Members

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Dr. Michael J. Janik

Dr. Janik is Professor of Chemical Engineering and Acting Department Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering. He began his appointment at Penn State in August, 2006. Dr. Janik received his B. S. in Chemical Engineering from Yale University. Following three years as a Process Engineer for Procter and Gamble, Dr. Janik completed his doctoral studies at the University of Virginia under the advisement of Bob Davis and Matthew Neurock.

Current Members

Ph.D. Students

Angela Nguyen
apn27@psu.edu

B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Lehigh University (2018)

Data-driven discovery of intermetallic catalysts with controlled active site nuclearity
(Co-Advised by Robert Rioux)

 

Andrew Jark-Wah Wong
jaw6647@psu.edu

B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M (2019)

Utilizing DFT/FF-MD to study electrocatalysis and electrode-electrolyte interfacial effects

Hobbies: Music, photography, video games, and being a cat dad

 

Vishal Jindal
Vvj5062@psu.edu

B.S. in Chemical Engineering, IIT Kanpur (2017)

DFT and tight-binding modelling of excitons in push-pull semiconducting copolymers (Co-Advised by Scott Milner)

Hobbies: Cycling, hiking, cricket and politics
Previously at ZS Associates in New Delhi, India (2 yrs.)

 

Jeremy Hu
jih19@psu.edu

B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Rice University (2018)

Density functional theory (DFT) for selective hydrogenation on TiO2-supported single atom catalysts
(Co-Advised by Konstantinos Alexopoulos)

 

Winters Guoa
winters.guo@psu.edu

B.S. in Chemical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University (2018)

Aqueous separation of critical elements using porous materials
(Co-Advised by Gina Noh)

Hobbies: Traveling, cooking, gym time

 

Raheleh Daneshpour                                                                             
rmd5926@psu.edu

B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology
M.S. in Energy System Engineering, University of Tehran

Operando Electronic Structure Determination of Iron and its Time-Dependent Dynamics in FexNi100-x(OH)y Electrooxidation Catalysts

(Co-Advised By Dr. Ezra Clark)

Hobbies: Gardening, hiking, music

 

Jin Li                                                                            
jkl6090@psu.edu

B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology (2020)
M.S. in Chemical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University (2021)

Intermetallic catalysts for selective hydrogenation

 

Nirenjan Shenoy                                                                             nbp5393@psu.edu

B. Tech (Chemical Engineering), Amrita University, India (2021)

Design of Ni/mixed metal oxide catalysts for dry reformation of methane
(Co-Advised by Dr. Gina Noh)

Hobbies: Singing (Carnatic music), cooking, swimming, hiking, adventure sports

 

Shirin Asadi                                                                            
sqa6004@psu.edu

B.S. in Chemical Engineering

Single Atom Catalysts (Hydrodeoxygenation of Benzoic Acid)

(Co-Advised by Dr. Konstantinos Alexopoulos)

Hobbies: Hiking / Traveling / Photography

 

 

Derek Zhu                                                                           
drz5057@psu.edu

B.S. in Chemical Engineering, University of Minnesota

Study of electrochemical system at the electrode/electrolyte interface using a combined DFT and MD approach

(Co-Advised by Dr. Scott Milner)

Hobbies: Chess, board games, Mechanical Keyboards

 

 

Gunnary Sly                                                                     
gls5443@psu.edu

B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Washington State University (2022)

DFT and Machine Learning Approaches to Study Intermetallic Catalysts
Hobbies: Guitar, tinkering, cooking, Home Depot Saturday, and cats.

 

 

Rylee Marks                                                             
ram6979@psu.edu

B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Oregon State University

Electrolysis for Green Hydrogen Production


(Co-Advised by Dr. Ezra Clark)

Hobbies: Going to the gym, snuggling with my cat, traveling, concerts, and jeopardy

Undergraduate Students

         
Eric Sarbacker                        Joshua Miller

Kelly Weikel (18-current, Women in Science and Engineering Research Program, Spring and Fall 2018)
Joshua Miller (19-current, REU Summer 2020)
Brandon Perdue (19-current)
Sushmita Barua (20-current, Women in Science and Engineering Research Program, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021)
Eric Sarbacker (20-current, REU Summer 2020)
Joseph Hughes (20-current)
Lucia Bruschi (21-current)
Gianna Caputo (21-current, Women in Science and Engineering Research Program, Spring 2021)
Erica Selsley (21-current, Women in Science and Engineering Research Program, Spring 2021)
Keegan Napolitano (21-current)
Jaehyung Lee (21-current)

