WEEK 11 – Engineering Solutions to Climate Change

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Taken from – Elimelech Research Group, Yale University

Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, 2020
M.Phil. Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, 2019
M.S. Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, 2017
B.S. Chemical Engineering, Yale University, 2015

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Lea joined the Elimelech Research Group in Sep. 2020 to pursue research on the development of sustainable reactive electrochemical membranes for water decontamination. Her research focuses on novel electrochemical methods to reduce nitrate from wastewaters and to convert nitrate to valuable products. Lea is financially supported by the Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT) as a Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow.

Lea received her PhD in Chemical Engineering at Columbia University under Professor Jingguang G. Chen. As an NSF Graduate Research Fellow, she researched the conversion of CO2 and N2 to chemicals and fuels using non-precious metal heterogeneous catalysts and non-thermal plasma activation. Lea obtained her B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Yale. During her undergraduate studies, she researched osmotic back-flushing for biofilm removal on desalination membranes in the Elimelech Research Group. She also completed research fellowships abroad, in combustion of nitrogen-based fuels at the Technion Institute, in plasma modification of polymer surfaces at the École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Paris, and in immunogenomics at the Weizmann Institute.

At Columbia, Lea founded SciRISE, a high school internship program for students who recently immigrated to the US to pursue independent research projects. As an undergraduate, she was a co-founder of the Yale Summer Science Research Institute. In addition to STEM education and outreach, Lea enjoys teaching, choreographing, and performing classical and contemporary ballet; training animals; and hiking.