Catalysis plays a pivotal role in nearly every industrially relevant process for converting low value feed stocks into valuable commodity chemicals. These include processes essential to sustainable chemistry and energy, such as the production of biofuels and the operation of hydrogen fuel cells. USC has long been known for pioneering the concept of the methanol economy in the early 2000’s. Active projects involve detailed structural studies to understand the active sites on the surface of thermocatalytically active oxides to the production of high surface area nanocrystals of metal carbides and phosphides.