Sylvia Teresse Aida Ceyer

Ceyer’s research interests in physical chemistry are centered on material surfaces that serve either as catalysts, as templates for nanosystems, or as devices.  She has uncovered fundamental principles for chemisorption, such as chemistry with a hammer, atom abstraction and a boomerang product dissociation mechanism that underlie surface interactions.  She has shown that hydrogen reactive for ethylene hydrogenation is buried beneath the Ni surface rather than adsorbed on the surface, as depicted in chemistry texts.  Current explorations involve the role of buried species in the surface chemistry of catalysts relevant to carbon dioxide activation and fuel cells, and the role of energy exchange in the etching of semiconductors in the production of nanoelectromechanical devices. 

Ceyer has served as the Head (2010-2015) and Associate Head (2005-2010) of the MIT Department of Chemistry and is the holder of the John C. Sheehan Professorship.  She previously held the first W. M. Keck Foundation Professorship in Energy (1991-1996) and the Class of 1943 Career Development Chair, 1985-1988.  She has been elected a fellow of the National Academy of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Physical Society.  Her numerous awards and honors include the J. Willard Gibbs Medal of the American Chemical Society, the Nobel Laureate Signature Award for Graduate Education (with A. D. Johnson) from the American Chemical Society, Hope College Distinguished Alumni Award, H. E. Edgerton Prize, Association of University Women's Young Scholar Award, Sloan Fellowship, A. Smith Award for Meaningful Contributions and Devotion to Undergraduate Student Life and Learning, MacVicar Faculty Fellow, School of Science Teaching Prize, Baker Memorial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and the Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award.

She currently serves on council of the National Academy of Science (NAS), as a member of the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee for the Department of Energy and as chair of the Ford Foundation Fellowships Review Panel on Physical Sciences and Mathematics organized by National Research Council.  She has previously served as Chair of the Physical and Mathematical Sciences Class of NAS (2009-2012), Chair of the Chemistry Section of NAS (2002-2005) and as associate editor of Physical Review Letters.  She has held many named lectureships including the Langmuir Lecturer of the American Chemical Society and a Welch Foundation Lectureship.