Profile: Dr. Deno Del Sesto

By Cody Page

                  The third floor of the Shields Science Center is allotted to the chemistry department. There the hallway stretches the length of the building with offices belonging to PhD chemists in physical, analytical, organic, and inorganic chemistry. Each chemistry genre has unique flashiness to it such as violent chemical reactions and even explosions. All genres have their own glamour except for physical chemistry. Physical chemistry for those not scientifically inclined is basically an explanation for the driving forces behind all other chemistry. It is behind the scenes of any process in chemistry like Dr. Del Sesto. 

Del Sesto’s love of science all started in high school “I was destined to do science,” he said with a smirk on his face “I couldn’t stand any other class”. He was much fonder of biology than chemistry initially. “Really what it was is that I liked the biology teacher I had a lot more than the chemistry teacher in high school”.

In college, he declared biochemistry as his major but soon realized biology was not the right major. When he took chemistry courses at St. Anslem College he found chemistry was what he truly enjoyed.

“Again, it came down to my professors… the subject matter wasn’t so much the issue as was the way the professors taught it,” he said. The chemistry professor was who helped him to switch majors and eventually find a career in the field.  

Just like physical chemistry is inconspicuous, Del Sesto is equally as modest. A native of Attleboro, Del Sesto played football and baseball up until high school. He stumbled upon his true athletic calling, golf and became captain his junior year. He soon enrolled in college at St. Anslem. He graduated there and enrolled in graduate school at University of New Hampshire to study physics, but realized he did not love his work and decided to change his focus.

He subsequently enrolled at Tuft School of Arts and Science and obtained his PhD in Physical Chemistry. “It was the hardest eight years of my life,” he said. It wasn’t the school work challenging him, it was life.  He lost both his parents while at Tufts, which “was an extremely difficult time,” he said.

“It was also some of the greatest moments of my life,” he said. He married his wife Kim, and had both his children while at Tufts.

“It was an extremely challenging portion of my life,” he said. It has never been deterred him from reaching his goals.

                  His research while in graduate school at Tufts University was a process known as steam-reforming; a process that was highly inefficient at the time. It is a way of converting natural gas into carbon dioxide and hydrogen, which is further used for synthesizing ammonia. The ammonia that comes out of this process is what is used in synthetic fertilizer, which is used to grow crops and feed one third of the earth’s population. He refers to his contribution as “a small step in a big picture,” where his research “only” tried to find a more efficient way to synthesize ammonia.

                  John Hauck, a biochemistry major, said “you would never be able to tell outside of class that he has his PhD, he is really down to earth”.

He always wears his grey sweatshirt and off tone green cargo pants, a way for him to blend in and not have the focus on him. He would much rather see the glee in a students’ eye’s. 

Del Sesto said the most satisfying aspect about his job is not conducting research, but “when that light bulb moment happens… it’s satisfying when you see those who work hard and figure it out”.