers to the U. of I. System universities from across the globe. The University Scholars are exemplars of that faculty excellence.
“When you consider the diversity of scholarship across all three of our universities and the standards of academic excellence that we nurture and grow through our recruitment of esteemed educators and researchers, all of our University Scholar recipients should be deservedly proud of the honor.”
Rodríguez-López, J. Andrew and Susan S. Langan Professorial Scholar, LAS Distinguished Professorial Scholar and Professor of Chemistry, has taught undergraduate and graduate lecture courses, appearing five times on the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students and receiving the 2023 School of Chemical Sciences Teaching Award. He has been outstanding as a research advisor, mentoring 30 graduate students, 10 postdocs, nine visiting graduate students, three master’s students, and 28 undergraduate students. Eleven of these undergraduates have been co-authors on research publications.
Rodríguez-López created “The Electrochemistry Bootcamp,” which combines laboratory and classroom instruction on the basics of electrochemistry for a three-day immersive experience for young scientists from all over the world.
In his 11 years of service at Illinois, Rodríguez-López has won 20 distinctions, fellowships and awards, including an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, the Arthur F. Findeis Award from the American Chemical Society, Division of Analytical Chemistry, and the Zhaowu Tian Prize for Energy Electrochemistry. He has published over 115 papers and has delivered over 130 invited talks at major conferences and universities around the world.
His research with scanning electrochemical microscopy and lasers will help build better batteries and his efforts in energy storage made him a leader within the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research, a $200 million initiative of the Department of Energy.