Graduate Research Symposium

The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the Graduate Student Advisory Council hosted the annual Graduate Research Symposium on September 13, 2024. Graduate students presented their work in the form of either a poster or an oral presentation. 

Research areas included 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 GSAC identify the best poster and oral presentations. The symposium also provided students with one-on-one opportunities to network with the judges.

Schedule of Events:

9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. | Poster Presentations | Illini Union Ballroom
12:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. | Oral Presentations | Illini Union, Room 210
4:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. | Awards Ceremony and Reception | Illini Union Ballroom (2nd floor)

Oral Presentation Winners:

2024 Judging Panel

	Fikile R. Brushett (MS 09, PhD 10) Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Fikile R. Brushett is a full professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he leads a group focused on advancing the science and engineering of electrochemical technologies for a sustainable energy economy.  Brushett has received several honors for his research and teaching including the AIChE Allan P. Colburn Award (2022), the ECS Charles W. Tobias Young Investigator Award (2022), the NOBCChE Lloyd N. Ferguson Young Investigator Award (2020), and the MIT ChemE C. Michael Mohr Outstanding Faculty Award (2014, 2017).  Brushett received his B.S. (2006) in chemical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and his M.S. (2009) and Ph.D. (2010) from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he worked in the laboratory of Professor Paul J.A. Kenis on microfluidic fuel cells as flexible power sources and electroanalytical platforms.
	Matt D. Langer (MS 06, PhD 11) Undergraduate Academic Advisor, University of Massachusetts Amherst Matt Langer is the chemical engineering academic advisor for undergraduates at UMass-Amherst. He completed his B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Wisconsin and his M.S. and Ph.D. at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, working with Deborah Leckband. His research involved determining the impact of N-glycosylation on the binding kinetics of cell adhesion proteins. Following his Ph.D., he worked for a startup medical device company on hydrogel-based ultrasound transmission media. In 2017, he accepted a position as an academic advisor in chemical engineering, and has been working with students for the last seven years.
	Sarah L. Perry (PhD 10) Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts Amherst Sarah L. Perry is an associate professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass). Prior to joining the UMass faculty as assistant professor in 2014, Perry was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Institute for Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago. Perry has received several honors for her work as a researcher and educator, including a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation in 2020, the 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award (2019-2021), and the Outstanding Teacher Award from the UMass Amherst College of Engineering (2017). She has also been recognized as a student ally and advocate for diversity in the college. Perry received B.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering (2002) and Chemistry (2003) and an M.S. in Chemical Engineering (2005) from the University of Arizona. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2010, working on microfluidic platforms for the crystallization and study of membrane protein crystallization.

Poster Presenters 

• Hsin-Lan (Nicole) Chiang - “Enhancing mutant effect prediction and protein design through out-of-distribution sampling”
• Song Yin - “Capistruin cyclase acts as a chaperone mediating lasso peptide folding and binding”
• Joo Hun Lee - “Bubble effects of self-locomotive microparticles in biofilm deterioration”
• Jeff Xu - “Towards data-rich experimental workflows for nanomaterial synthesis through modular automated reactor and purification platforms”
• Ankit Gautam - "Phase-dependent promoting effect of surface oxygen on molybdenum carbide catalysts during formic acid electrooxidation"
• Sirikarn Phuangthong - “Role of surface electrostatics in particle-polyelectrolyte complex coacervates”
• Lela Manis - “From Ab initio calculations to population balances for polymer upcycling”
• Tanner Dean - “Development and benchmarking of KOALA: Knowledge-based optimization for accurate ligand affinities”
• Devinda Wijewardena - “Insights into back-steps, rotations, and cargo-size effects of kinesin motility with MINFLUX”
• Kavinraaj Ella Elangovan - “Impact of metal organic additives on the sensitivity and selectivity of conjugated polymer based OFET sensors towards volatile amines”
• Vijay Shah - “Impact of feed composition on nanomembrane-based CO 2 capture performance”
• Rajarshi Samajdar - “Active learning to understand and predict the electronic behavior of peptides”
• Destiny Gray - “Shear-induced aging in polymer-silica composites”
• Rithwik Ghanta - "Effect of kinetically-distinct crosslinking on temporal mechanical property development in photopolymerized networks"
• Diego Kleiman - “Sequence-based selection of collective variables for protein dynamics through fine-tuned structure prediction models”
• Shengzhe Ding - “Influence of shear flow and nanoparticle size on adhesion and retention in TNF-α treated endothelium”
• Genesis Rios-Adorno - “Insertional tissues mimetics: 3D printing gelatin hydrogel as a cell carrier for porous scaffold fabrication”
• Changhyun Hwang - “Closed-loop transfer enables AI to yield chemical knowledge”
• Lanie Leung - “Development of an efficient nonempirical tight binding theory”
• Andressa Juliana Almeida Simões - “Carbon fixation for food production”
• Heewon Noh - “Microfluidic-based biocompatible synthesis of giant unilamellar vesicles: advancing bottom-up assembly of synthetic cells”
• Min-Hsien Lin - “The effect of mixed-mechanism bond exchange on dynamic network rearrangement”

Oral Presenters

• Xuan Liu - “Autonomous faithful retrosynthesis with large language models: from synthesis planning to experiment procedures”
• Dejuante Walker - “Effect of low on charge transport in semi-dilute redox active polymer solutions”
• Kyle Timmer - “Localized signaling environments across an osteotendinous biomaterial for spatially tailored cell behavior”
• Jiachun Shi - “Modeling the rheology of gelation using recovery rheology”
• Sonji Lamichhane - “A new tool for visualizing protein distribution in the marine diatom, Phaeodactylum tricornutum”
• Bidipta Ghosh - “Defect engineering in composition and valence band center of Y₂(Y_xRu_1-x)₂O_7-8 pyrochlore electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction”
• Gunnar Thompson - “Building a granular hydrogel model for bone marrow”
• Archana Verma - “Assessing molecular doping efficiency in organic semiconductors with reactive monte carlo”
• Wesley Harrison - “Photoenzymaic asymmetric hydroamination for chiral alkyl amine synthesis”

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

Research areas included 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 GSAC identify the best poster and oral presentations. The symposium also provided students with one-on-one opportunities to network with the judges.

Schedule of Events:

9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. | Poster Presentations | CLSL Atrium A/B
12:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. | Oral Presentations | Levis Faculty Center 208
4:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. | Awards Ceremony and Reception | Levis Faculty Center, 3rd Floor

Oral Presentation Winners:

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).

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”
• 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”

• 2022 Graduate Research Symposium
• 2021 Graduate Research Symposium
• 2020 Graduate Research Symposium
• 2019 Graduate Research Symposium
• 2018 Graduate Research Symposium
• 2017 Graduate Research Symposium
• 2016 Graduate Research Symposium
• 2015 Graduate Research Symposium
• 2014 Graduate Research Symposium
• 2013 Graduate Research Symposium
• 2012 Graduate Research Symposium
• 2011 Graduate Research Symposium