Prof. Jana's Group

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Welcome to the Jana Group!

Our home is in the School of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering at The University of Akron.

Our research group focuses on the synthesis, design, and characterization of mesoporous materials with applications primarily in filtration. We utilize various chemistries, including polystyrene, polyurethanes, polybenzoxazines, polyethylene, and polyesters. Our research interests include the development and characterization of aerogels, nanofibers, rubber and elastomers, and nanocomposites. We focus on understanding the properties and applications of these advanced materials, particularly in fields such as filtration, energy storage, and environmental sustainability. We often explore the synergy between materials, aiming to enhance their mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties for various high-performance applications.

Most students who graduate from the group take industry jobs (33 industry vs 3 academic among PhD's).

Latest Group News and Events

Peyton Received the Householder Award

May 5th, 2025

Peyton completed his first year in grad school, and with that, his TA-ship. He was recognized as one of the top TAs based on student and faculty feedback in the Physics Department. This is likely the last year the department will give out the awards since the polymer faculty will take over teaching Physics I/II after the dissolution of the department from retrenchment.

Dr. Jana Finishes His 2-Year Role as President of PPS

Apr. 21-25th, 2025

Dr. Jana traveled to Auckland, New Zealand for the 40th International Conference of the Polymer Processing Society (PPS). He handed off the torch of the president's position and awards to many distinguished researchers.

AFS FILTCON25

Apr. 2-4th, 2025

The group pictured from left to right (Abdul, Brandon, Moni, Amani, and Dr. Jana) attended the American Filtration Society's spring meeting in Louisville, KY.

Moni won a whopping $3,000 for best student poster presenter, in addition to giving his oral talk. Abdul, Brandon, and Amani also presented their posters, altogether among 16 posters.

Students came home with many goodies, and of course, new knowledge from their conversations that that they are eager to apply to their research.

WaterPitch! in Washington D.C.

Feb. 18-20th, 2025

Moni and Brandon joined several other water startups in Washington D.C. to pitch GelPure. The event was hosted by DC Water and ran by Dr. Cat Shrier of the nonprofit WaterCitizen. In addition to the pitches and reverse pitches, staff from the EPA and US Patent Office stopped by to make short introductions of some of the resources available. We also got the chance to visit some of the halls of our House of Representatives.

VentureWell Pioneer

Jan. 9-10th, 2025

Moni and Brandon attended a two-day entrepreneurial workshop at The City Garage in Baltimore, a recently reinnovated space to house, share resources, and support startups particularly in the biomedical space. They covered, and reviewed, key customer discovery elements such as brainstorming potential applications and markets, mapping out value chains, making value propositions, and conducting competitive analysis. Said workshop provides that sweet non-dilutive funding, and they plan to apply and continue in the second-phase of the program: Propel.

They also ran across some interesting breweries. The first one was a former church (how sacrilegious, right?), and the second one was a housed in a rather large mostly glass building, which had this large distillation column. Sure wish my unit operations class in undergrad would have used one like this!

Secret Santa and Welcome Dinner for Peyton

Dec. 13th, 2024

The group plus wives had a small gift exchange before everyone took off for the Winter Break. We also went out to dinner at The Spice Delight and had a few drinks at the High St. Hop House to welcome our newest member, Peyton. Punya clearly had a good time. Welp, another year at least of all boys in the group!

Prototypes for Humanity

Nov. 16-22nd, 2024

Brandon had the opportunity to visit Dubai to attend the technology/innovation showcase Prototypes for Humanity. Our team, GelPure, and project for PFAS capture was chosen as among one of the 100 most commercially promising university-led projects across the world, out of 2700+ applications this year. This was a great way to encounter amazing people and projects to solve seemingly small but hugely impactful problems in our world across categories like energy, civil society, nature, data science & AI, and health. 🌎 The venue took place at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers where the 2024 Dubai Future Forum was held.

