DOCTORAL STUDENTS- Alumni

Yuan-Yuan Su; January 1992; Chemical Engineering at Washington University.

Thesis: Interfacial Stability Analysis of Multilayer Viscoelastic Fluids and its Application to Co-extrusion Processes.

Current Position: Professor of Chemical Engineering, NTUT, Taipei, Taiwan

 

Lambros Skartsis; January 1992; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Thesis: The Permeation of Fiber Beds by Newtonian and Non-Newtonian Fluids with Applications to the Autoclave and Resin Transfer

Molding Processes

Current Position: Head of Quality Assurance, Human Resources and Internal Control, Elite S.A. Footwear, Athens, Greece

 

Kapil K. Talwar; May 1992; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Thesis: Viscoelastic Flow Computations Using the HP-Version of the Finite Element Method with Applications in Flow through Porous

Media.

Current Position: Chief Executive Officer, VPAC Innovations, Melbourne, Australia

 

Gregory M. Wilson; May 1993; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Thesis: An Experimental Investigation of Interfacial Instabilities in Superposed Flow of Polymer Melts.

Current Position: Director of the National Center for Photovoltaics; NREL, Golden, CO

 

Mohammad Ranjbaran: August 1996; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Thesis: Experimental Studies of Interfacial Instabilities in Multilayer Flow of Polymers Melts.

Current Position: Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering; Shahid Rajaeey University, Tehran, Iran

 

Kuan-Cheng (Garth) Su; December 1997; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Thesis: Experimental Studies of Interfacial Instability in Superposed Flow of Well Characterized Polymeric Solutions.

Current Position: Global Director, Business and Market Segments, MTS Systems Corporation, Minneapolis, MN

 

Herambh K. Ganpule; May 1998; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Thesis: A Theoretical Investigation of Interfacial Instabilities in Multilayer Viscoelastic Channel Flows and Its Applications.

Current Position:  Director, Strategic Business Development at 3M, St. Paul, MN

 

Ibrahim Mustafa; May 1998; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Thesis: A 3-D Nonisothermal Flow Simulation and Pulling Force Model for Injection Pultrusion.

Current Position: Research Scientist, SABIC Corp., Saudi Arabia

 

Anne Grillet; February 1999; Chemical Engineering at Stanford University (Joint with Eric Shaqfeh)

Thesis: Viscoelastic Instabilities in Recirculation Flows.

Current Position: Research Fellow, Sandia National Laboratory, New Mexico

 

Chao-Tsi Huang; December 1999; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Thesis: Role of Fluid Elasticity and Dynamic Modulation on the Stability of Multilayer Flows down an Inclined Plane.

Current Position: Senior Research Scientist, Industry Technology Research Institute of Taiwan, Taiwan

 

Sairam Portaraju; December 2000; Chemical Engineering at Washington University (joint with Babu Joseph)

Thesis: Model Based Control of Polymer Composite Manufacturing Processes.

Current Position: Senior Research Scientist, Bayer Corp., Houston, Texas

 

Bin Yang; Graduated May 2001; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Thesis: Flow Modeling and Stability Analysis of Viscoelastic Flows Using the Finite Element Method.

Current Position: Senior Development Engineer at Corning Corporation, Corning, NY

 

Srikanth Kommu; May 2001; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Thesis: A Theoretical/Experimental Study of Silicon Epitaxy and Particle Dynamics in CVD Reactors.

Current Position: Executive Director, Semiconductor Business, Brewer Science, INC, Rolla, MO

 

Sweta Goel-Somasi; August 2001; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Thesis: An Atomistic Simulation of the Epitaxial Growth of Silicon (100).

Current Position:  Manufacturing Scientist at Corteva Agriscience, Indianapolis, IN.

 

Madan Somasi; August 2001; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Thesis: Dynamics of Polymeric Fluids: A Combined Brownian Dynamics Finite Element Approach.

Current Position: Formulation R&D Leader at Corteva Agriscience, Indianapolis, IN.

 

Usamah Al-Mubaiyedh; August 2001; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Thesis: Thermomechanical and Thermoelastic Instabilities in Taylor-Couette Flow.

Current Position: Professor and Head, Dept. of Chem. Eng., King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran Saudi Arabia

 

Alex G. Lee; October 2001; Chemical Engineering at Stanford University (Joint with Eric Shaqfeh)

Thesis: Viscoelastic Effects on Free Surface Displacement Flows: A Computational and Experimental Study.

