Affiliation: University of Rochester

Agnes E. Thorarinsdottir was born and raised in Iceland and graduated with a BS in chemistry from the University of Iceland in 2015. She then moved to the US to pursue her doctoral studies and graduated with PhD in chemistry from Northwestern University in 2020. At Northwestern, Agnes worked under the supervision of T. David Harris. Her doctoral work focused on manipulating the electronic structure of transition metal-based molecular compounds to design bioresponsive magnetic resonance imaging probes and to elucidate design principles for molecule-based magnets with high operating temperatures. In 2020, Agnes moved to Cambridge, MA, to join the research group of Daniel Nocera at Harvard University. As a Harvard University Center for the Environment Postdoctoral Fellow, her work in the Nocera group centered on the design of electrocatalysts and electrochemical systems that address current challenges in energy. She spearheaded a collaborative effort between the Nocera and Mason groups at Harvard to study the effects of microporous water on electrocatalytic reactions of energy relevance. Agnes started her independent career in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Rochester in July 2023. The Thorarinsdottir group combines expertise in synthetic molecular and materials chemistry and electrochemistry to design new electrochemical systems with advanced properties for applications in energy and catalysis.