Graduate Student Fellowship

2023 Vagelos Institute Graduate Fellowship Now Accepting Applications

Application Deadline: Friday, May 26, 2023

Nominations and applications are invited for the 2023-2024 class of Vagelos Institute for Energy Science and Technology (VIEST) Graduate Fellows. 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 PhD research is energy focused.

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 2023-2024 academic year and summer 2024. In addition, each Fellow may apply for up to $1,000 in funds to present their research at a conference.

Eligibility: University of Pennsylvania graduate students in SAS and SEAS whose PhD dissertation research is energy focused and who will be in the 3rd or 4th year of their Penn graduate enrollment in 2023-2024 are eligible to apply. The ideal candidate will have a dissertation research project aligned with a large-scale energy research challenge that could significantly mitigate climate change. Students from groups minoritized in STEM are expressly encouraged to apply.

Requirements for Fellows: VIEST Graduate Fellows are expected to:

  • Work full time toward, and continue to make appropriate progress to completion of their PhD dissertation during the award period.
  • Actively participate in VIEST research meetings to forge effective collaboration within the Institute and throughout the Penn campus.
  • Provide input and leadership in planning and organizing VIEST research and career development events.
  • Present their research at campus poster sessions organized by VIEST.
  • Written technical reports will be required in January and August 2024.

How to apply: Complete applications are due by Friday, May 26, 2023, and must include:

  • A letter of nomination from the applicant’s PhD advisor. The letter must comment on the demonstrated ability of the nominee to learn from and contribute to a multi-disciplinary and collaborative research environment. This letter must be on Penn letterhead and emailed directly by the PhD advisor to Nadine Gruhn (ngruhn@sas.upenn.edu)
  • The applicant’s current resume or CV
  • A personal statement that includes:
    • the tentative title of your dissertation and anticipated graduation date
    • a description of your research, written for a scholar outside the major field of study
    • a discussion of how your research contributes to the field of sustainable energy research and how it connects to a large-scale energy research challenge that could significantly mitigate climate change
    • a paragraph discussing your short-term and long-term career goals
    • The personal statement must be no more than two pages in length, not including references (standard letter-size page, 1-inch margins, and at least 11 pt font)
  • An up-to-date, unofficial Penn transcript
  • The resume, personal statement, and transcript must be combined into one pdf file and emailed to Nadine Gruhn (ngruhn@sas.upenn.edu) by no later than 5 pm on May 26. Please use the subject “Graduate Fellow Application [Your Name]”, and name the pdf attachment “YourNameApplication.pdf”

Review Criteria: VIEST Graduate Fellowships will be awarded on the basis of academic excellence, the demonstrated likelihood that the Fellow will become a leader in the next generation of energy scientists and engineers, and alignment of the dissertation project with a large-scale energy research challenge.

Contact: Dr. Nadine Gruhn, VIEST Managing Director, ngruhn@sas.upenn.edu

 


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 is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry advised by Prof. Andrew Rappe. In collaboration with Prof. Tom Mallouk, his current research focuses 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.

Jian Chang

Jian is 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.

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 is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, where he works with Prof. Aleksandra Vojvodic. His research focuses 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.

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 is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry working with Prof. Marisa Kozlowski. Her research focuses 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.


2020 Graduate Fellows

Anthony Curty

Anthony Curto

Anthony is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and works with Prof. Aleksandra Vojvodic. His research is 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.

Anant Jain

 Anant Jain

Anant is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry and works with Prof. Karen Goldberg. His research has 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.

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 is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, working with Prof. Karen Winey. His research project focuses 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.

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 is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry and works with Prof. Jessica Anna. Her research is 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.

Alexandre Foucher

 Alexandre Foucher

Alexandre is a Ph.D. candidate in Materials Science and Engineering and works with Prof. Eric Stach. His research focuses 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.

Jeremy Hitt

 Jeremy Hitt

Jeremy is a Ph.D. candidate working with Prof. Thomas Mallouk in the Department of Chemistry. In his Ph.D. research he has used high-throughput screening methods to find new catalysts for CO2 reduction, and is also 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.

Heesuk Jung

Heesuk Jung

Heesuk is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, where he works with Prof. Shu Yang. His research is 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 and a M.S. in materials science and engineering from Seoul National University in 2012.

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

Drew Newman

 Drew Newman

Drew is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry, where she works with Prof. Karen Goldberg. Her research is 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.

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 is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, where he works with Prof. Eric Detsi. His research is 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.

Jiahao Zhang

Jiahao Zhang

Jiahao is a Ph.D. candidate in Chemistry working with Prof. Andrew Rappe. His research is  aimed at explaining how light, temperature and chemical species influence material properties in ferroelectric perovskites.

 


2018 Graduate Fellows

 

 Joshua A. Bulos

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

 

 John S. Corsi

John is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering working with Prof. Eric Detsi. His research focuses 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.

 

 Jiawei Lu

Jiawei is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry working with Prof. Jessica Anna. His research is motivated to gain insight into the ultrafast dynamics of light-harvesting chromophores and photocatalysts, which are both relevant to solar energy conversion. Hereceived his B.S. from Nanjing University in 2016.

 

 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 in 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 is currently a postdoctoral research associate at MIT, advised by Professor Yang Shao-Horn in the Electrochemical Energy Lab

 

 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 employed 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 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 with Prof. Eric Schelter at Penn.

 

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.

 

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