Alexander Urban
Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering
Alex's research focuses on understanding and developing materials and processes for clean-energy applications through atomic-scale modeling and data science. He obtained his Ph.D. from FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany and conducted postdoctoral research at MIT and UC Berkeley. In 2018, Alex was an independent University Fellow in the School of Chemistry at the University of St Andrews (UK), before joining the Department of Chemical Engineering at Columbia University in 2019. In 2019, Alex was named a Scialog Fellow for Advanced Energy Storage by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement. In 2024, he received the CAREER Award of the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Research Areas
- Energy Storage and Conversion
- Batteries and Fuel Cells
- Electronic Structure of Materials
- Materials Genomics
- Machine Learning
Additional Information
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Professional Experience
- Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, 2025–
- Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, 2019–2025
- Independent Research Fellow, School of Chemistry, University of St Andrews, 2018
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Education
- PhD (Dr. rer. nat.), Chemistry, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg
- MSc and BSc, Chemistry, Ruhr-University Bochum
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Honors & Awards
- 2024, NSF CAREER Award