Graduate Student Fellowship

Supported through the generosity of Roy and Diana Vagelos, the VIEST Graduate Fellowship is awarded competitively to exceptional University of Pennsylvania graduate students in SAS and SEAS whose Ph.D. research demonstrates a distinct focus on energy.

VIEST Graduate Fellows will receive financial support toward their graduate work in the form of a standard stipend, general fee, tuition, and health insurance for the corresponding academic year, through summer. In addition, each Fellow may apply for up to $1,000 in funds to present their research at a conference.


2024 Graduate Fellows

Mayesha Ahmed

Mayesha is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry, working with Prof. Karen Goldberg. Her research focuses on the upgrading of C1 and C2 species, generated from CO2 reduction, to alcohols such as methanol and n-butanol that can serve as liquid fuels for energy storage. Mayesha graduated from Amherst College in 2022 with a B.A. in Chemistry and English.

Rani Baidoun

Rani is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering where he works under the supervision of Prof. Dohyung Kim. His research centers on the electrification of chemical reactions on electrode surfaces where he investigates the critical roles of the interfacial microenvironment in either enhancing or inhibiting catalytic reactions, with a particular emphasis on the interactions at the platinum-electrolyte interface. Rani graduated from Lehigh University in 2022 with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and minors in Biomolecular Engineering and Economics.

Stephen Crane

Stephen is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering where he is co-advised by Profs. Kathleen J. Stebe and Ivan J. Dmochowski. His research is centered around the use of lanthanide binding peptide surfactants for use in bio-inspired, foam-based rare earth element separation. Stephen graduated from Lehigh University in 2021 receiving a B.S., with Highest Honors, in Chemical Engineering.

Kritika Jha

Kritika Jha is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry and works with Prof. Zahra Fakhraai. Her research focuses on investigating the kinetic stability of highly confined molecular glasses using solvent vapor annealing techniques to develop more biodegradable and enhanced shelf-life coating and packaging materials. Kritika graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur with a Master’s in Chemistry in 2020.

Pedro Jimenez Antenucci

Pedro is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry, advised by Prof. Marisa Kozlowski. His research focuses on developing methods in chemical recycling of polyolefins, a process of converting waste polymers into higher-value polymers. Pedro graduated from Southeastern Louisiana University in 2020.

Kelly Kopera

Kelly is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry, where she works with Prof. Thomas Mallouk. Her research applies transient absorption spectroscopy to study charge transfer kinetics in Z-scheme solar water splitting systems. Kelly graduated from the College of William & Mary with a B.S. in Chemistry in 2020, and a M.S. in Chemistry in 2021.

William Oprisu

William is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Chemistry, working with Prof. Robert Carpick from the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics. His work is focused on understanding the fundamentals of mechanochemistry in different organic systems with an ultimate goal of development in mechanochemical reactors which will reduce the need of harmful solvents and lead to more energy efficient chemical production. He received his B.S. in Chemistry from Regis University in 2022.

Rachel Thatcher

Rachel is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and works with Prof. Aleksandra Vojvodic. Her research focuses on understanding activity and stability of oxides with the goal of designing efficient, durable and manufacturable (i.e. cost efficient, raw material abundant, etc.) materials for electrocatalysis. Rachel graduated from the University of Connecticut with a B.S.E in Chemical Engineering and a B.S. in Mathematics in 2020. Before beginning her Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania, she worked in the Chemical Engineering R&D group at Merck & Co. Inc.

Boyang “Bobby” Zhang

Bobby is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry working with Prof. Eric Schelter. His research focuses on leveraging the chemical differences of cobalt and nickel complexes to achieve sustainable separation of the two metals, with the goal of recovering valuable materials from spent Li-ion batteries. He graduated from the University of Southern California in 2021 with a B.S. in Chemistry and minor in Communication Design.

2023 Graduate Fellows

Photo of Adam Alfieri

Adam Alfieri

Adam is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering and works with Prof. Deep Jariwala. His research focuses on using strong light-matter interactions in van der Waals materials to enhance light absorption and charge transport in solar energy harvesting devices. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2020 with a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering.

