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

Debdyuti Mukherjee
Debdyuti is a Postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. She obtained her Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. She is currently working towards developing perfluorinated ionomer materials for electrochemical energy systems.

Yasmine Hajar
Yasmine is a Postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. She obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Ottawa and her Masters from Queen's University in Kingston, Canada. She is currently working towards scaling up of the adiponitrile production from electro-hydrodimerization of acrylonitrile and its further purification.

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

Xinshu Shang
Xinshu is a second 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

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.

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 electrosynthesis 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.

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.