Five chemical and biomolecular engineering graduate students were selected as 2024-2025 Mavis Future Faculty Fellows by the Grainger College of Engineering. This fellowship program is designed to facilitate training for the next generation of engineering professors, with three main components in research, teaching and service.
Rithwik Ghanta
Advisor: Alexa Kuenstler
Research topic: Developing new methods for spatial control of material properties during vat photopolymerization additive manufacturing.
Brandon Jeong
Advisor: Antonia Statt
Research topic: Implementing molecular dynamics polymer simulation to predict force-responsive mechanophore behavior as a pathway towards understanding polymer response to stress on a microscopic scale
Rajarshi (Reeju) Samajdar
Advisor: Charles M. Schroeder
Research topic: Comprehending electron transport and structure function relationships in biomolecules and synthetic organics using a combination of experiments and simulations.
Jerry Rong
Advisor: Damien S. Guironnet
Research topic: Synthesizing membrane by thiol-ene chemistry and interfacial polymerization and incorporating bottlebrush polymers as selective transport channel.
Vijay Shah
Advisor: Paul J.A. Kenis
Research topic: Implementing membrane-based CO2 capture, capturing CO2 to convert into useful chemicals and developing reaction mechanisms and reactor designs for aqueous (sono)electrochemical conversion of organic molecules.
The Mavis Future Faculty Fellows Program is made possible by a gift from Frederic T. and Edith F. Mavis. Dr. Mavis received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois. He was a professor of civil engineering at several universities and dean of Engineering at the University of Maryland from 1957 until 1967. He passed away in 1983. Mavis directed the endowment fund be used to support doctoral students in Grainger College who desire to become engineering faculty.