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Nicholas (Nick) Thornburg is a very traditional chemical engineer with formal training from the U.S. chemical industry. He has been a researcher at the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) since 2017. Thornburg investigates multiphase chemical reaction engineering and heterogeneous catalysis for the synthesis, storage, and conversion of small-molecule chemicals and energy carriers—straddling research and development and scale-up activities across six NLR research centers. Thornburg serves as a national subject matter expert in the reaction engineering discipline and regularly teaches an original graduate-level course entitled Advanced Reactor Design. Thornburg is passionate about industrial innovation, entrepreneurship, student development, and pedagogy.

Ammonia synthesis, separation, and utilization as an energy vector

Electrochemical COx conversion, scale-up, and energy systems integration

Continuous photocatalytic conversion of liquid organic hydrogen carriers

Plasma catalysis and reaction engineering for small-molecule syntheses

Contaminant removal for direct recycling of lithium ion batteries

Subsurface reactive extraction and electrochemical separation of critical minerals

Adjunct and Affiliate Professor, Colorado School of Mines (2024–present)

Staff Reaction Engineer, NLR (2020–2023)

Postdoctoral Researcher, NLR (2017–2020)

Polymer Product Design Intern, 3M, Corporate Research Materials Laboratory (2015)

Environmental Remediation Intern, ARCADIS U.S., Inc. (2011)

Research Participant Program Intern, NLR, NBC (2010)