Robert Mokaya

In 1996 Mokaya was named an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Advanced Fellow, and by 2000 he had been made a lecturer at the University of Nottingham.^[7] In 2008 he was appointed Professor of Materials Chemistry.^[8] In 2017 Mokaya was awarded a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award.^[9]

He investigates novel materials for carbon sequestration, focusing primarily on hydrogen fuel cells. Mokaya considers porous materials and their structure-property relationships. Nanostructured porous materials contain significant internal volume, which can be used for enhanced gas storage. Amongst these, Mokaya has studied mesoporous molecular sieves, porous carbons and zeolite templated carbons.^[7] He forms the nanoporous carbons by filling organic materials into porous inorganic structures, then heating them to the temperature at which they turn into pure carbon.

Mokaya was appointed Pro Vice-Chancellor for Global Engagement at the University of Nottingham in 2019.^[10] He was part of a Royal Society programme to strengthen the capacity of African researchers to design, synthesise and optimise porous materials.^[11]

In June 2024 Mokoya took up the post of Provost and Deputy-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Sheffield.^[12]

On September 1, 2025 Mokoya stepped down from his role at the University of Sheffield to focus on other activities.^[2]

From July 2025 Mokoya took over as President Elect of the Royal Society of Chemistry.^[1]

Mokoya was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to the chemical sciences.^[13] In 2023, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS).^[14]

As of March 2022,^[update] Mokaya is the only black chemistry professor in the United Kingdom and stated that UK Research and Innovation has rejected all of his funding applications.^[15]

• Yang, Zhuxian; Xia, Yongde; Mokaya, Robert (2007-02-01). "Enhanced Hydrogen Storage Capacity of High Surface Area Zeolite-like Carbon Materials". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 129 (6): 1673–1679. Bibcode:2007JAChS.129.1673Y. doi:10.1021/ja067149g. ISSN 0002-7863. PMID 17243684.
• Xia, Y.; Mokaya, R. (2004). "Synthesis of Ordered Mesoporous Carbon and Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Materials with Graphitic Pore Walls via a Simple Chemical Vapor Deposition Method". Advanced Materials. 16 (17): 1553–1558. Bibcode:2004AdM....16.1553X. doi:10.1002/adma.200400391. ISSN 1521-4095. S2CID 93117926.
• Matabosch Coromina, Helena; A Walsh, Darren; Mokaya, Robert (2016). "Biomass-derived activated carbon with simultaneously enhanced CO2 uptake for both pre and post combustion capture applications". Journal of Materials Chemistry A. 4 (1): 280–289. doi:10.1039/C5TA09202G. S2CID 98729819.