Dr. Jalaal Hayes published a dissertation entitled, “Thermodynamic and Kinetic Studies of Alkali-Metal Doped Lithium Amide-Magnesium Hydride Hydrogen Storage System” in Applied Chemistry. He was 22 years old. The degree was conferred on December 20, 2015, at Delaware State University winter commencement as he was lauded as “the youngest-ever Doctoral Candidate” in the university’s 130-year history.
Since that historic milestone, Dr. Hayes has been featured in various publications including AfroTech, AfroPunk, Marquis Who’s Who, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and many others. He also was featured on a Disney Junior’s “Be Inspired” Black History commercial.
On March 28, 2017, Dr. Hayes was granted his patent entitled Rubidium-Catalyzed Alloys (US Patent No. 9,604,847). In the same year, he gave a TEDx Talk entitled, “The Chemistry of Community Building”, which discuss strategies on how communities can come together to build using chemistry principles. In addition, he is the Founder and CEO of Elyte Universal Network, LLC, a for-profit entity that focuses on STEAM and curriculum development for nonprofit organizations and corporations.
In 2018, Dr. Hayes has been noted as the “Top Influential Chemist of the Year” by the International Association of Top Professionals. The gala was held at the Plaza in which he was one of the youngest awardees in the audience.
In March 2019, he served as a keynote speaker for the Innovative Applied Energy Conference held at the University of Oxford, one of the oldest English-speaking institutions in the world. Later that year (August 2019), he accepted an appointment as a tenure-track Assistant Professor at his alma mater, Lincoln University.
In June 2021, Dr. Hayes released a documentary, Exploding Dreams: A STEAM Story, that discusses his journey in STEM and his plans beyond education.
