Mahdi Abu-Omar

Mahdi Abu-Omar is the Mellichamp Professor of Green Chemistry at UC Santa Barbara, where Mahdi mentors and teaches chemistry and chemical engineering. Additionally, Mahdi is the Founder & CEO of Spero Renewables, a green chemistry company focusing on plant-based substitutes to petroleum products. Abu-Omar has also held positions at the Center for Catalytic Conversion of Biomass to Biofuels, Purdue University, and UCLA. Their expertise lies in catalysis, renewable energy, sustainable chemistry, and bioinorganic chemistry. Mahdi holds a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Iowa State University.