Lars C. Grabow
Principal Investigator
grabow@uh.edu | University of Houston CHBE Faculty Page | ORCID | Google Scholar
Office: S339, Engineering Bldg 1
Phone: 713-743-4326
Lars C. Grabow is an associate professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Chemistry at the University of Houston. He received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and continued his postdoctoral research at the Technical University of Denmark and Stanford University. His expertise is the application of electronic structure calculations and kinetic modeling to problems in heterogeneous catalysis. He received early career awards from DOE and NSF, is the Vice Chair of the AIChE Catalysis and Reaction Engineering division, and serves on the Early Career Advisory Board of ACS Catalysis, and the International Advisory Board of ChemCatChem.
Richard Tran
Post Doctoral Fellow
rtran25@cougarnet.uh.edu | ORCID
Favorite Movie: Wolf of Wall Street
Favorite Animal: Dinosaurs
Richard Tran received his PhD in NanoEngineering from the University of California San Diego in 2020 under the advisory of Prof. Shyue Ping Ong. His research focused on modeling defects and interfaces in materials using DFT and developing a surface energy database in the Materials Project. In the first two years of his Post-doctoral career at Carnegie Mellon University under Prof Zachary Ulissi, he used machine learning models to rapidly screen for catalysts for a variety of reactions and helped develop the Open Catalyst Dataset 2022. As a part of Prof Lars Grabow’s team, he will be applying the machine learning pipeline developed in OC22 to identify viable catalysts for OER. He is also interested in exploring dynamic catalysis.
Dia Sahsah
Post Doctoral Fellow
dsahsah@cougarnet.uh.edu | ORCID | LinkedIn
Favorite Book: The Tartar Steppe
Favorite Team: Manchester United
Dia Sahsah received his PhD from the University of South Carolina under the supervision of Prof. Andreas Heyden. His PhD research focused on developing multiscale models to describe heterogeneously catalyzed reactions at solid-gas and solid-liquid interfaces. His postdoctoral training under the supervision of Prof. Lars Grabow will primarily focus on developing kinetic models relevant to dynamic catalysis applications.
Gary R. Gildert
Graduate Research Assistant
grgildert@uh.edu | LinkedIn
Favorite Concert: Jethro Tull (1975, Ottowa Civic Centre)
Favorite Book: Freakonomics by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven Levitt
Gary R. Gildert earned a BASc (ChE) from the University of Waterloo, Canada (1981), an MBA from Rice University (2005), is a registered professional engineer in Ontario and Alberta, Canada, and a licensed professional engineer in Texas. He is the 2013 Chair of the South Texas Section of the American institute of Chemical Engineers. He is co-advised by Dr. Michael Harold. His research focus is on the design, modelling, and testing of promoted PGM catalysts for the selective hydrogenation of diolefins.
Kai Wu
Graduate Research Assistant
kwu13@uh.edu | ORCID | LinkedIn
Favorite Team: Arsenal
Favorite Movie: Harry Potter
Kai Wu earned his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai, 2017, and obtained his M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. He is co-advised by Dr. Michael Harold. His research focuses on machine learning assisted modeling in catalyst science.
Kenneth L. Kusima
Graduate Research Assistant
klkusima@uh.edu | ORCID | LinkedIn | Website
Favorite Element: Carbon
Favorite Series: The Big Bang Theory
Kenneth Kusima obtained his B.S in Engineering Science with a Minor in Mathematics from Trinity University in 2019 and then received a Masters in Chemical Engineering from Rice University in 2020. His research focuses on generating Machine-Learned Kinetic Models for the ammoxidation reaction in the production of acrylonitrile.
Md. Shahriar Hossain
Graduate Research Assistant
shossa28@cougarnet.uh.edu | ORCID | LinkedIn
Favorite Movie: Interstellar
Favorite Team: Manchester United
Md. Shahriar Hossain obtained his B.S in Chemical Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) in 2021 and then worked as an Assistant Research Engineering for a year in the SEER research group of the Department of Chemical Engineering, BUET . He is currently involved in investigating dehalogenation chemistry on catalyst surface via computational methods.
Fahmida Akter
Graduate Research Assistant
fakter@cougarnet.uh.edu | LinkedIn
Favorite Anime: Attack on Titan
Favorite Athlete: Lionel Messi
Fahmida received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in 2017, and her M.S. in Environmental Engineering from The University of Texas at San Antonio in 2021. She is currently working on exploring the binding geometrics and reactivity of Halobenzenes at different coverages on Rhodium via computational methods.
Dale E. Green
Graduate Student
degreen@uh.edu
Favorite Team: Houston Astros
Favorite Animal: Speckled Trout
Dale Green received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Texas Tech in 2001 and M.S. ChE from Kansas State in 2012. He has worked in various manufacturing and technology roles for Dow Chemical and Olin since 2001. His research interests are centered around computational catalyst design and optimization with application in epoxy technology.
Anne Boehme
Graduate Student
aboehme2@uh.edu | LinkedIn
Favorite Element: Gold
Favorite Animal: Golden Retriever
Anne Boehme earned her B.A. in Chemistry, with a specialization in the Biological Track, from Texas A&M University in 2019. She has since accumulated valuable experience in several innovative startup companies, including Framergy, contributing to the advancement of metal-organic frameworks, and Solugen, a carbon-neutral chemical manufacturing company. At Solugen, she holds the position of Metals Operational Lead of the Heterogeneous Catalysis Team. Her research interests are primarily centered on heterogeneous catalysis and the development of gold-based catalysts for oxidation reactions, with a particular emphasis on utilizing renewable feedstocks.
