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ARCHIVED NEWS: 2009 – 2015

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Mini-Review Accepted in J. Catal.
Our mini-review titled “Impact of Acid Site Speciation and Spatial Gradients on Zeolite Catalysis” was accepted for publication in the Journal of Catalysis. Congratulations Thuy and Aseem!

New Group Member
We are pleased to have Dr. Sungmin Han join the Rimer Group as a new postdoc. Sungmin received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin working with Buddie Mullins. His research project is in the area of zeolite catalysis. Welcome Sungmin!

Group Alumnus Receives Award
Former postdoc Marlon Conato who is now a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Philippines Diliman received a 2020 National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) Philippines Outstanding Young Scientist Award. Marlon was also recently promoted to Full Professor. Congratulations Prof. Conato!

New Award from NSF
Prof. Rimer received an award from the National Science Foundation to examine seed-assisted zeolite synthesis. This project will involve collaborations with Prof. Javier Garcia Martinez at the University of Alicante and Prof. Rafael Gomez-Bombarelli at MIT. See the news article written by the UH Cullen College of Engineering [Link]

Successful PhD Defense
Congratulations to Yunwen (now Dr. Zhou) who successfully defended her PhD dissertation. She will be starting her new position at Shell this Summer. Thanks Yunwen for all of your amazing work and for being a wonderful group member. You will be missed!

VIP Paper Accepted in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.
Our paper in collaboration with SABIC (S. Chinta and D. West), the University of New Mexico (A. Datye), and U. Houston (P. Bollini) on the synthesis of nickel oxide catalysts with high-index, hydrothermally-stable facets was accepted for publication in Angewandte Chemie International Edition. The journal selected this as a Very Important Paper (VIP). Congratulations Mariano and Xiaohui!

Successful PhD Defense
Congratulations to Aseem (now Dr. Chawla) who successfully defended his PhD dissertation. He is starting his new position at Micron Technology in May. Thanks Aseem for all of your amazing work and for being a wonderful group member. You will be missed!

Paper Accepted in JACS
Our paper in collaboration with the Rioux group (Penn State) on the one-step synthesis and characterization of 2-dimensional MWW-type zeolite was accepted for publication in Journal of the American Chemical Society. Congratulations Yunwen and Ming-Feng!

Commentary Published in Nature Materials
Jeff wrote a News and Views of a recent paper published in Nature Materials discussing the observation of magnetite crystal growth by reaction-limited cluster aggregation of crystalline precursors.

Paper Accepted in Chem Mater
Our paper in collaboration with the Garcia Martinez group (U. Alicante) on the use of elemental mapping to track zeolite crystallization was accepted for publication in Chemistry of Materials. Congratulations Aseem!

Artwork Featured on Inside Cover
Our paper in collaboration with Queens University Belfast was featured on the inside cover of Chemistry: A European Journal. Congratulations Doyoung!

Paper Accepted in Micropor. Mesopor. Mater.
Our paper on the impact of seeded growth in zeolite synthesis was accepted for publication in Microporous and Mesoporous Materials as part of the special issue “Enigma of Zeolites” in honor of Prof. Valentin Valtchev’s 60th birthday. Congratulations Rishabh!

Award from SPE
Aseem was named the winner of the Society of Plastic Engineers (SPE) Scholarship, which is given by the University of Houston SPE Student Chapter. Congratulations Aseem!

New Group Members
We have recently had three new additions to the Rimer Group: postdoc Weiwei Tang and graduate students Kumari Shilpa and Danyi Sun. Welcome to the group!

Travel Award for ICC
Heng Dai received a travel award to attend the 17th International Congress on Catalysis (ICC) in San Diego. He will be presenting an oral presentation on his research involving the synthesis and testing of hierarchical zeolite catalysts. Congratulations Heng!

Commentary Published in PNAS
Jeff wrote on commentary on a recent paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences discussing the role of inorganic ions in preserving the shape of amorphous precursors of calcium carbonate biominerals as they undergo a disorder-to-order transition.

Paper Accepted in ACS Catalysis
Our paper entitled “Enhanced Selective Oxidation of Ammonia in a Pt/Al2O3@Cu/ZSM-5 Coreshell Catalyst” was accepted for publication in ACS Catalysis. This work is a collaboration with Prof. Mike Harold (U. Houston) and Cummins. Thanks to everybody who contributed, and congratulations Thuy!

Paper Published in Nature
Our paper on the cooperative effects of multiple crystal growth inhibitors was published in Nature magazine. This work was a collaborative effort with Profs. Peter Vekilov (U. Houston) and Jim Lutsko (Brussels). This paper was also featured in several articles by the University of Houston, Science Daily, and other news outlets. Congratulations Wenchuan!

2018 MSDE Hot Article
Aseem and Rui’s paper on ZSM-5 synthesis by mixed structure-directing agents in Molecular Systems Design & Engineering was selected as one of eight 2018 Hot Articles. This work was performed in collaboration with Prof. Jeremy Palmer (UH).

2020 O’Donnell Award
Jeff received the 2020 Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Engineering from the Academy of Medicine, Engineering & Science of Texas (TAMEST). The award ceremony was held during the TAMEST Annual Meeting in Dallas, TX in January 2020. Check out the news article from the University of Houston (link). Videos of Jeff’s research presentation and award ceremony are also available through the conference website (link).

Undergraduate Scholarship
Undergraduate researcher Jakob Claret received a 2020 PURS scholarship from the University of Houston to work on zeolite synthesis. Congratulations Jakob!

Paper Accepted in JACS
Manjesh’s paper on mordenite synthesis using cooperative organic structure-directing agents was accepted for publication in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. This work is part of a collaboration with UC Santa Barbara, ETH Zurich, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, and other at U. Houston. Thanks to everybody who contributed, and congratulations Manjesh and Yufeng!

Paper Accepted in Chem. Eur. J.
Our paper in collaboration with the Queens University (Belfast, Ireland) was accepted for publication in Chemistry: A European Journal. This work examines struvite crystallization using microfluidics to elucidate the effects of reaction conditions on the kinetics and mechanisms of crystallization. Congratulations Doyoung!

Poster Award
Aseem received a poster award from the 2019 Southwest Catalysis Society Fall Symposium at LSU. Congratulations Aseem!

Artwork Selected for Back Cover
Our paper in Reaction Chemistry & Engineering was highlighted on the back cover of the November 1st issue. Congratulations Wei and Yunwen!

Poster Award
Ricardo received a poster award from the 2019 Organization for Chemical Engineering Graduate Student (OChEGS) Symposium. He presented his work in collaboration with Prof. Jaci Conrad and Dr. Mike Reynolds (Shell) on barite scale formation. Congrats Ricardo!

Paper Accepted in Cryst. Growth Des.
Our paper on the pathological formation of ammonium urate crystals was accepted for publication in Crystal Growth & Design. Congratulations to Xi and our wonderful team of collaborators!

Rimer Quoted in News Articles
A publication in Nature Materials by Prof. Gomez-Bombarelli and coworkers titled “Graph similarity drives zeolite diffusionless transformation and intergrowth” was featured in news articles at MIT and SciTechDaily. Prof. Rimer was interviewed for these news articles and provided a quote describing the importance of this latest publication in the field of nanoporous materials science.

AIChE Travel Award
Rishabh is the recipient of a 2019 CRE Travel Award to attend the AIChE Meeting in Orlando. Congrats Rishabh!

Paper Accepted in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.
Our paper on nonclassical pathways in silicalite-1 crystallization was accepted for publication in Angewandte Chemie. This work presents a unique method of assessing structural transformations of amorphous precursors and linking this phenomenon to the mechanism of crystal growth. Congratulations Madhuresh and Manjesh!

Artwork Selected for Cover
Our paper in collaboration with Prof. Javier Garcia Martinez (U. Alicante) on time-resolved imaging of zeolite USY mesopore formation was selected for the front cover of Chemistry of Materials. In this study we use in situ atomic force microscopy to track the formation of hierarchical zeolites through the use of surfactant treatments. Congratulations Aseem and the rest of the team for this great work!

