Meet the Principal Investigator!
Dr Seong Kim
Dr. Kim’s career path has been unconventional, but quite innovative and impactful. His educational background was physical chemistry; but he now teaches and works in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Penn State. His research during his PhD and postdoctoral works focused on ultra-high vacuum surface science studies related to heterogeneous catalysis; however, his current research at Penn State explores different frontiers – tribology (a subject perhaps more known in mechanical engineering), silicate glass (usually considered in materials science disciplines), and plant cell walls (also called lignocellulose biomass by engineers). The crux of these seemingly disparate programs is a fundamental understanding of surface science and characterization principles and the application of those principles to research fields that need such expertise, even though they may be outside the comfort zone of his past education and training. In doing so, he has questioned assumptions that others have taken for granted in each field, proposed new alternative hypotheses, listened to criticisms, and improved the proposed theories. Through these efforts, his team has established fundamental knowledge in molecular tribology, glass surface science, and biological materials, which is critically needed for engineering applications.
Meet the Graduate Students!
Jongcheol Lee
PhD Candidate, Department of Chemical Engineering
Cellulose Structure and Development
Juseok Choi
PhD Candidate, Department of Chemical Engineering
Cellulose Structure and Development
Yu-Sheng Li
PhD Student, Department of Chemical Engineering
Tribology
Andrew Ogrinc
PhD Candidate, Department of Chemical Engineering
Glass Surface Science
Yiwen Guo
PhD Student, Department of Chemical Engineering
Polymer Coatings
Jihyeong Ryu
PhD Student, Department of Chemical Engineering
Spider Silk
Mason Link
PhD Student, Department of Chemical Engineering
Glass Surface Science
Ruichuan Yuan
PhD Student, Department of Chemical Engineering
Tribology of thermally-produced carbon
Mehmet Arda Ozay
PhD Student, Department of Chemical Engineering
Nucleation in glass
Nahian Siddique
PhD Student, Department of Chemical Engineering
Tribology
bmk5947@psu.edu
Bahareh Kheilnezhad
PhD Student, Department of Chemical Engineering
Glass-Ceramics
ivg5123@psu.edu
Ilke Gurgan
PhD Student, Department of Chemical Engineering
Mechanochemical Coal Gasification at Ambient Temperature
qxl5@psu.edu
Qian Lu
PhD Student, Department of Chemical Engineering
Development of a Sulfur-rich polymeric material for Lithium-Sulfurized polyacrylonitrile (SPAN)Battery