Graduate Research Symposium

2023 Graduate Research Symposium

The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the Graduate Student Advisory Council will host the annual Graduate Research Symposium on October 20, 2023. Graduate students present their work in the form of either a poster or an oral presentation.

Research areas include a range of topics, such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, computational science, and energy applications. Invited judges are typically Illinois alumni from industry and academia who help us identify the best poster and oral presentations. The symposium also provides students with one-on-one opportunities to network with the judges.

Please check back often for updates. More information will be added to this page as details become available.

Poster Presenters

Rachel Gaines - “Glycerol Electrooxidation in Flow Reactors”

Sonji Lamichhane - “Development of a Hydrogel Microwell Array Platform for Noninvasively Screening Hematopoietic Stem Cell (HSCs) Fate Decisions”

Xuan Liu - “Synthetic field guided asynchronous chemoenzymatic synthesis planning”

Archana Verma - “Monte Carlo Framework for Molecular Doping of Organic Semiconductors”

Devinda Wijewardena - Further Insights into Kinesin Motility Using MINFLUX: A Super-Resolution Nanoscopic Method (Kinesin Motility: Characterizing the Half-Steps and Backsteps)

Shengzhe Ding - “Enhancing Targeted Nanoparticle Adhesion and Retention in Arterioles Under Physiological Flow Conditions”

Wesley Harrison - “Photoenzymatic Asymmetric Hydroamination with Simple Aliphatic Amines and Alkenes”

Joo Hun Lee - “Micro-bubbling Effects of Self-locomotive Antimicrobial Microparticles (SLAM) in Biofilm Removal”

Génesis Ríos Adorno - “Printable and viable Gel-SH hydrogels for tendon-to-bone enthesis regeneration”

Kyle Timmer - “Investigating patterns of spatial differentiation within a triphasic biomaterial for rotator cuff enthesis repair”

Oral Presenters

Ziqiu Chen - “Quantifying synergy for mixed end-scission and random-scission catalysts in polymer upcycling”

Victoria Kriuchkovskaia - “Acquired temozolomide resistance instructs patterns of glioblastoma cell mobility, cytokine production, and response to continual drug exposure in gelatin hydrogels”

Michael Volk - “TorchCell: Deep Learning with Yeast Data”

Howard Weatherspoon - “Broken Bond Models, Magic-Sized Clusters, and Nucleation Theory in Nanoparticle Synthesis”

Tianhao Yu - “Enzyme function prediction using contrastive learning”

Rui Hua Jeff Xu - “Leveraging Automated High Throughput Experimentation for Benchmarking Machine Learning Algorithms for Understanding Quantum Dot synthesis.”

Azzaya Khasbaatar - “Tuning Polymer Solution-state Aggregation Enables Green Solvent Processed Organic Solar Cells”

Yash Laxman Kamble - “Synthesis of bottlebrush block copolymers with high brush density and high degree of polymerizations”

Chengyou Shi - “Discovery and characterization of a structurally unique heterocyclic peptide Enterolysin S”

2023 Judging Panel

Chi-Ting Huang (BS 91)
Vice President of CMC and Process Development, Pheon Therapeutics

Chi-Ting Huang is the Vice President of CMC and Process Development at Pheon Therapeutics. She has almost 20 years of experience in biotechnology including Surface Oncology, Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Acceleron Pharma, Immunogen Inc., and Genetics Institute/Wyeth Biopharma. She has built and led Analytical Development and CMC teams for the development of protein and novel biotherapeutics (for example, biosimilars, antibody-drug conjugates, highly glycosylated fusion proteins, TGF-beta proteins). Her experience spans the initial IND for luspatercept as well as characterization for the commercialization of the Infuse™Bone Graft. Huang received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Minnesota and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois.

Ty Johannes (MS 05, PhD 08)
Rumley Chair of Chemical Engineering, University of Tulsa

Ty Johannes is the Rumley Chair of Chemical Engineering at the University of Tulsa. His professional expertise focuses on the research areas of directed evolution, synthetic biology, algae biofuels, and Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage. He holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from Oklahoma State University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois. Johannes joined the TU chemical engineering department in 2008, where he currently serves as the department chair. At TU, he passionately imparts his knowledge across diverse disciplines, encompassing chemical engineering, engineering sciences, biomedical engineering, and even the science of cooking. He is a licensed professional engineer in Oklahoma. Outside of his professional pursuits, Johannes finds joy in cooking, woodworking, engaging in home DIY projects, and spending time with his wife, Karina, and their three children – Carson (15), Kaitlin (13), and Gavin (8).

Bamin Khomami (MS 85, PhD 87)
Distinguished University Professor, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Bamin Khomami is the Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE) at University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK). He has served as CBE Department Head and Director of UTK’s Sustainable Energy and Research Center. In 2011, he received a dual appointment and became a Professor of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering. Prior to joining UTK he was the Francis F. Ahmann Professor and Director of the Graduate Program of Chemical Engineering at Washington University. Khomami is also a co-Founder, CEO and member of Board of Directors of Celtig LLC – Knoxville and International Graphene LLC – South Carolina, which produce high-quality commercial quantities of graphene nanoplatelets or flakes marketed worldwide.

Past Events

Thank you to all our alumni judges, graduate students, and Graduate Student Advisory Council members who have made this event possible over the years.