Placidus B. Amama

Placidus B. Amama is a Professor and Tim Taylor Chair in Chemical Engineering at Kansas State University. He holds a B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Calabar (Nigeria, 1992), an M.S. (1999) and Ph.D. (2002) in Environmental Engineering from Yokohama National University (Japan). His career includes postdoctoral research at Yale University (2002–2004) and Purdue University (2004–2007), followed by work at the Air Force Research Laboratory (2007–2013) before joining K-State. He spent summer 2016 at startup Nanoconduction in Silicon Valley.

Research focuses on catalyst design for carbon nanomaterials to improve energy storage, environmental remediation, and heterogeneous catalysis. Key areas include scalable synthesis of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), CNT/TiO₂ photocatalysis for air purification, and 3D nanocarbon hybrids for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. His work addresses challenges in structural control, mass transport, and catalyst stability.

Amama has authored over 40 journal papers and 50 conference papers (as of 2016), with an H-index of 21. Awards include the JSPS Fellowship (2012), Air Force SFFP Awards (2014, 2016), and the 2016 Outstanding Assistant Professor Award. He leads the Catalysis & Nanotechnology Research Laboratory (CNRL) at K-State.