BENJAMIN S. HSIAO
RESEARCH GROUP
Madani A Khan
PhD student
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Email: madani.khan@stonybrook.edu
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Madani received his Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the City College of New York. His current project involves functionalization of cellulose-based membranes to remove arsenic (III), arsenic (V) and other hard metals from drinking water.
Grenalynn C. Ilacas
PhD student
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Email: grenalynn.ilacas@stonybrook.edu
Grenalynn received both her Bachelor's degree (California State University, San Bernardino) and Master's degree (California State University, Los Angeles) in chemistry with an emphasis in biochemistry. She is currently focused on understanding the chemical and physical aspects of locally sourced biochar, as well as characterizing these samples before and after chemical activation via the nitro-oxidation process.
Duning Li
PhD student
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Email:
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Duning received his bachelor degree in Southern University of Science and Technology in 2019. His research field is focusing on using bio-adsorbents based on cellulose and chitin to treat PFAS compounds in drinking water.
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Jiajun Tian
PhD student
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Email: jiajun.tian.1@stonybrook.edu
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Jiajun received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Beijing University of Chemical Technology. His research is focusing on the characterization of nanoparticle-functionalized nanocellulose composite systems by X-ray sc scattering texhniques.
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Kaushanie Gunarathne
PhD student
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Email: kaushanie.gunarathne@stonybrook.edu
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Kaushanie received her bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Her current research is focussing on developing new bio-inspired construction materials using nanocellulose for extreme cold weathers.
Mahdi Rezaei
PhD student
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Email: mahdi.rezaei@stonybrook.edu
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Mahdi received his bachelor's degree in pure chemistry from Shahid Beheshti University, Iran, and his master's degree in polymer chemistry from University of Tehran, Iran.
His current research is focussing on developing new materials using nanocellulose for phosphate recovery from water.
Andrew Wright
PhD student
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Email: andrew.wright@stonybrook.edu
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Andrew received his Bachelor's degree in chemistry from Truman State University, Missouri, USA. His current research focuses on structural characterization of the PFAS monolayer to develop innovative removal methods from water sources.
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2023-2024 QuADS NRT Fellowship Recipient
Noel Womack
PhD student
Email: noel.womack@stonybrook.edu
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Noel received his Bachelor's degree from Southern Connecticut State University and his Master's Degree from Stony Brook University. Noel has a background in organic synthesis and polymer chemistry. His current project involves determination and utilization of nutrients, extracted from biomass feedstocks via the nitro-oxidation process, for liquid fertilizers.
Shengyu Yu
PhD Student
Email: shengyu.yu@stonybrook.edu
Shengyu received his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from the University of Laurentian. (Sudbury, Ontario) His research focused on the application of nanoparticles to water purification using cellulose-based scaffolds.
Damian Amiruddin
PhD student
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Email: damian.amiruddin@stonybrook.edu
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Damian received both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Chemistry. His current research focuses on the development of polymer membranes for both desalination and hydrogen gas production.
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Panayiota Siskos
Master student
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Email:
panayiota.siskos@stonybrook.edu
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Panayiota Siskos is currently a graduate student pursuing a B.S./M.S. in Chemistry. She is currently working on preparing nanocellulose-based composites containing black titanium dioxide nanoparticles for the purpose of photocatalytic degradation of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances.