Our research focuses on figuring out the details of how catalysts and (catalytic) reactions work. It’s always surprising to me that catalysis – which influences a third of the global gross domestic product – is generally employed empirically, often without any significant degree of fundamental understanding. A big reason for that is that the reactions are incredibly complex, with a cohort of important events all happening at the same time. Finding ways to study them, under realistic conditions, in spite (or rather, making use of) of their complexity is the aim of my group.