Lea R. Winter

• Electrified processes at the food, energy, water, and climate nexus
• Sustainable and circularized conversion of CO2 into chemicals and fuels
• Green nitrogen fixation to fertilizers and nitrogen-based fuels
• Transformation of wastewater into useful products and fit-for-purpose water
• Plasma chemistry, electrochemistry, heterogeneous catalysis

• Beckman Young Investigator Award (2024)
• Department of Energy Early Career Award (2024)
• Caltech Young Investigators Lecture Series Award (2022)
• Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT) Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship (2020)
• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (2015)
• AIChE Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division Travel Award (2019)
• North American Catalysis Society NAM26 Kokes Award (2019)
• TA Excellence Award in Chemical Engineering, Columbia University (2018) 
• NSF Participant Award, Gordon Research Conference: Plasma Processing Science (2018) 
• Catalysis Society of Metropolitan New York Annual Symposium First Place Poster Award (2018)
• Fu Foundation SEAS Grossman Scholar, Columbia University (2018)
• Pesco Award, Columbia University (2015)
• Journal of International Affairs Andrew Wellington Cordier Essay Winner, Columbia University (2015) 

For a full list, visit Prof. Winter's Google Scholar profile.

• Xiaoxiong Wang, Xuanhao Wu, Wen Ma, Xuechen Zhou, Shuo Zhang , Dahong Huang, Lea R. Winter*, Jae-Hong Kim*, Menachem Elimelech*. “Free-standing membrane incorporating single-atom catalysts for ultrafast electro-reduction of low-concentration nitrate.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120 (11): e2217703120 (2023). 
   
• Neal Biswas ^a, Lea R. Winter ^a, Zhenhua Xie ^a, and Jingguang G. Chen*. “Utilizing CO₂ as a reactant for C₃ oxygenate production via tandem reactions.” Journal of the American Chemical Society Au 3 (2): 293–305 (2023). 
   
• Boreum Lee, Lea R. Winter, Hyunjun Lee, Dongjun Lim, Menachem Elimelech*, Hankwon Lim*. “Pathways to a green ammonia future.” ACS Energy Letters 7: 3032–3038 (2022).  
  • Among most read articles in ACS Energy Letters (August and September 2022). 

     

• Lea R. Winter ^a,*, Nathanial J. Cooper ^a, Boreum Lee, Sohum K. Patel, Li Wang, Menachem Elimelech. “Mining nontraditional water sources for a distributed hydrogen economy.” Environmental Science & Technology 56 (15): 10577–10585 (2022). 
  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric (Score 66); reported in 7 news outlets.  
  • Research Highlight: Yanhua Chen. “Mining wastewater for hydrogen.” Nature Reviews Earth & Environment 3: 551 (2022).  

     

• Zhengyang Huo, Lea R. Winter, Xiaoxiong Wang*, Ye Du, Yinhu Wu, Uwe Hübner, Hong-Ying Hu, Menachem Elimelech. “Synergistic nanowire-enhanced electroporation and electro-chlorination for highly efficient water disinfection.” Environmental Science & Technology 56 (15): 10925–10934 (2022). 
   
• Ying-Jie Zhang ^a, Gui-Xiang Huang ^a, Lea R. Winter, Jie-Jie Chen, Lili Tian, Shu-Chuan Mei, Ze Zhang, Fei Chen, Zhi-Yan Guo, Rong Ji, Ye-Zi You, Wen-Wei Li, Han-Qing Yu*, Menachem Elimelech*. “Simultaneous nanocatalytic surface activation of pollutants and oxidants for highly efficient water decontamination.” Nature Communications 13: 1–13 (2022).  
  • 99th percentile (ranked 1st) of the tracked articles of a similar age in Nature Communications. 
  • Chosen for Editors’ Highlights in Nature Communications.  
     
• Yumeng Zhao*, Meng Sun*, Lea R. Winter, Shihong Lin, Zhiwei Wang, John C. Crittenden, and Jun Ma. “Emerging challenges and opportunities for electrified membranes to enhance water treatment.” Environmental Science & Technology 56: 3832–3835 (2022).  
   
• Akash Neal Biswas ^a, Lea R. Winter ^a,*, Björn Loenders, Zhenhua Xie, Annemie Bogaerts*, Jingguang G. Chen*. “Oxygenate production from plasma-activated reaction of CO₂ and ethane.” ACS Energy Letters7: 236–241 (2022). 
   
• Ji-Soo Jang ^a, Lea R. Winter ^a, Changwoo Kim, John D. Fortner*, Menachem Elimelech*. “High precision separation membranes for selective environmental gas sensors.” Trends in Chemistry 3: 547–560 (2021). 
   
• Meng Sun ^a, Xiaoxiong Wang ^a, Lea R. Winter, Yumeng Zhao, Wen Ma, Tayler Hedtke, Jae-Hong Kim, Menachem Elimelech*. “Electrified membranes for water treatment applications.” ACS Environmental Science & Technology: Engineering 1: 725–752 (2021). 
   
• Lea R. Winter, Jingguang G. Chen*. “N₂ fixation by plasma-activated processes.” Joule 5: 300–315 (2021). 
   
• Zhenhua Xie, Lea R. Winter, Jingguang G. Chen*. “Bimetallic-derived catalysts and their application in simultaneous upgrading of CO₂ and ethane.” Matter4: 408–440 (2021). 
   
• Yaning Wang, Lea R. Winter, Jingguang G. Chen*, Binhang Yan*. “CO₂ hydrogenation over heterogeneous catalysts at atmospheric pressure: from electronic properties to product selectivity.” Green Chemistry23: 249–267 (2020). 
   
• Lea R. Winter, Bryony Ashford, Jungmi Hong, Anthony B. Murphy*, Jingguang G. Chen*. “Identifying surface reaction intermediates in plasma catalytic ammonia synthesis.” ACS Catalysis 10: 14763–14774 (2020).  
   
• Shuang Liu*, Lea R. Winter, Jingguang G. Chen*. “Review of plasma-assisted catalysis for selective generation of oxygenates from CO₂ and CH₄.” ACS Catalysis 10: 2855–2871 (2020). 
   
• Lea R. Winter, Rui Chen, Xin Chen, Kuan Chang, Zongyuan Liu, Sanjaya D. Senanayake, Amani Ebrahim, Jingguang G. Chen*. “Elucidating the roles of metallic Ni and oxygen vacancies in CO₂ hydrogenation over Ni/CeO₂ using isotope exchange and in situ measurements.” Applied Catalysis B: Environmental 245: 360–366 (2019). 
   
• Lea R. Winter, Elaine Gomez, Binhang Yan, Siyu Yao, Jingguang G. Chen*. “Tuning Ni-catalyzed CO₂ hydrogenation selectivity via Ni-ceria support interactions and Ni-Fe bimetallic formation.” Applied Catalysis B: Environmental 224: 442–450 (2018).