Former Members

Graduate Students

                             
Joel Bombile                     ASM Jonayat                 Ian McCrum                   Gaurav Kumar

                    f         
Sneha Akhade               Thomas Senftle                Jiahua Guo                   Reza Rostamikia            

                           
Siqi Chen                           Iman Savizi                   Kuan-Yu-Yeh               Matthew Krcha           

                                   Kyungtae Lee             Huai-Suen-Shiau          Adam Mayernick         Michael Glasspool          

                                     
Bo Li                                Prithvi Tiperneni          Kayla Maghirang             Nathan Gifford

                           
Monica Akkullu                  Haoran He               Sharad Maheshwari              Shyam Deo

         a                     

Naveen Agrawal             Lars Ostervold           Hoang (Bolton) Tran        Paige Shumskas

Graduate Students Advised:

PhD Degrees Completed:

Adam D. Mayernick, Chemical Engineering (Ph.D., May 2011, currently with Shell)
Jiahua Guo, Energy and Mineral Engineering (Ph.D., May 2011, currently with China International Capital Corporation, Beijing)
Gholamreza Rostamikia, Chemical Engineering (Ph.D., August 2011, currently a visiting scientist at the University of North Carolina – Wilmington)
Kuan-Yu Yeh, Chemical Engineering (Ph.D., December 2012, currently in the chemical industry in Taiwan)
Kyungtae Lee, Chemical Engineering (Ph. D. August 2013, currently working for Samsung)
Matthew Krcha, Chemical Engineering (Ph. D. August 2014, currently working at US Patent Office)
Wenjuan Liu, Materials Science and Engineering (Ph. D. August 2014, currently working for Microvast Inc.)
Siddharth Sitamraju, Energy and Mineral Engineering (Ph. D. December 2014, currently working for Johnson Mathey)
Huai-Suen Shiau, Chemical Engineering (Ph. D. December 2014, currently working at Micron, a semiconductor manufacturing company)
Thomas Senftle, Chemical Engineering (Ph. D. August 2015, currently a faculty member in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice University)
Sneha Akhade, Chemical Engineering (Ph. D. August 2016, currently working as a post-doctoral associate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)
Ian McCrum, Chemical Engineering (PhD, August 2017, currently Assistant Professor in Chemical Engineering at Clarkson University)
Gaurav Kumar, Chemical Engineering (PhD, November 2017, currently working at Air Products)
ASM Jonayat, Mechanical Engineering (PhD, August 2018, currently working at Intel)
Joel Bombile, Chemical Engineering (PhD, December 2018, currently working as a post-doc at U. Kentucky)
Haoran He, Chemical Engineering (PhD, November 2020, currently working at BASF)
Sharad Maheshwari, Chemical Engineering (PhD, November 2020, currently working at Abbvie Inc.)
Shyam Deo, Chemical Engineering (PhD, February 2021, currently working as a post-doc at Stanford University)
Naveen Agrawal, Chemical Engineering (PhD, June 2022, currently working at ExxonMobil)
Lars Ostervold, Chemical Engineering (PhD, March 2023, currently working at Dow)
Hoang (Bolton) Tran, Chemical Engineering (PhD, June 2023, currently working as a post-doc at U. of Michigan)

 

Masters of Science Degrees Completed:

Michael Glasspool, Chemical Engineering (M.S., August 2011, currently with Dupont)
Iman Savizi, Chemical Engineering (MS, May 2010, current position unknown)
Nathan Gifford, Chemical Engineering (MS, August 2014, current position unknown)
Hao Kuang, Chemical Engineering (MS, December 2014, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company)
Monica Roy Akkullu, Chemical Engineering (MS, May 2017, Global Foundries)
Siqi Chen, Chemical Engineering (MS, August 2017, current position unknown)
Bo Li, Chemical Engineering (MS, August 2018, current position unknown)
Prithvi Tipirneni, Chemical Engineering (MS, August 2018, currently pursuing further graduate studies at PSU)
Kayla Maghirang, Chemical Engineering (MS, December 2020, current position unknown)