Brandon's Original LinkedIn Post

NSF Research Traineeship Annual Meeting 2024

Oct. 21-23rd, 2024

Dr. Jana, Brandon and Natalie, the NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) coordinator, attended the national program mid-October to network and share insights with participants among the NRT programs throughout the country. This conference celebrated the program's 10th anniversary, and R1 institutions like Yale, Princeton, and Harvard make up 67% (79/118) of the institutions winning awards, further demonstrating the distinction for UA to be a part of the program as an R2. In addition, we apparently have one of the highest participation rates of awardees in our program. A necessary building block of the program at any institution is the interdisciplinary nature of various subjects, and in UA's case, our program focuses on the combination of materials science, computer science, and data science & AI.

Cleveland Water Plant Tour

Sep. 12, 2024

Moni, Brandon, and Luffy toured the Cleveland Water Division to see how a large metropolitan drinking water plant operates. They had a couple of great tour guides, Matt Kennedy, shown in the blue shirt, and Chuck. We learned a lot and took away some key perspectives. Operators care about the chemical levels, toxicity, and bacterial growth in addition to testing water quality and maintaining equipment. But at the end of the day, the end users like ourselves just care if our water smells, tastes "funny", or looks "weird". Most bottled water is taken from a utility, re-processed, and packaged, oftentimes introducing new contaminants! O-vey!

Bingo Night

Aug. 22nd, 2024

Whether it be a line, an "x", or a "z" for Zippy, we were losers on this bingo night. Better luck next time Moni on getting that 50" TV, iPad, or deck of cards. But we had fun at the university's welcome-back event.

SPE Recognition for Abdul and Luffy

March-May, 2024

Amani, Moni, Luffy, and Abdul attended the ANTEC 2024 Conference in St. Louis this year back in early March. Luffy and Abdul were both recognized for their work and even had a brief article written about their work. Way to go!

3D-Printed Recyclable Polyolefin Aerogel Filter for Air Filtration

Valorization of Human Hair Waste in teh Synthesis of Kevlar-Based Aerogels

Summer 2024 I-Corps: GelPure

Jun. 17th - Aug. 9th, 2024

Phew! Moni and Brandon worked together as co-entrepreneurial leads to finish over 122 interviews in 7 weeks through the NSF National Innovation Corps Program. As co-entrepreneurial leads, they went to the NACWA conference in Buffalo, NY, and met with various stakeholders in the water sector and filtration industry, including water utilties, EPA, engineering consultants, adsorbent producers and distributors, and equipment manufacturers. I'd say to be on the look out for more news soon from these two! Dr. Jana worked as our technical lead, and we couldn't have made this possible without the tireless effort and help from our industry mentor Dr. Carla McBain with The University of Akron Research Foundation.

Company Talk by a Past Graduate

Jul. 29th, 2024

Monoj Ghosh, from Eaton Corporation, came to UA to give our department a talk about the company's core research areas. He graduated from the research group 8 years ago in 2016, and is now in the nanomaterials and characterization group at Eaton.

Lunch for Pratik's Graduation

Jun. 16th, 2024

We loved the buffet at Saffron Patch in North Olmsted. Excellent choice and thanks for organizing, Moni! Some of us had three plates and a few lassi (might need to add a few extra miles to your next hike, Abdul).

First photo from left to right:

Abdul, Inji, Brandon, Moni, Aparna, Pratik, Punya, Luffy, Helen

Congrats to Dr. Gotad! #36

Apr. 16th, 2024

Pratik successfully defended his dissertation this April! He'll be joining BASF this May as a Research Engineer.

Auxilium Health Receives State Grant

Apr. 23rd, 2024

Aparna Agrawal, a recent graduate of the group, is a co-founder of the start-up company Auxilium, which is designing improved wound-healing bandages. They recently received The Ohio Third Frontier Technology Validation and Start-up Fund ($200k), which is support the research and licensing of new technologies. Keep up the great work!

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