September Spotlight: National Hispanic Heritage Month with Carlos Baez-Cotto

In celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month, the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Hydrogen Program is spotlighting Carlos Baez-Cotto, a scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Carlos was awarded the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO) Postdoctoral Recognition Award during this year’s Annual Merit Review and Peer Evaluation in June and was recently recognized as a 2022 Outstanding Mentor at NREL.

Carlos was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico, and earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Puerto Rico in Cayey. He moved to the U.S. to attend the University of Wisconsin for graduate school in 2014, later transferring his studies along with his research group to the University of Minnesota. Carlos was the first in his family to attend graduate school.

“When I think about home, the first word that comes to mind is ‘resilience.’ I think one of the main reasons Puerto Rico made it into global headlines was how quickly we worked to return to a state of normality after Hurricane Maria,” Carlos recalled. “For those of us here on the mainland, we didn’t know the state of our families. We didn’t even know if our houses were still in place.”

In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, Carlos began to struggle in his studies. “My parents didn’t have cell phone reception at their home, so they would have to drive to the highway and stop on the shoulder if they wanted to communicate with me and say, ‘hey, we’re doing well.’ I had to keep my phone with me at all times, and if we had meetings or if I was running experiments, I would have to stop what I was doing if it rang because it was a once-a-day kind of phone call.”

Even during that challenging time, Carlos found support from his university and cohort. “I think they understood the situation, and they were very supportive. In fact, I remember that my advisor reached out to me to let me know that if I had contacts at the University of Puerto Rico, he would help if there was a concern about preserving samples.” Carlos laughed at this statement, realizing that preserving samples may not have been a priority for everyone or the type of support they’d want in this situation. “It’s from a science perspective, but you know, he had connections to actually figure out ways to not hinder their scientific progress in Puerto Rico.”

Carlos brought that same resilience to his transition to life in the U.S. “Something that makes me proud of being Puerto Rican is that sense of perseverance, like they had during the hurricane, and I think I can relate to that. My academic and professional path hasn’t been as straightforward or linear as many of my peers. During my undergraduate years, most of the time, I had a full-time job. When it became too hard to keep up with the workload and school, I still worked part-time.”

Perseverance and resilience helped Carlos face new obstacles, like adapting to speaking English all the time and moving from a tropical climate to harsh midwest winters, all on top of being far from home during Hurricane Maria. “I had it under control from a science perspective, but there were external things I hadn’t accounted for that became challenging.”

Becoming a postdoctoral researcher at NREL allowed him to explore a side of chemistry Carlos hadn’t before, an exciting shift influenced by four summer internships with the National Science Foundation (NSF). “I thought it was fascinating that you can take such a simple and common chemical compound like water and try to produce an alternate renewable power source. I wanted to translate the skills that I had acquired in the lyotropic liquid crystals field to scientific advancements related to renewable energy.”

His current work is on multi-component interactions and catalyst layer inks and their influence on the coding quality and morphological defects during scale-up. This process is crucial in manufacturing, particularly in powering medium and heavy-duty vehicles, which account for a third of the greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. transportation sector. “Cracks in electrodes are no different from cracks in a phone screen or a windshield that threaten integrity. Cracks in electrodes form gaps that allow for the transport of undesirable species, leading to shorter fuel cell lifespans.” 

Carlos has also developed relationships that allow him to grow as an early career professional, including being mentored by Scott Mauger and mentoring Shaylynn Crum, a grad student at the University of Michigan. “It was my first time mentoring someone at NREL, so I did want as much feedback from her as possible. I wanted her experience to be fruitful, but I also wanted to ensure that I was a good mentor moving forward.” As a result of those relationships, Carlos not only furthered his research but also learned the value of communicating and fostering professional relationships. “Scientists are stereotyped as aloof, but being a little bit more engaging definitely helps, especially with others who are just coming here for a summer. This is an opportunity not only for them to learn, but also to make important connections.”

Carlos stressed collaboration as a crucial aspect of his work at NREL, including its internal resource group and his work with the Million Mile Fuel Cell Truck Consortium (M2FCT), a DOE-funded consortium focused on overcoming durability and efficiency challenges in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). HFTO’s Postdoctoral Recognition Award has also provided exposure for Carlos to those wanting to collaborate after seeing his presentation on Formulation Strategies for the Large-Scale Manufacturing of Crack-Free Electrodes.

As he looks forward in his career, Carlos is constantly seeking to investigate and understand different pathways in chemistry. “It’s more about exploring, giving yourself a chance to learn about other fields, and seeing how you respond to them.” He notes that trying something new with every summer internship and remaining curious—along with the drive and resilience he learned from his family and heritage—helped him get to where he is today. He encourages future scientists not to be afraid of trying new things. “They may be the very reason you end up as a scientist at a national lab.”