Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos (1950 - October 28, 2019) was an American chemical engineer and, at the time of her death, had been the Robert and Marcy Haber Endowed Professor in Energy Sustainability and a Distinguished Professor at

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

. Flytzani-Stephanopoulos had also been the

Raytheon Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitaliza ...

Professor of Pollution Prevention at Tufts. She published more than 160 scientific articles with over 14,000 citations as of April 2018. She was a Fellow of

AIChE The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) is a professional organization for chemical engineers. AIChE was actually established in 1908 to distinguish chemical engineers as a profession independent of chemists and mechanical engineers ...

, the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

and

American Institute of Chemical Engineers The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) is a professional organization for chemical engineers. AIChE was actually established in 1908 to distinguish chemical engineers as a profession independent of chemists and mechanical engineer ...

. She lived in the Greater Boston Area with her husband, Professor

Gregory Stephanopoulos Greg N. Stephanopoulos (born 1950) is an American chemical engineer and the Willard Henry Dow Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has worked at MIT, Caltech, and the University of ...

of MIT.

Early life and education

Maria Flytzani was born and grew up in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. In 1973, she earned her diploma in chemical engineering from the

National Technical University of Athens The National (Metsovian) Technical University of Athens (NTUA; el, Εθνικό Μετσόβιο Πολυτεχνείο, ''National Metsovian Polytechnic''), sometimes known as Athens Polytechnic, is among the oldest higher education institution ...

. She continued her studies at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

where she received a master's degree in chemical engineering in 1975. She completed her Ph.D. in chemical engineering at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

in 1975 with advisor

Lanny D. Schmidt Lanny D. Schmidt (May 6, 1938 – March 27, 2020) was an American chemist, inventor, author, and Regents Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota. He is well known for his extensive work in surfac ...

on the topic of oscillations in heterogeneous catalysis. Her thesis was published in 1978 with the title, "Surface Morphology of Platinum Catalysts and Oscillations in Ammonia Oxidation on Platinum". During her time in graduate school, Maria prepared X journal publications with her advisor: *M. Flytzani-Stephanopoulos, L.D. Schmidt, R. Caretta "Steady State and Transient Oscillations in NH3 Oxidation on Pt", Journal of Catalysis 64, 346–355, (1980). *S. Wong, M. F. Stephanopoulos, M. Chen, T. E. Hutchinson, and L. D. Schmidt "Morphologies of Pt Catalyst Surfaces", Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology 14, 452, (1977). *M. F. Stephanopoulos, S. Wong, and L. D. Schmidt "Surface Morphology of Pt Catalysts", Journal of Catalysis 49, 51, (1977). *M. F. Stephanopoulos, L. D. Schmidt "Evaporation Rates and Surface Profiles on Heterogeneous Surfaces with Mass Transfer",

Chemical Engineering Science ''Chemical Engineering Science'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of chemical engineering. It is published by Elsevier and was established in 1951. The editor-in-chief is A.P.J. Middelberg (University of Queensland). Abst ...

34, 365, (1979). *M. F. Stephanopoulos, L. D. Schmidt "Morphology and Etching Processes on Macroscopic Metal Catalysts", Progress in Surface Science 9, 83, (1979).

Journal Publications

Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos authored more than 160 journal articles describing significant advances in

catalysis Catalysis () is the process of increasing the rate of a chemical reaction by adding a substance known as a catalyst (). Catalysts are not consumed in the reaction and remain unchanged after it. If the reaction is rapid and the catalyst recyc ...

surface chemistry Surface science is the study of physical and chemical phenomena that occur at the interface of two phases, including solid–liquid interfaces, solid–gas interfaces, solid–vacuum interfaces, and liquid–gas interfaces. It includes the fiel ...

, and single-atom catalysts including: *Yue Li, Qi Fu, Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos "Low-temperature water-gas shift reaction over Cu-and Ni-loaded cerium oxide catalysts", Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 27(3), 179–191, (2000). *Qi Fu, Howard Saltsburg, Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos "Active nonmetallic Au and Pt species on ceria-based water-gas shift catalysts", Science, 301(5635), 935–938, (2003). *Rui Si, Maria Flytzani‐Stephanopoulos "Shape and Crystal‐Plane Effects of Nanoscale Ceria on the Activity of Au‐CeO2 Catalysts for the Water–Gas Shift Reaction",

Angewandte Chemie ''Angewandte Chemie'' (, meaning "Applied Chemistry") is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that is published by Wiley-VCH on behalf of the German Chemical Society (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker). Publishing formats include feature-length ...

, 120(15), 2926–2929, (2008). *Yanping Zhai, Danny Pierre, Rui Si, Weiling Deng, Peter Ferrin, Anand U Nilekar, Guowen Peng, Jeffrey A Herron, David C Bell, Howard Saltsburg, Manos Mavrikakis, Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos "Alkali-stabilized Pt-OHx species catalyze low-temperature water-gas shift reactions", Science, 329(5999), 1633–1636, (2010). *Ming Yang, Sha Li, Yuan Wang, Jeffrey A Herron, Ye Xu, Lawrence F Allard, Sungsik Lee, Jun Huang, Manos Mavrikakis, Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos "Catalytically active Au-O (OH) x-species stabilized by alkali ions on zeolites and mesoporous oxides", Science, 346(6216), 1498–1501, (2014).

Awards and honors

Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos's contributions to research, education and service received numerous awards, many of which highlighted her passion for catalysis and the problems associated with nanoparticle design and catalytic function. In 2008, she was elected a fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

(AAAS). In 2014, she was elected a member of the American National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Her NAE election citation noted: Other awards and honors included: *Tufts Distinguished Scholar Award *Henry J. Albert Award of the International Precious Metals Institute *Giuseppe Parravano Memorial Award of the Michigan Catalysis Society *Carol Tyler Award of the IPMI *Graduate Teaching and Mentoring Award of the Tufts School of Engineering *Fellow, American Institute of Chemical Engineers

References

External links

Chemical Engineering - Tufts University, Prof. Flytzani-StephanopoulosTufts NanoCatalysis & Energy Laboratory
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Flytzani-Stephanopoulos, Maria Tufts University faculty American chemical engineers University of Florida alumni University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering alumni Minnesota CEMS National Technical University of Athens alumni Fellows of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Greek emigrants to the United States Greek women engineers Greek inventors Greek nanotechnologists 1950 births 2019 deaths Scientists from Kalamata