About Brendon J. McNicholas

Brendon McNicholas completed his bachelor’s degree in chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley in 2014. While at UC Berkeley, he conducted undergraduate research in the group of Prof. John Arnold on transition metal corrole complexes for homogeneous and heterogeneous electrocatalytic oxygen reduction. In 2020, he obtained his Ph.D. in physical inorganic chemistry in the research groups of Profs. Harry Gray and Robert Grubbs from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA. His research focused on the electrolyte properties of ion-gel electrolytes for molecular carbon dioxide reduction and the electrochemical properties of Lewis acid adducts of cyanometallate complexes for non-aqueous redox flow batteries. After a four-month postdoctoral appointment in Prof. Gray’s group, he began a postdoctoral position as a Resnick Postdoctoral Scholar in 2020 at Caltech in the research group of Prof. Ryan Hadt, focusing on multi-electron transfer molecular species for slurry-state non-aqueous redox flow batteries and physical inorganic methods for characterization of Ni(II) reductive cross-coupling catalysts. In 2023, Dr. Brendon McNicholas joined the University of Tennessee, Knoxville as an Assistant Professor of inorganic chemistry. In his spare time, Brendon enjoys playing video games, playing the piano, listening to electronic music, solving puzzles, playing Dance Dance Revolution, and spending time with his two cats, Snowball and Chai.

Education

B.S., University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA (2014)
Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA (2020)
Resnick Postdoctoral Scholar, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA (2023)

Awards and Recognitions

• 2024 GSS Outstanding Graduate Research Mentor

• 2022 ZAP NSF I-Corps Small-Scale Grant

• 2020 Resnick Sustainability Institute Explorer Grant (with Prof. Ryan G. Hadt)

• 2019 Graduate Student Council Outstanding Teaching Assistant

• 2019 Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Teaching Award

• 2018 Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Teaching Award

• 2018 Offices of the Graduate Dean and Registrar Outstanding TA Commendation