Group Alumni, Complex Fluids and Nanomaterials Group, University of Maryland

Graduate Students (Ph.D.)

Kunshan Sun (Ph.D., ChBE, 2009)
Kunshan came to UMD in Fall 2005. He has a B.E. and an M.E. in ChemE from Zhejiang U in China and an M.E. in Molecular Eng from the Singapore-MIT alliance. In his Ph.D. Dissertation, Kunshan studied new photo- and thermo-responsive gels based on nanoparticles. He is the lead author on a JACS paper. His work on gels for serum separation tubes in collaboration with Dr. Jane Emerson of UC Irvine also resulted in a patent. After his Ph.D., Kunshan has moved on to a postdoc at MIT with Prof. Alan Hatton.

Rakesh Kumar (Ph.D., ChBE, 2009)
Rakesh joined the group in Fall 2004. He did his B.S. in ChemE at IIT-Kharagpur, India and then spent a year doing research at NCL in Pune. Rakesh's Ph.D. Dissertation was on light and temperature-responsive fluids based on molecular self-assembly. In all, he contributed to 5 papers in JACS, Langmuir, and Soft Matter. For his research, Rakesh received the Wylie Fellowship for Fall 2008. Following his Ph.D., he secured a position with Syngenta AG in North Carolina.

Aimee Ketner (Ph.D., ChBE, 2008)
Aimee came to the group in Fall 2004. She obtained her B.S. in ChemE from Virginia Tech. Aimee's Ph.D. dissertation was on self-assembled micellar fluids that changed their viscosity in response to light irradiation ("photorheological fluids"). She published multiple papers in JACS. Following her Ph.D., Aimee took up a position at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, VA.

Shih-Huang Tung (Ph.D., ChBE, 2007)
Shih-Huang joined the group in Fall 2003. He came to UMD after completing a B.S. in ChemE and an M.S. in MatSE from National Taiwan Univ. His Ph.D. dissertation focused on reverse micelles, vesicles and fibrillar networks formed in organic solvents by biomolecules and lipids. He published five papers as lead author: in JACS (2), Langmuir (2) and Soft Matter. After his Ph.D., Shih-Huang did a postdoc at UC Berkeley with Prof. Ting Xu for a year. In Aug 2008, he began his academic career as an Asst. Prof. in the Polymer Science dept. at National Taiwan Univ., the most prestigious University in Taiwan.

Bani Cipriano (Ph.D., ChBE, 2007)
Bani joined the group in Fall 2002 after completing his B.S. in ChemE from UMD. His Ph.D. dissertation was on mixtures of polymers and nanoparticles (such as nanoclays or carbon nanotubes). The work was done in collaboration with Dr. Takashi Kashiwagi at the Building & Fire Res Lab (BFRL) at NIST and with Dr. Hugh Bruck in MechE at UMD. Bani also developed polymer gels on a project with Prasidiux Inc. In all, he contributed to 11 papers and 2 patents. Bani is now working with Balchem Inc. in NJ.

Jae-Ho Lee (Ph.D., ChBE, 2006)
Jae-Ho was the first Ph.D. student in the group, joining in Fall 2001. He did his B.S. and M.S. at Seoul National Univ in Korea and worked with LG Chem prior to entering UMD. Jae-Ho's Ph.D. dissertation, focused on vesicles and hydrophobically modified biopolymers. His work resulted in 6 papers in journals such as Langmuir and PRL. After his Ph.D, Jae-Ho took up a postdoc with Dr. Joseph Frank at the NIH Clinical Ctr. Currently, he is on a second postdoc with Dr. Rob Blumenthal at the Nat Cancer Inst (NCI).

Graduate Students (M.S.)

Elijah George (M.S., ChBE, 2009)
Elijah came to UMD in Fall 2006 after completing his B.S. in ChemE from Howard Univ. He joined our lab in Fall 2008 and completed his M.S. thesis in ChBE by May 2009. His research involved the synthesis of hybrid capsules and their applications in separations, sensing, and in the creation of biomimetic architectures. He is now a Ph.D. candidate in BioE at UMD.

Khyati Tiwari (M.S., ChBE, 2008)
Khyati came to the group in Fall 2006. She obtained her B.S. in ChemE from D. J. Sanghvi Coll. of Eng., (Univ of Mumbai, India). Her research was on biopolymer-based capsules for separations and sensing and she also studied the creation of "artificial earthworms". After defending her M.S. thesis, Khyati returned to her hometown of Mumbai to take up a job with Cipla Phamaceuticals.