Undergraduate Research Assistants

                           
Nicole Bernstein        Monica Esopi                   Nolan O’Connor                Spencer Wallace

                                    
Jamie Maximuck         Nicholas Egan                Celine Tesvara                  Greg Mullen

                                
Jacob Held                    Michael Regula              Jennifer Mills                    Sai Lap Jacky Lau

        
Kelly Weikel             Hansel Montalvo Castro 

Undergraduate Research Assistants (* indicates student completed an honors thesis):

Benjamin Guyer (06-07, currently with Arcelor Mittal)
Hanim Lim (07-09, currently in MBA program at Carnegie Mellon University)
Jason Czak (07-08, Summer 07, currently in graduate program at Delaware State University)
Greg Mullen* (Summer 08, 08-11, Chem. Eng. at U. Texas-Austin, NSF Fellow)
Ginger Gronski (Women in Science and Engineering Research Program, Spring, Summer, Fall 2009)
Stephen Pishney (Summer 09, 09-11, currently with Air Liquide)
Austin Antolik (10-11, currently with Shell)
Ruhie Patil (Women in Science and Engineering Research Program, Spring 2010)
Tulsi Patel (REU Summer 2010, undergrad at U. Connecticut)
Nicholas Restaino (REU Summer 2011, undergrad at Clarkson U.)
Monica Esopi* (11-14, Women in Science and Engineering Research Program, Spring+Fall 2011,
currently in Ph.D. program at U. Washington)
Eunmin Lee (11-12, REU Summer 2011, currently in Ph.D. program at Washington U. St. Louis)
Grant Elledge* (11-14, REU Summer 2011, runs a tutoring company in State College, PA)
Jacob Held* (11-13, REU Summer 2011, currently in Ph.D. program at U. Minnesota)
Michael Regula* (11-13, REU Summer 2012, currently in Ph.D. program at Penn State)
Julie Miller* (12-15, Women in Science and Engineering Research Program, Spring-Fall 2012, REU
Summer 2013, currently in Ph.D. program at UCLA)
Jamie Sweeney (12, Women in Science and Engineering Research Program, Spring 2012)
Jennifer Mills* (12-15, Women in Science and Engineering Research Program, Spring-Fall 2012, REU
Summer 2012, currently PhD student at University of Delaware)
Michelle Jang (12, Women in Science and Engineering Research Program, Spring-Fall 2012)
Nicole LaBarge (Galambos)* (12-14, REU Summer 2012, completed MS Environmental Engineering PSU in Spring 2016)
Brian Brady* (12-14, currently at Shell)
Nicholas Gould (REU Summer 2012, undergrad at Cornell U., currently in Ph.D. program at U.Delaware)
Nicole Bernstein* (12-16, Women in Science and Engineering Research Program, Spring 2013, currently at Chevron)
Madeline Iffert (13, Women in Science and Engineering Research Program, Spring 2013)
Nolan O’Connor* (13-17, REU Summer 2014, REU Summer 2015)
Sai Lap “Jacky” Lau (13-16, REU Summer 2014)
Alexander Wait (14-15)
Amanda Gordineer (14)
Nicholas Egan* (14-18, REU Summer 2016)
Robert Nidzyn Jr.* (15-17)
James Maximuck* (15-17, REU Summer 2015)
Benjamin Comer (REU Summer 2015, undergrad at Auburn University, currently in Ph.D. program at Georgia Tech)
Spencer Wallace* (15-19, REU Summer 2016)
Megan Ingalls* (16-19, Women in Science and Engineering Research Program, Spring 2016, Fall 2017)
Olivia Pehanick (16-17, Women in Science and Engineering Research Program, Spring 2016, Fall 2016)
William Sinz (16-17, REU Summer 2016)
Maya Karl (16-19, Women in Science and Engineering Research Program, Fall 2017)
Mariah Paone (16-17)
Celine Tesvara (16-18, currently in Ph.D. program at UCLA)
Lucas Stonitsch (17-18)
Rachel Rizzardi (17-18, Women in Science and Engineering Research Program, Spring and Fall 2017)
Andrew Weaver (REU Summer 2017, Mississippi State University)
Chandler Thomas* (18-19)
Hansel Montalvo Castro (REU Summer 2018, REU Summer 19, University of Puerto Rico – Mayaguez)
Navya Suri (19, Women in Science and Engineering Research Program, Spring 2019)

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