Faculty & Staff
Jean-Sabin McEwen, PhD
Jean-Sabin McEwen, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Atomistic modeling of catalytic processes for energy applications
Office: 257 Wegner Hall 📞509-335-8580
đź“§js.mcewen AT wsu.edu
Website: Dr. McEwen’s Website
Twitter: @mcewen_group
The Gene and Linda Voiland
School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering
1505 Stadium Way, Room 105
P.O. Box 646515
Washington State University
Pullman, WA 99164-6515
Graduate Students
Ariel Whitten
Carrington Moore
Charles Umhey
Isaac Onyango
Naseeha Cardwell
Undergraduate Students
Eva Arm
Grace Miller
Maggie Rickman
Graduate Student Alumni
Prof. Alyssa Joy Rose Hensley
Prof. Fanglin Che
Dr. Greg Collinge
Dr. Michael Ayiania
Dr. Neeru Chaudhary
Dr. Nisa Ulumuddin
Kyle Groden
Ian de Joode
Breanna Wong
Postdoc Alumni
Prof. Alyssa Joy Rose Hensley
Dr. Dezhou Guo
Dr. Renqin Zhang
2019 Pacific Coast Catalysis Society Meeting
Research Interests
The depletion of natural resources, rising fuel costs, and increasingly stringent environmental regulations have created a need for new and diverse forms of energy. Heterogeneous catalysis has played and will continue to play an important role both in the generation and use of energy to ensure a sustainable future, but a number of open questions remain to exploit the full potential of such catalytic systems. In order to do this, one needs not only to understand, but also to control materials at the nanometer length scale and far away from thermodynamic equilibrium.
In my research group, we model such systems from an atomistic (using ab initio quantum chemistry tools) and macroscopic (using Monte Carlo and Transfer Matrix methods) point of view. We also link these methods with corresponding multi-scale models. Our work is done in close collaboration with experimentalists. Some areas of interest to me are listed below.
- Heterogeneous Catalysis in High Electric Fields
- Theory of Surface Processes
Biographical Information
Jean-Sabin McEwen earned his B. Sc. in Physics at McGill University, Canada. He then went on to earn his M. Sc. and his Ph.D. in Physics at Dalhousie University, Canada. He spent about two years as a postdoctoral fellow in Belgium at the ULB and three years in Belgium at the F.R.S.-FNRS. He went on to obtain a position as research assistant professor at the University of Notre Dame for two years. He is now an associate professor at Washington State University.
Education
- Ph.D. Physics, Dalhousie University (Canada), 2005
- M.Sc. Physics, Dalhousie University (Canada), 2002
- B.Sc. Physics, McGill University (Canada), 2000
Selected Awards, Honors, and Societies
- Anjan Bose Outstanding Researcher Award (2022)
- President, Pacific Coast Catalysis Society (2019-Present)
- ACS Catalysis Early Career Advisory Board Member (2018-2019)
- 2018 Class of Influential Researchers (Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, ACS)
- National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2017-2022)
- Secretary, Pacific Coast Catalysis Society (2015-Present)
Professional Experience
- Associate Professor – Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, Washington State University, 8/2018–present
- Assistant Professor – Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, Washington State University, 1/2012–8/2018
- Research Assistant Professor – Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Notre Dame, 10/2010–12/2011
- Honorary Postdoctoral Researcher – Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique F.R.S.-FNRS, ULB (Belgium), 10/2010–10/2011
- Postdoctoral Researcher – Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique F.R.S.-FNRS, ULB (Belgium), 10/2007–10/2010
- Postdoctoral Researcher – Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems, ULB (Belgium), 01/2006–09/2007
- Postdoctoral Researcher – Deparment of Physics and Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University (Canada), 09/2005–12/2005
Collaborators
- A. Alexandrova (University of California Los Angeles, USA)
- C. Campbell (University of Washington, USA)
- C. Chin (University of Toronto, Canada)
- R. Denecke (Universität Leipzig, Germany)
- F. Gao (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA)
- M. Garcia-Perez (Washington State University, USA)
- P. Gaspard (ULB, Belgium)
- S. Ha (Washington State University, USA)
- H. J. Kreuzer (Dalhousie University, Canada)
- N. Kruse (Washington State University, USA)
- F. Mittendorfer (Univesität Wien, Austria)
- E. Nikolla (Wayne State University, USA)
- F. H. Ribeiro (Purdue University, USA)
- M. Saeys (Ghent University, Belgium)
- J. Szanyi (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA)
- W. F. Schneider (University of Notre Dame, USA)
- S. Scott (University of California Santa Barbara, USA)
- D. Shantz (Tulane University, USA)
- C. Stampfl (University of Sydney, Australia)
- H.-P. Steinrück (Universität Erlangen-Nürenberg, Germany)
- E. C. H. Sykes (Tufts University, USA)
- Y. Wang (Washington State University/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA)
- J. Wintterlin (Universität München, Germany)
- D. Wu (Washington State University, USA)
- Y. Xu (Lousiana State University, USA)
Selected Publications
- J.-S. McEwen, T. Anggara, W. F. Schneider, V. F. Kispersky, J.T. Miller, W.N. Delgass, F. H. Ribeiro, Integrated operando X-ray and DFT charaterization of Cu-SSZ-13 exchange sites during the selective catalytic reduction of NOx with NH3 Catalysis Today 184(2012) 129.
