Steven Chavez aims to make catalysts reliable over time

catalysts over – At 34, chemical engineer Steven Chavez is tackling a stubborn problem in chemistry: catalysts that work—until they don’t. Studying how catalysts behave over time, and testing them under different wavelengths of light, Chavez wants to understand why they fail s

When Steven Chavez walks through the chemistry that powers modern life, he doesn’t just look at what works—he looks at what breaks.

Chavez is a 34-year-old chemical engineering student at the University of California, Los Angeles, studying catalysts, the materials that facilitate chemical processes. Catalysts are used across industries such as petroleum and agriculture, helping drive plastics, fertilizers, and other essentials.

But catalysts don’t simply run in a steady, dependable line. Chavez is focused on understanding how catalysts work over time and what happens when they fail. Catalysts—whether they’re proteins. compounds. metals. or other materials—reduce the amount of energy needed to make a chemical reaction go. When they stall or stop, however, chemical processes slow down, yields drop, and reactions can produce incomplete results.

That failure is not an abstract chemistry problem. Chavez points to real-world consequences: slower. less reliable reactions can ripple through industrial agriculture and affect farmers. and ultimately influence the cost of the food supply. Efficient catalysis is also important in pharmaceutical production, where tight control over chemistry can determine whether manufacturing proceeds smoothly.

His goal is straightforward but difficult: if scientists could understand when and how catalysts change—and when they stop working—they could better control the chemistry that depends on them.

To pursue that, Chavez is exploring catalysts under different wavelengths of light. The plan is to learn how a catalyst behaves, then use light to control it once that behavior is understood.

The questions he’s tackling sit at the intersection of energy, manufacturing, and supply. In his work, the same thread runs through different sectors: catalysts can make reactions more efficient, yet can also stall, changing outcomes that matter for food and medicine.

Chavez’s path into chemical engineering started with a teacher, Kelly Silva. After chemistry class. Silva told him. “You have a knack for this. ” and moved him into her advanced chemistry course. urging him to work hard. That early push helped shape where he is now: studying catalysts with a level of persistence that matches the complexity of the problem.

In the background is another kind of instability—one that doesn’t show up in lab measurements. Chavez is trying to stay positive even as federal funding is cut and scientific agencies face instability. With those pressures. he focuses on what he can control: grant applications. teaching. mentoring. and continuing to work on the questions that drive his research.

He also carries responsibility for students who rarely see themselves reflected in science. Chavez comes from an underrepresented group and knows he is a role model. He says he won’t be able to relate to all the students he looks like. but he can still offer tools and confidence so they can forge their own trailblazing paths in science.

This story is part of “The Young American Scientists,” an editorially independent project produced with financial support from Regeneron. A special thanks goes to the Exploratorium in San Francisco, where Chavez’s portrait and video interview were captured.

Steven Chavez chemical engineering UCLA catalysts catalysis science funding federal funding pharmaceutical production agriculture industrial agriculture light-controlled catalysts Young American Scientists