Principal Investigator
Professor Xiao Su
(CV)
Office Number: RAL-107 // E-mail: x2su@illinois.edu
Xiao Su is an Associate 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. Since joining Illinois, Xiao has been the recipient of the NSF CAREER Award (2019), the ACS Victor K. Lamer Award (2020), the ISE-Elsevier Prize for Green Electrochemistry (2021), the ACS Unilever Award (2023), and the AIChE FRI/John G. Kunesh Award (2023). His research focuses on molecular engineering for advanced separations and process intensification.
Group Members
Johannes Elbert
Research Scientist
Office Number: RAL-105 // E-mail: jelbert@illinois.edu
Johannes Elbert obtained his bachelor and master’s degree in chemistry from the Technische Universität Darmstadt. During this time, he spent 10 months in the group of Prof. Ian Manners in the at the University of Bristol. He completed his PhD in 2015 (Dr. rer. nat.) at the Technische Universität Darmstadt, under the supervision of Dr. Markus Gallei and Prof. Matthias Rehahn, with a thesis on immobilized ferrocene containing polymers. He then worked at the group of Alan T. Hatton at MIT, on electrochemical water purification, and the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena on redox-flow batteries. His research is focused on developing new redox active materials.
Yuri Giovane Kappenberg
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Office Number: RAL-7 // E-mail: yurigk@illinois.edu
Yuri received his BS in Chemistry at the Universidade de Santa Cruz do Sul (UNISC) in 2016. He received his MS and PhD in Organic Chemistry at the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM) under the supervision of Prof. Helio G. Bonacorso. His doctoral work focused on the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds and their biological and photophysical evaluation. His research interests in the Su group are in developing redox polymers for small molecule separation.
Hee-Eun Kim
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Office Number: RAL-105 // E-mail: kheeeun@illinois.edu
Hee-Eun Kim received her BS in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Yonsei University in South Korea. She received her MS and PhD in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) under the supervision of Prof. Hyunjoo Lee. Her doctoral thesis focused on heterogeneous electrocatalysis and application for energy devices. Her current research interest in the Su group is in the selective separation of critical elements.
Devashish Gokhale
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Office Number: RAL-105 // E-mail: dgokhale@illinois.edu Devashish received his BTech (Hons) in Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) in 2019. He received his MS (Chemical Engineering Practice, 2022) and PhD (Chemical Engineering, 2024) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he worked with Prof. Pat Doyle. His doctoral work focused on the development of novel hydrogel materials for the sequestration and destruction of micropollutants in water, also aiming at the commercial application of this technology. His current research interest in the Su group is the development of photoelectrochemical methods for water treatment and industrial separations. Deborah Schmitt Postdoctoral Research Associate Office Number: RAL-105 // E-mail: sdeborah@illinois.edu Deborah Schmitt received her BS (2018) and MS (2020) degrees in Chemistry with a focus on polymer synthesis from the Technical University Darmstadt, Germany. She received her doctoral degree (Dr. rer. nat.) from the Saarland University under the supervision of Prof. Markus Gallei (2024). Her thesis topic was the functionalization of surfaces with ferrocene containing molecules and polymers for the preparation of redox responsive materials. Deborah’s research interests in the Su group are the development of new organic and polymeric redox active materials for selective separations. Chiara Corsini Postdoctoral Research Associate Office Number: RAL-295 // E-mail: ccorsini@illinois.edu Chiara earned her BS in Physics from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in 2020 and her MS in Physics of Materials and Nanostructures from the Alma Mater Studiorume, University of Bologna in 2022. In 2025, she completed her PhD in Chemistry at ENS de Lyon in the Ionic Liquids Group under the supervision of Agilio Padua and Margarida Costa Gomes, where she investigated the structural properties of porous ionic liquids using all-atom polarizable molecular dynamics simulations. At UIUC, she is a joint postdoctoral researcher in the Su Group and the Sing Group, where she simulates glassy dynamics and transport in layer-by-layer polyelectrolyte complexes for separations by performing coarse-grained MD simulations. PhD Candidate, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Office Number: RAL-105 // E-mail: darienr2@illinois.edu PhD Candidate, Material Science and Engineering Office Number: RAL-7 // E-mail: jh76@illinois.edu PhD Candidate, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Office Number: RAL-105 // E-mail: chchung3@illinois.edu PhD Candidate, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Office Number: RAL-105 // E-mail: cc109@illinois.edu PhD Candidate, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Office Number: RAL-105 // E-mail: faniyan2@illinois.edu PhD Student, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (co-advised by Prof. Mohan Sankaran) Office Number: RAL-105 // E-mail: fzb2@illinois.edu PhD Student, Materials Science and Engineering Office Number: RAL-7 // E-mail: hyunjae2@illinois.edu PhD Student, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Office Number: RAL-105 // E-mail: eharbut2@illinois.edu PhD Student, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Office Number: RAL-105 // E-mail: jbseo2@illinois.edu PhD Student, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Office Number: RAL-105 // E-mail: simwoob2@illinois.edu PhD Student, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Office Number: RAL-105 // E-mail: kjs12@illinois.edu PhD Student, Materials Science and Engineering Office Number: RAL-7 // E-mail: joshua96@illinois.edu
Darien Raymond