Paper Published in React. Chem. Eng.
Our paper on the deleterious effects of low temperature ZSM-5 synthesis has been accepted for publication in Reaction Chemistry & Engineering. Congratulations Wei and Yunwen!

Commentary for C&E News
Prof. Rimer was interviewed for a news article describing a recent Nature paper by Miao and coworkers. For details of the news clip in Chemical & Engineering News titled “Watching crystal nucleation happen atomic scale”, check out their website.

Paper Accepted in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.
Our paper in collaboration with the University of Tokyo was accepted for publication in Angewandte Chemie. This work presents a unique 2D-3D-2D crystal transformation to bridge the gap between structurally distinct lamellar zeolites. Congratulations Madhuresh!

PhD Defense
Congratulations to Madhuresh (now Dr. Choudhary) for successfully defending his PhD thesis on zeolite growth mechanisms. Great job!

Travel Award
Aseem received a Cullen Travel Award from the University of Houston to attend the Gordon Research Conference on Nanoporous Materials & Their Applications in August. Congratulations Aseem!

Gordon Research Conference
Jeff chaired the 2019 GRC Meeting on Crystal Growth & Assembly on June 23 – 28 at the University of Southern New Hampshire. There were four posters from the Rimer Group. Many thanks to the numerous speakers, discussion leaders, poster presenters, and general attendees. Also a special thanks to Kristen Fichthorn (vice chair) and the GRS co-chairs (Elias and Yael) for making this a successful event!

Visiting Researchers from UP Diliman
Aren and Jenica from Prof. Marlon Conato’s research group at the University of the Philippines are visiting our lab for several months to work on zeolite synthesis. Welcome to the group!

Manjesh Accepts Position at IIT Delhi
Former group member Manjesh Kumar is now Prof. Kumar! Effective May 15th he will be starting at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. We look forward to seeing his research program grow over the years. Congratulations and good luck Manjesh!

Multiple Poster Awards
The Rimer Group took three of five poster awards at the 2019 Southwest Catalysis Society Spring Symposium. Congratulations to Thuy, Aseem, and Yunwen for receiving top honors. Thanks to all of the other students and postdocs who participated in this event.

Artwork Selected for Cover
Our first paper introducing a new microfluidics platform for tracking crystal growth/dissolution was selected for a cover in Lab on a Chip. This work is in collaboration with Prof. Jaci Conrad (UH) and Dr. Mike Reynolds (Shell).

Group Alumnus Receives NSF Award
James Sutjianto, a UH alumnus and former undergraduate researcher in our group, received a prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship. James is a PhD student in chemical engineering at Penn State working with Prof. Enrique Gomez. Congratulations James on this well-deserved recognition!

Research Fellowship
Undergraduate researcher Jakob Claret received a SURF Fellowship from the University of Houston to work on zeolite synthesis this summer. Congratulations Jakob!

Paper Accepted in Chem. Mater.
Our paper in collaboration with Prof. Jeremy Palmer (UH) was accepted for publication in Chemistry of Materials! This paper explores the ability to control routes of classical and nonclassical crystallization in zeolite synthesis. Congratulations Wei and Madhuresh!

Travel Award to NAM ’19
Thuy received a Kokes Travel Award to attend the 2019 North American Catalysis Society Meeting in Chicago. She and two others (Yunwen and Aseem) will be presenting talks at the meeting. Congratulations Thuy!

Paper Accepted in Chem. Mater.
Aseem’s paper on in situ measurments of zeolite USY mesostructuring was accepted for publication in Chemistry of Materials. This work was in collaboration with Prof. Javier Garcia Martinez’s group (University of Alicante). Congratulations everyone!

Paper Accepted in Lab Chip
Our paper in collaboration with Prof. Jaci Conrad (UH) and Dr. Mike Reynolds (Shell) was accepted for publication in Lab on a Chip! This is our first paper on the topic of microfluidics where we designed a novel platform for tracking single crystal growth, inhibition, and dissolution. Congratulations Ricardo and Xi!

Visiting Scholar
We are pleased to welcome Prof. Xiujie Li from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (Chinese Academy of Sciences), Division of Fossil Energy Conversion. She will be visiting our group for 6 months to work in the area of zeolite synthesis. Welcome Xiujie!

Paper Accepted in Chem. Eur. J.
A paper by Wei and Rishabh on interzeolite transformation was accepted for publication in Chemistry European Journal. Congratulations!

Travel Fellowship
Thuy was awarded a graduate student fellowship to attend the NASCRE-4 meeting in Houston. Good job Thuy!

GRC Travel Fellowship
Ricardo was awarded the Carl Storm Underrepresented Minority Fellowship from the Gordon Research Conference to attend the 2019 Crystal Growth & Assembly meeting. Good job Ricardo!

Multiple Undergraduate Honors
Congratulations to Esther for receiving multiple honors: BP Scholar,  Society of Women Engineers Scholar, and a National Society of Black Engineers Houston Sasol Scholar. Fantastic job Esther!

Check out this article written by UH College of Engineering on Esther’s many accomplishments [Link]

Review Accepted for Publication
Prof. Rimer’s paper with collaborators at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School was accepted for publication in Curr. Opin. Nephrol. Hypertens. on the topic of citrate therapy for calcium phosphate kidney stones. Congratulations Drs. Maalouf and Sakhaee!

Highlight in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.
Prof. Rimer’s winning of the Welch Foundation’s Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research was featured by Angewandte Chemie. Check out the article: Link

Undergraduate Fellowship
Nam Le received a PURS Fellowship to work on zeolite synthesis. Congrats Nam and welcome to the group!

Student and Postdoc Awards
Aseem was selected as one of twelve students in the state of Texas for an American Society of Indian Engineers (ASIE) Scholarship. Mariano was the recipient of a Postdoctoral Career Enhancement Award that will sponsor his trip to the University of New Mexico to work with Prof. Datye’s group. Congratulations guys!

PhD Defense
Group member Yufeng Shen successfully defended his PhD thesis. He will be heading to WR Grace to start his next position. Congratulations Dr. Shen on a job well done!

Multiple Honors at AIChE Meeting
The Rimer group took home several awards from the AIChE Meeting in Pittsburgh. Aseem and Ricardo won 2nd and 3rd place Poster Awards in the MESD Poster Session, respectively. Aseem was also awarded the 2nd place Graduate Student Award from MESD for his presentation in the award session. Congrats to Aseem and Ricardo on these fantastic achievements!

Paper Accepted in Journal of Catalysis
Our collaborative paper with Aditya Bhan (U. Minnesota) was recently accepted for publication in the Journal of Catalysis. Congrats to Thuy, Heng, and others for this exciting work!

Feature on Cover of I&EC Research
Prof. Rimer and others selected for the 2018 Class of Influential Researchers in the journal Industrial Engineering and Chemistry Research were featured on the front cover. Congratulations to the 2018 Class of Researchers!

UH News Article: Link

Paper Accepted in ACS Catalysis
Yufeng and Thuy’s paper on the deconvoluted effects of crystal topology and internal mass transport for methanol to hydrocarbons reactions was accepted for publication in ACS Catalysis. This work is a collaboration with Prof. Bert Weckhuysen’s group (Utrecht University). Congrats and thanks to all for this exciting work!

DOE NEUP Grant Awarded
Prof. Rimer (PI) and collaborators from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Pittsburgh were awarded $800k to investigate safer storage of nuclear waste. For more information, read the UH News Story. This news was also circulated on EurekAlert and was featured on the main page of the University of Houston. Check it out: Link

AIChE Travel Award
Aseem is the recipient of a 2018 CRE Travel Award to attend the AIChE Meeting in Pittsburgh. Congrats Aseem!

Paper Accepted in ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces
Katy’s paper on complex solvent stucturing at hematin crystal interfaces was accepted for publication in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. This work was a collaboration with Prof. Jeremy Palmer and Peter Vekilov. Congrats everybody!

PhD Defense and Farewell
Wei Qin successfully defended his PhD. Congratulations Dr. Qin! Also, we bid farewell to James who will be joining Penn State as a PhD student this Fall. Good luck James!