Photo of Yotam Ardom

Yotam Ardon

Yotam is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry, advised by Prof. Karen Goldberg. He studies the reactivity of small molecules with late transition metal complexes, with the goal of developing catalysts for sustainable aerobic oxidation reactions. Yotam graduated from the University of Utah in 2019.

Photo of Qinwen Deng

Qinwen Deng

Qinwen is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, where he works with Prof. Liang Wu. His research uses novel optical probes to study quantum materials, focusing on harnessing giant nonlinear optical effects for efficient photocurrent generation. Qinwen received his B.S. in Physics from Nanjing University in 2020.

Photo of Wenxiao Deng

Wenxiao Deng

Wenxiao is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry where she works with Prof. Thomas Mallouk. Her research focuses on applying a polyelectrolyte-based approach to local environment mapping within bipolar membranes during electrochemical reactions. Wenxiao received her B.S. in Chemistry from Emory University in 2021.

Photo of Weiwei Kong

Weiwei Kong

Weiwei is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, working with Prof. Russell J. Composto. Her research focuses on developing new types of polymer nanocomposites while studying the polymer physics in the developing process as well as studying the electrochemical performances and optical properties for the new-developed nanocomposites. Weiwei received her B.S.E in Polymer Science and Engineering with minors in Philosophy and Dance, Magna Cum Laude, from Case Western Reserve University in 2020.

Photo of Anirban Majumder

Anirban Majumder

Anirban is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and works with Prof. Daeyeon Lee. His research focuses on understanding transport of polymers in nanoporous materials with the goal of designing optimal support materials for heterogeneous catalysis in polymer upcycling reactions. Anirban graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur with a B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering in 2020.

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Jason Marmorstein

Jason is a Ph.D. candidate in the Petersson lab in the Department of Chemistry, studying lanthanide binding peptides with the goal of generating more selective peptides for use in environmentally friendly separation techniques. Jason graduated from Union College in 2021 with a B.S. in Chemistry.

Photo of Sabina Maurer

Sabina Maurer

Sabina is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry where she works with Professor Monica E. McCallum. Her research focuses on adapting biosynthetic enzymes for broader use in organic synthesis and green chemistry. Specifically she is developing enzymatic upcycling of crude oil contaminants to high value chemicals. Sabina received her B.A. in Biology from Columbia University in 2020.

Photo of Cassandra Vu

Cassandra Vu

Cassandra is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry, working in the lab of Professor Marisa Kozlowski. Her research focuses on the functionalization of polyolefins in order to convert them to more valuable materials. Cassandra graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2020 with her B.S in Chemistry.

Photo of Patrick Wang

Jiashu (Patrick) Wang

Patrick is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry and works with Prof. Neil C. Tomson. His research focuses on investigating stepwise N2 reduction within a series of diiron complexes supported by a redox-active macrocyclic ligand. Patrick graduated from William & Mary in 2020 with a B.S. in chemistry.


2022 Graduate Fellows

Yuxuan (Ivy) Dai

Ivy is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, where she is co-advised by Profs. Kathleen Stebe and Daeyeon Lee. The goal of Ivy’s research is to exploit extractant-functionalized nanoparticles at oil-aqueous interfaces for rare earth element cation separations. She graduated from The Pennsylvania State University in 2019 with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering.

Eli Fastow

Eli is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and works with Prof. Karen Winey. His research is part of a collaborative project to develop new approaches to chemical recycling, a process of converting waste polymer molecules into other more valuable compounds. Eli received his B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering, Cum laude, from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2020.

Tianyue (Mary) Gao

Mary works with Prof. Tom Mallouk in the Department of Chemistry, where she is a Ph.D. candidate. Her research focuses on electrochemistry and photoelectrochemistry of energy-related materials such as bipolar membranes. Mary received her B.S. in Chemistry, Magna cum laude, from the Honors Chemistry Program at Boston College in 2019.

Maura Gibbs

Maura is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry, working with Prof. Karen Goldberg. Her research focuses on developing homogeneous catalysts for the dehydrogenation of saturated polymers, with an ultimate goal of allowing upcycling of discarded plastic to more valuable specialty polymers. Maura graduated from Oberlin College in 2020 with a B.A. in Chemistry.

