GROUP News

2024

May 2024: Congratulations to Ricem Diaz Arroyo for graduating with a PhD from our research group, and starting her new position at Dow! We wish her all the best in her next position!

May 2024: Congratulations to Brandon Bolton for graduating with a PhD from our research group, and starting his new position at Ecovyst! We wish him all the best in his next position!

May 2024: Welcome to Nina Borkowski as a new undergraduate researcher in the group, participating in the CISTAR REU and SURF programs at Purdue this summer!

May 2024: Welcome to Kirshaun McGhee as a new undergraduate researcher in the group, participating in the CISTAR REU and SURF programs at Purdue this summer!

May 2024: Welcome to Victoria Perez as a new undergraduate researcher in the group, participating in the CISTAR REM program at Purdue this summer!

May 2024: Welcome to Talana Small as a new undergraduate researcher in the group, participating in the CISTAR REM program at Purdue this summer!

May 2024: Congratulations to Bereket Bekele for receiving a Graduate Teaching Award from Purdue's Center for Instructional Excellence for his performance as a TA in ChE 348 (undergraduate reaction engineering) in spring 2023!

May 2024: Welcome to Victor Lopes Albertini as a visiting scholar in our group! Victor is currently pursuing his PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of Sao Paolo in the group of Prof. Martin Schmal.

Apr. 2024: Congratulations to Sopuruchukwu Ezenwa for receiving the 2024 Purdue ChE Faculty Lectureship Award!

Mar. 2024: Congratulations to Sopuruchukwu Ezenwa and our collaborators (Univ. of Florida, UC Santa Barbara, UOP) for his paper describing how to synthetically alter the positioning of acid sites in MFI zeolites to increase toluene methylation selectivity to para-xylene being accepted in the Journal of the American Chemical Society!

Mar. 2024: Congratulations to Ricem Diaz Arroyo for receiving the Purdue ChE Outstanding Service Award! Ricem is deeply involved with recruiting and mentoring underrepresented minorities in STEM, and is a regular volunteer in community and scientific outreach programs. A well-deserved honor!

Mar. 2024: Congratulations to Andrew Mikes and Lauren Kilburn for their concept paper on partial methane oxidation on Cu-zeolite catalysts being accepted in ChemCatChem!

Feb. 2024: Congratulations to Bereket Bekele for receiving the CISTAR Dick Reitz Fellowship!

Feb. 2024: Congratulations to Ángel Santiago-Colón  for receiving the CISTAR Bill Murray Fellowship!

Feb. 2024: Congratulations to Laura Wilcox, Andrew Mikes, and our Notre Dame collaborators (Schneider group) for their paper describing the structure and reactivity of active sites in Cu-CHA zeolites for stoichiometric partial methane oxidation being accepted in ACS Catalysis!

Jan. 2024: Congratulations to Sopuruchukwu Ezenwa for his paper describing the quantification of external acid sites in MFI zeolites being accepted in Reaction Chemistry & Engineering! This will appear in the special issue for founding Editor-in-Chief Klavs Jensen in honour of his 70th Birthday.

Jan. 2024: Congratulations to Ángel Santiago-Colón for his paper describing the structural changes to Mo-MFI zeolites during methane dehydroaromatization reaction and regeneration cycles being accepted in the Journal of Catalysis!

Jan. 2024: Congratulations to Ángel Santiago-Colón for receiving the first place oral presentation award at the Catalysis Club of Chicago Young Scientist Symposium!

Jan. 2024: Congratulations to Bereket Bekele for receiving the second place poster presentation award at the Catalysis Club of Chicago Young Scientist Symposium!

Jan. 2024: Welcome to Daniel Zagatto Chan as a visiting undergraduate student in our research group! Daniel is visiting on a PONTES Research Scholarship and is a chemical engineering student at the State University of Campinas in Brazil.

Jan. 2024: Welcome to Davi de Carvalho as a visiting undergraduate student in our research group! Davi is visiting on a PONTES Research Scholarship and is a chemical engineering student at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

Jan. 2024: Welcome to Jader Calixto as a visiting undergraduate student in our research group! Jader is visiting on a PONTES Research Scholarship and is a chemical engineering student at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

Jan. 2024: Welcome to Pedro Henrique Martins as a visiting undergraduate student in our research group! Pedro is visiting on a PONTES Research Scholarship and is a chemical engineering student at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

Jan. 2024: Welcome to Arjun Bhadoria as a new undergraduate researcher in the group!

Jan. 2024: Welcome to Andrea Jones as a new undergraduate researcher in the group!

Jan. 2024: Raj Gounder is selected to serve on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

2023

Dec. 2023: Congratulations to Claire Nimlos and Byung-Jin Lee on their invention synthesizing MFI zeolites using DABCO and methylamine reagents being awarded a U. S. patent!

