Team - Modestino Group

Miguel A. Modestino
Miguel A. Modestino is the Director of the Sustainable Engineering Initiative and the Donald F. Othmer Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at New York University (NYU). Miguel obtained his B.S in Chemical Engineering (2007) and 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). From 2013-2016, he was a post-doctoral researcher at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). He is a winner of the Global Change Award from the H&M Foundation (2016), the MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 Award in Latin America (2017) and Globally (2020), the ACS Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral New Investigator Award (2018), the NSF CAREER Award (2019), the Inaugural NYU Tandon Junior Faculty Research Award (2020), and TED Idea Search Latin America (2021).

Ph.D. Students

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.

Ricardo Mathison
Ricardo is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. He obtained his B.S. in Chemical Engineering (2020) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is currently developing methods to understand multiscale transport and kinetic phenomena in organic electrosynthesis.

Casey Bloomquist
Casey is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. He obtained his M.Sc. in Physics from the University of British Columbia (2012) and his B.S. in Physics and Math from Hamilton College (2010). He is currently studying plasma-enhanced electrochemical reactions.

Mihyun Kim
Mihyun is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. She obtained her M.S. in Chemical Engineering/ Data Science and B.S. in Chemical Engineering - Nanomolecular Engineering from the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. During her undergraduate years, she established a popular restaurant, Topoki Pocha, in Federal Way, WA. With a genuine interest in entrepreneurship and sustainable engineering, she is working on analytical research to develop a predictive model for ion-conducting membrane conductivity using machine learning for membranes used in electrochemical reactors to bring solutions to fundamental electrochemical engineering problems.

Luana de Brito Anton
Luana is a Ph.D. student in the department of Urban and Civil Engineering. She obtained her M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Montpellier (ENSCM), France, and her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Universidade Federal do Amazonas (UFAM), Brazil. She is currently studying the mechanistic understanding of photodegradation of pesticides in the environment for predictive modeling.

Christopher Oyuela
Chris is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. He obtained his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (2021) from San Diego State University. He is currently working in a joint collaborative research project investigating the role colloidal synthesized nanocatalysts can play in improving performance and selectivity of electrochemical reactions.

M.S. Students

Adeola Akin
Adeola is a fifth year BS/MS student studying Chemical Engineering at Tandon School of Engineering. She is currently working on in situ analysis of the effect of spectator and supporting cations on the selectivity and efficiency of acrylonitrile electrohydrodimerization.

Antonio Lopez Cerrato
Antonio is an MS student in the Department of Chemical Engineering. He obtained his B.S. in Chemical Engineering at NYU Tandon School of Engineering (2017). He is currently working on implementing automation and machine learning solutions in electrochemical reactions.

B.S. Students

Carolina Elizarraras
Carolina is a fourth year in the 3+2 Dual Degree Program studying Chemistry and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at NYU CAS and Tandon School of Engineering. She is currently studying the electro-oxidation of propionic acid for the sustainable production of ethylene and other high-value organics.

Hannah McConnell
Hannah is a third year Mechanical Engineering student at Tandon School of Engineering. She is currently working on elucidating electrochemical mechanisms of acrylonitrile hydrodimerization.

Meera Patel
Meera is a second year Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering student at Tandon School of Engineering. She is currently working on the electrochemical synthesis of adiponitrile via Kolbe coupling.

James Harris
James is a third year Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering student at Tandon School of Engineering. He is currently investigating the competition between mass transport and chemical reactions in electrochemical reactors.

Alexandra van Riel
Alexandra is a third year Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering student at Tandon School of Engineering. She is currently studying the electro-oxidation of propionic acid for the sustainable production of ethylene and other high-value organics.

Jiahua Pei
Jiahua is a third year Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering student at Tandon School of Engineering. He is currently studying on analytical research to develop a predictive model for ion-conducting membrane conductivity using machine learning for membranes used in electrochemical reactors.

Benjamin Leong
Ben is a third year Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering student at Tandon School of Engineering. He is currently exploring the effects of bubble-induced convection in electrochemical reactors.