My Profile

José H. Zagal is a Distinguished Professor at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology of the University of Santiago de Chile and is the Director of  Laboratory of Electrocatalysis and Molecular Electronics. He got his first Degree in Chemistry from the University of Chile in 1973. He got his PhD from Case Western Reserve University in 1978 and was a posdoctoral Fellow at Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1982. He has conducted pioneering studies on establishing reactivity descriptors and volcano correlations for molecular catalysts covering not only fuel cell reactions like O2 reduction and hydrazine oxidation, but also for many other electrochemical processes shwing that these reactivity descriptor seem to be universal. He has also contributed in the field of conductive polymers, sensors and corrosion. He was awarded the Presidential Chair in Science in 1996 by a Committee involving Chemistry Nobel Laureate Rudolph A. Marcus and Physics Nobel laureate David Gross. He has also received several other Chilean awards. In 2014 he was awarded the Fellow category of the Electrochemical Society and also became a Fellow of The International Society of Electrochemistry.  In 2018 he became Emeritus Member of The Electrochemical Society and Fellow of The Royal Society of Chemistry. He is an active Member of the Academy of Sciences of Latin America (ACAL) and of the Academy of Sciences of New York.

He joined the International Society of Electrochemitry in 1990 and founded the Chilean Secretary of ISE in 2002 which now has 40 members.  He served in the nominating committe of ISE since 2002 to 2004. At present he is a co-chair of Molecular Electrochemistry Division 6 od ISE and Chair Elect for 2021-2022.  He is President and founder of the Chilean Association of Carbonaceous Materials and President of the Iberoamerican Society of Electrochemistry (SIBAE). He has published over 260 papers, 9 book chapters, co-authored and edited 4 books, and has been awarded 3 patents. He has served in Editorial Boards for J. Appl. Electrochem. (1988-2010), J. Chil. Chem. Soc. (1984-2007) Electrocatalysis, (2009-2015) and and is presently a member of the Editorial Boards of: J. Solid State Electrochem., Internat. J.  Electrochem.(2010-2019)  and he is presently member of Editorial Boards of : Electrochem. Comm., Frontiers in Chemistry, J. Serbian Chemical Soc., Electrochemical Energy Tech, Current Electrocatalysis and Chimica Nova. He has been a Guest Editor of Special Issues of the Int. J. Electrochem., J. Applied Electrochem., Molecules and Current Opinion in Electrochemistry. He is editor of "Comunicaciones, USACH" He is the most highly cited chemist in Chile.