Cafer T. Yavuz received his PhD from Rice University in 2008 with a Welch scholarship under the supervision of Vicki Colvin. He then worked as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Santa Barbara, with Galen Stucky. He started his independent group in 2010 at KAIST, Korea. He is currently a professor of chemistry at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia. His research focuses on the design and synthesis of nanoscale and porous materials for applications in energy and the environment. He uses fine chemistry in confined spaces to enable rapid and targeted transformations of CO₂, methane, and water.