Lehigh Ph.D. wins top engineering honor

José G. Santiesteban traveled from Mexico to Lehigh in 1984 to enroll in the Ph.D. program in the department of chemistry. His grasp of English was limited, and besides his adviser, Prof. Kamil Klier, he knew almost no one in the Lehigh Valley.

Five years later, Santiesteban completed a Ph.D. in physical chemistry and went to work for Mobil—now ExxonMobil—as a researcher in the oil company’s Central Research Laboratory in Pennington, New Jersey.

Last month, Santiesteban received one of the highest honors in his field when he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

Only 2,275 American and 232 foreign engineers are currently members of the NAE, which was founded in 1964 to advise the federal government on engineering and technology policies.

And of the more than 20,000 scientists and engineers who work at ExxonMobil, Santiesteban is the third current employee to be elected to the NAE, following Rex Tillerson, the company’s CEO, and Stuart Soled, a distinguished research associate.

Santiesteban, who now manages ExxonMobil’s Catalyst Technology Division, holds 86 U.S. patents and has published 23 scientific papers and co-edited two special edition journals. He is invited frequently to give plenary talks at national and international conferences. He was cited by the NAE for developing and commercializing catalytic systems that aid in the manufacture of petrochemicals and in the production of cleaner fuels.

“This is an outstanding and well deserved recognition for José,” said Vijay Swarup, Vice President of Research and Development with ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Co. “José has been instrumental in advancing catalytic and process solutions for the fuels and chemicals sectors. From invention to deployment, he has been a driving force for improved processes leading to more efficient chemicals production and cleaner burning fuels.

“José also continues to make a major contribution to the development of our staff,” said Swarup. “He is a trusted mentor to much of the organization.”

Santiesteban and 101 other new NAE members—79 from the U.S. and 22 from other countries—will be inducted in October in a black-tie ceremony at the National Academy of Sciences Building on the Mall in Washington, D.C., across from the Lincoln Monument.

He learned of his election when a handsome purple envelope decorated with the NAE’s official gold seal arrived in the daily mail at his ExxonMobile office in Annandale, New Jersey.

“It was a very formal letter,” Santiesteban says. “It came as a big surprise to me. It was a humbling experience.”

A critical turning point

Santiesteban grew up in Hidalgo del Parral, a small silver-mining town in the southern part of the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Neither his father, a miner, nor his mother had finished elementary school. Santiesteban and four of his six siblings earned college degrees.

“My parents placed a high emphasis on education,” says Santiesteban. “Not going to school was not an option for us.”

In Mexico, Santiesteban earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in chemical engineering from the Instituto Tecnológico de Chihuahua and the Instituto Tecnológico de Ciudad Madero, respectively. He completed his master’s thesis at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México with Profs. Sergio Fuentes and Miguel José Yacamán. The latter now chairs the department of physics and astronomy at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Yacamán introduced Santiesteban to Kamil Klier, with whom he had collaborated on research projects. Klier, who is now a professor emeritus of chemistry, offered Santiesteban a scholarship to study at Lehigh.

The move to Lehigh proved to be pivotal.

“Professionally speaking, I am what I am today because of Kamil Klier,” says Santiesteban. “As an adviser, he was very tough and very demanding, but always in a good way. He pushed his students to achieve, not to be mediocre. The education I got from Kamil Klier allowed me to compete in the outside world.”

Santiesteban also found a warm welcome at Lehigh.

“I cannot say enough good things about Lehigh. It has excellent teachers, a good environment and it is very inclusive. It embraces people from all over the world. My wife, Patricia, and I have fond memories of our time at Lehigh.”

Patricia Santiesteban earned an M.S. in polymer science and engineering from Lehigh. The Santiestebans have two children and both have excelled academically. Their son, Uriel Joseph Santiesteban, a patent attorney in Germany, earned a B.S. in chemical engineering from Lehigh in 2010 and a law degree from the University of Maryland in 2013. Their daughter, Daniela Santiesteban, earned a B.S. in biomedical engineering from the University of Virginia and is now a Ph.D. candidate in the same field at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Except for the years 1996 to 1998, when he worked for Air Products and Chemicals, Santiesteban has spent his entire career with Mobil and ExxonMobil. The two companies merged in 2000. He has advanced steadily—from researcher to group head, to section head, to lab director and finally to manager of ExxonMobil’s Catalyst Technology Division—“all thanks,” he says, “to the education I got at Lehigh.”

The advanced catalysts and processes invented by Santiesteban and his teams have spurred advances in the methods of producing co-monomer precursors used to manufacture the polyesters in clothing and the plastics found in everything from water bottles to computers to automobile parts.

Other molecularly engineered catalysts that have been discovered, developed and manufactured by Santiesteban and his teams are used in refineries to make high-performance lubricants, as well as clean fuels such as ultra-low-sulfur, high-octane gasoline and low-sulfur, high-performance diesel.

“Our goal is to develop catalysts that can be more active and selective and make the clean fuels we need in a more energy-efficient manner,” Santiesteban says. “We’re always striving to manufacture the chemicals and fuels that our society needs in an environmentally friendly manner, and advanced catalysts enable us to do so. We’re also trying to develop materials that can efficiently capture and sequester carbon dioxide.”

All of his successes, says Santiesteban, have resulted from teamwork.

“In industry, you work as a team. All of my accomplishments at ExxonMobil are the result of teamwork. Nothing that I have achieved has been as an individual.

“I feel fortunate. I have benefited from a strong family, strong family values, very good professors in Mexico and at Lehigh, and a good company like ExxonMobil with highly talented people.

“I feel I have been blessed.”
 

Story by Kurt Pfitzer