Team - Modestino Group

Miguel A. Modestino
Miguel is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering of New York University. He obtained his B.S in Chemical Engineering (2007), M.S. in Chemical Engineering Practice (2008) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley (2013). Between 2013-2016 he was a postdoctoral fellow and project manager of the SHINE project at École Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne.

Postdocs

Thomas Yu
Thomas is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. He obtained his Ph.D in Materials Science and Engineering (2018) from Northwestern University, Chicago. He is currently working on a commercialization project on solid state hydrogen storage technology, as part of the NYU and Department of Defense’s MD5 Program.

Ph.D. Students

Adlai B. Katzenberg
Adlai is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. He obtained his B.S. in Nanoengineering (2015) from the University of California, San Diego. He is currently working towards redefining the design of catalyst layers of water electrolyzers and CO2 electroreduction devices.

Daniela E. Blanco
Daniela is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. She obtained her B.S. in Chemical Engineering (2016) from Universidad Simon Bolívar in Caracas, Venezuela. She is currently working towards developing renewable energy driven textile production processes.

Daniel Frey
Daniel is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. He obtained his B.S. in Biomolecular Engineering (2016) from the Milwaukee School of Engineering. He is currently working towards developing electrochemical energy storage devices for grid flexibility.

Andrea Angulo
Andrea is a Ph.D. student in the department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. She obtained her M.S. in Chemical Engineering from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and her B.S from Universidad Simon Bolívar in Caracas, Venezuela. She is currently studying the electrochemical and engineering analysis of multiphase electrochemical reactors.

Toshihiro Akashige
Toshi is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. He obtained his A.S. in Engineering Science (2014) and earned the Valedictorian Title (2014) from State University of New York, Westchester Community College in Valhalla, NY. He then obtained his B.S. in Chemical Engineering (2017) from Manhattan College in Riverdale, NY. He is a coauthor in an upcoming heat transfer textbook, Kern's Process Heat Transfer 2nd Edition. He is currently working in a joint collaborative research project in attempting to design new polymer membranes and films that can separate olefins from paraffins in gaseous mixtures.

M.S. Students

Nicole Schnabel
Nicole is a BS/MS student currently in her final year of her master’s pursuing Biomedical Engineering with a biomaterials track. Her recently completed bachelor’s degree was focused in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. She is currently working towards developing and tuning novel nanoparticle incorporated photocatalytic hydrogels for water treatment applications.

Xinshu Shang
Xinshu is a first year MS student majoring in Chemical Engineering at NYU Tandon School of Engineering. She is currently studying how differential pulse amperometry can be used to enhance redox flow battery performance.

B.S. Students

Aaliyah Dookhith
Aaliyah is a senior studying Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at NYU Tandon School of Engineering. She is currently working as part of the SolarTextiles team on how to optimize the selectivity of the electrochemical conversion of acrylonitrile towards adiponitrile.

Tana Siboonruang
Tana is a senior studying Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at NYU Tandon School of Engineering. He is currently developing ionic-liquid-polymer gels for carbon dioxide electrochemical reduction.

Brian Chen
Brian is a junior studying Applied Physics and Mathematics at NYU Tandon School of Engineering. He is currently focusing on the research and development of a solid-state hydrogen storage material and its molecular behavior/characteristics as well as its applications.

Purnima Prasad
Purnima is a sophomore studying Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at NYU Tandon School of Engineering. She is currently testing different device configurations to maximize efficiency of the electrosynthesis of adiponitrile.

Bryan Lee
Bryan is a senior studying Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at NYU Tandon School of Engineering. His research currently focuses on the optimization of the electrochemical conversion of acrylonitrile to adiponitrile by using voltage pulsing techniques.

Kaylee Dunnigan
Kaylee is a third year studying Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at NYU Tandon School of Engineering. She is currently testing different membranes to optimize the efficiency of the electrosynthases of adiponitrile.

Rhea Reyes
Rhea is a fourth year in the 3+2 Dual Degree Program, studying Chemistry and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the NYU College of Arts and Sciences and the Tandon School of Engineering. She is currently focusing on the application of a solid-state hydrogen storage material and its potential applications in chemical reactions such as hydrogenations and reductions.

Riccardo Consolo
Riccardo is a senior studying Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at NYU Tandon School of Engineering. He is currently developing a machine learning program to optimize efficiency and product selectivity of carbon dioxide electrochemical reduction.

Azan Brar
Azan is a junior studying Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at NYU Tandon School of Engineering. He is currently focusing on the research of enhancing the electrochemical conversion of acrylonitrile to adiponitrile using membrane electrode assemblies.

Visiting Students

Kunal Miyani
Kunal is a third year Chemical Engineering student at Loughborough University (UK). He is currently working towards creating a Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA) for electrochemical CO2 reduction.

Sairam Ravishankar
Sairam is pursuing his M. Tech (Integrated) program in Chemical Engineering at SASTRA University in India. He is studying the effects of flow design on the performance and efficiency of redox flow batteries.