Dr. Bob McCabe

PodCAT

Dr. Bob McCabe is the former Program Director of the NSF CBET-Catalysis program after retiring in February 2025. Bob's interest in catalysis began as an undergrad student in chemical engineering at the University of Houston through a combination of catalytic reaction engineering, an elective survey course in catalysis, and a senior design project involving the Andrussow process for HCN catalyzed by a Pt-Rh gauze. The latter, via a collaboration between Dan Luss and Lanny Schmidt, led to Bob’s graduate work at the University of Minnesota under Lanny involving UHV surface science studies of CO and H2 adsorption on various single-crystal Pt surfaces. After graduation, Bob worked for a couple years at Conoco in Ponca City, OK on hydrodesulfurization catalysis before moving to the Detroit area for a 36-year career in automotive catalysis split between GM (10 years) and Ford (26 years). While contemplating retirement in 2014, Bob lucked into a program director position at NSF where he spent 10 wonderful years leading the Catalysis program in the CBET division, before his recent “final” retirement at the end of February. In retirement, Bob is excited about keeping up with the catalysis and reaction engineering communities by serving on the AIChE CRE division Section 20 program committee. Outside of catalysis, his interests include renovating his new (older home) in Leesburg, VA, riding his bicycles, repolishing his clarinet skills, and hanging out with his 4 grandkids and their families.