Work on Kidney Stones Published
Jihae’s paper on polyprotic acid inhibition of calcium oxalate kidney stones was accepted for publication in Crystal Growth & Design. This work is a collaboration with the Mpourmpakis Group (U. Pittsburgh) and Dr. John Asplin (Litholink Corp.). Congrats all!

Live on Twitter!
The Rimer Group now has a Twitter account. Follow us live on @UH_RimerGroup.

News & Views Article
Prof. Rimer published a News & Views article in Nature Catalysis on zeolite catalyst design. This work summarizes the recent paper by Corma and co-workers describing the preparation of reaction-adapted zeolites.

Poster Award
Wenchuan was the recipient of a poster award at the 26th AACGE Western Section Conference on Crystal Growth & Epitaxy at Fallen Leaf Lake, CA. He presented his work on hematin crystallization, in collaboration with Prof. Peter Vekilov. Congrats Wenchuan!

Paper Accepted in Angew. Chem.
Rui’s paper on ultrasmall zeolite L crystallization was accepted for publication in Angewandte Chemie International Edition. This article is a collaborative study with Prof. Javier Garcia Martinez (U. Alicante). Congrats to all!

Prof. Rimer is Promoted
Effective September 1, 2018, Jeff will be promoted to the rank of Full Professor.

SWCS Poster Awards
During the 2018 Southwest Catalysis Society Symposium at Rice University we had two top poster winners from our group: Yufeng Shen and Wei Qin. Thanks to everybody for participating, and a special congratulations to Yufeng and Wei!

Congratulations to Prof. Javier Garcia-Martinez
During the 2018 ACS Spring Meeting in New Orleans, Prof. Garcia-Martinez was honored with the Kathryn C. Hach Award for Entrepreneurial Success (Link). The award also came with a special session in honor of Javier, which Prof. Rimer and others participated. The award to Prof. Garcia-Martinez was presented for “his visionary leadership creating a successful, dynamic company bringing mesostructured zeolites to the refining industry.” Javier was one of the founders of Rive Technology, which specializes in the synthesis of hierarchical (mesoporous) zeolite catalysts for FCC and other commercial applications. The picture on the right was taken during the ACS award ceremony where Javier (Univ. Alicante) is joined by two of our other collaborators from LCS-Caen: Jean-Pierre Gilson and Valentin Valtchev. Congratulations Javier!

Student Selected for Prestigious Summer Research Program
Esther Akinwande was selected to participate in the MD Anderson CPRIT CURE Summer Program. Esther has been working in our group on the development of new therapies for calcium oxalate kidney stones. For more details of this program, visit the website at the Texas Medical Center (Link).

Paper Accepted in Nature Communications
Manjesh and Madhuresh’s paper on in situ characterization of zeolite LTA surface growth was accepted for publication in Nature Communications. Congrats!

Prof. Rimer Interviewed by Local Radio Station
Jeff paid a visit to Houston Public Media (News 88.7) to be interviewed by Craig Cohen on Houston Matters. They discussed recent findings related to kidney stones and new breakthroughs in drug design. A recording of the interview can be found on the radio website (link to recording).

Exxon Safety Workshop
Twelve graduate students and professors from the University of Houston attended the Partners in Academic Laboratory Safety (PALS) workshop hosted by ExxonMobil in Houston. Thanks to our group members who participated. Here is a link to the news article: [Link]

Review Published
Our invited review entitled “Crystal Engineering for Catalysis” was published in the 9th issue of Annual Review of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Here is a link to the article: [Link]

Artwork Selected for Cover
Artwork related to Mariano’s recent paper on MgO (111) stabilization was selected for the front cover of Chemistry of Materials. The cover will appear on the April 24, 2018 issue. The article was featured in the April 24, 2018 issue. This work was a collaborative effort between the University of Houston, SABIC (Chinta), and the University of New Mexico (Datye).Visit the following website to read more: Link

Paper Accepted in Special Issue
Prof. Rimer was selected by the journal Industrial Engineering and Chemistry Research for the 2018 Class of Influential Researchers. His perspective article written with Prof. Javier Garcia Martinez (U. Alicante) and Dr. Karena Chapman (ARL) was accepted for publication.

 

2018 Norman Hackerman Award
Jeff is receiving the 2018 Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research from the Welch Foundation. The reception in his honor was held on the University of Houston campus on February 14th.

Paper Accepted in Chem. Mater.
Mariano’s paper on MgO (111) facet stabilization was accepted for publication in Chemistry Materials. This work is a collaboration with Siva Chinta (SABIC). We also worked with Prof. Abhaya Datye and Dr. Hien Pham (Univ. New Mexico). Congrats to all!

Welcome New Students
Three new students have joined the group: Yu Liang (Chemistry) is working on zeolite synthesis and is co-advised by Prof. Allan Jacobson; Xiaohui Zhao is working on metal oxide catalysis and is co-advised by Prof. Praveen Bollini; and Deependra Parmar is working on zeolite catalysis and is co-advised by Prof. Lars Grabow. Welcome to the group!

Visiting Researchers from Ireland
Prof. Nicola Irwin and Chara Olympiou from the College of Pharmacy at Queens University Belfast are visiting our lab for two months to study kidney stone formation and methods of prevention. Chara is working with Doyoung and Bryan in our lab.

PhD Dissertation Defense
Rui successfully defended his PhD dissertation. Congratulations Dr. Li!

AIChE CRE Poster Award
Rui was the recipient of the 2017 Catalysis and Reaction Engineering (CRE) Division Poster Award at the AIChE Meeting in Minneapolis. Congrats Rui!

Dissertation Award
Rui is the recipient of the Fall 2017 UH Cullen College of Engineering Best PhD Dissertation Award. Congrats Rui!

Paper Accepted in Mol. Syst. Des. Eng.
Aseem and Rui’s paper on ZSM-5 synthesis by mixed structure-directing agents was accepted for publication in Molecular Systems Design & Engineering. This work was performed in collaboration with Prof. Jeremy Palmer. Congrats all!

Paper Accepted in ChemPhysChem
Yufeng’s paper on ZSM-11 synthesis was accepted for publication in ChemPhysChem. Congrats Yufeng, Thuy, and Rui!

Poster Award
Rosendo received the Audience’s Favorite Poster Award at the 2017 Undergraduate Research Day. He presented his SURF project focused on tailoring ZSM-11 crystallization. Congrats Rosendo!

Paper Accepted in Chem. Mater.
Rui’s paper on peptoid inhibitors of zeolite crystallization was accepted for publication in Chemistry of Materials. This work was performed in collaboration with Prof. Galia Maayan at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Congrats Rui!

Paper Accepted in Phys. Rev. Lett.
Katy’s paper on kinetic roughening was accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters. This work was performed in collaboration with Prof. Peter Vekilov. Congrats Katy!

Poster Award
Bryan received a poster award from the 2017 Organization for Chemical Engineering Graduate Student (OChEGS) Symposium. He presented on his work examining inhibitors of calcium oxalate crystallization. Congrats Bryan!

Paper Accepted in Angewandte Chemie
Matt’s paper on high-silica FAU synthesis was accepted for publication in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.. Additional authors from our group include Ming-Feng and Marlon. This work was a collaboration with the University of Tokyo (Profs. Chaikittisilp and Okubo) and Waseda University (Prof. Shimojima). Our artwork was also selected for the back cover of the upcoming issue. Congrats to all!

AIChE Travel Award
Yufeng received a Catalysis and Reaction Engineering (CRE) Travel Award to attend the AIChE Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, MN. Congrats Yufeng!

Vice Chair of GRC
Prof. Rimer was selected to be the vice chair for the 2019 Gordon Research Conference on Nanoporous Materials and Their Applications. He will then serve as chair during the 2021 meeting.

Summer NSF REU
We hosted Josiah Hanson from Case Western Reserve University as part of the Cullen College of Engineering summer NSF REU program. Josiah presented his poster on zeolite synthesis at the REU research symposium.

