Paper Accepted in Chem. Sci.
Our paper on the effects of hydration mismatch and cooperativity of inorganic structure-directing agents on zeolite CHA crystallization was accepted for publication in Chemical Science. Congratulations Adam, Gabe, and Nathan!
College Best Dissertation Award
Adam J. Mallette is the recipient of the 2023 Best Dissertation Award (2nd Prize) in the Cullen College of Engineering. Congratulations Adam!
Highlighting Kidney Stone Research
The University of Houston has written two stories highlighting the work of the Rimer Group and collaborators on kidney stone research. Our recent NIH R01 grant with UT Southwestern is advancing studies of hydroxycitrate as a new therapeutic for calcium stones by expanding to human trials and animal studies [UH Article]. We have also been working with collaborators on a project funded by the Office of Naval Research on the topic of dolphin kidney stones where fundamental findings are leading to new insights that could impact the design of pharmaceuticals [UH Article]. Both projects will play a role in the recently established Welch Catalyst Center for Advanced Bioactive Materials Crystallization.
Gordon Research Conference
Jeff chaired the 2023 GRC on Nanoporous Materials and Their Applications on August 5 – 11 at Proctor Academy in 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 Chris Lew (vice chair) and the GRS co-chairs (Austin and Jenna) for making this a successful event!
Graduate Students Awarded Fellowships
Two Rimer Group members were recipients of the Axalta Bright Futures Scholarship. These awards are sponsored by Axalta, a global leader in the coatings industry. Congratulations Dipayan and Vraj!
UH Awarded an Inaugural Welch Foundation Catalyst for Discovery Center Grant
Our team at the University of Houston was awarded a $5,000,000 grant to establish the Welch Center for Advanced Bioactive Materials Crystallization. Stay tuned for more news from the center. For more information of this program, see the Welch Foundation webpage, their video highlighting our center, and the news article from UH. Congratulations to all team members!
Adam Receives Paper Award from DOE
The Department of Energy Nuclear Energy University Program (DOE-NEUP) awarded Adam Mallette the best paper award for his publication titled “The effect of metals on zeolite crystallization kinetics with relevance to nuclear waste glass corrosion.” This award was given for the competition for graduate students attending minority serving institutions. Congratulations Adam!
Summer 2023 Visiting Researchers
We hosted two high school students in our group this summer: Christine Hao (Kingwood High School, Kingwood, TX) and Siddharth Satish (Clements High School, Sugar Land, TX). Many thanks to the numerous mentors in the group who helped oversee their summer research rotation on several biocrystallization projects.
Paper Accepted in Commun. Biol.
Our paper in collaboration with the Peter Vekilov (U. Houston) and David Sullivan (Johns Hopkins) on the irreversible mechanism of antimalarial drugs on hematin crystallization was accepted for publication in Communication Biology. Congratulations Wenchuan!
Cover Article Accepted in Cryst. Growth Des.
Our paper in collaboration with the National Marine Mammal Foundation (J. Meegan and C. Parry) on the effects of modifiers on ammonium urate crystallization was accepted for publication in Crystal Growth & Design. We also were selected for a supplementary cover. Congratulations Weiwei!
Students Selected for GRS Talks
Congratulations to Dipayan and Zhiyin for being selected to give talks at Gordon Research Seminars for the 2023 meetings on Crystal Growth & Assembly and Nanoporous Materials and Their Applications, respectively. Well done!
Travel Award to 28th NAM Conference
Shilpa received a Kokes Travel Award to attend the 2023 North American Catalysis Society Meeting in Providence, RI. She will be presenting her work on hierarchical zeolite catalyst design. Congratulations Shilpa!
Successful PhD Defense
Congratulations to Adam (now Dr. Mallette) for successfully defending his PhD dissertation. Thank you Adam for your outstanding work, selfless contributions to the group, and your efforts at UH to establish better safety practices. You will definitely be missed. Congratulations!
Paper Accepted in Micropor. Mesopor. Mater.
