Biography
Dr. John Gordon earned his B.Sc. (Hons) in Chemistry from the University of Glasgow in Scotland, and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Notre Dame. He completed postdoctoral research at the University of Maryland (College Park) and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).
Dr. Gordon joins UCF from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in Upton, NY, where he served as Chair (Division Director) of the Chemistry Division there. In that role, he oversaw fundamental chemistry research, advanced technologies for energy conversion and storage, fostered institutional partnerships, and helped to strengthen scientific collaborations. Prior to BNL, he spent almost three decades at LANL, where he was appointed to the rank of Laboratory Fellow. While at LANL, he held several leadership positions including Deputy Director of the National Security Education Center (NSEC), Associate Director of the G. T. Seaborg Institute for Transactinium Science, and Group Leader of the Inorganic, Isotope, and Actinide Chemistry Group (C-IIAC) within Chemistry Division.
Dr. Gordon brings extensive management and technical leadership experience as well as decades of research expertise in inorganic/organometallic chemistry and in catalysis for energy applications. His internationally recognized work has focused on developing and advancing clean, sustainable energy solutions and renewable energy chemistries.
Dr. Gordon was a recipient of a US Department of Energy Hydrogen Program R&D Award (for work on improved catalysts for the dehydrogenation of high capacity hydrogen carriers). His achievements have been recognized via the LANL Fellows Prize, and by election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and the American Institute of Chemists (AIC). He was an Invited Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and was recently elected and inducted into Scotland’s National Academy (The Royal Society of Edinburgh) with appointment to the rank of International Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (IntFRSE).
Strongly committed to outreach and mentoring, Dr. Gordon has supported the development of early-career scientists and has supervised numerous students and postdoctoral researchers. He has published more than 115 papers, contributed to 17 patents across diverse chemistry applications, and has served in many professional service capacities. He has served on numerous advisory boards (Inorganic Chemistry (ACS), the European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry (EurJIC, Wiley) and is currently a member of the Advisory Board of the RSC journal Energy Advances.
Awards
2025: Elected and inducted into Scotland’s National Academy of Science and Letters (the Royal Society of Edinburgh, RSE). Appointed to the rank of International Fellow (IntFRSE).
2022: US Department of Energy’s Hydrogen Program R&D Award
2017: Invited Fellow, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
2015: Fellow, American Institute of Chemists
2014: Laboratory Fellow, Los Alamos National Lab (LANL)
2014: Fellow, Royal Society of Chemistry
2011: Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
2011: Fellows Prize, LANL
2010: Exceptional Mentor Award, Chemistry, Life and Earth Sciences Directorate, LANL
News
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Publications
John C Gordon – Google Scholar
Selected Publications:
- B. L. Davis, D. A. Dixon, E. B. Garner, J. C. Gordon, M. H. Matus, B. L. Scott, F. H. Stephens: “Efficient Regeneration of Partially Spent Ammonia Borane Fuel”, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 6812.
- S. K. Hanson, R. T. Baker, J. C. Gordon, B. L. Scott, L. A. “Pete” Silks, D. L. Thorn: “Mechanism of Alcohol Oxidation by Dipicolinate Vanadium(V): Unexpected Role of Pyridine”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2010, 132, 17804.
- A. D. Sutton, A. K. Burrell, D. A. Dixon, E. B. Garner III, J. C. Gordon, T. Nakagawa, K. C. Ott, J. P. Robinson, M. Vasiliu: “A “Single Pot” Approach to the Efficient Regeneration of Ammonia Borane Spent Fuel”, Science, 2011, 331, 1426.
- P. H. Lin, N. C. Smythe, S. I. Gorelsky, S. Maguire, N. J. Henson, I. Korobkov, B. L. Scott, J. C. Gordon, R. T. Baker, M. Murugesu: “Importance of Out-of-State Spin–Orbit Coupling for Slow Magnetic Relaxation in Mononuclear FeII Complexes”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2011, 133, 15806.
- R. T. Baker, J. C. Gordon, C. W. Hamilton, N. J. Henson, P. H. Lin, S. Maguire, M. Murugesu, B. L. Scott, N. C. Smythe: “Iron Complex-Catalyzed Ammonia–Borane Dehydrogenation. A Potential Route toward B–N-Containing Polymer Motifs Using Earth-Abundant Metal Catalysts”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2012, 134, 5598.
- A. D. Sutton, F. Waldie, R. Wu, M. Schlaf, L. A. “Pete” Silks III, J. C. Gordon: “The Hydrodeoxygenation of Bioderived Furans into Alkanes”, Nature Chemistry, 2013, 5, 428.
- A. D. Sutton, J. K. Kim, R. Wu, C. B. Hoyt, D. B. Kimball, L. A. Silks III, J. C. Gordon: “The Conversion of Starch and Sugars into Branched C10 and C11 Hydrocarbons”, ChemSusChem, 2016, 9, 2298. [https://doi.org/10.1002/cssc.201600669]
- M. A. Santiago Cordoba, J. S. Spendelow, A. N. G. Parra-Vasquez, L. A. Kuettner, P. M. Welch, C. E. Hamilton, J. A. Oertel, J. G. Duque, E. J. Meierdierks, T. A. Semelsberger, J. C. Gordon, M. N. Lee: “Ultralight Carbon Aerogels from Co-continuous Emulsions”, Adv. Funct. Mater., 2020, 30, 1908383.
- S. Sharma, G. A. Andrade, S. Maurya, I. A. Popov, E. R. Batista, B. L. Davis, R. Mukundan, N. C. Smythe, A. M. Tondreau, P. Yang, J. C. Gordon: “Iron-Iminopyridine Complexes as Charge Carriers for Non-Aqueous Redox Flow Battery Applications”, Energy Storage Materials, 2021, 37, 576.
- V. K. Do, L. Zhang, A. J. Chavez, N. Alfonso, P. A. Dub, R. P. Currier, J. C. Gordon, T. J. Williams: “Pressurized Formic Acid Dehydrogenation: An Entropic Spring Replaces Hydrogen Compression Cost”, Catal. Sci. Technol., 2022, 12, 7182.
- N. C. Smythe, J. Mondal, J. Duque, R. K. Feller, M. Flores, J. C. Gordon, N. J. Henson, M. Paz-Pasternak, F. N. Rein, B. L. Scott, R. D. Taylor, R. J. Trovitch: “Historical Account of Dinitrogen-Bridged Diiron Complex Synthesis Using a Commercial Tripodal Ligand”, ChemComm, 2025, 61, 9908.