Faculty & Staff

Dr. John N. Kuhn

John Kuhn

Professor of chemical, biological, and materials engineering, & associate chair of graduate studies

Phone: 813-974-6498 | Office: IDRB 212

Email: jnkuhn@usf.edu

Research clusters: Energy and SustainabilityAdvanced Materials 


Honors & Awards

  • 2024 Patents for Humanity award
  • NAI Senior Member, 2023
  • ľƵ Faculty Outstanding Research Achievement Award, 2019
  • ľƵ Research & Innovation Excellence in Innovation Award, 2013 and 2018
  • ľƵ College of Engineering Outstanding Research Achievement Award, 2016

Education & Training

Postdoctoral research, University of California, Berkeley

PhD, Ohio State University

BS,University of Dayton


Research Overview

The Kuhn group focuses at the interface of heterogeneous catalysis and materials chemistry with an emphasis on applications in the fields of energy and the environment.

  • Heterogeneous Catalysis
  • Materials Chemistry
  • Synthetic fuels
  • Photo/Electro-catalysis
  • Engineering Education

Selected Publications

  • Johnson, O., He, Y, St. Pierre-Charles, I., Richter, J., Joseph, B., and Kuhn, J.N., “Stabilizing Catalytic Performance in Dry Reforming of Methane via Surface-Engineered Intermetallic Carbide Nanoparticles", JACS 147 (2025) 16786-16791. () 
  • Amaraibi, R., Joseph, B., and Kuhn, J.N., “Life Cycle Assessment of Liquid Transportation Fuel Produced by Intensified Biogas to Liquid (IBGTL) Process ", ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 13 (2025) 6064-6073. ()
  • Shi, H. Guo, J., Singh, P., Bhethanabotla, V.R., and Kuhn, J.N., “Role of SiO2 in enhancing CO yield by using silica-supported La0.5Ba0.5FeO3 in reverse water–gas shift chemical looping” RSC Sustain., 2025, Advance Article. ()
  • Gray, B., Johnson, O., Joseph, B. and Kuhn, J.N., “High-Temperature Fe-Based Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis: Experimentally Validated Kinetic Models Implemented at Pellet and Reactor Scales” Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 63 (2024) 15061-15072. ()