Current Position: Basestocks & Specialties Global Marketing Strategy Advisor; ExxonMobil Fuels, Lubricants & Specialties Marketing,

Spring, TX

 

Piyush G. Gigras; From Aug. 1999 to Dec. 2002

Thesis: Flow Simulations of Entangled Polymeric Melts: A Multiscale Approach.

Deceased.

 

Gandharv Bhatara; December 2004; Chemical Engineering at Stanford University (Joint with Eric Shaqfeh)

Thesis: A Computational/Experimental Study of Elastic “Ribbing” Instabilities.

Current Position: Director of Business Development, Mentor Graphics, San Francisco, CA.

 

Vijay Gupta; December 2006; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Thesis: Multiscale and Continuum Level Simulation of Polymer and Fiber Induced Effects on Flow Transitions and Turbulence.

Current Position:  Assistant Professor (teaching track), University of Missouri, Columbia.

 

Arpita Mitra; December 2006; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Thesis: Molecular Interactions Modulating Microtubule Stability and Dynamics

Current Position:  Research scientist, Corning Corporation, New York

 

Dennis Thomas; December 2006; Chemical Engineering at Washington University (Joint with Suresh Sureshkumar)

Thesis: Flow Instabilities and pattern formation in complex fluids: Effect of elasticity and thermal gradients

Current Position:  Research Scientist, PNNL, Richland WA.

 

Vidya Venkataramani; August 2007; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Thesis: Modeling and Simulation of Dynamics of Dilute Macromoelcular Solutions: A configurational Based Approach.

Current Position:  Research Scientist, General Electric Corp. Bangalore, India

 

Anantha Koppol; August 2007; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Thesis:  Dynamics and Frictional Drag Behavior of Viscoelastic Flows in Complex Geometries: A Multiscale Simulation Approach

Current Position: Research Engineer, General Electric Corp. Bangalore, India

 

Swapnil Dhumal; December 2007; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Thesis:  An Experimental/Computational Study of Gas-Phase Nanoparticle Synthesis with Applications in Photocatalysis

Current Position: Research Engineer, General Electric Corp. Bangalore, India

 

Mukund Vasudevan; December 2008; Chemical Engineering at Washington University (Joint with Suresh Sureshkumar)

Thesis:  Flow Induced Self Assembly in Micellar Fluids with Applications to Nanomanufacturing

Current Position:  Business Development Manager at Tessenderio Kerley, Inc., Phoenix, Arizona

 

Jun Mo Kim; August 2010, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at University of Tennessee (joint with Brian Edwards)

Area of Research: Non-Equilibrium Molecular Dynamics Simulations of entangled macromolecules

Current Position: Research ProfessorUlsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan, Korea

 

Arash Abedijaberi: August 2011; Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Thesis: Dynamics of Polymeric Solutions in Complex Kinematics Bulk and Free Surface Flows: Multiscale/Continuum Simulations and

Experimental Studies

Current Position: Fiber Process Modeling Manager, Corning Inc., Corning, New York

 

Travis Russell: August 2014, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at University of Tennessee, Knoxville (Joint with Brian Edwards)

Thesis: Composition Dependency of the Flory-Huggins Interaction Parameter in Polymer Blends: Structural and Thermodynamic

Calculations

Current Position:  Senior Engineer, ENERCON Inc., Kennesaw, GA

 

Mahdy MalakzadehDecember 2014, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Thesis: Hi-Fidelity Simulation of the Self-Assembly and Dynamics of Colloids and Polymeric Solutions with Long Range Interactions

Current Position: Senior Polymer Engineer, Newell Brands, Charlotte, NC

 

Mouge MohagheghiMay 2016, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Thesis: Dynamics and Self-Assembly of Single and Multi-Component Polymeric Fluids: A Mesoscopic Computational Study

Current Position: Senior Scientist Data Modeling, Proctor and Gamble Corporation, Cincinnati, OH

 

Amir SaadatDecember 2016, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Thesis: Large Scale Brownian Dynamics Simulations of Dilute and Semi-dilute Polymeric Solutions

Current Position: Post-Doctoral Fellow with Eric S. G. Shaqfeh, Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University.