Himanshu Gupta

Himanshu is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry and works with Prof. Eric Schelter. The goal of his research is to understand the f-electron behavior in conducting lattices of redox active small molecules and develop photoconductive and photomagnetic molecular materials. He received his B.Sc in Chemistry of the University of Allahabad in 2017, and a M.Sc. in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, in 2019.

Christopher Johnson

Christopher is a Ph.D candidate in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, working with Prof. Chinedum Osuji. His research focuses on advancing the utility of self-assembled, crosslinkable surfactants for the purpose of size and chemical selectivity in separations and energy generation processes. He received his Honors Bacholor of Chemical Engineering in 2020 from the University of Delaware.

 

Chenshuai Li

Chenshuai works with Prof. Professor Jessica Anna in the Department of Chemistry, where he is a Ph.D. candidate. His research is working to understand the high quantum efficiency of natural light harvesting complexes and exploit their design principles for bio-hybrid and bioinspired solar energy conversion devices. In 2018 he received a B.S. in Chemistry from Peking University.

 

 

Yamilée Morency

Yamilée is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, where she works with Prof. Aleksandra Vojvodic. Her research studies hydrogen related chemistries, including hydrogen production and hydrogen storage, and utilizes machine learning methods to identify ways to speed up the materials discovery process for sustainable chemistries. She received her B.S. in Chemistry of Fordham University in 2020.

 

Maxwell Pisciotta

Maxwell is a Ph.D candidate in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and is co-advised by Profs. Jennifer Wilcox and Peter Psarras. Their research focuses on the development, optimization, and technology-to-market strategies for carbon capture and storage technologies to reduce and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. They received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2017 and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2019, both from the Colorado School of Mines.

John Russell

John is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry and works with Prof. Daniel Mindiola. His research is focused on using vanadium complexes to catalytically synthesize cyclic conjugated polymers with conducting properties and potential for energy storage and energy transport technologies. In 2020 he was awarded a B.Sc. Chemistry Specialist with Distinction from the University of Toronto.

 


2021 Graduate Fellows

Ranadeb Ball

Ranadeb is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry where he works with Prof. Jessica Anna. His research applies ultrafast two-dimensional spectroscopy to understanding the structure and dynamics of equilibrium and non-equilibrium processes. He received his B.Sc. in Chemistry from Presidency University, Kolkata in 2016 and a M.Sc. in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay in 2018.

Sayan Banerjee

Sayan was a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry advised by Prof. Andrew Rappe. In collaboration with Prof. Tom Mallouk, his graduate research focused on designing catalytic systems to perform efficient CO2 reduction. He received his B.Sc in Chemistry in 2016 from Jadavpur University and his M.Sc in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay in 2018. He completed his Ph.D. in 2023 and is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at CalTech with Prof. Jonas Peters.

Jian Chang

Jian was a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. His research, co-advised by Profs. John Vohs and Ray Gorte, explores electrochemical ammonia synthesis and solid-state catalysis for CO2 capture. He received his B.Eng. from Nanyang Technological University in 2015 and a M.Eng from the National University of Singaport in 2018. He completed his Ph.D. in 2023 and is currently a Chemical Engineer at Align Technologies.

Kiyoung Jo

Kiyoung is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering and works with Prof. Deep Jariwala. His research is in the field of surface engineering of next-generation optical materials for light harvesting and confining for signal transduction. He received his B.S. Summa Cum Laude in Electrical Engineering and Materials Science Engineering from Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) in 2013 and a M.S. in Physics from UNIST in 2015. From 2015-2018 he worked as a Research Scientist at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology.

Colin Lehman-Chong

Colin was a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, where he works with Prof. Aleksandra Vojvodic. His research focused on computational studies of solid-phase materials for electrochemical nitrogen reduction to ammonia and carbon mineralization. He received his B.S in Chemical Engineering from the University of Tulsa in 2014, and from 2014-2018 was a Process Engineer with The Ross Group. He completed his Ph.D. in 2023 and in Fall 2023 began a position at Washington State University.

Amy Metlay

Amy is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry, jointly co-advised by Profs. Daniel Mindiola and Tom Mallouk. Her research is aimed at the development of redox active materials for flow battery applications. She received her B.S. in Chemistry with honors from the University of Chicago in 2019.

Zhuoliang Ni

Zhuoliang is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Physics and Astronomy where he works with Prof. Liang Wu. His research uses optical probes to study quantum materials and explore their applications in communication, sensing, and energy harvesting. Zhuoliang received his B.S. in Physics from Fudan University of 2018.