Prof. Rimer Receives Award from AIChE
Prof. Rimer is the recipient of the 2017 FRI/John G. Kunesh Award from the AIChE Separations Division. This award recognizes outstanding contributions to the academic, scientific, technological, industrial, or service areas involving separations technologies. Prof. Rimer will receive the award at the annual meeting in Minneapolis and will deliver a plenary talk entitled “Search of New Paradigms for Crystal Engineering: Old Tricks, Novel Discoveries, and Future Challenges.”

• Story written by the Cullen College of Engineering [Link]

Paper Accepted in Chem. Eng. J.
Marlon’s paper in collaboration with Prof. Harold was accepted for publication in Chemical Engineering Journal. Congrats to all!

Paper Accepted in Chem. Eur. J.
Katy’s paper on antimalarial drug activity was accepted for publication in Chemistry – A European Journal, and artwork was selected for a frontispiece. This work was performed in collaboration with Prof. Peter Vekilov. Congrats Katy!

Travel Award
Bryan was awarded a Cullen Fellowship Travel Grant to attend the GRC on Crystal Growth & Assembly in Biddeford, ME. Congrats Bryan!

Elected to AACG Executive Committee
Prof. Rimer was elected as an executive committee member for the American Association for Crystal Growth (AACG). He will serve from 2017 – 2019.

Paper Accepted in Cryst. Growth Des.
Jihae’s paper on solute/modifier speciation in calcium oxalate crystallization was accepted by Crystal Growth & Design. Congrats Jihae and Ricardo!

Netherlands Catalysis Award
Prof. Rimer was the inaugural recipient of the Netherlands Center for Multiscale Catalytic Energy Conversion (MCEC) Lectureship Award. The award was presented by Prof. Bert Weckhuysen at Utrecht University. Prof. Rimer was invited to give presentations at all of the MCEC sites, including the University of Twente and Eindhoven University of Technology.

• Interview of Prof. Rimer by MCEC [Link]

Paper Accepted in PNAS
Katy’s paper on the identification of antimalarial drug action on hematin crystallization was accepted for publication in PNAS. This work is a collaboration with Prof. Peter Vekilov. Congrats All!

• Cullen College news article [Link]

Dissertation Award
Katy is the recipient of the Spring 2017 UH Cullen College of Engineering Best PhD Dissertation Award. Congrats Katy!

MRS Poster Award
Yunwen received first place in the poster award competition at the 2017 UH Materials Research Society Student Chapter Symposium. Congrats Yunwen! For more information read the UH News Article [Link]

PhD Dissertation Defenses
Katy and Jihae both successfully defended their PhDs. Congratulations to the two new doctors to graduate from the group. Congrats Katy and Jihae!

Review Article Accepted
Bryan’s invited review article was accepted for publication in Current Opinion in Nephrology and Hypertension. This article will appear in the special issue on Mineral Metabolism. Congrats Bryan!

NACS Travel Award
Wei was one of the recipients of the 2017 Kokes Award to attend the 25th North American Catalysis Society meeting in Denver, CO. Congratulations Wei!

• News article written by the Cullen College of Engineering: [Link]

Chemistry Joint Appointment
Prof. Rimer received joint appointment in the Department of Chemistry. [Link]

RSC Journal Advisory Board
Prof. Rimer was invited to join the Advisory Board for Molecular Systems Design & Engineering published by RSC. For more information about the journal, visit the website: [Link]

Paper Accepted in ChemCatChem
Ming-Feng and Yunwen’s paper on Ag-ZSM-5 dehydroaromatization of ethylene has been accepted for publication in ChemCatChem. This work is a collaboration with Prof. Lars Grabow and was an invited contribution to the special issue on Catalysis for New Energy Technology. Congrats to all!

Angew. Chemie Paper Selected as VIP and Front Cover
Manjesh’s paper was accepted for publication in Angewandte Chemie International Edition as a Very Important Paper (VIP) selection. The artwork for this paper was also selected for the front cover. This work is part of a collaboration with Prof. Michael Tsapatsis (U. Minnesota) and other institutions. Congrats Manjesh and other coauthors!

AIChE Journal Advisory Board
Prof. Rimer was invited to join the Advisory Board for the AIChE Journal published by Wiley. For more information about the journal, visit the website: [Link]

Paper Accepted in J. Catal.
Our collaborative work with Prof. Aditya Bhan’s group (U. Minnesota) on SSZ-13 catalysts in MTH reactions was accepted for publication in the Journal of Catalysis. Congrats Manjesh!

Megan Defends her PhD
Megan Ketchum successfully defended her PhD dissertation. Congratulations Dr. Ketchum and good luck starting your new position at GlaxoSmithKline!

Artwork Selected for Cover of Angew. Chemie Int. Ed.
The collaborative work between Minnesota, UH and others (Shete et al.) on 2D zeolite growth will be featured on the front cover of  Angewandte Chemie.

 

2016 Owens Corning Award
Prof. Rimer received the Owens Corning Early Career Award from the Materials Engineering & Science Division (MESD) of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). This award recognizes outstanding independent contributions to the scientific, technological, educational, or service areas of materials science and engineering. Prof. Rimer presented a plenary award lecture at the 2016 Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA.

University of Houston News Article: Link

Cullen College of Engineering News Article: Link

Poster Awards: 1st, 2nd and 3rd Places
Graduate students Yufeng, Wei, and Rui won Research Excellence Awards at the Chinese-American Chemical Society Southwest Chapter meeting. Congrats guys!

Artwork Selected for Cover of Chem. Mater.
The Up & Coming Perspective Article (Olafson et al.) will be featured on the cover of  Chemistry of Materials.

Paper Accepted in Cryst. Growth Des.
Megan’s paper on biomimetic assays for antimalarial drug screening was accepted in Crystal Growth & Design. This work is a collaboration with Prof. Peter Vekilov. Congrats Megan!

Travel Award
Yufeng was the recipient of a Cullen Graduate Fellowship Travel Award to attend the 2016 AIChE Annual Meeting. Congrats Yufeng!

Director of AIChE MESD
Prof. Rimer was elected to the AIChE Materials Engineering & Science Division executive committee.

ACS Section Award
Prof. Rimer received the 2016 Joe W. Hightower Award from the ACS Greater Houston Section. This award recognizes meritorious contributions to education, research, and community service. Prof. Rimer will be recognized by the ACS Section at their Fall Banquet in October.

Poster Award
Jihae Chung was a recipient of the Best Poster Award for the 31st Organization for Chemical Engineering Graduate Students (OChEGS) Symposium. Congrats Jihae!

Katy Receives WIC Travel Award
Katy Olafson was selected for a Women’s Initiatives Committee (WIC) Travel Award for the 2016 AIChE Meeting in San Francisco, CA. Congrats Katy!

Rimer Recognized as Up & Coming Researcher
Prof. Rimer was selected by the ACS journal Chemistry of Materials for their Up & Coming perspective series. His article on nonclassical crystal growth inhibitors was accepted for publication. Coauthors include Katy, Bryan, and Rui. Congrats everybody!

AIChE Travel Award
Rui Li received a travel award from the Catalysis and Reaction Engineering (CRE) division to attend the AIChE Meeting in San Francisco. Congrats Rui!

Katy Selected for GRS Talk
Katy Olafson presented her talk “Elucidating the Molecular Interactions between Antimalarial Drugs and Hematin Crystal Surfaces” at the Gordon Research Seminar in conjunction with the GRC Meeting on Biomineralization in Girona, Spain. Katy received a Cullen Fellowship Travel Grant from UH to attend this conference. Congrats Katy!

Letter Published in Nature

Jihae’s paper was accepted for publication in Nature! The letter is available as an Advance Online Publication (AOP) at the Nature website [Link]. Congrats Jihae on this amazing work!

This work examines the inhibition of pathological crystallization, focusing on calcium oxalate monohydrate (the principal component of human kidney stone disease). Here we present a new mechanism of crystal growth inhibition (strain-induced dissolution) and identify a compound that has the potential to be a new treatment of calcium oxalate kidney stones. Coauthors of this manuscript include Jihae Chung (UH, first author), Yanni Mpourmpakis (Univ. Pittsburgh), and John Asplin (Litholink Corporation). For details, see the Nature website: Abstract

Cover Article Published in Chem. Eur. J.