 

Hanieh Seyedeh NiroomandMay 2017, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at University of Tennessee, Knoxville (Joint with

Dibyendu Mukherjee)

Thesis: Morphological and Photoelectrochemical Characterization of Membrane Reconstituted Photosystem I (PSI)

Current Position: Research Scientist, Eastman Chemical Company, Kingsport, TN

 

Mohammad Hadi Nafar SefiddashtiDecember 2018, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at University of Tennessee, Knoxville

(Joint with Brian Edwards)

Thesis: Non-Equilibrium Dynamics of Entangled Polymeric Fluids

Current Position: Postdoctoral Scholar with Bamin Khomami and Brian EdwardsChemical and Biomolecular Engineering at University

of Tennessee, Knoxville

 

Tyler Hamilton BennettAugust 2019, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Thesis: Embedding and Photoactivating Photosystem I

Current Position: Postdoctoral Scholar with Jagit Nanda, Distinguished Staff Scientist, Chemical Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National

Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee

 

Ravi PamuMay 2020, Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering at University of Tennessee, Knoxville (Joint with Dibyendu

Mukherjee)

Thesis: Tuning the Photocurrent Responses from Photosystem I via Microenvironment Alterations: Effect of Plasmonic Electric Fields

and Membrane Confinements

Current Position: Postdoctoral Scholar with Professors Mukherjee and KhomamiChemical and Biomolecular Engineering at University

of Tennessee, Knoxville

 

Erick Leonar Ribeiro: August 2020, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at University of Tennessee, Knoxville (Joint with Professor

Mukherjee)

Thesis: Manufacturing of carbon-based hybrid nanocomposites with engineered functionalities via Laser Ablation Synthesis in Solution

(LASiS) techniques

Current Position: Associated Scientist, NASA Academic Mission Services, Columbia, Maryland

THESIS OPTION MASTER’S-Alumni

Catherine A. Langton; December 1989; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Thesis: Processing-Property Interactions of Two Vinylidene-Fluoride/Trifluoroethylene Co-polymers.

Current Position: Senior Research Engineer, Dow Chemical Corp., Midland, Michigan

 

Yen-Hung Lai; May 1996; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Thesis: Various Techniques for Measuring Permeability of Woven Fabrics Used in Liquid Composite Molding.

Current Position: Not available.

 

Srikanth Kommu; May 1996; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Thesis: Numerical Simulation of Injection Pultrusion

Current Position: Executive Director, Semiconductor Business, Brewer Science, INC, Rolla, MO

 

Luis D. Moreno; August 1996; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Thesis: Stability of Viscoelastic Flows through Periodic Square Array of Cylinders.

Current Position: Senior Research Engineer, Intel Corp., Portland, OR

 

Vijaylakshmi Ganesan; June 2002; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Thesis: Linear Dynamics of Unidirectional Planar Shear Flows of Linear and Branched Polymeric Melts.

Current Position: Not available.

 

Joel Simonson; May 2003; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Area of Research: Acoustic Streaming in Complex Fluids.

Current Position: Senior Engineer, Anheuser-Bush, St. Louis, MO

 

Arash Abedijaberi: August 2007; Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Washington University

Thesis: Dynamics of Branched Polymer Melts in Complex Kinematics Flow: A Computational/ Experimental Study.

Current Position: Fiber Process Modeling Manager, Corning Inc., Corning, New York

 

Sheng Hu; August 2013; Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Thesis: The Impact of Selective Solvents on the Structure and Function Evolution in Solvent Annealed Organic Photovoltaics

Current Position: Senior R&D Scientist, Frontida BioPharm, Inc. Philadelphia, PA

 

Reza Ghanbari; December 2013; Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Thesis: The Onset of Purely Elastic and Thermo-Elastic Instabilities in Taylor-Coutte Flow: Influence of Gap Ratio and Thermal Sensitivity

Current Position: Postdoc at Lund University, Sweden

POST DOCTORAL SCHOLARS-Alumni

Dr. Yuan-Yuan Su; 1/92-6/92; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Area of Research: Interfacial Dynamics of Multilayer Pressure Flows of Viscoelastic Fluids

Current Position: Professor of Chemical Engineering, NTUT, Taipei, Taiwan

 

Dr. Lambros Skartsis; 1/92-12/92; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Area of Research:  Influence of Capillary Pressure on Permeation of Fiber Beds

Current Position: Head of Quality Assurance, Human Resources and Internal Control), Elite S.A. Footwear, Athens, Greece

