Expertise

Associate Professor, Chemistry

Kiesewetter is interested in the development of new materials with a focus on new catalytic transformations. He would argue that products that shape our world, like plastics, are made via catalytic reactions, yet the field needs innovation to develop materials for a sustainable future. The Kiesewetter research lab draws upon the most powerful aspects of modern and classic physical organic chemistry by accessing new materials and methods by employing catalysis, chemical kinetics, ion-pairing, solvation, and structure-function relationships. The lab bridges the fields of small molecule catalysis, polymer synthesis, catalytic depolymerization, molecule design, spectroscopy and sensing. Kiesewetter’s team is also the founding group for the URI Bee Lab. Terrestrial sources of microplastic and the distribution of microplastic on land are far less understood than aquatic environments. Honeybees have been designed by evolution to collect particulates from the environment and could play a key role in tracking microplastic emissions.