Yamil J. Colón, Ph.D. - Principal Investigator

Dr. Colón is Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Notre Dame.

Click here for Dr. Colón’s bio

View Dr. Colón’s Google Scholar profile for a complete listing of citations and work

Postdoc

Ricardo García Cárcamo

My research focuses on the use of quantum mechanical and classical modeling techniques to investigate the nonlinear optical properties of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). This work aims to contribute to the discovery and development of novel materials with potential applications in quantum photonics.

PhD, Chemical Engineering. The Ohio State University

MSc, Chemical Engineering. Clemson University

BSc, Chemical Engineering. Universidad Centroamericana José Simeon Cañas

Graduate Students

Krishnendu Mukherjee

I am working on modeling the water vapor adsorption/separation phenomena in porous materials using molecular simulations. Water separation from air/other gases is a problem central to many applications including proton conduction, water harvesting from the air, carbon capture, etc. We believe that with a better understanding of the separation phenomena we will discover materials that can provide solutions to these applications. Other research interests include sensor modeling, electrochemical material discovery, and machine learning.

BTech, Chemical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur

MSc, Chemical Engineering, SUNY College at Buffalo

James Carpenter

My current project is modeling self-assembly of porous materials for use in separations, gas adsorption/storage, catalysis, and sensing. In pursuit of this I'll be using molecular dynamics simulations and enhanced sampling to determine feasible useful materials, and how to create them.

BEng, Chemical Engineering, University of Washington

Fernando Carmona Esteva

My research seeks to increase our understanding of the structure-property relationships of ionic liquids in order to develop separation techniques that would improve our rare earth elements supply. My interests are the application of computational techniques in chemical engineering to solve material engineering and sustainability problems, the integration of science in policy and finally, higher education.

BSc, Chemical Engineering, University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez

Etinosa James Osaro

My research focuses on modeling the adsorption of gases in various materials using molecular
simulations and machine learning. The goal is to navigate various properties such as temperature,
pressure, composition to device a means to navigate the material landscape which helps to generate a
universal adsorption model.

BSc, Petroleum and Gas Engineering, University of Lagos, Nigeria

Orlando Mendible Barreto

My research focuses on providing fundamental knowledge of the self-assembly mechanisms of metal-organic frameworks through molecular dynamics simulations and other computational tools. A more advanced understanding of these mechanisms will allow to control the process and design new high-quality materials for a wide range of applications, including gas separation/adsorption, catalysis, and energy storage.

BSc, Chemical Engineering, University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez

Wilson Raney

My research is centered on exploring the nonlinear optical qualities of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). Certain MOFs are known to be capable of spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC), allowing for the production of entangled photon pairs. Simulating different MOF configurations enables us to draw relationships between MOF chemistry and the degree of SPDC when exposed to high-intensity light. The motivation for this work is to develop a class of candidate designer materials that can be used in various quantum optics applications.

BSc, Chemical Engineering, The University of Alabama

Fathya Salih

I study the behavior of ionic liquids under electric fields in order to design specialized solvents and separation techniques for recovering critical materials like rare earth elements. These explorations will be expedited using machine learning structure-property models trained with novel low cost techniques.

BSc, Chemical Engineering, National University of Science and Technology, Oman

MSc, Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University at Qatar

Faraj Al-Badani

My research focuses on nanoengineering of phyllosilicates as novel gas sensing material for electronic nose applications. The purpose of the multidisciplinary research is to leverage advances in material science, electrochemistry, and computational techniques to employ a smart gas sensing device to classify and quantify target analytes.

BSc, Chemical Engineering, University of California, Riverside

Vivian Okorie

My research focuses on artificial Intelligence and molecular modeling of materials for the biodetection of biomarkers for diagnosis and material screening for electronic sensors

BSc, Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Lagos, Nigeria

Ashiat Bakare

My research focuses on modeling single and multicomponent adsorption in nanoporous materials, primarily Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs), using molecular dynamics and machine learning techniques. The goal is to develop innovative machine learning techniques based on Gaussian process regression to efficiently predict adsorption across various thermodynamic feature space and MOF space.

BSc, Petroleum and Gas Engineering, University of Lagos, Nigeria