Seminars

The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering fall 2025 seminars, sponsored by the Shell Corporation, will take place on Thursdays in Duncan 1055 (McMurtry Auditorium) at 2:30pm except on holidays, during university breaks, or as otherwise noted.

Also, if you would like to get email announcements for our upcoming ChBE seminars please contact cal13@rice.edu.

Fall 2025 Seminars Sponsored by The Shell Corporation

August 28, 2025
Speaker TBA
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: TBA

September 4, 2025
Manju Reddy, PhD
The University of Lille, Lille France
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: TBA

September 11, 2025
Speaker TBA
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: TBA

September 18, 2025
Speaker TBA
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: TBA

September 25, 2025
Speaker TBA
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: TBA

October 2, 2025
Speaker TBA
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: TBA

October 9, 2025
Speaker TBA
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: TBA

October 16, 2025
Speaker TBA
Room Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: TBA

October 23, 2025
Speaker TBA
Room: Duncan 1055
Seminar Title: TBA

October 30, 2025
Speaker TBA
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: TBA

November 6, 2025
Speaker TBA
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: TBA

November 13, 2025
Speaker TBA
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: TBA

November 20, 2025
Speaker TBA
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: TBA

December 4, 2025
Speaker TBA
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: TBA

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Past Seminars

Spring 2025

January 16, 2025
Angel Marti, PhD
Rice University
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: The Chemistry and Organization of Boron Nitride Nanotubes

January 23, 2025
Allen Lee, PhD
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: Addressing Fundamental Challenges in Biomanufacturing for a Circular Carbon Economy

January 30, 2025
Leah Bushin, PhD
University of California - San Diego
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: Growth-Coupled Microbial Biosynthesis of the Animal Pigment Xanthommatin

February 6, 2025
Tianhao Yu, PhD
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: Harnessing AI/ML for Advancing Synthetic Biology

February 20, 2025
David Garcia, PhD
CalTech
Room: O'Connor 510
Seminar Title: Leveraging Cell-Free Synthetic Biology and AI for Point-of-care Diagnostics, Biomanufacturing and Materials

February 27, 2025
Shunzhi Wang, PhD
University of Washington
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: Genetically Encodable Designer Biomaterials

March 6, 2025
Elizabeth Bell, PhD
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: Engineering Enzymes for a Circular Plastics Bioeconomy

March 27, 2025
Edgar Ruiz (Riki Kobayashi Fellowship Winner) and Dongjoo Lee (Sunit Patel '85 Endowed Fellowship Winner)
Rice University
Room Herzstein 210

April 3, 2025
Kyriakos Stylianou, PhD
Oregon State University
Room: Duncan 1055
Seminar Title: Discovering Materials for Carbon Capture

April 17, 2025
Jeffrey Rimer, PhD
The University of Houston
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title:Breaking the Rules of Classical Crystallization: An Unconventional Guide to Crystal Engineering

April 24, 2025
Marcel Schreier, PhD
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Real-time Electrocatalytic Control of C-H and C-C Bond Transformation and Fuel Formation to Enable a Sustainable Chemical and Fuels Industry

Fall 2024

August 29, 2024
Omid Veiseh, PhD
Rice University
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: Bioengineering Cell-Based Therapeutics

September 5, 2024
Joseph Kwon, PhD
Texas A&M University
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: Transformer-based Hybrid Modeling and Control of Evolving, Nonlinear Processes

September 12, 2024 - seminar for ChBE graduate students and postdocs
Karen Shelton
Rice University
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: ChBE FAQS and Important Procedures

September 19, 2024
Jeff Tabor, PhD
Rice University
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: Engineering Bacteria to Diagnose and Treat Disease

September 26, 2024
Sara Hashmi, PhD
Northeastern University
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: Clogging and Intermittent Dynamics in Complex Fluid Flows through Confined Spaces

October 3, 2024
Richard Willson, PhD
University of Houston
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: New Purification and Process Monitoring Tools for Monoclonal Antibodies: A Biomanufacturing Industry Comparable in Size to ExxonMobil

October 10, 2024
Jan Genzer, PhD
North Carolina State University
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: Degrafting of Polymer Assemblies from Silica Surfaces: Nuisance or Opportunity?

October 17, 2024
Shannon Boettcher, PhD
University of California - Berkeley
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: The Chemistry and Physics of Bipolar Membranes with Applications in Water, Energy, and Decarbonization

October 24, 2024
Valerio Cozzani, PhD
University of Bologna
Room: Duncan 1055
Seminar Title: Safe and Sustainable by Design: Shifting from Ex-Post to Ex-Ante Safety and Life-Cycle Assessment

November 7, 2024
Sara Thoi, PhD
John Hopkins University
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: Designing Functional Sites in Metal-Organic Materials for Energy Storage and Conversion

November 14, 2024
James Carothers
The University of Washington
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: TBA

November 21, 2024
Xiaoguang Wang
Ohio State University
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: Applications of Liquid Crystals beyond Display Technology

December 5, 2024
Lea Nienhaus, PhD
Rice University
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: Perovskite-Sensitized Photon Upconversion: Past, Present, and Future

Spring 2024

January 11, 2024
Youngmin Lee, PhD
New Mexico Tech
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: Understanding the Effect of the Side Reaction on Thermoreversible Diels-Alder Networks

January 18, 2024
Xiao Su, PhD
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: Redox-Mediated Electrochemical Separations: from Fundamentals to Applications

January 25, 2024
Xiaodan Gu, PhD
University of Southern Mississippi
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: Enabling Rational Design of Soft Stretchable Polymer for Wearable Applications

February 1, 2024
Jaewoon Nam, PhD
Seoul National University
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: Rheological Insights and Coating Challenges in Battery Electrode Manufacturing

