Laboratory of Electrochemical Systems Engineering
Laboratory of Electrochemical Systems Engineering
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Principal Investigator
Principal Investigator
Carlos G. Morales-Guio
Carlos G. Morales-Guio
Carlos was born in 1986 in Nobsa, a small town in the mountains of Colombia. He studied chemical engineering at Osaka University and received his B. Eng. degree in March 2011. He then moved to Switzerland where he obtained his M.S. in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering in October 2013, and his Ph.D. in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering in May 2016 from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. His doctoral research, under the guidance of Prof. Xile Hu, was in the coupling of electrocatalysts to photoabsorbers for solar fuels production. After his Ph.D., he joined the group of Prof. Thomas Jaramillo at Stanford University where he was a postdoctoral fellow working on the engineering of catalysts for the electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide into fuels and chemicals.
Since November 2018, Carlos has joined the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering as Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
Selected Awards:
2023 NSF CAREER
2020 Scialog Fellow in Negative Emission Science (NES)
2016-2018 Postdoc.Mobility Fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
2017 ABB (Asea Brown Boveri) Award to the best doctoral thesis in the energy field at EPFL
Excellence Fellowship from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (2011-2013)
Japanese Government (Monbukagakusho: MEXT) Scholarship for undergraduate and master studies (2006-2011)
Ph.D. Students
Ph.D. Students
Avishek Banerjee
Avishek Banerjee
Avishek graduated from National Institute of Technology Durgapur, India in 2020 with a BTech in Chemical Engineering. He then moved to Montréal to earn his MSc at McGill University where he worked with non-thermal plasmas for synthesis of valuable fuels and specialty chemicals. He joined UCLA in Fall 2022 and is working to understand the role of electrocatalysis in sustainable energy applications.
Momoko Ishida
Momoko Ishida
Momoko studied chemical engineering at Osaka University, Japan, and received her B. Eng. degree in March 2023 working with Prof. Tomoo Mizugaki on heterogeneous catalysts. She joined UCLA in the Fall of 2023 working on the development of catalysts for the electrochemical transformation of CO2 to fuels and chemicals.
Dominic Peters, co-advised with Prof. Christofides
Dominic Peters, co-advised with Prof. Christofides
Dominic Peters studied chemical engineering at the City College of New York and received his B.Eng. in June 2023. While at City College, Dominic was an Amazon SURE undergraduate student researcher for the Materials Genome Initiative at Columbia University where he worked on database optimization protocols for the sharing of density-functional theory calculations. Now at UCLA, he is focused on the data science applications of process control, reactor product maximization, and, more generally, developing technologies for smart industrial manufacturing.
Tyler Kwak
Tyler Kwak
Tyler graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2022 with a BA in Chemistry. During his undergraduate studies, he worked under Professor Lior Sepunaru studying enzyme-coupled bioelectrocatalysis on microliter volumes. He then worked at Laxmi Therapeutic Devices as part of a team developing a commercial continuous glucose monitor. He joined UCLA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in Fall 2023 and is working to understand the role of electrocatalysis in sustainable energy applications.
Arjun Malhotra
Arjun Malhotra
Arjun graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in June 2024 with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering. In undergrad, he worked at SoCalGas on a team focused on performing engineering risk analysis to optimize project budgeting. At UCLA, he focuses on the model and process simulation for industrial scale CO2 electrolyzers & plants.
James Kasten
James Kasten
James studied chemical engineering at Texas A&M University and graduated in 2024. At UCLA, he focuses on the design and development of pilot scale electrolyzers to convert CO2 to liquid fuels through a combination of experiment, simulation, and predictive modeling.
M.S. Students
M.S. Students
Shruthi Munukutla
Shruthi Munukutla
Shruthi received her B.E. in Chemical Engineering from B.M.S. College of Engineering, Bengaluru, India in July 2023. During her undergraduate, she worked on fields like plant-based bioplastics and carbon dioxide capture. At UCLA, Shruthi is working in understanding how to integrate advance polymeric ionic materials into functional electrocatalytic devices.
Alexander Geldmeyer
Alexander Geldmeyer
Alex graduated from UCLA, in June 2024 with a B.S. in chemical engineering. During his undergraduate he researched methane pyrolysis. Continuing with his master’s at UCLA, Alex is working on process control and reaction kinetics.
Shruthi Sridhar
Shruthi Sridhar
Shruthi earned her B. Tech in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in July 2024. During her undergraduate studies, Shruthi worked in diverse fields like optimization, and computational data analysis and also gained experimental experience in fuel cells and carbon dioxide reduction. She joined UCLA in Fall 2024 and will be working on electrochemical properties and controls for the electrochemical steam methane reforming.