Our paper in collaboration with Prof. Allan Jacobson (UH) on the use of alkaline earth metals in zeolite synthesis (inspired from natural mineral compositions) was accepted for publication in Microporous and Mesoporous Materials. Congratulations Yu!
Paper Accepted in Nat. Commun.
Our work on the unique mechanistic roles of tautomers in crystallization was accepted for publication in Nature Communications. This work was the result of a fantastic collaboration between multiple institutions: University of Pittsburgh (Mpourmpakis), Stockholm University (Zou), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Kieselowski), Purdue University (Mo), University of Strathclyde (Florence), Texas A&M University (Tu), University of Houston (Robles Hernandez), and Instituto Politecnico Nacional Mexico (Calderon). Congratulations Weiwei, Xi, and Vraj! Check out the news article written by the University of Houston [Link].
Outstanding Mentor Award
Prof. Rimer received the 2023 Outstanding Mentor Award from the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools. A ceremony to honor this achievement will be held in March at the annual meeting in Tampa, FL. This award would not have been possible without the amazing students in the Rimer Research Group. Many thanks to past and current group members! See the story from the Cullen College of Engineering [Link].
Paper Accepted in Dalton Transactions
Our collaborator at the University of Pittsburgh (Yanni Mpourmpakis) published a computational paper as part of our DOE NEUP project with PNNL (PIs Neeway and Motkri) on the energetics of (alumino)silicate speciation in zeolite crystallization. Congratulations to all coauthors!
Paper Accepted in JACS
Our work in collaboration with Prof. Jeremy Palmer (U. Houston) on the elucidation of faujasite surface growth using in situ AFM was accepted for publication in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Congratulations Rishabh, Zhiyin, and Madhuresh!
Student Fellowship
Muhammad Fiji Firdaus received the Cullen Graduate Student Success Fellowship. This fellowship supports graduate student success in academic endeavors that include research and professional development. Congratulations Fiji!
Successful PhD Defense
Congratulations to Yu (now Dr. Liang) for successfully defending his PhD dissertation. Yu was the first co-advised chemistry student to graduate from the group (co-advisor: Prof. Allan Jacobson). Many thanks to Yu for your outstanding work and contributions to the group over the years – you will be missed. Congratulations!
Paper Accepted in RSC Advances
Our work in collaboration with Queens University (Belfast, Ireland) on the use of EDTA to prevent struvite scale formation was accepted for publication in RSC Advances. Congratulations Doyoung!
Paper Accepted in Nature Catalysis
Our work in collaboration with Prof. Bert Weckhuysen (Utrecht Univ.), Prof. Jeremy Palmer (U. Houston), Dr. Simon Bare (SLAC), and Dr. Conan Weiland (BNL) on the preparation of Si-zoned zeolite ZSM-5 was accepted for publication in Nature Catalysis. Congratulations Thuy, Wei, and Matthew!
Paper Accepted in ACS Materials Letters
Our work in collaboration with Albemarle Corporation and Prof. Javier Garcia Martinez (Univ. Alicante) on the synthesis of ZnO-FAU zeolite catalysts was accepted for publication in ACS Mater. Lett.. Congratulations Deependra and Adam!
First Place in AIChE Graduate Competition
Adam Mallette won first place in the AIChE Inorganic Materials Graduate Student Award competition at the 2022 National Meeting in Phoenix, AZ. Adam presented his work on the use of inorganic structure-directing agents to tailor the crystallization of zeolites. Congratulations Adam!
Second Place in UH 3MT Competition
Congratulations to Dipayan Chakraborty for winning second place in the campus-wide 3-minute thesis competition. This skill development activity challenges graduate students to explain their research project to a non-specialist audience in just three minutes. Congratulations Dipayan!
Article Accepted in npj Materials Degradation
Our work in collaboration with PNNL (Neeway, Motkri) and the University of Pittsburgh (Mpourmpakis) on the impact of composition on stage III glass dissolution during nuclear waste storage. We examine the impact of various elements on zeolite nucleation, which is critical to regulating glass dissolution. Congratulations Adam!
