Mahdokht (Maddie) Soltani
I am a second-year Ph.D. student in Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington, where I work in the Rorrer lab on heterogeneous catalysis. In the Rorrer lab, my research is focused on developing inexpensive earth abundant catalysts that depolymerize and upcycle polyolefins that represent plastic waste in milder conditions while minimizing methane formation, which is an incentive for plastic waste recycling, reducing the severe burden of plastic waste globally. Along with research, I enjoy engaging in outreach activities. Recently, I was one of the directors for the Distinguished Young Scholars Seminar (DYSS), where I organized an NSF-style panel for speaker selection and prepared...
Joelle Scott
I am a second-year Chemical Engineering PhD student in the Bergsman Lab. My research focuses on using molecular layer deposition to upgrade the synthesis of thin-film composite membranes for water treatment. I am a passionate advocate for sustainability and equity in STEM. Outside of work, I enjoy spending time outdoors hiking with friends, traveling, going to concerts, and watching movies with my cat Yoshi....
Spencer Cira
I am a 3rd-year Ph.D. student in Chemical Engineering at the UW where I work under Professor Hugh W. Hillhouse. My research focuses on understanding the light-stability of commercially relevant perovskite semiconductors for application in next generation, low cost photovoltaics. I aim to elucidate fundamental stability weaknesses in these materials and pioneer methods for increasing perovskite solar cell longevity. Outside of the lab, I enjoy spending time in the mountains trail running and skiing. ...
Julie Rorrer
Julie Rorrer is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington. She joined the UW in January 2023 after completing postdoctoral research as an Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She earned her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at the University of California-Berkeley and her B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Arizona State University. The Rorrer Lab leverages tunable heterogeneous catalytic systems to enable sustainable chemical transformations including the chemical upcycling of waste plastics, and catalytic upgrading of biomass-derived platform molecules. By developing targeted active catalytic sites to enable new chemical transformations and leveraging advanced characterization techniques, we...
Zachery Wylie
My research focuses on the solution-based synthesis and characterization of colloidal nanostructures for applications in energy storage. I work specifically with colloidal metal chalcogenides developing synthesis methods to control their composition, morphology, crystal structure, and electrochemical performance. Using highly reactive sulfur precursors, these chemical systems allow me to explore scalable, high-throughput methods that are necessary for producing electrodes in future cationic energy storage systems. Advisor: Vince Holmberg - Chemical Engineering...
Sage Scheiwiller
Blends of conjugated and commodity polymers provide a way to balance desirable electronic properties and physical properties of both components. This balance plays a critical role in the development and performance of organic electronic devices such as photovoltaics (OPVs), field-effect transistors (OFETs), bioelectronics, and wearable sensors. Understanding the fundamental interactions between the conjugated polymers and matrix polymers at all stages of processing is essential for designing and optimizing organic electronic devices. My research focuses on understanding the structure property relationship in solid and solution states in order to track how the pressures of processing and composition change the morphology and the film properties. Advisor: Lilo...
Rose Lee
With the role of lithium-based batteries escalating in an increasingly electrified economy, it is critical to fully understand the factors that affect battery performance and limit battery longevity. However, the complexities of battery chemistries often lead to fundamental half-cell studies that do not fully capture the complicated interactions within the full-cell batteries powering society. This project aims to develop a non-destructive method of monitoring the performance of individual electrodes in the full-cell through experimentally-validated battery modelling. This full-cell model connects two physics-based half-cell models that disaggregates its respective electrode response into the individual solid-state reactions occurring in the electrode, which are each described by...
Nisarg Joshi
The ultimate goal of my research is to develop new simulation tools to study electrolyte degradation in condensed phases at interfaces. Unfortunately, current methods are either too expensive (ab initio MD) or inaccurate (semi empirical). Therefore, I have been working on developing machine learning potentials (MLP) for molecules which offer greater accuracy while also being able to simulate larger, more relevant systems. Furthermore, I am also working on improving the large training data bottleneck faced in developing MLP by using enhanced sampling methods to speed the generation of training data and improve the reconstruction accuracy of the potentials while also limiting the total amount...
Yuefan Ji
Lithium-ion batteries are key to electrifying transportation. However, the nature of the current lithium ion battery technology is unsafe. Researchers are working on the development and improvement of battery techniques to manufacture high performance and safe batteries. Importantly, lithium ion batteries are a closed and complicated system, which makes it impossible to open and diagnose the commercialized battery without damaging it. Fortunately, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is available for us to diagnose the lithium ion battery non-invasively. EIS is powerful, but has not been fully understood. Thus, my works focus on the theories and applications of EIS in providing more insights on battery diagnostics and...
Seancarlos Gonzalez
Renewable energy technologies have gained use as a means of combating the causes of global climate change. Nevertheless, even with 100% renewable energy, chemicals manufacturing will still produce carbon dioxide emissions. Current gas separation techniques are both energy and cost intensive, meaning that we need affordable technologies that can scrub CO2 from exhaust streams. My research focuses on developing more effective gas separation membranes that can be used to separate CO2 from a mixture of other gases. Specifically, my work uses reactive vapors to grow metal organic frameworks (MOFs) in situ within polymer membranes. The incorporation of these MOFs has already been shown to...
Yuri Choe
My project is to create hybrid organic-inorganic membranes with greater stabilities at high temperatures and/or with organic solvents. To reduce the energy consumption and associated emissions from industrial thermal chemical separations, switching to membrane separations could reduce energy required by up to 90%. However, commercially available membranes are unstable in many industrial applications. To produce more resilient membranes, I am exploring the use of vapor phase infiltration (VPI) to enhance stabilities of separation membranes and enable its integration into current industrial manufacturing processes without the need for significant changes. My goal is to develop new VPI process chemistries and test properties of the synthesized...