Tanner Davies (M.S., ChBE, 2005)
Tanner joined the group in Fall 2002 after completing his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Colorado. His M.S. thesis was devoted to an unusual thermoreversible transition of vesicles to wormlike micelles upon heating. This work was published in JACS. Currently, Tanner is pursuing business opportunities outside the scientific arena.

Postdocs & Visiting Scientists

Seung-Won Ko (2008-2009)
Dr. Ko was a visiting scientist in the lab from Feb 2008 to Feb 2009. His Ph.D. was in Chemistry from KAIST in Korea, following which he took up a job with a Korean national research laboratory (ADD). At UMD, he studied fluids and gels whose rheological properties could be tuned by light or heat. Thereafter, he returned to Korea and is currently a senior scientist at ADD.

Chao Zhu (2006-2007)
Chao was with the group from May 2006 to Oct 2007. He obtained his Ph.D. in Polymer Chemistry from SUNY Syracuse and was previously a postdoc with Prof. Greg Payne at UMBI. He worked in two areas: synthesis of responsive polymer hydrogels and chitosan-based films and gels containing vesicles, and contributed to 2 papers and a patent. Chao is currently with Intl. Specialty Products Corp.in NJ.

Wei-Chi Lai (2006)
Wei-Chi was with the lab from April to Sep 2006 as a visiting scientist. He obtained his Ph.D. in MatSE from National Taiwan University. At UMD, Wei-Chi studied the templating of nanostructured polymers from reverse micelles and fibrillar organogels, and this work was published in J. Phys. Chem. B. He is now an Asst. Prof. of Chemical and Materials Engineering at Tamkang Univ. in Taiwan.

Andrei Kostko (2004)
Andrei was with the group from April to June 2004. Previously, he was a postdoc with Dr. Anisimov in the ChemE department at UMD. Andrei has a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Russia and is an expert on light scattering. His work in our group dealt with the phase behavior of chromonic liquid crystals formed by an aromatic drug in water. The results were published in J. Phys. Chem. B.

Gokul Kalur (2002-2004)
Gokul was with the group from May 2002 to Jan 2004. He did both his B.E. and Ph.D. at UDCT (Univ of Bombay) in India and thereafter worked at a couple of companies, notably GE India. His postdoctoral project was funded by Schlumberger Inc. and focused on the structure and rheology of wormlike micelles. This work resulted in 5 papers in J. Phys. Chem. B and Langmuir. Gokul then secured a position with Irix Pharma. Currently, he is working with GE Pharma in South Carolina.

Undergraduate Students

Chao Xue (2009)
Chao is a sophomore at MIT in ChemE. He joined our lab in the summer of 2009, during which time he worked with Kunqiang on our collaborative project with Prof. Don DeVoe in MechE. Chao's work focused on the microfluidic generation of capsules and is being readied for publication.

George Chacko (2004-2008)
George joined our lab in his sophomore year (2004). He went on to earn his B.S. in ChemE and then continued to work in our group as a graduate student. He has contributed to a number of areas, including nanocomposites, capsules, hydrogels, and organogels and is a co-author on a Langmuir paper.

Yi-En (Andy) Huang (2004-2007)
Andy came to the lab while he was a UMD ChemE freshman in Feb. 2004 and continued on for the next three years. He worked with Shih-Huang on reverse micelles and organogels. During this period, Andy made important contributions to a variety of projects. He was the second author on three papers, one in JACS, one in Langmuir and the third in Soft Matter. Andy is now working with Exxon Mobil.

Patrick Elder (2004-2007)
Patrick was a ChemE sophomore when he joined the group (Sep 2004). He worked with Aimee and Tanner on fluids that respond to light and was a co-author on a paper published in JACS on these fluids. Patrick won the ASPIRE award for best undergraduate research project within the UMD College of Eng in 2007. After graduation, he is working with Exxon Mobil.

John Gustin (2003-2004)
John was a junior in ChemE at UMD when he came to the group as an REU student in June 2003. He worked closely with Jae-Ho on vesicle gels and continued his research for two semesters thereafter. The results of this work were published in Langmuir. Following his graduation, John entered grad school at Johns Hopkins University, where he is pursuing a Ph.D. in ChBE.

Bradley Frounfelker (2002-2005)
Brad joined the group in June 2002 while he was a sophomore and continued on till Oct 2005. He made many discoveries in the lab working on the properties of micellar fluids with Gokul. These have resulted in two papers in Langmuir, with Brad as the first author on one of them. After graduating from UMD with a B.S. in ChemE, Brad is now working with the US Army at APG.