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

Graduate Students (Ph.D.)

Aimee Ketner (Ph.D., 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 has published multiple papers in JACS. Aimee is currently working at the Naval Surface Warfare Center at Dahlgren, VA.

Shih-Huang Tung (Ph.D., 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 1 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., 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 7 papers and 2 patents. Bani is now working with Balchem Inc. in NJ.

Jae-Ho Lee (Ph.D., 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 has resulted in six 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 Center. Currently, he is delving deeper into nano-biotechnology on a second postdoc with Dr. Robert Blumenthal at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Frederick, MD.

Graduate Students (M.S.)

Khyati Tiwari (M.S., 2008)
Khyati came to the group in Fall 2006. She obtained her B.S. in ChemE from D. J. Sanghvi College of Engineering, which is affiliated with the Univ. of Mumbai. Her research in the group was on biopolymer-based capsules for separations and sensing applications.She also investigated the creation of biomimetic structures, notably "artificial earthworms". After defending her M.S. thesis in May 2008, Khyati returned to her hometown of Mumbai, where she has taken up a job with Cipla Phamaceuticals.

Tanner Davies (M.S., 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, which he defended in August 2005, 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

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 polymer hydrogels and chitosan-based films and gels containing vesicles. Chao is currently working with International Specialty Products Corp.in Wayne, 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. During his stay at UMD, Wei-Chi studied the templating of nanostructured polymers from reverse micelles and fibriallar organogels. 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. Mikhail 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 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 industrial jobs, notably at GE India. His postdoctoral project was funded by Schlumberger Inc. and focused on the structure and rheology of wormlike micelles. This work resulted in papers in J. Phys. Chem. B and Langmuir. Currently, Gokul is working for Irix Pharmaceuticals in Columbia, SC.

Undergraduate Students

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.

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. Specifically, he found a micellar system in which the viscosity increased upon heating, which resulted in a paper in Langmuir. After graduating from UMD with a B.S. in ChemE, Brad is now working with the US Army at APG.