The amount of current generated within the PEM fuel cell catalyst layer strongly depends on the local conditions such as the concentration of available oxygen, total surface area available for reaction, and the amount of ionomer. Performing optimization of a PEM fuel cell model incorporating all effects would involve solving a highly nonlinear optimization problem with constraints. A discussion covers two different optimization formulations for minimizing the platinum loading and maximizing the performance in terms of power generated; optimization studies performed for operating points; maximizing the generated power; presence of local optima; multi-objective nature of the fuel cell catalyst design problem; and a measure based on the Pt usage. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 2006 AIChE Annual Meeting (San Francisco, CA 11/12-17/2006).