Nathan S. Lewis is the George L. Argyros Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology. He specializes in functionalization of silicon and other semiconductor surfaces, as well as chemical sensing using chemiresistive sensor arrays. He obtained his B.S. and M.S. degrees also at Caltech under Harry B. Gray in 1977 studying the redox reactions of inorganic rhodium complexes. After that, he moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for his Ph.D. in 1981 under Mark S. Wrighton studying semiconductor electrochemistry.
Lewis also researched cold fusion in the 1980s. When Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announced their discovery of controlled cold fusion at a press conference, Lewis was unable to reproduce the results.
Currently, Dr. Lewis is researching solar energy, and in July, 2010 was named as director of a U.S. Department of Energy Energy Innovation Hub to develop revolutionary methods to generate fuels directly from sunlight . He was named the 17th greatest effector of change by Rolling Stone magazine, and has been appointed chair of the Editorial Board for Energy and Environmental Science.