Joaquin Resasco, a chemical engineering postdoctoral researcher at UC Santa Barbara, anticipates a future in which the chemicals we rely on to run our modern lives will come by way of green methods, sustainable processes and renewable sources.

“Today this industry revolves around petroleum, but it could be replaced by one that runs off renewable electricity,” said Resasco, a postdoctoral researcher in chemical engineering professor Phillip Christopher’s group. “Renewable electricity could provide the energy to take air and water and turn them into chemical building blocks. Then, with additional renewable electricity, these building blocks could be stitched together to create the products that our society relies on.”

For his far-sighted efforts aimed at “shifting the decades-old paradigm of using petroleum for chemical energy,” Resasco, 29, has been named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list in the Science category. He joins a cohort of 600 young movers and shakers in a total of 20 categories for Forbes’ class of 2020.

To read more on Resasco in an article published in The Current, click here, or to check out the Forbes' 30 Under 30 article, click here.