Sourav, Sagar

Sagar Sourav

Profile

Sagar Sourav is a Ph.D. scholar in the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Lehigh University.  He is doing his research under the guidance of Professor Israel E. Wachs. He is also a Graduate Fellow at Idaho National Laboratory, working with Dr. Rebecca R. Fushimi. He conferred his Master’s degree from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur and Bachelor’s degree from the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Rourkela (both in Chemical Engineering). He also has a short industrial exposure of two years as a Process Engineer in Haldia Petrochemicals Limited.

Areas of Research

Heterogeneous Catalysis, Spectroscopic Techniques, Transient Kinetics Techniques, Surface Chemistry, Hydrocarbon Conversion, and Upgradation.
Complex Fluids and Polymer science

Research Experience

Sagar is currently working on the Oxidative Coupling of Methane (OCM) reaction. The objective of this research project is two-fold: To establish the molecular level structure-activity/selectivity understanding under OCM operating conditions and to apply the molecular level insights to rationally design a lower temperature OCM catalyst with higher activity and selectivity for decreased process energy load. He is utilizing various in-situ and operando spectroscopic techniques and Temporal Analysis of Products (TAP) reactor technique to gain molecular-level structural insight of the catalysts under working conditions and OCM reaction pathways. He is also working on Designing Cr-free High-Temperature Water-gas Shift (HT-WGS) catalysts.

For his Master’s thesis, he worked on Phase Behavior of Pluronic F127, where he focused on understanding the Rheological Aspects of the phase transition in aqueous solutions (for the concentration of 20-35 wt% and temperature of 0°-100°C). The knowledge was used to construct a Phase Diagram for the above system. In addition to this, the Gelation Kinetics and the Fractal Dimension associated with the gel structure was also investigated by him.

During his Bachelor’s project, he focused on the Production of Hydrogen enriched Syn-gas through absorption in a packed column. The rate-based non-equilibrium, RateFrac model of ASPEN PLUS simulator was used for theoretical column design. Based on this experience, a lab-scale absorption column was also designed, where CaO was used as absorbent, to obtain hydrogen-enriched syngas.

In addition to the Academic research projects, Sagar has short internship experience in the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) Rourkela and National Aluminium Company (NALCO) Damoanjodi.

 

Silva, Manoj

Manoj Silva

Email:
mrs518@lehigh.edu

Areas of Research

Surface Chemistry
Environmental Chemistry
Sustainability

Publications and/or Posters

Google Scholar Page

Profile

Manoj graduated from University of Maryland, College Park in 2018 with a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and joined the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department of Lehigh University for doctoral studies. As a doctoral student in the Baltrusaitis Group, Manoj focuses on sustainable nutrient recovery from waste water. This work involves the synthesis of nanoparticles, characterization via spectroscopy, and kinetic studies.

Manoj’s undergraduate research involved the study of superconformal electrodeposition of cobalt and copper through silicon vias (TSVs) on a micron-scale. This work was done at the National Institute of Standards and Technology with the Functional Nanostructured Materials Group under the mentorship of Dr. Daniel Josell.

Outside of the laboratory, Manoj likes to read, hike, cook, and travel.

Yao, Yuyu

Yuyu Yao

Personal WordPress Link:
CV/ Resume link:

Areas of Research

  • Neuroengineering
  • Modeling of Biological Systems
  • Dynamic System and Control
  • Model-based Optimal Control
  • Embedded Systems
  • Nonlinear Systems

Publications and/or Posters

Profile

Yuyu Yao has her B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from East China University of Science & Technology, and M.S. degree as Chemical Engineer from Carnegie Mellon University. She joined Professor Mayuresh Kothare’s research group in 2017. Her research focus on computational modelling of biological systems and applications of closed-loop control.

Zhang, Bin

Areas of Research

Heterogeneous Catalysis
Spectroscopic Characterization

Publications and/or Posters

Profile

Bin received a B.S. degree from Nanjing University of Sci & Tech (NJUST) majored in Safety  Engineering in 2014. Then he moved to Rutgers University – New Brunswick and received a Chemical Engineering M.S. degree in 2017. Currently, he is working in Prof. Israel Wachs’ group at Lehigh University as a Ph. D. candidate. His work focus on the fundamental studies in heterogeneous catalysis on olefin metathesis.

