Current Ph.D. Students
Daniela Bushiri
Email: [email protected]
Research Interests: Designing earth abundant electrocatalysts for the production of green fuels in harsh conditions such as hydrogen from seawater and ammonia from waste nitrates.
Samay Garg
Email: [email protected]
Research Interests: Investigating electrocatalytic pathways for the conversion of CO2 and hydrocarbons to value-added products.
Marcus Yu
Email: [email protected]
Research Interests: Investigating CO2 activation on metal and metal oxide model surfaces.
Nathaniel Nichols
Email: [email protected]
Research Interests: Developing stable and active electrocatalysts with reduced precious metal loadings.
William Wei
Email: [email protected]
Research Interests: Studying tandem electrochemical-thermochemical catalytic processes for enhanced CO2 conversion.
Roulince Bobby Dukuly Jr.
Email: [email protected]
Research Interests: Designing cost-effective and highly active transition metal carbide- and nitride- based electrocatalysts for electrochemical upgrading of glycerol into valuable chemicals and renewable fuels.
Camille Kuwana
Email: [email protected]
Research Interests: Developing tandem electrocatalytic and thermocatalytic processes for electrochemical upcycling of CO2.
Postdocs and Research Associates
Dr. Yong Yuan
Email: [email protected]
Research Interests: Investigating CO2 reduction and hydrocarbon conversion through the design of novel materials, and understanding reaction mechanisms via in-situ/operando characterizations, kinetics, and computational studies
Dr. Erwei Huang
Email: [email protected]
Research Interests: Computational multiscale modeling on heterogeneous catalysis for C1 chemistry; Theory-guided materials design for carbon neutralization and green energy development. Resume
Dr. Sinwoo Kang
Email: [email protected]
Research Interests: Understanding the mechanism of electrochemical water splitting in membrane electrode assemblies via in situ/operando characterization.
Dr. Jiahua Zhou
Email: [email protected]
Research Interests: Investigating CO2 reduction and hydrocarbon conversion into value-added products, and understanding reaction mechanisms via in-situ characterizations and reaction kinetics.
Dr. Wenjie Liao
Email: [email protected]
Research Interests: Theory-driven modeling of heterogeneous catalysis, coupled with AI/ML method development for interpretable, reliable, generalizable screening of catalysts with high activity and selectivity.
Dr. Liyue Zhang
Email: [email protected]
Research Interests: Design of efficient electrocatalysts for seawater electrolysis and alkane activation, and fundamental understanding of reaction mechanisms through in situ characterization.
Dr. Xue Han
Email: [email protected]
Research Interests: Designing and understanding advanced electrocatalysts for electrochemical reactions through metal–support interactions, electronic structure modulation, and in situ/operando characterizations, with a focus on elucidating structure–activity–stability relationships.
Dr. Tianyou Mou
Email: [email protected]
Research Interests: Advancing computational chemistry through the integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning to accelerate materials discovery and catalytic design.
Recent Graduates/Alumni
Dr. Zhenhua (Harvey) Xie
Email: [email protected]
Research Interests: Understanding and developing advanced catalysts for the upgrading of CO2 and shale gas or renewable hydrogen into value-added chemicals using combined approaches of kinetic analysis, in situ synchrotron characterizations and theoretical calculations.
Kevin Turaczy
Email: [email protected]
Research Interests: Studying transition metal nitrides for HER electrocatalysis via surface science techniques.
Dr. William Porter
Email: [email protected]
Research Interests: Investigating the epoxidation of olefins using surface science techniques.
Current: AIRCO
Dr. Hansen Mou
Email: [email protected]
Research Interests: Investigating the electrocatalytic properties of transition metal carbides and oxides for the reduction of alcohols to value-added products.
Current: Linde Engineering
Dr. Qiaowan Chang
Email: [email protected]
Current: Assistant Professor, Washington State University
Dr. Neal Biswas
Email: [email protected]
Research Interests: Optimizing the electrocatalytic activity of transition metal carbides for hydrogen evolution and CO2 reduction.
Current: McKinsey & Company
Dr. Zhexi Lin
Email: [email protected]
Research Interests: Catalytic transformation of biomass-derived oxygenates with metal carbide, nitride, and oxide catalysts using combined DFT calculations, model surface experiments, and powder catalysts evaluations. Resume
Current: Associate Research Scientist, Esposito Group, Columbia University
Dr. Lea Winter
Email: [email protected]
Research Interests: Catalytic catenation of CO2 and methane to form hydrocarbons using non-precious metal catalysts and plasma. Resume
Current: Assistant Professor of Chemical & Environmental Engineering, Yale University
Dr. Brian Tackett
Email: [email protected]
Current: Robert & Sally Weist Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, Purdue University
Dr. Nongnuch Artrith
Email: [email protected]
Research Interests: Atomistic computational materials simulations for energy applications, and development of machine learning models for accelerating the generation of fundamental materials insights (http://ann.atomistic.net).
Current: Assistant Professor, Utrecht University
Dr. Steven Denny
Email: [email protected]
Research Interests: Probing transition metal carbides as catalyst supports for a broad range of electrochemical reactions. Characterizing TMCs using surface science techniques.
Current: Arnold & Porter
Dr. Ji Hoon Lee
Email: [email protected]
Research Interests: Developing and analyzing novel functional materials for energy storage and conversion with in-situ X-ray techniques. Resume
Current: Associate Professor, Kyungpook National University