Thomas J. Kempa

Thomas J. Kempa is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and, by courtesy, in Materials Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. His research lies at the intersection of solid-state chemistry, materials science, and energy science, focusing on the synthesis and characterization of low-dimensional inorganic materials for advanced technological applications.

His educational background includes a B.S. in Chemistry from Boston College (2004), postgraduate studies at Imperial College London as a Marshall Scholar, and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University (2012), where he worked under Prof. Charles Lieber. He completed postdoctoral training with Prof. Daniel Nocera at MIT and Harvard.

Prof. Kempa's research interests center on low-dimensional materials, including 0D nanoparticles, 1D molecular wires, and 2D atomic sheets. His group develops innovative synthetic methods—such as using porous ionic solids as precursors and in situ spectroscopic characterization—to control morphology, phase, and functionality. These materials have applications in optoelectronics, energy conversion, and quantum computing.

His group has secured significant funding and produced impactful research, though recent publications were not listed in the provided text.

Notable scientific awards include:

• MRS Graduate Student Award
• IUPAC Young Chemist Prize (2013)
• DARPA Young Faculty Award
• NSF CAREER Award
• Dreyfus Foundation Fellowship
• Toshiba Distinguished Young Investigator Award
• Hopkins Discovery Award (twice)

He has advised several doctoral students to completion, including Dara, Reynolds, and Marta, who recently defended their dissertations on topics related to metal–organic frameworks, exciton control in van der Waals heterostructures, and multicomponent nanomaterial synthesis. His lab, the Kempa Group, fosters interdisciplinary research spanning materials, inorganic, and physical chemistry, with strong emphasis on experimental innovation and fundamental discovery.