• Phone: 865-341-1734
• E-mail: dsholl@utk.edu

Education

• PhD (Applied Mathematics) – University of Colorado, Boulder, 1995
• B.Sc.(Hons.) (Theoretical Physics) – Australian National University, 1992

David Sholl, Executive Director and Vice Provost of the University of Tennessee Oak Ridge Innovation Institute (UT-ORII), is also the Director of the Transformational Decarbonization Initiative at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Editor-in-Chief of AIChE Journal.

From 2022–2023, he was a Strategic Policy Advisor for DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations. From 2013–2021, Sholl was the School Chair of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech. He has published over 400 papers and several books. Sholl was on the Board of Directors of AIChE from 2019–2021 and in 2020 chaired the inaugural Gordon Research Conference on Chemical Separations. In 2024, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Awards and Recognitions

• National Academy of Engineering (2024)
• Fellow, American Institute of Chemical Engineering (2019)
• Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (2020)

Publications

1. Assessing impacts of atmospheric conditions on efficiency and siting of large-scale direct air capture facilities, Xuqing Cai, Mark A. Coletti, David S. Sholl, and Melissa R. Allen-Dumas, JACS Au, 4 (2024) 1883-1891
2. A US perspective on closing the carbon cycle to defossilize difficult-to-electrify segments of our economy, Wendy J. Shaw, Michelle K. Kidder, Simon R. Bare, David S. Sholl, Krista S. Walton et al., Nature Reviews Chemistry, 8 (2024) 376-400
3. The Open DAC 2023 dataset and challenges for sorbent discovery in direct air capture, Anuroop Sriram, Sihoon Choi, Xiaohan Yu, Logan M. Brabson, Abhishek Das, Zachary Ulissi, Matt Uyttendaele, Andrew J. Medford, and David S. Sholl, ACS Central Science, 10 (2024) 923-941
4. Machine learning and IAST-aided high-throughput screening of cationic and silica zeolites for alkane capture, storage, and separations, Alan S. S. Daou, Hanjun Fang, Salah Eddine Boulfelfel, Peter I. Ravikovitch, and David S. Sholl, Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 128 (2024), 6089-6105
5. Machine learning models for predicting molecular diffusion in metal-organic frameworks accounting for the impact of framework flexibility, Yuhan Yang, Zhenzi Yu, and David S. Sholl, Chemistry of Materials, 35 (2023) 10156-10168
6. An effective air-liquid contactor for CO₂ direct air capture using aqueous solvents, Abishek Kasturi, Gyoung Gug Jang, Adeola Dona-Tella Akin, Amiee Jackson, Jiheon Jun, Diana Stamberga, Radu Custelcean, David S. Sholl, Sotira Yiacoumi, and Costas Tsouris, Separation and Purification Technology, 324 (2023) 124398
7. Efficient generation of large collections of metal-organic framework structures containing well-defined point defects, Zhenzi Yu, Shubham Jamdade, Xiaohan Yu, Xuqing Cai, and David S. Sholl, Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 14 (2023) 6658-6665
8. Selective uptake of ethane/ethylene mixtures by UTSA-280 is driven by reversibly coordinated water defects, Yutao Gong, Xuqing Cai, Wenqin You, Xiao Jiang, Wei Liu, Ryan Lively, Krista S. Walton, and David S. Sholl, Chemistry of Materials, 35 (2023) 2956-2966
9. Strong degradation of polycarbonate and polystyrene by the CO₂ capture solvent diethyl sebacate, Syed Z. Islam, David S. Sholl, Janice A. Steckel, and Robert L. Thompson, Process Safety Progress, 42 (2023) 371-376
10. Achieving order of magnitude increases in CO₂ reduction reaction efficiency by product separations and recycling, Akriti Sarswat, David S. Sholl, and Ryan P. Lively, Sustainable Energy & Fuels, 6 (2022) 4598-4604