Babatunde Alawode
Alawode @ mit . edu
About
Football follower (and when in the mood, Chelsea or Barca supporter). Ping-pong player and a lover of racing games. Politics nerd. Travel addict. I am from Abeokuta, Nigeria. Before MIT, I had my undergraduate education in mechanical engineering at the University of Lagos in Nigeria, and afterwards did a little bit of consulting. I am currently pursuing masters degrees in Material Science and Engineering and Mechanical Engineering.
Research Interests
I am broadly interested in energy (access, cost, policy, environmental effects, etc). My technical work at MIT has so far focused on finding a cheap way to achieve the conversion of greenhouse gases. This way, we can have a sustainable means to save the environment while renewable technologies mature and get competitive enough to displace fossil fuels. In the future, we will be exploring thermofluidics and electrocatalysis.
Personal Interests
I am very interested in finding ways to help improve education in Nigeria. I work with awesome colleagues on mentorship and teaching. My infrequently updated blog is here.
Current Project
Electrocatalysts, CO2 Capture & Conversion
atalytic conversion of CO2 into useful chemicals could be a better alternative to expensive carbon capture and storage (CCS) methods. Though the utilization of CO2 appears to be a very viable proposition, chemical conversion approaches are challenging because current methods are very net carbon positive due to the exceptional stability of the CO2 molecule and the challenge of finding very good catalysts for the reactions. In this work, we are investigating the performance of a dynamically tunable to enable catalytic rates beyond that predicted for static catalysts.