Dr. Jean-Luc Ayitou is just starting his professorial career at the Illinois Institute of Technology, but he just won the Chem Dept's FIRST National Science Foundation (NSF) Early CAREER Award! #blackhistorymonth . His research blends synthesis, photochem, and photophysics in the fields of Energy, Materials, and Sustainability. Ultimately, he aims to explore the basic science of organic crystalline materials to make organic electronics ... all while adhering to the 12 principles of Green Chemistry. Further, he's started a program called VISCUS (Vivifying Scientific Curiosity for Underrepresented Undergraduate Students), in which students use advanced spectroscopy investigate common natural photochemical processes. He earned his BS and PhD at the University of North Dakota, and did a postdoc at UCLA. 
Learn more about this intriguing Chicago up-and-comer, including his many prizes, on his lab's websites:
https://science.iit.edu/people/faculty/jean-luc-ayitou
http://jeanluc-group.com
http://jeanluc-group.com/about-the-pi/