Best Presentation Award
Prof. Rimer received an award from the South Texas Society section of AIChE for the Best Presentation at the 2022 AIChE Southwest Process Technology Conference. His talk was entitled “Discovering New Paradigms in the Design and Preparation of Zeolite Catalysts.”
Paper Accepted in Journal of Crystal Growth
Our work in collaboration with BASF Corporation on the synthesis of core-shell ferrierite zeolites was accepted for publication in the Journal of Crystal Growth as part of the special issue dedicated to Alex Chernov. Congratulations Sungmin!
Two Poster Award Winners
At the 2022 Organization for Chemical Engineering Graduate Students (OChEGS) Symposium, our group received the best poster award in two categories: Catalysis and Reaction Engineering (Kumari Shilpa) and Materials Engineering (Dipayan Chakraborty). Congratulations Shilpa and Dipayan and thanks to all students who participated in this event!
Paper Accepted in Adv. Mater.
Our work in collaboration with the Stockholm University (Zou, Yang) on the use of germania as an inorganic growth modifier to promote the formation of nano-sized zeolites was accepted for publication in Advanced Materials. Congratulations Deependra and Adam!
Paper Accepted in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. as Hot Paper
Our work in collaboration with BASF Corporation and Prof. Javier Garcia Martinez (Univ. Alicante) on the synthesis of core-shell hierarchical zeolite beta was accepted for publication in Angewandte Chemie International Edition. Congratulations Sungmin!
Cover Article Accepted in JACS Au
Our work in collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh (Mpourmpakis) and PNNL (Neeway, Motkri, Saslow, Mergelsberg) on the role of inorganic structure-directing agents in stabilizing FAU zeolite was accepted for publication in JACS Au. The article was also featured as artwork on a supplementary cover. Congratulations Adam!
Paper Accepted in Micro. Meso. Mater.
Our work in collaboration with Prof. Robles Hernandez (U. Houston) on the synthesis of potassium-zeolites was accepted for publication in the journal Microporous and Mesoporous Materials. Congratulations Aseem, Adam, Rishabh, and Nam!
Research Award
Prof. Rimer received the 2022 Senior Faculty Research Excellence Award from the Cullen College of Engineering at the University of Houston. A ceremony for all faculty and staff awardees was held on May 3rd. This award is a result of the hard work by so many wonderful former and current graduate students and postdocs in the research group. Congratulations to you all! Read the UH news article here.
Paper Accepted in JACS
Our work in collaboration with ExxonMobil (Seth Washburn, Hsu Chiang) and Profs. Lars Grabow and Jeremy Palmer (U. Houston) on the use of zeolite MCM-22 to enhance p-xylene selectivity in hydrocarbon upgrading was accepted for publication in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Congratulations Deependra and Seung!
Graduate Mentor Award
Prof. Rimer received the 2022 Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award from the University of Houston. A ceremony to honor this achievement will be held in May. This is a particularly special award that would not have been possible without the many fantastic students in the research group over the years. Thank you all! Read the UH news article here.
Paper Accepted in Nature Synthesis
Our invited review article was accepted for publication in the brand new journal Nature Synthesis. We are very honored to contribute to this journal on the topic of nanosized and hierarchical zeolite synthesis. Congratulations Adam and Seungwan! Check out the UH article highlighting our review: Article
Travel Award to NAM ’22
Deependra (co-advised by Prof. Grabow) received a Kokes Travel Award to attend the 2022 North American Catalysis Society Meeting in New York. He will be presenting a talk at the meeting. Congratulations Deependra!
Paper Accepted in Faraday Discussions
Our work on amorphous precursor assembly and evolution in zeolite crystallization was accepted for publication in Faraday Discussions. Prof. Rimer will be giving an invited talk at the meeting taking place in York, UK in March 2022. For details of the conference “Understanding Crystallisation”, check out the website (Link). Congratulations Deependra, Heng, Yu, and Zhiyin!
Paper Accepted in Angew. Chemie
Our work in collaboration with BASF (Ahmad Moini, Vivek Vattipalli, Ed Kunkes) and the University of Alicante (Javier Garcia Martinez, Noemi Linares) on the use of polyamines to alter zeolite nucleation was accepted for publication in Angewandte Chemie International Edition. This article was also selected by the editor as a Hot Paper. Congratulations Heng, Chenfeng, Fiji, and Jakob!
Rimer Interviewed for RSC Article
For the article entitled “Case closed on how surfactant micelles create mesopores within zeolites” published by Chemistry World (Royal Society of Chemistry), Prof. Rimer was interviewed to provide his opinion on the impact of a hierarchical zeolite synthesis strategy developed by Prof. Javier Garcia Martinez (University of Alicante).
AIChE Poster Award
Adam Mallette won the 2021 AIChE Annual Meeting Catalysis and Reaction Engineering (CRE Division) Poster Award. He presented his poster in the zeolite session (Area 20C) at the meeting held in Boston, MA. Congratulations Adam!
Group Recognized for Cited Research
According to an updated paper from researchers at Stanford University, the Rimer Group is listed among the Top 2 percent of cited research papers in the world. For more information, see the article written by the Cullen College of Engineering (Article).
Welcome New Group Members
We are very pleased to welcome new PhD candidates joining the group: Sambita Choudhury, Debasmita Halder, Jaeyul Kim, and Amir Abutalib (Chemistry, co-advised with Prof. Randy Lee). Two additional students joining the group are co-advised with Prof. Peter Vekilov: Huan-Jui Lee and Manasa Yerragunta. We are very excited to have you join the research group!
Student Pitch Competition
Yu Liang received 1st place in the Student Pitch Competition (i.e. 2 min elevator pitch on his research project) at the Southwest Catalysis Society Fall Symposium. Congratulations Yu!
Paper Accepted in Angew. Chemie
Our work in collaboration with Prof. Xiaodong Zou (Stockholm University) and Prof. Paul Dauenhauer (University of Minnesota) on the development of finned ferrierite zeolite crystals was accepted for publication in Angewandte Chemie International Edition. Congratulations Heng and Jakob!
Successful PhD Defense
Congratulations to Rishabh (now Dr. Jain) for successfully defending his PhD dissertation. Thank you Rishabh for your outstanding work and contributions to the group over the years – you will definitely be missed. Congratulations!
Perspective Accepted in JACS
Our Perspective on controlling zeolite nucleation through seed-assisted synthesis was accepted in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Congratulations Rishabh and Adam!
Undergraduate Scholarship
Undergraduate researcher Raghav Baskar received a 2022 PURS scholarship from the University of Houston to work on the design of kidney stone therapeutics. Congratulations Raghav!
Third Place in UH 3MT Competition
Congratulations to Adam Mallette for winning third place in the campus-wide 3-minute thesis competition. This skill development activity challenges graduate students to explain their research project to a non-specialist audience in just three minutes. Adam presented his thesis work examining zeolite nucleation and interzeolite conversions and their implications for nuclear waste remediation. Congratulations Adam!
Paper Accepted in ACS Catalysis
Our work in collaboration with Idaho National Laboratory (Chase Taylor, Jagoda Urban-Klaehn, and Kevin Gering) on the use of positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS) to probe catalyst deactivation was accepted for publication in ACS Catalysis. Congratulations Thuy!
Travel Award to AIChE
Yu Liang received a Cullen Travel Award to attend the American Institute of Chemical Engineering Annual Meeting in Boston, MA to present his work on zeolite synthesis. Yu is coadvised by Allan Jacobson (UH, Chemistry). Congratulations Yu!
Cover in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.
Our paper in collaboration with Prof. Matteo Maestri (Milan) and SABIC (S. Chinta and D. West) was featured on the front inside cover of Angewandte Chemie International Edition. Great artwork by Mariano!
Paper Accepted in Journal of Catalysis
Our work on zeolite coreshell catalyst design was accepted for publication in the Journal of Catalysis as part of the Boudart Special Issue. This work was in collaboration with Prof. Paul Dauenhauer (U. