syxbach(at)gmail(dot)edu
162 Fenske Lab
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802
CV
Biography: Yuexiao Shen received his bachelors degree in Water Supply and Wastewater Science and Engineering at Tsinghua University, China in 2009. Then he got his master degree in Environmental Engineering in the same department in 2011, both under the guidance of Dr. Xia Huang, a pioneer in Membrane Bioreactor(MBR) technology in China. His work in Tsinghua mainly focused on the fouling in MBRs, especially in large-scale MBRs for municipal wastewater treatment. A combination of several years of study and lab work aroused his interest in the wider field of membrane science and technology. Because of his strong passion in the fields of both membrane and environmental science, he came to Penn State to continue his research and joined the Kumar group. His future work will focus on synthesizing and testing promising biomimetic membranes and its environmental applications.
pos5030(at)psu(dot)edu
162 Fenske Lab
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802
CV
Biography: Patrick Saboe graduated with a bachelors degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of New Haven in 2011. Previous research includes a summer internship with the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation at the University of Pittsburgh in 2010 where his primary work was to study mirco-algae based bio-fuel production from wastewater treatment processes. Patrick has chosen to research biomimetic membranes due to the implementation of highly selective and efficient separation processes that may result from this research. He is also working on making devices using photosynthetic protein 2D crystals. He is currently a EPA STAR Fellow.
hmf148 (at)psu(dot)edu
162 Fenske Lab
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802
CV
Biography: Hasin Maksura Feroz graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), 2012. Following graduation in 2012, she taught as a lecturer at the Chemical Engineering Department, BUET. She joined the Kumar lab in fall 2012 and intends to conduct research on light-driven membrane proteins with possible applications in optogenetics, environmental cleanup and fuel/energy generation.
abs254(at)psu(dot)edu
122 Fenske Lab
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802
CV
Biography: Ben Schantz received his bachelors degree in chemical engineering from the University of Delaware in 2012. His research experience includes an REU at the University of Delaware in 2010 in which he studied the effects of anion identity on the conductivity and microstructure of polymer electrolytes, which could improve the safety of lithium ion batteries. His current research involves creating molecular dynamics simulations of block copolymer bilayers in solution, which he hopes to apply to the design of biomimetic membranes. He is co-advised by Dr. Kumar and Dr. Janna Maranas.
txr942(at)psu(dot)edu
162 Fenske Lab
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802
CV
Biography: Tingwei Ren received her bachelor’s degree in department of Chemical Engineering at Tsinghua University, China in 2013. Her work in Tsinghua focused on Microfluidic technology and combination between microfluidic technology and electrospining technology. Her future work will involve aquaporins and their transport properties in lipids and block-polymers. She hopes her research will have application in industrial settings.
rajarshisoft(at)gmail(dot)com
170 Fenske Lab
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802
CV
Biography: Rajarshi received his BS in chemical engineering from Jadavpur University, India (2007) and MS in chemical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India (2009). He then worked at a government owned oil & gas company (BPCL) as a research scientist for 3 years. He was pursuing research on novel CO2 conversion catalysts using high throughput reactors. He conducts PhD research on mechanisms and mitigation of colloidal and biological fouling of reverse osmosis/nanofiltration membranes. He hopes to develop catalytically and biologically active surfaces for fouling prevention.