Our article was featured on the cover of the November 2016 issue of Chemistry – A European Journal. This work was a collaborative effort between the University of Houston (Rimer and Grabow) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (Motkuri).

To read more about this article, visit the following website:  Link

To access the coverart, visit the following website: Coverart Link

Research highlight featured by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory: Link

The authors were featured by the journal in the cover profile (Link). In this feature, the journal asks the authors questions pertaining to the most significant result of this study, the inspiration for the cover artwork, and the current topics being studied by each of the PIs.

Seminar: Identifying New Paradigms in Crystal Engineering for Energy and Biomedical Applications

Prof. Rimer gave the inaugural Duncan & Suzanne Mellichamp Emerging Leader Lecture at the University of California at Santa Barbara (Link). This award was given by the Department of Chemical Engineering through the generous donation of Duncan and Suzanne Mellichamp. The abstract of this lecture and Prof. Rimer’s biography are posted on the UCSB website (Link). Details of Prof. Mellichamp’s impressive career and contributions to the field of chemical engineering can be found in the following news article: Link

Manjesh Defends his PhD
Manjesh Kumar successfully defended his PhD dissertation. Congrats Dr. Kumar!

Article Published in Chem. Eur. J.
Matt’s paper on zeolite GIS synthesis was accepted for publication in Chemistry: A European Journal. This work was performed in collaboration with Dr. Radha Motkuri (PNNL) and Prof. Lars Grabow (UH). Congrats to Matt, Arian, and Marlon!

IZA Committee
Prof. Rimer was elected Co-Chair of the International Zeolite Association (IZA) Synthesis Commission.

AIChE Student Research Award
Katy was the recipient of the 2016 AIChE Separations Division Graduate Student Research Award. She received this competitive international award for her research on hematin crystallization, which is a project co-advised with Prof. Peter Vekilov. Katy received a plaque at the Separation Division’s Award Dinner held at the annual meeting in San Francisco. Congrats Katy!

Cullen College of Engineering News Article: Link

Future Faculty Program
Aseem and Thuy were accepted to the Future Faculty Fellowship (F3) program at UH. Congrats!

Article Published in Chem. Mater.
Matt’s paper on zeolite LTA and FAU nucleation was accepted for publication in Chemistry of Materials. This work was performed in collaboration with Prof. Lee Penn’s group at the University of Minnesota. Congrats to Matt and Marlon!

Awarded NIH Grant
We received funding from NIH for our malaria project, which focuses on hematin crystallization. The grant was awarded to Prof. Vekilov (PI) and Prof. Rimer (Co-PI).

RSC Journal Advisory Board
Prof. Rimer was invited to join the Advisory Board for the new journal Reaction Chemistry & Engineering, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry. For more information about the journal, visit the website: [Link]

Matt Defends his PhD
Matt Oleksiak successfully defended his PhD dissertation. Congratulations Dr. Oleksiak and good luck starting your new position at Shell Oil Company!

Mellichamp Lecture
Prof. Rimer was invited to give the inaugural Mellichamp Emerging Leader lecture at the University of California at Santa Barbara. The lecture, which is endowed by Prof. Duncan and Mrs. Suzanne Mellichamp, is a new annual keynote event within the Department of Chemical Engineering at UCSB. The lecture will be given in Fall 2016.

Undergraduate Scholarship
Zachery Baker received a PURS scholarship to conduct research in the area of biocrystallization. Congratulations Zach!

Article Published in MRS Bulletin
Prof. Rimer published an invited article in the MRS Bulletin issue on “Nucleation in Atomic, Molecular, and Colloidal Systems.” The article, which focuses on nucleation of open framework materials, was co-authored by Prof. Michael Tsapatsis (Univ. Minnesota). For details, check out the MRS website (Link).

New Group Member
Dr. Mariano Susman joined our group to work on the rational design of metal oxides. Welcome Mariano!

Undergraduate Fellowship
Mangalaa Dinivahi received a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship from the University of Houston Office of Undergraduate Research. Congratulations Mangalaa!

NSF GRFP Awarded to UH Student
Ricardo Sosa (senior undergraduate student in the Rimer Group) received a prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. He will be pursuing a PhD in Chemical Engineering next year and this NSF GRFP award will be used to support his graduate studies. Congratulations Ricardo – this is fantastic news! For more details, see the following articles by the Cullen College (LINK) and the Honors College (LINK).

Article Accepted in ACS Catalysis
Arian’s paper on pathways of DME formation in ZSM-5 was accepted for publication in ACS Catalysis. This work is part of a collaboration with Prof. Lars Grabow. Congratulations Arian!

AIChE Best Presentation Award
Megan Ketchum received the 2015 Best Presentation Award in the session “Diagnostics, Treatment, and Theranostics” at the AIChE Meeting in Salt Lake City. This session was part of the topical conference “Chemical Engineers in Medicine”. Congratulations Megan! For details, see the news article posted by the Cullen College [Link]

Article Accepted in Chem. Mater.
Manjesh and Rui’s paper on zeolite L nucleation was accepted for publication in Chemistry of Materials. Congratulations!

New Group Members
Three graduate students recently joined our group: Aseem Chawla, Thuy Le, and Yunwen Zhou. We also have three new undergraduate students: Zachery Baker, Mangalaa Dinivahi, and Diego Guala. Welcome to the group!

Undergraduate Scholarships
Matthew Patton received a PURS scholarship to conduct research on zeolite synthesis. Zachery Baker received a University of Houston Scholars Program scholarship to conduct research on biogenic crystallization. Congratulations!

PhD Defense
Arian Ghorbanpour successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled “Computational Modeling and Advanced Synthesis Techniques for the Improved Design of Zeolite Catalysts.” Arian is co-advised with Prof. Lars Grabow. Congratulations Dr. Ghorbanpour!

Highlight Selected for Cover of CrystEngComm
Katy and Megan’s highlight article on hematin crystallization was selected for the inside cover of the November 7th issue of Crystal Engineering Communications.

Awards for Best Poster and Presentation
Manjesh was a recipient of the Best Oral Presentation Award and Katy was a recipient of the Best Poster Award for the 30th Organization for Chemical Engineering Graduate Students (OChEGS) Symposium. Congrats Manjesh and Katy!

Article Accepted in JACS
Manjesh’s paper on SSZ-13 crystallization was accepted for publication in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. This work is a collaboration with Prof. Yuriy Roman at MIT. Congrats Manjesh!

Paper Accepted in Crystal Growth & Design
Katy and Megan’s paper on hematin crystallization was accepted for publication in the ACS journal Crystal Growth & Design. This work is a collaboration with Prof. Peter Vekilov at UH. Congrats everybody!

Tenure Promotion
Prof. Rimer has been promoted to Associate Professor (effective September 1, 2015). A sincere thank you to all of the group members (current and alumni) for your hard work over the past six years!

Gordon Research Conference
Two group members attended the 2015 GRC on Nanoporous Materials & Their Applications in Holderness, NH: Matt and Manjesh. Prof. Rimer was an invited speaker and both Matt and Manjesh were selected among the poster presenters to give talks.

• The University of Houston published a news article highlighting the selection of three students in the Rimer Group for oral presentations at 2015 GRC Conferences (Katy, Matt, and Manjesh). For details, see the article on the Cullen College of Engineering website [Link].

Publication in Science
Our review article on crystallization by particle attachment (CPA) was published in Science Magazine. Prof. Rimer is one of 15 co-authors on this article, which was the product of a DOE-sponsored workshop. For more information, visit the following websites:

• Science Magazine [DOI:10.1126/science.aaa6760]
• UH College of Engineering News Article [Link]

Paper Accepted in ChemComm
Sahar’s paper on alkali metal modification of calcium oxalate crystallization was accepted for publication in Chemical Communications. Congrats Sahar and Bryan!

Winner of ACCGE-20 Photo Contest
The 2015 American Conference on Crystal Growth and Epitaxy had a photo contest sponsored by the Journal of Crystal Growth. Rui Li entered a photo of zeolite crystals and won first place in the category of Natural Untouched Photograph/Micrograph. Congratulations Rui!

