Robert Kennedy is a catalytic and solid-state chemist, driven to create novel solutions to real-world challenges, with over ten years of experience developing chemistry technologies for polymer waste upcycling and biofuels. He studied Chemistry with a concentration in Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Carleton College and earned a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry at Northwestern University for catalytic selectivity through metal-oxide interfaces. While a postdoc at Argonne National Laboratory, he was honored with the Impact Argonne Award for Innovation in 2019 and the PSE Excellence Award in 2020 for his work on catalytic upcycling of polymers.