Brenda L. Garcia, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer

Brenda L. Garcia received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez in 2001. During her undergraduate she interned at Pharmacia/Upjohn and participated in a NSF-REU program in environmental catalysts at the University of South Carolina under the guidance of Dr. Michael Amiridis. She obtained a M.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico under the direction of Professor Jaime Benitez in 2003. Her master's thesis was written on the use of a parallel plate electrochemical reactor for the removal of lead from groundwater. This work was performed in collaboration with the Army Corp of Engineers at the Water Ways Experiment Station in Vicksburg, MS.

Brenda's interest in electrochemistry carried her back to the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of South Carolina where she obtained her Ph.D. under the guidance of Dr. John Weidner. Her primary field of research was in Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (DMFCs). Brenda's research was focused on understanding the individual losses in a DMFC, modeling of these individual losses and methanol crossover, as well as development of novel Nb-doped TiO₂ electrocatalyst supports. She has worked with industry members on DMFC related projects in the NSF Center for Fuel Cells at USC. Her work has involved international collaborations with researchers at Cambridge and the Fraunhofer Institute.