- J.-S. McEwen, P. Gaspard, T. Visart de Bocarmé and N.Kruse, Nanometric Chemical Clocks, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106 (2009) 3006–3010.
- J.-S. McEwen, P. Gaspard, F. Mittendorfer, T. Visart de Bocarmé and N.Kruse, Field-assisted oxidation of rhodium, Chemical Physics Letters 452 (2008) 133–138.
- J.-S. McEwen and A. Eichler, Phase diagram and adsorption-desorption kinetics of CO on Ru(0001) from first principles, Journal of Chemical Physics 126 (2007) 094701.
- J.-S. McEwen, S.H. Payne, H.J. Kreuzer, M. Kinne, and R. Denecke, and H.-P. Steinrueck, Adsorption and desorption of CO on Pt(111): a comprehensive analysis, Surface Science 545 (2003) 47–69.
- J.-S. McEwen, S.H. Payne and C. Stampfl, Phase diagram of O/Ru(0001) from first principles, Chemical Physics Letters 361 (2002) 317–320.
Research Funding
Computational Resources
Research News
To read the latest news about our research, please see the McEwen Group on Twitter (use this link for accessible content) or view feed below.
Tweets by @mcewen_group
Research Highlights
The collaborative research between the McEwen group, the Scott group, Dr. Bare and Dr. Vila is highlighted on the cover of Journal of Physical Chemistry C.
The collaborative research between the McEwen group and the Wang group is highlighted on the cover of JACS Au.
The collaborative research between the McEwen group and PNNL is highlighted on the cover of ACS Catalysis. Read more about Dr. McEwen’s research in environmental catalysis.
The collaborative research between the McEwen group and the Wang group is highlighted on the cover of ACS Catalysis. Read more about Dr. McEwen’s collaborative research with Dr. Wang’s group.
The collaborative research between the McEwen group and the Wang group is highlighted on the cover of Journal of Physical Chemistry C. Read more about Dr. McEwen’s research on biofuels
The collaborative research between the McEwen group and the Wang group is highlighted on the cover of Journal of Physical Chemistry C. Read more about Dr. McEwen’s research on biofuels
The collaborative research between the McEwen group and the Sykes group is highlighted on the cover of the March 2018 issue of Nature Catalysis. See the report on WSU news and Tufts now.

The McEwen, Denecke, SteinrĂĽck and Wang groups combine their efforts to identify the decomposition mechanism of guaiacol on a platinum surface. See the report on WSU news.
The collaborative research done between the McEwen group and the Ha group is highlighted in Angewandte Chemie. See Murrow News 8 report and the report on WSU News.
The collaborative research done between the McEwen group and the Ha group is highlighted in I&EC. See virtual issue of the best presentations at the 251 ACS meeting.
The collaborative research between the McEwen and the Ha group is highlighted on the cover of Journal of Physical Chemistry C. Read more about Dr. McEwen’s research in electrocatalysis
The collaborative research between the McEwen group and PNNL is highlighted on the cover of Catalysis Science and Technology. Read more about Dr. McEwen’s research in environmental catalysis
The collaborative research between the McEwen and the Sykes groups sheds light on an important catalyst structure. Read more about Dr. McEwen’s research in environmental catalysis
The collaborative research done between the McEwen and Wang groups is highlighted on the cover of the October issue of ACS Catalysis, which illustrates a Pd/Fe catalyst and its hydrodeoxygenation capability using m-cresol. Read more about Dr. McEwen’s research on biofuels
Research Team