February 15, 2024
Aisulu Aitbekova, PhD
California Institute of Technology
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: Converting CO₂, Water, and Sunlight into Liquid Fuels

February 29, 2024
Bradley Biggs, PhD
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: Recovering Waste through Biomanufacturing for Sustainable Chemical Synthesis

March 7, 2024
Zhifei Yan, PhD
Harvard University
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: Ion Management and Electron Transfer in Electrochemical Energy Storage

March 21, 2024
Everett Zofchak, PhD
The University of Texas at Austin
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: Factors Underlying Ion Partitioning and Diffusivity in Uncharged Polymer Membranes

April 4, 2024
Wyatt Shields IV, PhD
University of Colorado - Boulder
Room: Herzstein 212
Seminar Title: Active and Responsive Microparticles for Biomedicine

April 11, 2024
Alfred Spormann, PhD
Stanford University
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: Conversion of Intermittent Electricity by Microbial Electromethnaogenesis

April 18, 2024
William Tarpeh, PhD
Stanford University
Room: Duncan Hall 1055
Seminar Title: Electrochemical Wastewater Refining: Reactive Separations to Convert Pollutants into Products

April 25, 2024
The Leland Lecture
Pablo Debenedetti, PhD
Princeton University
Lecture: Herzstein Hall Amphitheater, 5:00 - 6:00pm
Reception: O'Connor 5th Floor Event Area, 6:00 - 7:00pm
Lecture Title: A Computational Perspective on Cold Water

Fall 2023

August 24, 2:30PM
Yushan Yan, PhD
The University of Delaware
Room: Dell Butcher Hall 180
Seminar Title: Electrochemical Engineering for Energy Transition: Green Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and Carbon Capture

August 31, 2:30PM
Srini Siripurapu, PhD
Prysmian Group
Room: Dell Butcher Hall 180
Seminar Title: Innovation and Sustainability as Intertwined Forces to Accelerate Net Zero Goals

September 7, 2:30PM
Bamin Khomami, PhD
The University of Tennessee
Room: Dell Butcher Hall 180
Seminar Title: Atomistic Simulation of Elongational Flow-Induced Phenomena in Entangled Polymeric Fluids

September 21, 2:30PM
Marwa Al-Ansary, PhD
Shell
Room: Dell Butcher Hall 180
Seminar Title: Shell's Next Generation Breakthrough Research

September 28, 2:30PM
Bob Maughon, PhD
SABIC, Inc.
Room: Dell Butcher Hall 180
Seminar Title: A Rapidly Transforming Chemical Industry: How Embracing Innovation, Risk, and Collaboration will be Essential to Thrive and Deliver on a Sustainable Future

October 5, 2:30PM
Adrianne Rosales, PhD
The University of Texas at Austin
Room: Dell Butcher Hall 180
Seminar Title: Multiscale Control of Dynamic Hydrogels for Biomedical Applications

October 12, 2:30PM
Peter Green, PhD
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Room: Dell Butcher Hall 180
Seminar Title: A Future Clean Energy System: Challenges and Opportunities

October 19, 2:30PM
Barry Thompson, PhD
University of Southern California
Room: Dell Butcher Hall 180
Seminar Title: Approaches to Mechanically Robust and Sustainable Polymers for Organic Solar Cells

October 26, 2:30PM
Rakesh Agrawal, PhD
Purdue University
Room: Dell Butcher Hall 180
Seminar Title: Challenges and Opportunities for Chemical Engineering

November 2, 2:30PM
Eric McFarland, PhD
University of California, Santa Barbara
Room: Dell Butcher Hall 180
Seminar Title: Affordable "Green-ish" Production of Hydrogen from Methane

November 30, 2:30PM
Riki Kobayashi Fellowship Presentation
Speaker Thiago Jose Pinheiro dos Santos
Rice University
Room: Dell Butcher Hall 180
Seminar Title: Molecular Insights into NMR relaxation for Medical and Biomolecular Applications

Spring 2023

January 19, 2:30PM
Matthew W. Kanan, PhD
Stanford University
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Finding a Path to CO₂ Conversion on a Scale that Matters

February 2, 2:30PM
Jason Adams, PhD
The California Institute of Technology
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Organic Species, Alloys and Support Identity Control the Transformation of H₁, O₂, and H₂O over Metal Nanoparticles

February 9, 2:30PM
Matthew McDonald, PhD
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Crystalization for Process Intensification: an Enzymatic Case Study

February 16, 2:30PM
Kent Jingxu Zheng
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Engineering Mesoscale Order in Crystaline Materials for Sustainability

February 23, 2:30PM
Stavroula-Alina Kampouri
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Leveraging the Unique Properties of MOFs for Light-Driven Catalytic Applications

March 9, 2:30PM
Max Joshua Huelsey
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Controlling the Local Reaction Environment to Drive Catalysis

March 23, 6:00 - 8:00PM
The Chevron Lecture
Jose Santiesteban
Lecture: 6:00pm, Keck 100
Reception: 7:00pm, Sid Commons
Seminar Title: New Directions for Chemical Engineering

March 30, 2:30PM
Rangachary Mukundan, PhD
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Durability of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) Fuel Cell and Electrolyzer Materials

April 6, 2:30PM
Leonardo Spanu
Shell Project and Technology
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Enabling Deep Decarbonization via Natural Gas Pyrolysis: Old Ideas and New Technology Challenges.

Friday, April 14, 11:00AM
Mercouri G. Kanatzidis
Northwestern University
Room: Anderson Hall 117
ChBE/CHEM Special Joint Seminar: Solar Energy Conversion and Optoelectronics Enabled by the Halide Perovskites

April 20, 2:30PM
Carolin Sutter-Fella
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Mechanistic Understanding of Synthesis Coupled with Automation Exemplified on Halide Perovskites