• The winning picture is featured on the American Associate for Crystal Growth website [Link]

Funding from NSF CBET
The Rimer Group received a grant from the National Science Foundation. This project is a collaboration with Prof. Lars Grabow focused on methane upgrading.

Highlight Accepted in CrystEngComm
Katy and Megan’s highlight article on hematin crystallization was accepted for publication in Crystal Engineering Communications. Congrats!

2015 SWCS Elections
Prof. Rimer was elected Chair Elect of the Southwest Catalysis Society (SWCS). He had previously served one year as the Secretary and two years as a Director in the organization.

Gordon Research Conference
Four group members attended the 2015 GRC on Crystal Growth & Assembly in Biddeford, ME: Jihae, Megan, Katy, and Bryan. We were joined by our collaborator John (RPI). Prof. Rimer was an invited speaker and Katy was selected among the poster presenters to give a talk. Prof. Rimer was also elected Vice Chair for the 2017 meeting!

DOE Funding
The Rimer Group received a grant from the Department of Energy (DOE) through the office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES). This project will be focused on zeolite catalysis.

Poster Selected for Oral Talk at ISBC
Bryan’s poster was one of six that were selected out of 44 total posters to give an oral presentation at the International School on Biological Crystallization (ISBC) in Granada, Spain. Congratulations Bryan!

New Group Members
Four undergraduate students joined our group: Ashwin Antony, James Sutjianto, Stephanie Roohi, and Karla Munoz. We also have Arden Zimmerman joining us for the summer as part of the NSF RET program. Welcome to the group!

Qualifier Exams
Wei, Yufeng, and Bryan successfully passed their qualifiers. They are now Ph.D. candidates. Congratulations guys!

International Travel Award
Bryan received a travel award to attend the International School on Biological Crystallization (ISBC) in Granada, Spain [Link]. Congratulations Bryan!

Teaching Award: College Level
Prof. Rimer is the recipient of the 2015 Teaching Excellence Award from the Cullen College of Engineering.

2015 SWCS Symposium Poster Award
Rui received a poster award at the Southwest Catalysis Society Symposium, which was held on the University of Houston campus. Congratulations Rui on a job well done!

Undergraduate Fellowship
Ashwin Antony received a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship from the University of Houston Office of Undergraduate Research. Congratulations Ashwin!

Teaching Award: University Level
Prof. Rimer was the recipient of the 2015 Teaching Excellence Award. He was one of eight faculty at the University of Houston to receive this honor. Details of the award can be found at the University of Houston website [Link]. See also the featured article on the university webpage [Link].

Welch Foundation Renewal
Our grant from The Welch Foundation was renewed for another 3 years. For more details, see the news article written by the Cullen College of Engineering [Link].

Paper Accepted in ACS Nano
Arian’s paper on core-shell zeolite synthesis was accepted for publication in ACS Nano. Co-authors on this paper include Prof. Lars Grabow (UH), Prof. Steven Crossley and Abhishek Gumidyala (U. Oklahoma). Congrats All!

AIChE Best Paper
Jihae’s talk at the 2014 AIChE Meeting in Atlanta entitled Controlling Crystal Habit with Tailored Organic Growth Modifiers was selected as the Best Presentation in the Separations Division Session “Particle Formation and Crystallization Processes from Liquids, Slurries, and Emulsions.” Jihae was invited to submit a Best Paper to the AIChE Journal related to this talk. Congratulations Jihae!

New Group Member
We welcome Ming-Feng Hsieh as a postdoctoral researcher. Ming-Feng comes to UH after receiving his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from UC Santa Barbara. Welcome to the group!

NACS Travel Award
Manjesh was one of the recipients of the 2015 Kokes Award to attend the 24th North American Catalysis Society meeting in Pittsburgh, PA. Congratulations Manjesh! For details, see the news article posted by the university [Link].

Paper Accepted in PNAS
Katy Olafson’s paper on the mechanisms of hematin crystallization and inhibition was accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Co-authors on this paper include Megan Ketchum and Prof. Peter Vekilov. Congrats All!

Report Published in Science

Alex’s paper on the validation of silicalite-1 (MFI zeolite) growth by in situ atomic force microscopy was published in Science. This study confirmed that silicalite-1 growth operates by dual mechanisms (classical and nonclassical) involving the addition of both silica molecules and precursors. Congrats Alex! [Link to the article at the AAAS website]

 

Rimer Interviewed by Nature

Prof. Rimer was featured in the article titled “Science Publishing: The Golden Club.” The article addressed how publishing in the most prestigious journals can open doors, but that their cachet is under attack. Nature interviewed Prof. Rimer and several other early-career researchers who published for the first time in Nature, Science or other journals in October 2010.

New Group Members
Two undergraduate students joined our group to work on zeolite synthesis and characterization: Matt Patton and Eduardo Lyra. Welcome to the group!

New Group Member
Madhuresh Choudhary joined our group in January 2015. Welcome Madhuresh!

Prof. Rimer is Recognized by UH
Prof. Rimer was a recipient of the 2014 Provost Certificate of Excellence.

Presentation at NECZA Meeting
Prof. Rimer presented an invited talk at the 18th North East Corridor Zeolite Association (NECZA) Meeting in Philadelphia. A special congratulations to Edith Flanigen, who was recognized at the meeting for her recent honor, the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

Paper Published in ChemComm
Marlon’s article on HOU-2 synthesis was accepted in Chemical Communications. The coverart for this article was also selected for the inside cover of the January 7th edition. Congratulations Marlon and Matt! For more details, see the Cullen College of Engineering news article, [Link]

AIChE CRE Poster Award
Matthew Oleksiak won the Catalysis and Reaction Engineering (CRE) Division Poster Competition at the 2014 AIChE Meeting in Atlanta, GA. Congratulations Matt! For more details, see the Cullen College of Engineering news article, [Link]

Rui Receives 2 Poster Awards
Graduate student Rui Li received two poster awards. The first was given during the 2014 Organization for Chemical Engineering Graduate Students (OChEGS) Symposium at UH. The second was the Research Excellence Award and Third Place Winner of 2014 Chinese-American Chemical Society Southwest Chapter (CACS-SW) Poster Competition. Congratulations Rui!

Prof. Xiao Visits the Rimer Group 
We had the pleasure of hosting Prof. Feng-Shou Xiao (Zhejiang University, China). We were joined by several faculty at UH to discuss recent progress in the area of zeolite synthesis, catalysis, and modeling. We all enjoyed the visit!

AIChE Student Travel Award
Matthew Oleksiak received a travel award from the Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division to attend the AIChE Annual Meeting in Atlanta. Matthew will be presenting a talk and a poster at this year’s meeting. Congratulations Matt!

Katy Selected for 1st Annual GRaSP Day
The University of Houston will be hosting is first Graduate Research and Scholarship Projects (GRaSP) Day on October 31, 2014. One graduate student was selected from each college. Katy Olafson will be representing the Cullen College of Engineering with her project related to the study of antimalarial drug action. Congratulations Katy! For more details of GRaSP Day, visit the following site: [LINK]

2014 SWCS Elections
Prof. Rimer was elected Secretary of the Southwest Catalysis Society (SWCS). He had previously served two years in the organization as a Director.

Paper Accepted by JACS
Sahar’s article on COM growth promoters was accepted for publication in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Congratulations Sahar, Jihae, and Ricardo!

Rimer Group Publishes in Catal. Sci. Technol.
Our group published a minireview on our zeolite work for the themed issue “Catalysis in the U.S.A.”. This invited article features work from Alex, Manjesh, Matt, and Rui. Congratulations!

Undergraduate Scholarship
Ricardo Sosa was the recipient of a 2014 Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Scholarship. Congratulations Ricardo!

Undergraduate Research Scholarship
Maneesh Anand was the recipient of a 2014 Provost’s Undergraduate Research Scholarship (PURS). Congratulations Maneesh!

Best Dissertation Award
Alex Lupulescu received the 2014 Best Dissertation Award from the Cullen College of Engineering for her PhD dissertation entitled “A Rational Design Approach for Tailoring Zeolite Crystal Morphology.” Congratulations Alex!

