Mark Snyder is Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Lehigh University. He obtained his B.S in Chemical Engineering with highest honors from Lehigh University in 2000, and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering in 2006 from the University of Delaware. Before his return to Lehigh in 2008, Snyder was a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota. Snyder is the recipient of an NSF CAREER Award (2014) and a Doctoral New Investigator Award from the ACS Petroleum Research Fund (2010). While at Lehigh, Snyder has been recognized with a Frank Hook Assistant Professorship and a P.C. Rossin Assistant Professorship. He has also received Lehigh’s Early Career Award for Distinguished Teaching (2014), the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering’s Educational Excellence Award (2018), and Lehigh’s Stabler Award for Excellence in Teaching (2020).
Snyder’s research focuses on the fundamental design and engineering of functional inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) and hierarchically porous inorganic and organic materials (NPs, NP assembly, porous particles, thin films) for tackling challenges in molecular separations, catalysis, alternative energy, and biological systems. Driving all aspects of the work is the goal of uncovering fundamental synthesis-structure-function relations enabling rational multi-scale materials design across macroscopic (morphology), mesoscopic (pore size, topology), and microscopic (surface function, polymorphism, microstructure) scales.
Snyder’s work can be classified in terms of several synthetic thrusts, including the benign synthesis of inert NPs and functional nanocrystals (metal sulfide quantum dots), with a focus on sustainable synthesis, and their assembly into porous/structured materials. By exploiting NP assembly, Snyder’s group has developed strategies for indirect and direct nanocasting of mesoporous and hierarchically micro/meso-porous replicas wherein fundamental insights into template-mediated interfacial phenomena offer new strategies for simultaneously tuning the microstructure (e.g., polymorphism, microporosity) and, thereby, function (e.g., electronic, optical, catalytic) of the porous replicas. Snyder’s group also develops molecular engineering strategies for the direct (i.e., template-free) synthesis of novel structures of hierarchically porous carbons as well as the burgeoning class of covalent organic frameworks (COFs). Overall, such multi-scale materials engineering offers promise for simultaneously choreographing device-scale function and molecular transport to meet the demands of a range of engineering challenges.
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