Group Members

Principal Investigator

Professor Xiao Su

Office Number: RAL-105 // E-mail: x2su@illinois.edu

Xiao Su is an Assistant Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He obtained his Bachelor in Applied Sciences in Chemical Engineering from the University of Waterloo in 2011. He completed his PhD in Chemical Engineering from MIT in 2017, working under the supervision of Professor T. Alan Hatton from Chemical Engineering and Professor Timothy F. Jamison from Chemistry. During his doctoral studies, Xiao received the MIT Water Innovation Prize and the MassCEC Catalyst Award for his work on electrochemically-mediated water purification. His research program pursues the molecular engineering of functional materials for advanced separations and process intensification.

Group Members

Kwiyong Kim
Postdoc

Office Number: RAL-7 // E-mail: kwiyongk@illinois.edu

Kwiyong Kim received his Bachelor in Bio and Brain Engineering, and Civil and Environmental Engineering from KAIST in 2012. He earned his PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from KAIST in 2018 under the supervision of Prof. Jong-In Han. His thesis focused on the electrochemical synthesis of ammonia from water and dinitrogen as a next-generation energy carrier. He continued his career at Iowa State University, working with Prof. Wenzhen Li on electrocatalysis topics. Kwiyong’s interests at UIUC are on developing new electrochemical systems for energy-efficient water purification processes.

Raylin Chen

PhD Student

Office Number: RAL-7 // E-mail: raylinc2@illinois.edu

Raylin graduated from the University of California Berkeley, in 2017, receiving a dual B.S. in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering. He has performed undergraduate research at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on catalyst synthesis and characterization. His current research interests at UIUC lie in the fundamental investigation of materials synthesis and processing through electrochemical control.

Stephen Cotty

PhD Student

Office Number: RAL-7 // E-mail: cotty2@illinois.edu

Stephen graduated from Clemson University in 2017 in Chemical Engineering. During undergraduate at Clemson, he worked with Prof. Mark Roberts on redox-flow battery research, and also full-time at the Argonne National Laboratory on the design of a pilot-scale Flame Pyrolysis Plant. His focus at UIUC is on leveraging redox electrochemistry for process intensification in chemical and environmental applications.

Haley Vapnik

PhD Student

Office Number: RAL-7 // E-mail: hvapnik2@illinois.edu

Haley received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University, in 2018. Her undergraduate research at Purdue involved the study of functional polymers for projects in sensing and enhanced oil recovery, and internships at Logan Aluminum, Kraft Heinz Company, Walt Disney Imageneering and King Nutronics Corporation. Haley’s interests at UIUC focus on functional materials discovery and synthesis for selective electrochemical separations.

Paola Baldaguez Medina

PhD Student

Office Number: RAL-7 // E-mail: paolaab2@illinois.edu

Paola received her B.S in Chemical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez in 2019. During undergraduate, she conducted research in separation processes with Prof. Hernández-Maldonado, and spectroscopy with Prof. Hernández-Rivera. She also had internships at the University of Minnesota through the NSF REU program working on block-copolymers, and at the University of Florida with Prof. Rinaldi on rheology studies. Paola’s interests at UIUC focus on electrochemically-driven water purification, interfacial electrochemistry, and electroactive polymer development.

Emmanuel Kayiwa

MSc/PhD Student, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Office Number: RAL-7 // E-mail: ekayiwa2@illinois.edu

Emmanuel received his B.S in Civil Engineering with a concentration in Environmental Engineering from Marquette University in 2019. He conducted electrochemical desalination research at Cornell’s Center for Nanomaterials Engineering and Technology (CNET), and worked with electrocatalysis at MIT in Prof. Yang Shao-Horn’s group. His current research interests at UIUC include novel material development and integrated flow-systems comprising of redox-electrodes. Emmanuel is co-advised with Prof. Roland Cusick from Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Riccardo Candeago

Visiting MSc Student, Technical University of Munich

E-mail: candeago@illinois.edu

Riccardo received his Bachelor’s degree in Environmental and Land Engineering at the University of Trento, Italy, in 2016. He is currently enrolled in joint Master’s program in Materials and Mechanical Engineering with the University of Trento and the Technical University of Munich, under the supervision of Prof. Sonja Berensmeier. He is writing his Master’s thesis at UIUC under the supervision of Prof. Su, with his research interests focusing on developing new electrochemical systems for environmental remediation.

Mateus Almeida de Araujo

Visiting exchange student, University of São Paulo

E-mail: mateusa2@illinois.edu

Mateus is currently 4th year in food engineering at the University of São Paulo, studying Food Engineering. His undergraduate research at the Faculty of Animal Science and Food Engineering (USP) focused on the biotransformation of eucalyptus oil by kefir grains. His current research interests at UIUC focus on ion-selectivity on polymeric electrodes.