Lucille Wells

Lucille was a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry working with Prof. Marisa Kozlowski. Her research focused on C-H insertion oxidative chemistry with a goal of functionalizing polyolefins toward chemical upcycling of plastics. She received her B.S. in Chemistry in 2018 from the California Institute of Technology and completed her Ph.D. in 2023.


2020 Graduate Fellows

Anthony Curty

Anthony Curto

Anthony was a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and works with Prof. Aleksandra Vojvodic. His research focused on using first-principles computational methods to understand materials with electrochemical energy applications. He received his B.S in Chemical and Biological Engineering, magna cum laude, from the University of Alabama in 2017. He completed his Ph.D. in 2022, and his currently in the PhD Leadership Development Rotational Program at BASF.

Anant Jain

 Anant Jain

Anant was a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry and worked with Prof. Karen Goldberg. His research had a goal of developing catalysts that mimic the reactivity of oxygenase enzymes and using them for the partial oxidation of olefins. He received his B.E. in Chemical Engineering and M.Sc. in Chemistry with honors from the Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani in 2018, and his Ph.D. in 2023. He currently works at Adesis.

Walter Johnsen

Walter Johnsen

Walter is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry, where he works on a collaborative project co-mentored by Profs. Karen Goldberg and Thomas Mallouk. His research is aimed at understanding the reduction of carbon dioxide to multi-carbon products on copper electrocatalytic surfaces through the use of molecular di-coper model complexes. He received his B.A. in Chemistry and Chemical Biology, magna cum laude, from Cornell University in 2018.

Alison Knasin

Alison Knasin

Alison is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry and works with Prof. Eric Schelter. Her research focuses on modeling a lanthanide-dependent methanol dehydrogenase enzyme active site using synthetic, electrochemical, and computational methods. She received her B.A. in Chemistry with distinction from Boston University in 2018.

Tianchang Liu

Tianchang Liu

Tianchang is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry and works with Prof. Neil Tomson. His research is focused on mimicking the key intermediates of industrial and biological N2 fixation with late transition metal complexes supported by redox-active macrocyclic ligand. He received his B.S. from Nankai University in 2018.

Jinseok Park

Jinseok Park

Jinseok was a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, working with Prof. Karen Winey. His research project focused on understand structure-property relationships in single-ion conducting polymer electrolytes that are promising alternatives to liquid electrolytes in batteries. He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University in 2015 and a M.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in 2017. He completed his Ph.D. in 2022.

Daniel Rosen

Daniel Rosen

Daniel is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and works with Prof. Christopher Murray. His research focused on the synthesis of nanocrystals with highly controlled crystalline phases and chemical composition for use as catalytic materials to efficiently reduce small molecules such as CO2. He received his B.S. in Physics and B.S. in Applied Mathematics, summa cum laude, from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania in 2018.

Nathan Rudman

Nathan Rudman

Nathan is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry and works with Prof. Ivan Dmochowski. His research focused on the synthesis and study of organometallic cage-shaped molecules capable of capturing and storing CO2. He received his B.S. in Chemistry, magna cum laude, from Davidson College in May 2018.

Carolyn White

Carolyn White

Carolyn was a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry and worked with Prof. Jessica Anna. Her research used ultrafast two-dimensional electronic and electronic-vibrational spectroscopy to study the dynamics and structure of natural light harvesting complexes. She received her B.S. in Chemical Physics from the University of California, San Diego in 2016, and was awarded an M.S. in Chemistry from Penn in 2021. She is currently a Pharmaceutical Chemist at Catalent Pharma Solutions.

Huiqin Zhang

Huiqin Zhang

Huiqin is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering and works with Prof. Deep Jariwala. Her research is focused on next-generation materials and nano-devices for applications in light-harvesting, sensing and fundamental excited-state phenomena in metals and semiconductors. She received her B.S. in Physics from Fudan University in 2018.


2019 Graduate Fellows

Phoebe Askelson

 Phoebe Askelson

Phoebe was a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry and works with Prof. Jessica Anna. Her research focused on using ultrafast two-dimensional spectroscopy to study the dynamics and photochemistry of nanocage host-guest complexes. She received her B.S. from the University of Washington in Seattle in 2017, and completed her Ph.D. in 2023. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan Department of Physics working wirh Prof. Jennifer Ogilvie.