Mammen Regy, Roshan

Roshan Mammen Regy

 CV

Areas of Research

 Biophysics
Computational Biology
Profile

I graduated from Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences Pilani, India with a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering in 2017. My undergraduate research focused on thin film flows and computational neuroscience. After graduation, I worked for an year as a Project Assistant at the Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore where my research focused on building simple models describing the nonlinear dynamics associated with the Indian Monsoon System.

In 2018, I joined the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Lehigh University as a PhD student in the Biophysics and Soft Matter group advised by Professor Jeetain Mittal. My work here majorly focuses on studying macromolecular crowding and protein binding using computational simulation techniques and mathematical analysis.

Lai, Jun-Kun (Jeff)

Jun-Kun(Jeff) Lai

Personal Email: jul414@lehigh.edu
CV/ Resume link: Jun-Kun Lai

Areas of Research

Heterogeneous Catalysis
Biomolecular engineering
Biocatalyst/Chemical catalyst design
In situ/Operando Spectroscopy
Profile 

Jeff works in the group of Professor Israel Wachs. Jeff’s research currently focuses on the Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) of NO with NH3 by Supported V2O5−WO3/TiO2 & CuSSZ Catalysts. The objective of the current research is to examine the current fundamental understanding and recent advances of SCR catalyst system: (i) catalyst synthesis, (ii) molecular structures of titaniasupported vanadium and tungsten oxide species, (iii) surface acidity, (iv) catalytic active sites, (v) surface reaction intermediates, (vi) reaction mechanism, (vii) ratedetermining-step, and (viii) reaction kinetics.

 

Chang, En Hyung (Tony)

En Hyung Chang

Areas of Research

Natural antibiotics
Bacterial toxins
Bacterial resistance
Biophysics

Publications and/or Posters

Chang, E.H., Huang, J., Lin, Z., Brown, A.C. Catechin-mediated restructuring of a bacterial toxin inhibits activity Biochimica et Biophysica Acta – General Subjects, Volume 1863, Issue 1, January 2019

Osickova, A., Balashova, N., Masin, J., Sulc, M., Roderova, J., Wald, T., Brown, A.C., Koufos, E., Chang, E.H., Giannakakis, A., Lally, E.T., Osicka, R. Cytotoxic activity of Kingella kingae RtxA toxin depends on post-translational acylation of lysine residues and cholesterol binding Emerging Microbes and Infections, Volume 7, Issue 1, 1 December 2018

Krueger, E., Hayes, S., Chang, E.H., Yutuc, S., Brown, A.C. Receptor-Based Peptides for Inhibition of Leukotoxin Activity, ACS Infectious Diseases, Volume 4, Issue 7, 13 July 2018

Koufos, E., Chang, E.H., Rasti, E.S., Krueger, E., Brown, A.C. Use of a Cholesterol Recognition Amino Acid Consensus Peptide to Inhibit Binding of a Bacterial Toxin to Cholesterol, Biochemistry, Volume 55, Issue 34, 9 August 2016

Profile

En Hyung (Tony) Chang was born and grew up in Seoul, South Korea and moved to Canada when he was in high school. Upon Finishing high school, he joined chemical engineering program in Purdue University. He worked as an undergraduate researcher in Dr. Chongli Yuan’s lab and mainly worked with hydromethylation of DNA. Currently, he is a Doctoral student in Dr. Angela. C. Brown’s lab at Lehigh University. His research focuses on the antibacterial mechanism of natural antibiotics, catechin.

Collins, Shannon M.

Shannon M. Collins Image of Angela Brown's lab separating a sample through size exclusion chromatography

Lehigh Email Address:
smc316@lehigh.edu

Areas of Research:

Biochemistry/Biophysics
Infectious Disease
Antibiotic Resistance
Planktonic Growth Formation/Disruption
Biofilm Formation/Disruption
Biological Delivery
Bacterial Outer Membrane Vesicles (OMVs)

Publications and Posters:

Google Scholar Page

Profile:

Shannon M. Collins graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a Bachelor’s of Science in Chemical and Biological Engineering (2016). While at RPI, Shannon completed research that was interested in Metabolic Engineering, and the ability to produce novelty chemicals from bacteria. Now, at Lehigh University, Shannon works in Angela Brown’s lab working on Antibiotic Resistance Research. Specifically, Shannon looks at the effects of antibiotic resistance seen in planktonic and biofilm growth, and delivery of biological components to planktonic or biofilm cultures.

Outside of the laboratory, Shannon likes to hike, run, surf, bake, and travel (when there is time). In addition, Shannon is currently the president of ChEGA (Chemical Engineering Graduate Association at Lehigh University).