Nov. 2023: Raj Gounder is selected to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Nov. 2023: Welcome to Christopher Dean as a new first year graduate student in our group! Christopher received his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from the University of Texas.

Nov. 2023: Welcome to Zexian He as a new first year graduate student in our group! Zexian received his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from the University of Virginia.

Nov. 2023: Welcome to Pradeep Mohan as a new first year graduate student in our group! Pradeep received his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from the National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli.

Nov. 2023: Welcome to Soonhyoung Kwon as the newest postdoctoral researcher in our group! Soonhyoung graduated with a PhD from MIT under the direction of Prof. Yuriy Roman.

Oct. 2023: Congratulations to Ricem Diaz Arroyo on receiving an AIChE WIC Travel Award to attend the annual meeting in Orlando, FL!

Sep. 2023: Congratulations to Jamie Harris on his invention for Sn-zeolites for the synthesis of aromatic compounds being awarded a U. S. patent!

Sep. 2023: Welcome to Wyât-no-kwe (Leticia) Cervantes as a new undergraduate researcher in the group!

Aug. 2023: Welcome to Holden Tracy as a new undergraduate researcher in the group!

Aug. 2023: Welcome to Jaatani Abdi as a new undergraduate researcher in the group!

Aug. 2023: Congratulations to Brandon Bolton on receiving the First Place Oral Presentation Award in the Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division at the Purdue GSO Symposium!

Aug. 2023: Congratulations to Lauren Kilburn on receiving the Second Place Poster Presentation Award at the Purdue GSO Symposium!

Aug. 2023: Welcome to Felipe Martínez Barreto as a visiting undergraduate student in our research group! Felipe is visiting through the UREP-C program and is a chemical engineering student at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Aug. 2023: Raj Gounder is appointed to serve as on the Editorial Board for Reaction Chemistry & Engineering as Associate Editor.

Aug. 2023: Welcome to Asanka Wijerathne as a visiting PhD student in our research group! Asanka is a PhD student from the University of Virignia researching under the guidance of Professor Chris Paolucci.

Jul. 2023: Raj Gounder is elected to serve a two-year term as Director of the Catalysis Club of Chicago.

Jul. 2023: Congratulations to Bereket Bekele on receiving an ACS CATL Division Travel Award to present his research at the fall 2023 ACS meeting in San Francisco, CA!

Jul. 2023: Congratulations to Ángel Santiago-Colón on receiving an ACS CATL Division Travel Award to present his research at the fall 2023 ACS meeting in San Francisco, CA!

Jul. 2023: Congratulations to Tania Class Martinez on receiving an ACS CATL Division Travel Award to present her research at the fall 2023 ACS meeting in San Francisco, CA!

Jul. 2023: Raj Gounder becomes Director of the Purdue Catalysis Center.

Jul. 2023: Congratulations to undergraduate alum Melanie Brunet for receiving the NIH/NIAID Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (NRSA F31) !

Jul. 2023: Congratulations to Mykela DeLuca, Casey Jones and our co-authors at Notre Dame (Schneider group) and BASF for their paper describing the influence of framework topology in Cu-zeolite catalysts for NOx SCR being accepted in Chem Catalysis!

Jul. 2023: Congratulations to Elizabeth Bickel for her paper on the synthesis of TON zeolites and their influence on alkene oligomerization catalysis being accepted in the Journal of Catalysis!

Jun. 2023: Welcome to Sanghyun Ahn as the newest postdoctoral researcher in our group! Sanghyun graduated with a PhD from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) under the direction of Prof. Suk Bong Hong.

May 2023: Congratulations to Brandon Bolton on receiving the Outstanding Student Presentation Award from the 2023 Michigan Catalysis Society Annual Symposium!

May 2023: Congratulations to Sopuru Ezenwa for receiving the Purdue ChE Excellence in Safety Award!

May 2023: Welcome to Kyla Fung as a new undergraduate researcher in the group, participating in the CISTAR REU and SURF programs at Purdue this summer!

May 2023: Welcome to Jackson Boodry as a new undergraduate researcher in the group, participating in the CISTAR REU and SURF programs at Purdue this summer!

May 2023: Welcome to Mahagani Lasciers as a new undergraduate researcher in the group, participating in the CISTAR REM program at Purdue this summer!

May 2023: Welcome to Kaila Durden as a new undergraduate researcher in the group, participating in the CISTAR REM program at Purdue this summer!

May 2023: Congratulations to Sopuru Ezenwa for receiving the CISTAR Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award!

Apr. 2023: Congratulations to Geoffrey Hopping for receiving the second place prize at the AIChE Undergraduate Student Chapter Poster Competition!

