Rate My Professor Jonathan Scheffe

Jonathan Scheffe is an Associate Professor and Graduate Student Coordinator in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida, where he heads the Renewable Energy Conversion Laboratory. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemical and Biological Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2010, focusing on high-temperature thermochemical processes and advanced thin film material development under Prof. Alan Weimer. He previously held a postdoctoral position from 2010 to 2012 and served as Senior Research Associate from 2012 to 2014 in Prof. Aldo Steinfeld's laboratory at ETH Zurich, Mechanical and Process Engineering, emphasizing material and reactor development for solar-driven thermochemical processes. Scheffe received his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from North Carolina State University in 2005.

His research specializes in the development and characterization of thermochemically and electrochemically active oxide materials and solar-driven processes for renewable fuel production, including solar thermochemical energy conversion, hydrogen production via water and CO2 splitting, heterogeneous kinetics, and thermodynamics of nonstoichiometric oxides/ceramics. Scheffe has co-authored more than 35 peer-reviewed publications, with key works including "Syngas production by simultaneous splitting of H2O and CO2 via ceria redox reactions in a high-temperature solar reactor" (Energy & Environmental Science, 2012), "Solar Thermochemical CO2 Splitting Utilizing a Reticulated Porous Ceria Redox System" (Energy & Fuels, 2012), "Oxygen exchange materials for solar thermochemical splitting of H2O and CO2: a review" (Materials Today, 2014), "Lanthanum–Strontium–Manganese Perovskites as Redox Materials for Solar Thermochemical Splitting of H2O and CO2" (Energy & Fuels, 2013), and "Thermodynamic Analysis of Cerium-Based Oxides for Solar Thermochemical Fuel Production" (Energy & Fuels, 2012). He serves as outgoing chair of the ASME Solar Energy Division executive committee and on the organizing committee of the ASME International Conference on Energy and Sustainability. His research is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Florida Department of Transportation, Qatar National Research Foundation, and industry.