Alexandre Foucher

 Alexandre Foucher

Alexandre was a Ph.D. candidate in Materials Science and Engineering with Prof. Eric Stach. His research focused on using ex situ and in situ transmission electron microscopy to understand energy-related materials at the atomic level. He earned a combined B.S./M.S. in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Arts et Métiers ParisTech in 2016, and a Professional Master’s Degree of Materials Science from Rice University in 2017. He completed his Ph.D. in 2022 and his currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Prof. Frances Ross.

Jeremy Hitt

 Jeremy Hitt

Jeremy was a Ph.D. candidate working with Prof. Thomas Mallouk in the Department of Chemistry. In his Ph.D. research he used high-throughput screening methods to find new catalysts for CO2 reduction, and was involved in making catalyst supports for hydrogen oxidation and oxygen reduction in alkaline media for use in hydrogen fuel cells. He received his B.S. in Chemistry in 2017 from the University of Alabama, and began his Ph.D. work at Penn State in 2017 before moving to Penn in 2019 with the rest of the Mallouk group. He completed his Ph.D. in 2022 and is currently a Senior Engineer at Form Energy.

Heesuk Jung

Heesuk Jung

Heesuk was a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, where he works with Prof. Shu Yang. His research focused on developing radiative cooling technologies to overcome the heat vulnerability of solar cells. He earned a B.S. in ceramics engineering in 2010 from Yonsei University, a M.S. in materials science and engineering from Seoul National University in 2012, and his Ph.D. in 2022. He is currently a postdoctoral research scholar at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology.

Tao Li

 Tao Li

Tao was a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry, where is worked with Prof. Joe Subotnik. His research focused on the development of efficient semiclassical simulation methods towards light-matter interactions, and the use of state-of-art simulation tools to study light-involved phenomena such as energy transfer. He received his B.S. in chemistry from Nanjing University in 2016 and was an exchange student at Uppsala University. He received in Ph.D. from Penn in 2021 and is currently a postdoctoral research fellow with Prof. Sharon Hammes-Schiffer in the Department of Chemistry at Yale University.

William Neuhaus

 William Neuhaus

William was a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry and works with Prof. Marisa Kozlowski. In his research he developed methods to regioselectivity homocouple alkenyl phenols, which was appllied to the oxidative degradation of lignin to useful products. He received a B.S. in chemistry from Rowan College in 2017, and his Ph.D. from Penn in 2021. He is currently a Scientist with Veranova.

Drew Newman

 Drew Newman

Drew was a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry, where she works with Prof. Karen Goldberg. Her research focused on developing catalysts for the homogeneous conversion of methane to methanol using molecular oxygen as a cheap and sustainable oxidant. Drew received her B.S. from the University of Wyoming in 2015, began her graduate work at the University of Washington, and transferred to the University of Pennsylvania in 2017 with the rest of the Goldberg group. She received her Ph.D. in 2022, and his currently a Patent Examiner with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Abhinav Raman

Abhinav Raman

Abhinav was a gradauate student in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, where he worked with Prof. Aleksandra Vojvodic. His research focused on understanding and predicting the chemical properties of complex oxides using computational first-principles methods, with a goal of aiding the rational design of catalysts for sustainable chemistry and materials for energy conversion and storage. He received a B.Tech. from SASTA University in 2013 and his M.S. in 2016 from Rutgers University. He was awarded a Ph.D. from Penn in 2021 and is currently a postdoctoral research associate with Prof. Annabella Selloni in the Department of Chemistry at Princeton University.

Sam Welborn

Sam Welborn

Sam was a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, where he worked with Prof. Eric Detsi. His research focused on the development of a new class of miniaturized three-dimensional (3D) nanocapacitors, which are capable of storing more energy than conventional 2D capacitors in the same footprint area. He received a dual B.S./B.A. in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry Summa Cum Laude from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 2016, and his Ph.D. from Penn in 2022.