Apr. 2023: Congratulations to Geoffrey Hopping for receiving the Undergraduate Research Award from Purdue ChE at this year's senior banquet!

Apr. 2023: Congratulations to PhD alumnus Jason Bates for accepting a position to join the Chemical Engineering faculty at the University of Virginia as an assistant professor in the fall of 2023! We wish him all the best as he starts his independent scientific career!

Apr. 2023: Congratulations to PhD alumnus Juan Carlos Vega-Vila for accepting a position to join the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering faculty at the University of Maryland as an assistant professor in the fall of 2023! We wish him all the best as he starts his independent scientific career!

Apr. 2023: Purdue's Board of Trustees ratifies Raj Gounder's promotion to the R. Norris and Eleanor Shreve Professor of chemical engineering, effective April 14, 2023.

Apr. 2023: Congratulations to Trevor Lardinois for receiving the Purdue ChE Citation Award! This was awarded based on the number of citations received for his paper (Chem. Mater., 33 (2021) 1698-1713) describing the structural interconversion of Pd species on zeolites used for passive NOx adsorption in automotive pollution abatement applications.

Apr. 2023: Congratulations to Sopuru Ezenwa for receiving the Purdue ChE Outstanding Service Award! Sopuru is deeply involved with recruiting and mentoring underrepresented minorities in STEM, serves in prominent leadership roles in NSBE and other organizations at Purdue, is a regular volunteer in community outreach programs, and has served his professional societies in technical leadership roles in the Catalysis Club of Chicago and NOBCChE. A well-deserved honor!

Mar. 2023: Congratulations to Bereket Bekele for receiving a NSBE BCA/Affiliate/Fellows Scholarship!

Mar. 2023: Congratulations to Siddarth Krishna and our co-authors at Purdue and Notre Dame (Schneider group) for their paper describing the influence of framework aluminum density in Cu-CHA zeolite catalysts for NOx SCR being accepted in Nature Catalysis!

Mar. 2023: Raj Gounder is selected to receive the Rutherford Aris Award from the International Symposia on Chemical Reaction Engineering (ISCRE), at its 27th meeting in Québec City, Canada in June 2023.

Mar. 2023: Congratulations to Elizabeth Bickel on receiving a Richard J. Kokes Travel Award to present her research at the 28th North American Catalysis Society Meeting in Providence, RI!

Mar. 2023: Congratulations to Sopuru Ezenwa on receiving an ACS CATL Division Travel Award to present his research at the spring 2023 ACS meeting in Indianapolis, IN!

Mar. 2023: Congratulations to Ricem Diaz Arroyo on receiving an ACS CATL Division Travel Award to present her research at the spring 2023 ACS meeting in Indianapolis, IN!

Mar. 2023: Congratulations to Andrew Mikes on receiving an ACS CATL Division Travel Award to present his research at the spring 2023 ACS meeting in Indianapolis, IN!

Mar. 2023: Congratulations to Brandon Bolton on receiving an ACS CATL Division Travel Award to present his research at the spring 2023 ACS meeting in Indianapolis, IN!

Feb. 2023: Welcome to Brayan Torres Barón as a visiting undergraduate student in our research group! Brayan is visiting through the UREP-C program and is a chemical engineering and chemistry student at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Feb. 2023: Congratulations to Ricem Diaz Arroyo for receiving the CISTAR Bill Murray Fellowship!

Feb. 2023: Congratulations to Sopuru Ezenwa for receiving the CISTAR Dick Reitz Fellowship!

Feb. 2023: Welcome to Kathlen Yokoo as a visiting PhD student in our research group! Kathlen is a PhD student from the Universidad Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) visiting on a CNPq scholarship.

Jan. 2023: Best wishes to Songhyun Lee as she starts her new position at Dow!

Jan. 2023: Welcome to Ethan Wilcox as a new undergraduate researcher from Purdue in our group! 

Jan. 2023: Welcome to Rômulo Vieira Santos as a visiting undergraduate student in our research group! Eduardo is visiting on a PONTES Research Scholarship and is a chemical engineering student at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

Jan. 2023: Welcome to Lucas Araujo de Oliveira as a visiting undergraduate student in our research group! Eduardo is visiting on a PONTES Research Scholarship and is a chemical engineering student at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

Jan. 2023: Welcome to Eduardo Alcântara as a visiting undergraduate student in our research group! Eduardo is visiting on a PONTES Research Scholarship and is a chemical engineering student at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

Jan. 2023: Congratulations to Elizabeth Bickel and Songhyun Lee on their paper explaining the influence of acid site density in MFI zeolites on coupled reaction-diffusion phenomena that influence rates and selectivities of alkene oligomerization being accepted in ACS Catalysis!