Welcome to the CASTLab website. We are a research group with Prof. Manish Shetty as the Principal Investigator in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University.
Catalysis forms the backbone of modern chemical industry. Around 80-90% of all chemical products involve catalytic processes in their manufacture. The transition towards a sustainable chemical industry hinges on the utilization of competitive renewable energy from biomass, solar, and wind sources to energy-dense liquid carriers, chemicals, and fuels in small, distributed systems. Catalysis can play a pivotal role in aiding this transition.
In CASTLab, we strive towards understanding catalysis on a fundamental level to design new and efficient catalytic materials and sustainable technologies. We work at the intersection of reaction engineering, materials science and physical chemistry. We employ a wide range of synthetic, kinetic, spectroscopic and computational tools as part of our toolkit to gain insights on chemical conversions and catalytic materials.
About Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University is in the twin cities of Bryan and College Station, TX, with a population of more than 273,000, and is conveniently located in a triangle formed by Dallas, Houston and Austin. Texas A&M has more than 73,200 graduate and undergraduate students enrolled. Among public schools, the department was ranked 16th for its graduate program and 10th for its undergraduate program. Research expenditures at Texas A&M total more than $1.14 billion annually, ranking in the top tier of universities nationwide. With an endowment valued at more than $11.5 billion, the university ranks third among U.S. public universities and eighth overall.
Latest News
(5/8/2024) Fatima and Jasan's paper is now published in the Journal of Catalysis Congratulations! (https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1j31%7E4-S8jXmE)
(4/26/2024) We attended the Southwest Catalysis Society Meeting! Fatima was awarded the Best Poster award.
(4/19/2024) Prof. Shetty gave a seminar at the University of Maine.
(4/9/2024) Our colloborative project with IIT Delhi was funded by MHRD, India. Looking forward to an international dimension to our group.
(4/5/2024) Jenna is awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship! Congratulations!
(3/18/2024) Fatima and Jasan's paper is published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering. Congratulations!
(3/18/2024) Prof. Shetty presented a contributed talk in ACS Spring 2024 meeting!
(1/17/2024) Jasan and Fatima's review paper together with LANL is accepted for publication in Topics in Catalysis! Congratulations!
(12/14/2023) Jenna has her first paper published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces! Congratulations!
(12/01/2023) SIddhesh was awarded the "Outstanding M.S. Thesis award" from the CHEN department.
(11/06/2023) Ryan and Fatima presented their work at AIChE Orlando. Fatima was feliciated for the CRE division travel award.
(09/29/2023) Ryan was awarded in the Best Presenter Award at the Texas A&M Energy Research Society (ERS) conference. Congratulations!
(09/10/2023) Fatima was awarded the AIChE CRE travel award for presenting our work at AIChE 2023 in Orlando. Congratulations!
(07/16/2023) We got awarded a NSF CDS&E grant with Prof. Faruque Hasan at TAMU.
(07/07/2023) Fatima's review paper accepted in ChemCatChem. Congratulations!
(06/27/2023) Ryan and Siddhesh's paper published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering! Congratulations! (https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acssuschemeng.3c02202)
(05/18/2023) Our preview (led by Ryan) on recent work by Ramirez-Perez and coworkers is now online in Chem Catalysis. Congratulations!
(05/12/2023) Prof. Shetty presents at the Chemistry Colloquium at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
(05/01/2023) Prof. Shetty receives the TAMU-LANL Development Fellowship to establish a collabarative research program with LANL.
(4/28/2023) The group presents at the Southwest Catalysis Society Annual Meeting.
(3/1/2023) Siddhesh successfully defends his M.S. thesis. Congratulations!
(3/1/2023) Jasan Mangalindan joins the group as a Masters student! Welcome!
(1/16/2023) Fatima and Jenna pass their quals. Congratulations! Both were awarded the "Qualifying Exam Excellence" Award for their performance.
(10/16/2022) Jenna Vito joins as a PhD student, Suraj Panicker joins as a Master's student. Welcome!!
(9/23/2022) Siddhesh and Ryan's review paper titled "Enabling resource circularity through thermo-catalytic and solvent-based conversion of waste plastics." is now published online in Chem Catalysis. Congratulations on our first paper!
(https://www.cell.com/chem-catalysis/fulltext/S2667-1093(22)00461-4)
(9/1/2022) We welcome Michelle Bishop, Violet Dunlap, Chris Bakker, Montserrat Morales, and Siddharth Jayaraman as undergraduate researchers for the Fall semester. Welcome!
(6/1/2022) Prof. Shetty is awarded the 2022 ORAU Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award
(2/21/2022) Fatima Mahnaz joins our lab as a PhD student. Welcome!
(1/18/2022) Alex Frosinos, a junior undergraduate student joins the lab.
(1/15/2022) Ryan Helmer clears his quailifying examinations! Congratulations!
(10/15/2021) Ryan Helmer and Siddhesh Borkar join the lab as the first graduate students. Welcome!
(08/16/2021) Prof. Shetty joins Texas A&M University.