Jihye Park

Jihye Park is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Colorado Boulder, leading the Park Lab established in January 2020. Her research focuses on designing functional hybrid materials with atomic precision, particularly metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), to address challenges in sustainable energy and human health through synthetic chemistry and materials engineering.

Dr. Park's educational background includes:

• Ph.D. in Chemistry from Texas A&M University (2016)
• Postdoctoral Fellowship at Stanford University (2016-2019)

Her expertise spans inorganic chemistry, nanotechnology, photochemistry, and renewable energy, with emphasis on conductive MOFs for electrochemical energy storage, photocatalysis, and biomedical applications. The group manipulates material properties (length-scale, shape, dimension) to control transport processes and leverage emergent optical/electronic properties for targeted device applications.

Recent publications (2022-2024) demonstrate leadership in electrically conductive MOFs, featuring innovations in proton-electron dual conduction, photocatalytic hydrogen peroxide production, and energy storage mechanisms. Her work consistently integrates synthetic methodology development with advanced characterization to solve fundamental challenges in sustainable energy conversion.

Dr. Park has received numerous accolades, including:

• Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program (ONR YIP) Award (2024)
• ACS PMSE Early Investigator Award (2024)
• Outstanding Postdoc Mentor of the Year (2024)
• Hanwha-TotalEnergies Non-Tenured Faculty Award (2023)
• Marinus Smith Award for Teaching/Mentoring (2022)
• Camille & Henry Dreyfus Postdoctoral Fellowship (2016-2018)

She mentors graduate students including NSF GRFP awardee Brianna Check (2023), Best TA award recipients Samuel and Brianna (2023), and new members Kathryn, Joe, and Liam (2023). Research is funded by competitive grants including ONR YIP (2024) and Hanwha-TotalEnergies (2023), building on prior support from ACS, Welch Foundation, and Fulbright programs.

The Park Lab maintains a collaborative environment with current members including postdoc Dr. Xiaoyu Fang (joined Oct 2022), focusing on interdisciplinary projects at the chemistry-materials-engineering interface for next-generation energy and health technologies.