Paper is Accepted for Publication in Science
Alex’s AFM work on imaging zeolite crystallization in real time under realistic growth conditions will be published in the May 16, 2014 issue of Science Magazine. Congratulations Alex!

Prof. Rimer Receives the Award for Excellence in Research and Scholarship
This award was given by the University of Houston for the rank of Assistant Professor. The award was presented to Prof. Rimer on April 28th at the Faculty Awards Luncheon. For more information, see the UH announcement [LINK].

Multiple Poster Awards at the 2014 SWCS Symposium
Two students from the group – Manjesh and Matt – received poster awards at the Southwest Catalysis Society Symposium, which was held on the University of Houston campus. Congratulations Manjesh and Matt on a job well done! For more information see the news article written by the Cullen College of Engineering [Link].

Publication in Crystal Growth & Design
Katy’s paper was accepted for publication as part of a collaborative project with Prof. Vekilov. Congratulations Katy!

Keck Seminar
Katy Olafson was one of two Keck Predoctoral Fellows to present their research at the Keck Seminar on March 29th. The title of her talk was “Growth Mechanisms of beta-Hematin in a Biomimetic Environment.”

Visit from Prof. Okubo
Professor Tatsuya Okubo (Univ. Tokyo) visited the Rimer Group and presented a talk on his research related to seeded zeolite growth and the ultrafast synthesis of zeotypes.

Prof. Rimer Receives the 2014 UH Early Faculty Award for Mentoring Undergraduate Research
This award is intended to recognize demonstrated excellence in supporting undergraduate researchers, to encourage mentoring relationships with undergraduate students, and to convey the university’s high regard for such contributions to the academic and research community.

Publication in Catalysis Communications
Arian’s first paper was accepted for publication as part of a collaborative project with Prof. Grabow. Congratulations Arian!

Prof. Rimer in the Spotlight for The Catalyst Review
The March issue of The Catalyst Review selected Rimer for their “Movers & Shakers” column.

Katy and Prof. Rimer Featured in the Fall Issue of Transport
This issue features the Keck Fellowship and Poster Award received by Katy. This issue also discusses the recent BSF grant awarded to Prof. Rimer. To read these articles and also to listen to Prof. Rimer discuss his work on zeolites, visit the following website: Fall 2013 Transport

Welcome New Group Members
Bryan Alamani, Wei Qin, and Yufeng Shen have joined the group as first year Ph.D. candidates. Welcome to the group!

Publication in JACS
Sahar’s paper was accepted for publication in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Congratulations Sahar and Jihae!

Ph.D. Defense
Sahar successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation. Congratulations Dr. Farmanesh!

Ph.D. Defense
Alex successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation. Congratulations Dr. Lupulescu!

Poster Award at Keck Conference
Katy Olafson received an award at the 2013 Keck Center Annual Research Conference Poster Contest. Katy presented her work on beta-hematin crystallization. She placed 2nd out of 65 posters. Congratulations Katy!

AIChE Student Travel Award
Manjesh Kumar received a travel award from the Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division to attend the AIChE Annual Meeting in San Francisco. Manjesh will be presenting two talks and a poster at this year’s meeting. Congratulations Manjesh!

Review Article Accepted for Publication
Matt’s review article on organic-free zeolite synthesis has been accepted for publication in Reviews in Chemical Engineering. Congratulations Matt!

Prof. Rimer Receives BSF Funding
The United States – Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) awared Prof. Rimer and Prof. Galia Maayan (Technion IIT) a 2-year grant to pursue research on the design and testing of zeolite growth modifiers.
Link to the BSF website: United States – Israel Binational Science Foundation
Link to Prof. Maayan’s research page: Maayan Research Group

AIChE Student Award
Alex Lupulescu received an honorable mention for the 2013 AIChE Sustainable Engineering Forum Student Paper Award for her recent publication in JACS. Congratulations Alex!

Invited Talk at AIChE Meeting
Prof. Rimer was invited to speak at the 2013 Future Directions in Reaction Engineering session at the 2013 AIChE Meeting in San Francisco. For details of this and other talks in the session, visit the following website: Session Page

Master’s Thesis
Jihae defended her thesis entitled “Inhibition of Calcium Oxalate Monohydrate Crystallization Using Organic Growth Modifiers.” Congratulations Jihae!.

Ph.D Qualifiers
Manjesh and Matt successfully defended their qualifiers and are now Ph.D candidates. Congratulations Manjesh and Matt!.

Junior Faculty Award
Prof. Rimer received the 2013 Junior Faculty Research Excellence Award from the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering. The award will be presented in Fall 2013.

Keck Center Graduate Fellowship
Katy was awarded a fellowship as part of the Nanobiology Interdisciplinary Graduate Training Program (NIGTP) supported by the Keck Center and sponsored through the Gulf Coast Consortia. This award will sponsor her research on malaria as part of a coadvised project with Prof. Peter Vekilov (UH, Dept. Chemical Engineering) and Dr. Alessandro Grattoni (Methodist Hospital Research Institute, Dept. Nanomedicine). Congratulations Katy!

UH Cullen College of Engineering Press: News Article
NIGTP Website: Keck Center Fellowship

2013 Southwest Catalysis Society Poster Award
Alex received an award from the Southwest Catalysis Society (SWCS) for her poster on multiscale approaches to zeolite rational design. Congratulations Alex!

Publication in JACS
Alex and Manjesh’s paper was accepted for publication in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Congratulations!

NASCRE Poster Award
Matt received honorable mention for the poster award competition at the 3rd North American Symposium on Chemical Reaction Engineering, which was hosted in Houston. Congratulations Matt!

NACS Travel Award
Matt was one of the recipients of the 2013 Kokes Award to attend the 23rd North American Catalysis Society meeting in Louisville, KY. Congratulations Matt! (see the Cullen Engineering announcement: Website Link)

2013 ACS Travel Award
Alex was granted a travel award from the ACS division of Catalysis Science and Technology (CATL). Congratulations Alex!

Welcome New Group Members
Rui Li, Katy Olafson, and Megan Ketchum have joined the group as first year Ph.D. candidates. Welcome to the group!

Publication in the Journal of the American Chemical Society
Matt has his first paper accepted for publication. Congratulations Miguel and Matt!

Alex Receives the 2012 AIChE CRE Division Poster Award

The Catalysis & Reaction Engineering (CRE) Division presents two poster awards each year at the annual meeting. Alex received this award for her work on the rational design of zeolite catalysts.

Alex Wins a 2012 AIChE Graduate Student Award

The Environmental Division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers awarded Alex second place in the 2012 graduate student award contest. Alex was recognized for this honor at the 2012 Annual Meeting.

Two Students Awarded CRE Travel Grants from AIChE

Arian Ghorbanpour and Alexandra Lupulescu received travel awards from the Catalysis & Reaction Engineering Division to attend the Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh.

Article Selected for Cover and JACS Spotlights

Our publication was featured as a JACS Spotlight: “Finding the Key to Organic-Free Zeolites”

To read the Spotlight, visit the following website:  Spotlight Weblink

To read more about this article, visit the following website:  Article Weblink

To access the coverart, visit the following website: Coverart Weblink

News article printed by the Univesity of Houston Cullen College of Engineering:  News Link

Prof. Rimer Elected as an Officer in the SWCS
Prof. Rimer will serve as a Director in the Southwest Catalysis Society.

Publication in the Journal of Crystal Growth
Sahar has her first paper accepted for publication. Congratulations Sahar and Jihae!

Prof. Rimer Travels to the Philippines as an ERDT Visiting Professor
The Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of the Philippines invited Prof. Rimer as an ERDT visiting professor to give a short course on Colloid and Interface Science. During this time he also presented several seminars in the Engineering College and the Medical School on his research in the areas of biomaterials and catalysis.

Prof. Rimer Receives the NSF CAREER Award
Prof. Rimer received a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation. The CAREER Award is one of NSF’s most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. This award, entitled “A Bio-Inspired Approach to Engineer Zeolite Catalysts,” was given by the Catalysis and Biocatalysis program for the rational design and testing of nanoporous zeolite catalysts.

