Group History
Past News
• Congrats to Raja Pandey for successfully defending his MOBI PhD dissertation! He has accepted a position at Eurofin Laboratories. (Mar 2022)
• Morgan Richardson and Sydney Robbins (Honors undergrads), our newest research students (Jan 2022). Congrats to Tunji Adeyeye for defending his MS thesis! ( July 2021)
• Congrats to Oscar Karki for defending his MS thesis! He is en route to U. Louisville to pursue his PhD degree (December 2020).
• Tunji Adeyeye (MS student) and Christopher Clark (undergrad) joins our lab as researchers. (January 2020)
• Our NSF-MRI grant application has been awarded (Dr. Sing Chong is the lead PI), which will advance our Raman D/G band studies.
(September 2019)
• Jerry Argo and Ethan Williams joins our lab as undergrad researchers. (December 2018)
• Mohammad Kader successfully defends his MS thesis! (Summer 2018). He will continue with his PhD studies at St. Louis U.
• Congratulations to Sashil Chapagain for successfully defended his MS thesis! (Spring 2018) He plans to pursue his PhD at U. of Louisville.
• Congratulations to Majed Aljohani for successfully defended his MS thesis! (October 2017) He will head to U. of Toledo for his doctoral work.
• Raja Pandey got accepted into the MOBI PhD program! (Fall 2016)
• Sarah Raborn (undergrad researcher), was awarded a $6,000 NSF-REU grant to study the pyrolysis of sustainable biomass feedstock in collaboration with Tennessee Tech. U. (Summer 2016).
• Robert “Jody” Baltz (undergrad researcher) was awarded a URECA grant support for Spring 2016!
• Congratulations to Dr. Mulugeta Wayu, who has accepted a teaching/ research postdoctoral position at the University of Richmond! (Fall 2015)
• Congratulations to Shawtik Das and Hussain Alshahrani for successfully defending their MS theses in Fall 2015!
• Congratulations to Marvin Marksberry, who was awarded an URECA grant support for Fall 2015!
• Congratulations to Dr. Mulugeta Wayu, who successfully defended his PhD thesis! He becomes the first MTSU Chemistry student to complete a doctoral degree in Molecular Biosciences (MOBI).
• MTSU News interviewed us regarding our work with ZnO-carbon nanotube composites in a 2014 interview (video).
• Our work has been featured in the 2014 MTSU Magazine! Check it out here starting on page 18. Another highlight of it can be read here.
• Congratulations to Anup Deb for successfully defending his Master’s thesis this Fall 2013!
• Tuphan Devkota successfully defended his Master’s thesis (July 2013), and has begun his PhD studies at the Univ of Notre Dame.
• Mulugeta Wayu filed his first patent on June 5th, 2013.
• In Spring 2012, we congratulate to Mulugeta Wayu for (1) successfully defending his Master’s thesis, (2) receiving the 2012 Outstanding Graduate Research Student Award, and (3) being accepted into MTSU’s MOBI PhD program!
• We welcome new undergraduate student researchers Tien Huynh and Ezra Gabre and grad student Anup Deb to our research lab.
• Congratulations to Shravan Mallavarapu for successfully defending his MS thesis in Summer 2011!
• MTSU welcomes Prof. Ali Khademhosseini of Harvard/MIT to speak on Tissue Engineering (video; 56 min.).
• The Chusuei lab has moved to Middle Tennessee State University (Aug. 2010).
• Martin McPhail (video; 9 min.) publishes his first paper in the J. Phys. Chem. C. along with Jacob Sells (video; 3 min.), who becomes the group’s first high school student co-author.
• Congratulations to Maneerat Ongwandee who received First Place Prize in the Barr Engineering Award (Spring 2007)!
• Our group has just received two new grant awards from NIH (Role of selenocystine in
Pb toxicity) and the UM Research Board (Electronic control of carbon nanotubes) totaling ~$240K) (Jan. 2008).
• Congratulations to Robert Hull, whose MS Thesis work was selected as the Missouri S&T nominee for the 2007 Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award! (only 1 nominee allowed per institution).
• Our X-ray absorption work has recently been featured in the NSLS Science Highlights and in the EXAFS school held at Argonne National Laboratory.
• See our work with the Rolla Technical Institute high school students in the news.
• We welcome Samir Patel (freshman), who has just started working in our lab (Sept. 2005).
• Jacob A. Armstrong has published a sole-authored paper in the Journal of Young Investigators, describing his undergraduate research using XPS to study the “Combustion Induced Reaction of Magnesium with a Silicate Coated Crucible Surface.” The on-line article was released on the web in Feb. 2005.
• Congratulations to Rob Hull (grad student) was awarded the UMR Chancellor’s Fellowship in Jan 2005!
• Chintalapalle V. Ramana (postdoc) accepted a research staff position at the University of Michigan (Dec. 2004); (update 2010) he accepted an assistant professor position in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Texas at El Paso!
• Jacob A. Armstrong (undergrad) won Second Place in OURE oral symposium (Feb 2004), which included a $500 cash prize and Second Place in the Sigma Xi poster competition with a $250 cash prize award (May 2004).