 

Dr. Kapil K. Talwar; 1/93-3/93; 7/93-1/95; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Area of Research: Modeling of Thermoplastic Resin Transfer Molding Processes

Current Position: Chief Executive Officer, VPAC Innovations, Melbourne, Australia

 

Dr. Gyanendra P. Sasmal; 8/93-9/94; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Area of Research: Development of Finite Volume Based Flow Simulation Methods for Bulk and Free Surface Viscoelastic Fluids

Current Position: Analytical Engineer; Belcan Engineering Group Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio

 

Dr. Ali Arefmanesh; 9/91-9/93; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Area of Research: Compression Molding of Semi-Crystalline Polymer Melts: A Finite Element Based Approach

Current Position: Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of Kashan, Kashan, Iran

 

Dr. Changfeng Li; 10/2002-12/2006; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Area of Research: Multi-scale Flow Modeling of Entangled Polymeric Systems; Mechanism of Polymer and Fiber Induced Turbulent Drag

Reduction.

Current Position: Professor, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu 212013, P.R. China

 

Dr. Hoon Goo Sim; 6/2003-5/2005; Chemical Engineering at Washington University

Area of Research: Flow Induced Macromolecular Scission.

Current Position: Research Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

 

Dr. Dibyendu Mukherjee; 2007-2011; Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at University of Tennessee- Knoxville

Area of Research: Hybrid Photovoltaic Materials and Devices

Current Position: Research Scientist, Research Professor, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of

Tennessee- Knoxville.

 

Dr. Xianggui Ye; 2007-2013; Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at University of Tennessee- Knoxville

Area of Research: Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing

Current Position: Research Scientist, Brewer Science, Rolla, MO

 

Dr. Sheng Hu; 2015-2017; Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Area of Research: Non-Precious Metal Catalysts; Laser Ablation

Current Position: Senior R&D Scientist, Frontida BioPharm, Inc. Philadelphia, PA

 

Dr. Bo Zhang, 2015-2017; Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at University of Tennessee-Knoxville

Area of Research: Fission Gas Modeling; Large scale simulation of population dynamics

Current Position: Research Scientist; International Graphene LLC, Columbia, SC

 

Dr. Hanieh Seyedeh Niroomand2017-2018, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Area of Research: Photoelectrochemical Characterization of Membrane Reconstituted Photosystem I (PSI)

Current Position: Research Scientist, Eastman Chemical Company, Kingsport, TN

 

Dr. Michelle Aranha2019-2020, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Area of Research: Atomistic Simulation of Nano-Particle Membrane Interactions

Current Position: Research Scientist, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN

 

RESEARCH ASSOCIATES-Alumni

Dr. Shengting Cui, Research Associate Professor; 2008-2015

Area of Research: Molecular Modeling and Simulations

Current Position: Application System Analyst; Washington State University, Washington

 

Dr. Nan-Sheng Liu, Research Associate; 2010 to 2013

Area of Research: Elastic Turbulence

Current Position: Professor, Department of Modern Mechanics, University of Science and Technology of China, Anhui, Hefei 230026,

China

 

Dr. Xianggui Ye; 2013-2015; Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at University of Tennessee- Knoxville

Area of Research: Rational Design of Soft Matter

Current Position: Research Scientist, Brewer Science, Rolla, MO

 

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH- Alumni

Steven Durst, 1990; Position after Graduation: Joined Industry

 

John Kasab, 1990; Position after Graduation: ChE Doctorate Program at University Wisconsin-Madison

 

Michael Cleveland, 1992; Position after Graduation: ChE Doctorate Program at University of Wisconsin-Madison

 

Dean Kassman, 1993; Position after Graduation: ChE Doctorate Program at Rice University

 

Michael Fanset, 1993; Position after Graduation: ChE Doctorate Program at UCSB

 

Luis Moreno, 1993; Position after Graduation: ChE MS Program at Washington University

 

Michael Biehn, 1994; Position after Graduation: ChE Doctorate Program at North Carolina State

 

Lissa Padnick, 1994; Position after Graduation: BME Doctorate Program at UCSD

 

Polina Gertsberg, 1995; Position after Graduation: Joined Industry

 

Donald Eizenga, 1995; Position after Graduation: ChE Doctorate Program at MIT

 

Dung Nguyen, 1995; Position after Graduation: Joined Industry

 

