Rate My Professor Aaron Sadow

Aaron Sadow is the David C. Henderson Professor of Chemistry at Iowa State University, a position he has held since 2024, and Senior Scientist at Ames National Laboratory since 2018. He earned a B.S. in Chemistry from Pennsylvania State University in 1997, with an honors thesis on palladium-catalyzed polymer synthesis, and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 2003, focusing on early transition metal complexes in sigma-bond metathesis. Sadow joined Iowa State University as Assistant Professor of Chemistry in 2005, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2011, and to Professor in 2016. He served as Faculty Scientist at Ames Laboratory from 2010 to 2018, Director of the Center for Catalysis at Iowa State University from 2012 to 2020, and currently directs the Institute for Cooperative Upcycling of Plastics (iCOUP) since 2020.

The Sadow group's research centers on organometallic chemistry and catalysis, synthesizing organometallic and inorganic compounds to develop new catalytic reactions for green chemistry, stereoselective synthesis, hydroamination, C-H bond activation and functionalization, deoxygenation, and conversion of abundant raw materials and plastic waste into valuable chemicals. Key publications include "Ultrasmall amorphous zirconia nanoparticles catalyse polyolefin hydrogenolysis" (Nature Catalysis, 2023), "Surface Protected Organozirconium Catalyzes C–H Alumination of Saturated Hydrocarbons" (Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2025), "A Semi-Flow Reactor Design Diverts Catalytic Hydrogenolysis of Polyolefins to Metastable Kinetic Products" (Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 2026), "Data-Driven Discovery of Bimetallic Nanoparticles Catalysts for the Hydrogenolysis of Polyethylene" (ACS Catalysis, 2026), and the book chapter “Alkali and Alkaline Earth Element-Catalyzed Hydroboration Reactions” in Early Main Group Metal Catalysis (2020). With over 7,600 citations on Google Scholar, Sadow's contributions have advanced sustainable catalysis. His honors include election as an AAAS Fellow in 2022, Iowa State University Mid-Career Achievement in Research Award in 2016, Liberal Arts and Sciences Early Achievement in Research Award in 2011, Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in 2010, and NSF CAREER Award in 2010.