2025-2026 Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Faculty Areas of Thesis Guidance

Professors

Jane P. Chang, PhD (MIT, 1998)

Materials processing, gas-phase and surface reaction, plasma enhanced chemistries, atomic layer deposition, chemical microelectromechanical systems, and computational surface chemistry

Irene A. Chen, MD, PhD (Harvard, 2007)

Synthetic living systems, in vitro evolution, molecular biophysics, phage nanotechnology, microbiome

Yvonne Y. Chen, PhD (Caltech, 2011)

Synthetic biology, gene-circuit engineering, cell-based therapy, T-cell engineering

Panagiotis D. Christofides, PhD (U. Minnesota, 1996)

Process modeling, dynamics and control, computational and applied mathematics

Vasilios I. Manousiouthakis, PhD (Rensselaer, 1986)

Process systems engineering: modeling, simulation, design, optimization, and control

Harold G. Monbouquette, PhD (North Carolina State, 1987)

Biochemical engineering, biosensors, nanotechnology

Stanley J. Osher, PhD (New York U., 1966)

Computational science, image processing, information science

Ah-Hyung (Alissa) Park, PhD (Ohio State, 2005)

Carbon capture and storage, clean fossil energy conversion systems, waste-to-energy, alternative energy production, particle technology, electrostatic tomography, multiphase flow systems

Philippe Sautet, PhD (U. Paris XI Orsay, France, 1989)

First principles atomic scale simulations; quantum chemistry; applications to heterogeneous catalysis: active sites and reaction mechanisms, nanomaterials for depollution and energy transformation, molecules at surfaces

Yi Tang, PhD (Caltech, 2002)

Biosynthesis of proteins/polypeptides with unnatural amino acids, synthesis of novel anti-biotics/antitumor products

Professors Emeriti

Emily A. Carter, PhD (Caltech, 1987)

Enabling discovery and design of molecules and materials for sustainable energy, including converting sunlight to electricity and fuels; optimizing lightweight metal alloys for fuel-efficient vehicles and fusion reactor walls

Yoram Cohen, PhD (U. Delaware, 1981)

Water treatment and desalination, separation processes, membrane science and technology, surface nanostructuring, pollutant transport nanomaterials and exposure assessment

James F. Davis, PhD (Northwestern U., 1981)

Intelligent systems in process, control operations and design, decision support, management of abnormal situations, data interpretation, knowledge databases, pattern recognition

Vijay K. Dhir, PhD (U. Kentucky, 1972)

Two-phase heat transfer, boiling and condensation, thermal hydraulics of nuclear reactors, microgravity heat transfer, soil remediation, high-power density electronic cooling

Robert F. Hicks, PhD (UC Berkeley, 1984)

Chemical vapor deposition and atmospheric plasma processing

James C. Liao, PhD (U. Wisconsin-Madison, 1987)

Metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, bioenergy

Yunfeng Lu, PhD (U. New Mexico, 1998)

Semiconductor manufacturing and nanotechnology

Selim M. Senkan, PhD (MIT, 1977)

Reaction engineering, combinatorial catalysis, combustion, laser photoionization, real-time detection, quantum chemistry

A.R. Frank Wazzan, PhD (UC Berkeley, 1963)

Fast reactors, nuclear fuel element modeling, stability and transition of boundary layers, heat transfer

Associate Professors

Nasim Annabi, PhD (U. Sydney, Australia, 2010)

Biomaterials, tissue engineering, 3D bioprinting, microfabrication, nanocomposite hydrogels for drug/gene delivery, surgical sealants/adhesives/glues, conductive hydrogels for heart tissue regeneration

Yuzhang Li, PhD (Stanford, 2018)

Electrochemical energy storage, electrocatalysis, nanomaterials synthesis and characterization, in situ transmission electron microscopy, cryogenic electron microscopy, carbon capture

Carlos G. Morales-Guio, PhD (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne [EPFL], Switzerland, 2016)

Electrochemistry, renewable energy storage, nanotechnology, advanced energy materials catalysis, CO2 utilization, process design, mass transport coupled to chemical transformations

Junyoung O. Park, PhD (Princeton, 2016)

Cancer metabolism, metabolic engineering, bioenergy, systems biology, metabolomics

Dante A. Simonetti, PhD (U. Wisconsin-Madison, 2008)

Heterogeneous catalysis and adsorption, catalytic reaction engineering and kinetics, design of reactive materials, materials characterization

Samanvaya Srivastava, PhD (Cornell, 2014)

Soft materials, self-assembly, polymer chemistry and polymer physics, scattering rheology

Assistant Professors

Pedro de Souza, PhD (MIT, 2022)

Electrochemical modeling of interfaces, colloidal interactions and membrane transport, thermodynamics and phase behavior of polymer solutions, biomolecular condensate biophysics, bioseparations process design and modeling

Carissa N. Eisler, PhD (Caltech, 2016)

Light and energy transport in nanomaterials, nanophotonics, renewable energy

Aditya Nandy, PhD

Hybrid inorganic-organic materials for catalysis and separations applications, first-principles simulations of single-site catalysts, data-driven modeling of computational or experimental data, multiscale modeling for sustainability applications, molecular dynamics and hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics simulations for membrane protein systems

Joseph D. Peterson, PhD (UC Santa Barbara, 2018)

Complex fluids: polymers, emulsions, and dense suspensions; microstructure formation and relaxation in systems far from equilibrium; population balance equations and their integration into rheological models; sustainability applications: polymer recycling, plant-based meat analogs, etc.; continuum models, controlled approximations, and efficient numerical methods

Fang-Yi Ida Su, PhD

Immunoengineering, RNA delivery, engineered cell therapy, genome editing

Thaiesha A. Wright, PhD (Miami U. Ohio, 2020)

Biomaterials, protein engineering, polymer chemistry