Carleen James, 1995; Position after Graduation: Joined Industry

 

Suzanne Hyde, 1996; Position after Graduation: ChE Doctorate Program at University of Notre Dame

 

Wendy Jenks; 1996, Position after Graduation: Joined Industry

 

Darby Robinson; 1997, Position after Graduation: MD/PhD Program at Washington University

 

Justin Piper, 1998; Position after Graduation: ChE Doctorate Program at Stanford University

 

Tariq Al-Ameri, 2001; Position after Graduation: ChE Doctorate Program at the Imperial College of London

 

Karen Leslie, 2001; Position after Graduation: Joined the ChE Doctorate Program at Johns Hopkins University

 

Bryan Hendricks, 2002; Position after Graduation: MS Program in Env. Eng. at Washington University

 

Ajey Dambal, 2003; Position after Graduation: ChE Doctorate program at Stanford University

 

Ryan DePuit, 2005; Position after Graduation: ChE Doctorate program at UCSB.

 

Heath Johnson, 2008; Position after Graduation: ChE Doctorate program at NCST.

 

Bryan Smith, 2008; Position after Graduation: ChE Doctorate program at University of Michigan.

 

Zhao Wang, 2009; Position after Graduation: ChE Doctorate program at University of Wisconsin.

 

Ben Renner, 2010; Position after Graduation: ChE Doctorate program at MIT.

 

Mar May, 2010; Position after Graduation: Process Engineer, Dow Chemical Company, Houston, Texas.

 

Hannah Haines, 2013; Position after Graduation: Process Engineer, Eastman Chemical Company, Kingsport, TN.

 

Neil Brown, 2014; Position after graduation: Process Engineer, Eastman Chemical Company, Kingsport, TN.

 

Samira Ibrahim, 2016; Position after graduation: PhD student in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Vanderbilt, Nashville, TN.

 

Kangmin Cheng, 2017; Position after graduation: PhD student in Mechanical Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

 

Brian Park, 2018; Position after graduation: PhD student in Chemistry, University of Tennessee-Knoxville.

 

Madison Sherrod, 2018; Position after graduation: Process Engineer, Eastman Chemical Company, Kingsport, TN.

 

Carl Edwards, 2019; Position after graduation: PhD student in Computer Science, University of Illinois- Urbana- Champaign.

 

Bahar Meshkat, 2019: Position after graduation: Medical School at Vanderbilt, Nashville, TN.

 

OTHER PAST GRADUATE STUDENTS & POST DOCTORAL COLLABORATORS

Scott Prost-Domasky; Doctorate in ME from Washington University in 1997

Current Position: Consulting, Engineer, APES, Inc., St. Louis, Missouri

Area of Research: Dynamics of Polymeric Liquids in Time Periodic Flows

 

Patrick Doyle; Doctorate in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University in 1997

Current Position: Haslam Professor of Chemical Engineering, MIT

Area of Research: Brownian Dynamic Simulation of Confined Polymeric Flows

 

Bin Lin; Doctorate in ChE from Washington University in 2002

Current Position: Technical Director, Henkel, Phoenix, AZ

Area of Research: Influence of Non-Normal Interactions on dynamics of complex fluids

 

Nathan Woo; Doctorate in Computational Sciences from Stanford University in 2003

Current Position: Research Engineer, Intel Corp. Portland, Or

Area of Research: Non-Local Dynamics of DNA; DNA Scission.

 

Aravind Rammohan; Doctorate in ChE from Washington University in 2003

Area of Research: Single Chain Dynamics in Time Periodic and Stochastic Flows.

Current Position: Division Director, Corning Corporation, New York

 

Kartik Arora; Doctorate in ChE from Washington University in 2004

Current Position: Data Scientist & Vice President of Engineering at TOOVIA, San Francisco, CA

Area of Research: An Experimental/Computational Study of Hydrodynamic Instabilities in Flow of Polymer Solutions and Melts.

 

Charles Schroeder; Doctorate in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University in 2004

Current Position: Professor Ray and Beverly Mentzer Faculty Scholar, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University

of Illinois-Urbana

Area of Research: Understanding the Dynamics of entangled macromolecules via single molecule visualization

 

  1. C. Ramaswamy; Doctorate in ChE from Washington University in 2005

Area of Research: Thermoelastic Interfacial Instabilities

Current Position: Senior Research Engineer, Eastman Chemicals, Tennessee