Nate Lewis, PhD

Nathan S. Lewis is a professor of chemistry at Caltech.

Lewis has been active in the solar fuels/solar chemical field for over 40 years, and has published over 600 papers, presented hundreds of public and technical plenary and invited lectures in the area, and is responsible for training a preeminent cohort of globally leading researchers in the solar fuels field.

Prof. Lewis graduated from the California Institute of Technology with a B.S. and M.S. in Chemistry in 1977 working with Prof. Harry B. Gray. In 1981, he obtained a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after working under the supervision of Prof. Mark S. Wrighton in 1981. Prof. Lewis then began as an Assistant Professor at Stanford University and was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in 1986. In 1988, Prof. Lewis returned to Caltech where he is currently the George L. Argyros Professor of Chemistry.

Lewis was the founding Editor-in-Chief (serving 2008-2018) of the leading journal in sustainable energy R&D, Energy and Environmental Science, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, and is a distinguished advisor to industry, government, academia, and national and international media the role of R&D in clean energy innovation.

Prof. Lewis is a holder of the Princeton Environmental Award, the American Chemical Society Award in Pure Chemistry, and was #17 overall, and the highest ranked scientist/technologist, in the Rolling Stone magazine’s top 100 “Agents of Change in America”.