Jiahao Zhang

Jiahao Zhang

Jiahao was a Ph.D. candidate in Chemistry working with Prof. Andrew Rappe. His research was aimed at explaining how light, temperature and chemical species influence material properties in ferroelectric perovskites. He received his Ph.D. in 2023 and is currently a Quantitative Researcher with Wells Fargo.

 


2018 Graduate Fellows

 

 Joshua A. Bulos

Josh was a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry working with Prof. Ivan Dmochowski. His research was aimed at using ferritin-encapsulated enzymes for CO2 sequestration and reduction. Josh received his B.S. with honors from Haverford College in 2016 and his Ph.D. from Penn in 2022. He is currently a Scientist at Regeneron.

 

 John S. Corsi

John was a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering working with Prof. Eric Detsi. His research focused on nanoporous metals and their use for next-generation electrochemical energy storage. John and Prof. Detsi are co-founders of the startup Hydropore LLC. He received his B.S. Magma Cum Laude from the University of Connecticut in 2016, and his Ph.D. from Pnn in 2021.

 

 Jiawei Lu

Jiawei was a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry working with Prof. Jessica Anna. His research was motivated to gain insight into the ultrafast dynamics of light-harvesting chromophores and photocatalysts, which are both relevant to solar energy conversion. He received his B.S. from Nanjing University in 2016, and a Ph.D. from Penn in 2022. He is currently an Associate at McKinsey & Company.

 

 Benjamin A. Paren

Ben was a graduate student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, where he works with Prof. Karen Winey. His research project focused on characterization of polymers with highly precise structures for use as solid polymer electrolytes and fuel cell membranes. He received both his B.S. (dual major in Materials Science and Engineering, and Engineering and Public Policy) and M.S. from Carnegie Mellon University. He received a Ph.D. from Penn in 2021 and was than a postdoctoral research associate at MIT, advised by Professor Yang Shao-Horn in the Electrochemical Energy Lab. In Fall 2023 he began a position as Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at Stevens Institute of Technology.

 

 Paul A. Pepin

Paul received his Ph.D. in 2019 from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, working with Prof. John Vohs. His research, in collaboration with Prof. Chris Murray, utilized metal oxide nanocrystals of well-defined size and shape to understand how structure influences the catalytic activity of a material. Paul earned is B.S. in Chemical Engineering in 2008 from the University of South Carolina, and worked as an engineer in industry until he decided in 2014 to pursue a graduate degree focused on energy-related science and technology. He is now a Technical Manager at Ingevity.

 

 Sophie Rubashkin

Sophie was a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry, where she worked with Prof. Karen Goldberg. Her research focused on developing organometallic complexes as homogeneous catalysts for alkane functionalization with application to the sustainable production of chemicals. Sophie received her B.A. from Barnard College in 2015, began her graduate work at the University of Washington, and transferred to the University of Pennsylvania in 2017 with the rest of the Goldberg group. She was awarded a Ph.D. from Penn in 2021, and is currently a postdoctoral research associate at the Center for Molecular Electrocatalysis at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory with Dr. Morris Bullock.

 

 Jothi Priyanka Thiruraman

Priyanka was a graduate student in Electrical and Systems Engineering, working in the laboratory of Prof. Marija Drndíc in the Department of Physics. Her research investigated the ionic selectivity of angstrom-size pores in 2D materials for use as nanoporous membranes for water desalination. She earned her Bachelor degree from Manipal Institute of Technology and a M.S. in Engineering, Nanotechnology from the University of Pennsylvania prior to beginning her Ph.D. studies in 2016. She was awarded a Ph.D. from Penn in 2021 and is now employed as an LTD Thin Films Process Engineer at Intel Corp.

 

Alexander B. Weberg

Alex was a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry, working with Prof. Neil Tomson. His research involved incorporating strategically-oriented electrostatic fields within metal complexes to control the activation of small molecules such as dioxygen and dinitrogen. He received his B.S. Magna Cum Laude from Macalester College in 2015. He received his Ph.D. from Penn in 2021 and is currently a postdoctoral research associate at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

 

Qinghua Zhao

Qinghua was a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry, working with Prof. Cherie Kagan. Her research explored the use of colloidal nanocrystals as building blocks for materials useful as photocatalysts or smart optics. She received her B.S. in Materials Chemistry from Peking University. She was awarded a Ph.D. from Penn in 2021 and is currently a Process Engineer at Applied Materials.