Link to the news article featured by the Cullen College of Engineering: With Another Win, Cullen College Goes Six for Six in 2012 CAREER Awards

Prof. Rimer was also the recipient of a NSF award from the Biomaterials program (Division of Materials Research, DMR). This award is a collaborative research project between the Chemical Engineering Departments at the University of Houston and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). Prof. Rimer is working with Profs. Pankaj Karande (Website Link) and Shekhar Garde (Website Link) to design crystal growth inhibitors for biomaterials implicated in pathological diseases. Rimer and Karande published early results of this collaborative research project in the Journal of Crystal Growth (2012, accepted).

Prof. Rimer Presents Two Invited Lectures in Europe
In July, Prof. Rimer visited the Politecnico di Milano (Department of Energy) in Milan, Italy and the Fritz Haber Institute (Max Planck Society, Department of Inorganic Chemistry) in Berlin, Germany. At these institutes he presented work in the area of rational catalyst design.

 

 

 

KIPP InvenTeam Presents at EurekaFest in Boston, MA
Students from KIPP Houston High School were selected as an InvenTeam for the 2012 Lemelson-MIT competition. The group traveled to Boston in June to present their project at EurekaFest, which was hosted on MIT’s campus. Profs. Rimer and Harold (UH Chemical Engineering) served as advisors and assisted students with their project, which focussed on developing and testing paints that adsorb greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Congratulations to all InvenTeam members on their successful project!

Alex’s Work Highlighted by the College of Engineering
Alex Lupulescu is working on developing novel methods to tailor the synthesis of zeolite catalysts. Her research is being featured by the UH Cullen College of Engineering. To read more about her work on zeolite crystal engineering, visit the following website: Article Weblink

April 2012, Southwest Catalysis Society Poster Award
Alex received an award from the Southwest Catalysis Society (SWCS) for her poster on zeolite growth modifiers. The  SWCS symposium was attended by members of industry and academia. There were many graduate students and postdocs from over six universities in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana who presented posters. A select number of these students received prizes for their posters.

Visiting Summer Student
Gautham Prakash joins our group as a 2012 Summer Research Fellow. Welcome Gautham!

College Endowment Professorship
Prof. Rimer was appointed the Ernest J. and Barbara M. Henley Chemical Engineering College Assistant Professorship.

Prof. Rimer is an Invited Speaker at the first ACTS Symposium
The Asian Crystallization Technology Society (ACTS) held its first symposium in Seoul, South Korea. Prof. Rimer was one of three invited lecturers at the symposium.

Prof. Rimer Receives a Grant from the American Chemical Society
The award was given by the ACS Petroleum Research Fund as part of the Doctoral New Investigator (DNI) program.

For details of the Petroleum Research Fund, visit the following website:  ACS PRF

Artwork Selected for Cover
Alex’s communication was featured on the cover of the April 2nd 2012 issue of Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

News Article on Zeolite Rational Design
Our 2012 Angew. Chemie publication was featured in a news article by the Cullen College of Engineering, entitled “Catalysis Research Earns Industry Interest.” Prof. Rimer was awarded a patent for this work, and the approach he and graduate student Alexandra Lupulescu developed is a commercially viable process that has garnered interest from industry.

To read more about this article, visit the following website:  Article Weblink

UH Recognizes Undergraduate Research
Miguel was the recepient of an Outstanding Thesis Award for 2012 from the UH Honors College. Miguel spent two semesters working on his senior thesis in the Rimer Group on the topic of catalyst synthesis and characterization. He also worked for 3 months on a project sponsored by Total Petrochemicals. Congratulations Miguel!

For details visit the website:  Announcement of 2012 Outstanding Thesis Award

Ph.D. Qualifier
Arian passes his oral qualifying exam. Congratulations Arian!

Upgrading K-12 Chemistry Curriculum
Marlo Diosomito, a teacher at KIPP Houston High School, has been working with Dr. Rimer to design a curriculum for his AP Chemistry class that infuses aspects of crystal engineering into the classroom and laboratory. Together, they designed a lesson plan focuses on tailoring the growth of alum. This activity, which is entitled Engineering Crystal Structure for Industrial Use, was accepted for publication in the online TeachEngineering digital library (a web-based initiative sponsored by the National Science Foundation). For details of this project, visit the website: TeachEngineering Resources

Prof. Rimer Receives a 2012 GEAR Award
A Grants to Enhance and Advance Research (GEAR) award was presented to Prof. Rimer by the UH Office of Research.

Prof. Rimer Receives a Grant from the State of Texas
The Rimer Group was awarded a grant from the Norman Hackerman Advanced Research Program (NHARP). The purpose of the program is to encourage and provide support to faculty in Texas institutions to conduct basic research.

This news was highlighted by the UH College of Engineering:  Junior Faculty Make Strong Showing in State-Run Grant Program

Prof. Rimer Receives a Welch Grant
The Welch Foundation awarded the Rimer Group a 3-year grant to conduct research on biomaterials.

 

Materials Day
Students from North Shore Senior High School visited the Department of Chemical Engineering at UH for interactive science demonstrations to promote STEM education. The program was coordinated by Dr. Megan Robertson and included participation from Drs. Jacinta Conrad, Gila Stein, and Jeff Rimer. Undergraduate and graduate students from UH also participated in this program.

Publication in Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Alex has her first paper accepted for publication. Congratulations Alex!

New Group Members
Matt and Manjesh have joined the group as first year Ph.D. candidates.

Masters Thesis Defense
Di Wang defended his Masters and will continue in the PhD program. Congratulations Di!

Mentoring High School Research
Dr. Rimer was selected as a mentor to the 2012 KIPP Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam

University of Houston Reception
Join us for the UH Reception at the 2011 AIChE Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, MN. For details visit the website:  Announcement for UH Reception

Welcome New Group Member
Ricardo Sosa joins the group as an UG researcher

Congratulations to Marlo for Winning the Kinder Award
Marlo Diosomito (KIPP Houston High School) was a recipient of the 2011 Kinder Excellence in Teaching Award presented by the city of Houston. Well done Marlo!

Featured article in the Houston Chronicle: 15 teachers honored for inspiring students

ORAU Travel Award
Marlo Diosomito (KIPP Houston High School) was a recipient of the 2011 Kinder Excellence in Teaching Award presented by the city of Houston. Well done Marlo!

Featured News Article
Drs. Rimer and Vekilov featured for their research on malaria drug design. LINK

Congratulations to Prof. Dion Vlachos, 2011 R.H. Wilhelm Award Recipient
Dr. Rimer will co-chair the award session at the October AIChE Annual Meeting with Drs. Mark Snyder, Ashish Mhadeshwar, and Vlad Nikolakis

Seminar in Seoul, South Korea
Dr. Rimer is an invited seminar speaker at Soongsil University

Welcome New Group Members
Matt joins the group as a summer research fellow Marlo joins the group as a NSF RET fellow Megan joins the group as a NSF REU fellow

Seed Grant for Malaria Research
The Alliance for Nanohealth awards Jeff Rimer (PI), Peter Vekilov (UH), and Robin Stephens (UTMB) a seed grant that is sponsored by the Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center. This is a Department of Defense medical research program operated through the headquarters of the US Army Medical Research and Material Command (USAMRMC).

Ph.D. Qualifier
Sahar passes her qualifying exam. Congratulations Sahar!

Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Prof. Rimer is awarded beamtime at the Spallation Neutron Source.

Scholarship Awarded
Congratulations to Miguel for winning a SURF Research Scholarship

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) at UH provides students with a stipend and the opportunity to participate in a research project under the direction of a UH faculty mentor. For more information visit the Office of Undergraduate Research.

Provisional Patent
Prof. Rimer and Alex filed a PPA on their work with microporous materials synthesis.

Visiting Researcher from Argentina
Welcome to Diego who is visiting during January and February!

New Group Member
The group welcomes Arian as its newest member! Arian is co-advised with Lars Grabow.

Ph.D. Qualifier
Alex passes her qualifying exam. Congratulations Alex!

Scholarship Awarded
Congratulations to Temitope for receiving a PURS scholarship!

 

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September 2009
Professor Rimer starts his position at UH.