Group Members

principle investigator

Christine E. Duval, PhD

Christine received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Connecticut in 2011.  She spent two years as a consultant at the Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, writing business plans for high-tech startup companies. In 2017, she earned her Ph.D. from Clemson University and her dissertation focused on the development of uranium-selective materials (resins and membranes) for environmental radiation detection.  During the summer of 2017, she was a DOE Scholar at the US Department of Energy in the Nuclear Materials Information Program.  Shortly after, she joined the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department at Case Western Reserve University as an Assistant Professor. Her group's work has been recognized through the DOE Early Career Research Award (2020), the Young Membrane Scientist Award (2022) from the North American Membrane Society, and the NSF CAREER (2023).

Senior Research Personnel

Bernadette Schneider (Postdoctoral Researcher)

Ph.D. Chemistry, University of Michigan, 2022

B.A. Chemistry, Oberlin College

Project: Peptide-functionalized membranes for resource recovery


Lianna Johnson (PhD Candidate)

B.S. Chemical Engineering, Rochester Institute of Technology, 2021

Project: Bio-inspired membranes to recover rare earth elements from fertilizer tailings.

Awards:


Shruti Krishna R (PhD Student)

M.Tech. Chemical Engineering, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, 2023

B.Tech. Chemical Engineering, Anna University, 2021

Project: Ac-225 purification using membrane adsorbers


Kayla Kent (PhD Student)

B.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Florida, 2023

Project: Process intensification for nuclear fuel reprocessing

Honors and Awards at CWRU:


Undergraduate Students

Chae Young Yoon (CWRU Chemical Eng. Class of 2023)

Case Western, Chemical Engineering - Class of 2023 

Project: Preparation of polymer films for single molecule microscopy 

Honors and Awards at CWRU:

Izzy Wang (CWRU Chemical Eng. Class of 2025)

Project: Additive manufacturing to protoype separations process units 

Honors and Awards at CWRU:

Gwyn Lai (CWRU Chemical Eng. Class of 2026)

Project: Adsorbent materials to purify Ac-225

Honors and Awards at CWRU:

Lab Alumni (Postdoctral, Ph.D and M.S.)

Megan Sibley (Postdoctoral Researcher, 2021-2023) 

Current position: Postdoctoral researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Project at CWRU: Covalently bonded DGA-functionalized membrane adsorbers for Ac-225 purification

Honors and Awards at CWRU:


Priyanka Suresh (Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, 2022)

Current position: Associate Consultant at McKinsey & Company

Thesis: Membrane adsorbers for f-element separations

Honors and Awards at CWRU:

Publications:


Maura (Sepesy) Leahy (Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, 2023)

Current position: Assistant Teaching Professor at the University of Buffalo

Thesis: Aminated membrane adsorbers in pursuit of radiopharmaceutical separation

Honors and Awards at CWRU:

Publications:


Bethany Dean-Kersten (Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, 2023) 

Current position: Postdoctoral Researcher, Nuclear and Fuel Cycle Technologies, Argonne National Laboratory

Thesis: Electrochemical studies of actinides in molten salt and aqueous electrolytes in support of nuclear material management (Co-advised with Rohan Akolkar)

Honors and Awards at CWRU:

Publications:

Tuli Banik (M.S. Chemical Engineering, 2023)

First position after CWRU: PhD student at Texas A&M 

Publications: 

Ming Yu (M.S. Chemical Engineering, 2020)

First position after CWRU: PhD student in a joint program between the University of Melbourne (Australia) and the University of Manchester (UK)

Publications:


Jialing Xu (M.S. Chemical Engineering, 2019)

First position after CWRU: PhD student at the University of Notre Dame


Lab Alumni (B.S.)

Timothy Yen (CWRU, Chemical Eng. Class of 2023)

First position after CWRU: MS Student in Translational Medicine at City of Hope

Project: DGA ligand synthesis, purification and characterization

Luke Venturina (NMT Chemical Eng. Class of 2024)

Current Position:  Finishing his undergraduate degree at NMT

Project: Evaluation of DGA membranes and resins for Ac-225 purification 

Honors and Awards at CWRU:

Amy Che (B.S. Chemical Engineering, 2023)

First position after CWRU: ELDP Chemical Engineer at EMD Electronics

Achievements at CWRU:

Alexa Ford (B.A. Chemistry, 2023)

First position after CWRU: PhD student in Chemistry at UC Berkeley

Achievements at CWRU:

Benjamin Fugate (B.S. Chemical Engineering, 2023)

First position after CWRU: CWRU Law

Achievements at CWRU:


Joelle Scott (B.S. Chemical Engineering, 2021)

First position after CWRU: PhD student at the University of Washington

Awards at CWRU:

Alec Johnson (B.S. Chemical Engineering, 2022)

First position after CWRU: PhD student at Carnegie Mellon University

Awards at CWRU:

Niko Kamlet (B.S. Chemical Engineering, 2022)

First position after CWRU: Engineer at Nike

Awards at CWRU:


Spencer Schmidt (B.S. Chemical Engineering, 2021)

First position after CWRU: Post-bachelors researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the Institute of Materials and Chemistry

Awards at CWRU:

Dylan Kulbacki (B.S. Chemical Engineering, 2021)

First position after CWRU: Engineer at RoviSys.

Awards at CWRU:

Kevin Pataroque (B.S. Chemical Engineering, 2021)

First position after CWRU: PhD Student at Yale University, NSF GRFP Recipient (2022)

Awards at CWRU:

Manan Gupta (B.S. Chemical Engineering, 2021)

First position after CWRU: Engineer at Intel