Undergraduate Students
Undergraduate Students
Tyler Toma
Tyler Toma
Jennie Gao
Jennie Gao
Christopher Donahue (Cal Poly Pomona)
Christopher Donahue (Cal Poly Pomona)
FORMER MEMBERS
FORMER MEMBERS
Ph.D. Students
Ph.D. Students
Joon Baek Jang
Joon Baek Jang
Joonbaek received his B.S. in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Korea University in August 2016. He then moved to the University of Pennsylvania where he obtained his M.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in May 2018, working with Prof. Raymond Gorte. During his master's degree, Joonbaek used ALD for the modification of metal oxide supports of relevance to industrial catalytic application. At UCLA, and as one of the funding members of the group, Joonbaek worked towards the understanding of electrocatalytic processes in sustainable energy applications.
Major publications as first author:
AIChE Journal 2022, 68, e17605
Thesis Tittle: Development of experimental and modeling methods to study reaction-transport kinetics of electrochemical CO2 reduction on copper
Current Status: Postdoc, Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society
Kangze Shen
Kangze Shen
Kangze Shen received his B.S. in Materials Chemistry from the University of Science and Technology of China in July 2018, working with Prof. Yitai Qian on energy storage. As an undergraduate, Kangze synthesized novel anode materials for metal-ion batteries. At UCLA, and as one of the funding members of the lab, Kangze worked towards the understanding of electrocatalytic processes in sustainable energy applications. Kangze graduated in May 2023.
Major publications as first author:
Thesis Tittle: Electrochemical Conversion of Greenhouse Gases to Value-added Products
Current Status: Project Engineer at pharmaceutical company
Derek Richard
Derek Richard
Derek received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Arkansas in May 2018 working with Prof. Lauren Greenlee. He then joined the Los Alamos National Laboratory's Fuel Cell Team working as a post-bachelors research assistant under the supervision of Dr. Rod Borup. At Los Alamos, Derek worked on thin film research using neutron reflectometry. At UCLA, Derek worked on the development of electrified systems for the sustainable production of fuels and chemicals.
Major publications as first author:
Electrochimica Acta 2023. 440, 141698
Current Opinion in Electrochemistry 2021, 30, 100793
Thesis Tittle: A smart manufacturing inspired approach to research in electrochemisty applied to electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction and steam methane reforming
Current Status: Appied Physicist, Electrochemistry at Renewable Energy and Ocean Technology Startup
Jounghwan Choi
Jounghwan Choi
Jounghwan obtained his B.S. and M.S. in Chemical Engineering from INHA University in February 2019 and February 2021, respectively. During his Master's program, he conducted research on FET-type gas sensors, focusing on the detection of toxic gases by surface modification of graphene. At UCLA, he worked towards understanding the corrosion of transition metal catalysts in reactive carbon capture systems.
Major publications as first author:
The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 2024, 15, 31, 8007–8017
Thesis Tittle: Electrochemical reduction of captured CO2 in amine-based capture agents on transition metal surfaces
Master Students
Master Students
Yu-Chao Huang (2021)
Yu-Chao Huang (2021)
Jun Ke (2021)
Jun Ke (2021)
Eber Reyes-Lopez (2024)
Eber Reyes-Lopez (2024)
Chudi Yue (2024)
Chudi Yue (2024)
Ahmed Almunaifi (2024)
Ahmed Almunaifi (2024)
Martina Rüscher (Visiting scholar TU Wien, Current Status: PhD student at Fritz-Haber Institute)
Martina Rüscher (Visiting scholar TU Wien, Current Status: PhD student at Fritz-Haber Institute)
Maximilian Winzely (Visiting scholar TU Wien, Current Status: PhD student at Paul Scherrer Institute, ETHZ)
Maximilian Winzely (Visiting scholar TU Wien, Current Status: PhD student at Paul Scherrer Institute, ETHZ)
Undergraduate Students
Undergraduate Students
Richa Ghosh (Current status: PhD student at UIUC)
Richa Ghosh (Current status: PhD student at UIUC)
Ethan Boutelle (Current status: PhD student at Washington University in St. Louis)
Ethan Boutelle (Current status: PhD student at Washington University in St. Louis)
Nick Snyder (Current status: incoming M.S. student at EPFL, Excellence Fellowship)
Nick Snyder (Current status: incoming M.S. student at EPFL, Excellence Fellowship)
Visiting Summer Students
Visiting Summer Students
Sophia Ulloa (Alta High School)
Sophia Ulloa (Alta High School)
Visiting Graduate Students
Visiting Graduate Students
Katharina Mairhofer (TU Wien)
Katharina Mairhofer (TU Wien)
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