Joseph A. Romo
Joseph (Joe) is a current Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Chemistry at Purdue University under the advisership of Dr. Jianguo Mei.
Prior to joining Purdue in Fall 2020, Joe completed his undergraduate studies at Macalester College (Saint Paul, Minnesota) where he received a B.A. in Chemistry (2018). While at Macalester, Joe was a researcher in Dr. Dennis Cao’s organic materials lab. There, he worked on two original independent projects spanning the areas of photocatalysis and supramolecular self-assembly. In his first project, he investigated, synthesized, and tested conjugated polymer targets that could function as metal-free, visible-light active photocatalysts for water splitting. In the second project, Joe leveraged dynamic covalent chemistry (DCvC) via olefin metathesis, to successfully synthesize a novel and previously unreported pentameric macrocycle from bis(4-vinylphenyl)methane derivatives.
In 2017, Joe was selected to participate in an NSF International REU (iREU) program in Paris, France. Under the tutelage of Dr. Mathieu Sollogoub and Dr. Olivia Bistri, Joe synthesized cyclodextrin derivatives with selectively functionalized primary rims. By using DIBAL-H, he was able to achieve consistent and efficient regioselective debenzylation of the primary rim of perbenzylated alpha-cyclodextrin in order to add novel functionalization and molecular handles for additional transformations, eventually leading to two novel enantiomeric triols.
Upon graduation, Joe joined Axalta Coating Systems as a Chemist (then Research Scientist) in the Industrial Wood Coatings division. While at Axalta, Joe took on many diverse responsibilities and roles, but primarily focused on formulation, testing, and technical development of high-performance waterborne coatings for exterior building products consisting of wood or wood-composite materials. Within this scope, his experience specialized in self-crosslinking acrylic-latex core-shell polymer emulsions. Notably, Joe was actively involved in the customer roll-out, application engineering, manufacturing processes, and quality control operations of his products. Lastly, he led several cost optimization projects, one in which now results in a $100,000+ annual raw materials cost savings to the company.
In the Fall of 2020, Joe joined Dr. Jianguo Mei’s research lab at Purdue University. Joe has worked on various projects within the group relating to organic electronics such as electrochromic polymers and the development of large area, high performance hybrid perovskite solar cells. Most recently in 2021, Joe was awarded a prestigious NSF GEM Fellowship from the National GEM Consortium, and briefly joined 3M Company’s Display Materials division as a Graduate Research Intern. There, he worked on developing novel materials for cutting edge OLED display technologies.
Currently at Purdue, Joe is focused on several projects involving a novel and high-performance n-doped transparent organic conducting polymer, with a special focus on large-area and high performance (practical) application devices. Throughout his work, he is especially interested in studying how to enhance the durability of the active materials through encapsulation and packaging, as well as understanding how the materials and devices degrade and their properties will be affected over time.