Nature Energy
Akademikah
PhD Candidate (ABD), Chemical & Biological Engineering — The University of Alabama. Electrochemical CO₂ utilization: catalysis, gas-diffusion electrodes, and reactor techno-economics.
Record in brief
Education
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2021 – 2026 (expected)PhD, Chemical & Biological Engineering — The University of Alabama
Dissertation: Selective, durable, and economical electrochemical CO₂ conversion to multicarbon products. Advisor: Prof. Daniel H. Whitford, Electrochemical Carbon Lab. Advanced to candidacy 2023.
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2017 – 2021B.S., Chemical Engineering — Georgia Institute of Technology
Highest honors. Minor in Materials Science & Engineering. Senior thesis on gas-diffusion electrode mass transport. Exchange semester at TU Eindhoven (2020).
Research experience
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2021 – presentGraduate Research Assistant — Electrochemical Carbon Lab, University of Alabama
Lead researcher on tandem copper–silver gas-diffusion electrodes and flooding-resistant membrane-electrode assemblies for CO₂ reduction. Built the lab's operando Raman capability and its first techno-economic modeling pipeline for C2+ products.
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Summer 2023Graduate Research Intern — National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Developed accelerated stress-test protocols for CO₂ electrolyzers and characterized membrane flooding under industrial current densities with the Chemistry & Nanoscience Center.
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2019 – 2021Undergraduate Researcher — Georgia Institute of Technology
Studied mass-transport limitations in gas-diffusion electrodes; co-authored two conference proceedings and completed an honors thesis.
Selected publications
Journal of the American Chemical Society
Energy & Environmental Science
11 publications total; 3 first-author in top journals.
Invited talks & presentations
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November 10, 2025Steering Copper Toward C2+: A Tandem Approach
AIChE Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL
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May 27, 2025The Ethylene Cost Floor
ECS Meeting — CO₂ Symposium, San Francisco, CA
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January 16, 2024Operando Raman at the Reduction Interface (Poster)
GRC Poster Session, Ventura, CA
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January 14, 2026Flood-Resistant MEAs for Durable CO₂ Electrolysis
Gordon Research Conference — Electrochemistry, Ventura, CA
Awards & fellowships
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2024Award ECS Joseph W. Richards Summer Fellowship — The Electrochemical Society
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2024Award AIChE Separations Division Graduate Student Award
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2023Award UA College of Engineering Outstanding Researcher
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2022 – 2025Fellowship NSF Graduate Research Fellowship — National Science Foundation
Teaching & mentoring
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2022 – 2025Graduate Teaching Assistant — University of Alabama
Transport Phenomena, Thermodynamics, and Reaction Engineering & Reactor Design. Led recitations, built problem sets, and held weekly office hours. Mean instructor rating 4.9 / 5.0.
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2021 – presentUndergraduate research mentor
Mentored six undergraduate researchers in the Electrochemical Carbon Lab; two have since entered PhD programs in chemical engineering.
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2024Guest lecturer
Two guest lectures on electrochemical engineering and carbon utilization for senior-level ChemE electives.
Professional service
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2023 – presentPeer reviewer
ACS Energy Letters, ACS Catalysis, Journal of Power Sources, and ChemSusChem. ~15 manuscripts reviewed to date.
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2022 – presentGraduate student volunteer & session aide
AIChE Annual Meeting and ECS Meeting session support; organized the ECL graduate seminar series.
- Memberships
- AIChE, ECS, ACS
- Reviewing for
- ACS Energy Letters; ACS Catalysis; J. Power Sources; ChemSusChem
- Outreach
- UA Engineering open-house demonstrations; STEM mentoring
Technical skills
Instruments & methods
- Gas-diffusion electrode & MEA fabrication
- Operando Raman & FTIR spectroscopy
- Potentiostatic / galvanostatic electrolysis
- Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy
- Gas chromatography & NMR product analysis
- SEM / XRD materials characterization
Modeling & analysis
- Techno-economic analysis (TEA)
- Mass-transport & reactor modeling
- Multiphysics simulation (COMSOL)
- Statistical design of experiments
- Life-cycle & cost-floor estimation
Software & tools
- Python (NumPy, SciPy, pandas, Matplotlib)
- MATLAB · COMSOL Multiphysics
- Origin · Git & GitHub
- LaTeX · Inkscape
References
Available on request — including my doctoral advisor, dissertation committee members, and research-internship supervisor.
Last updated June 2026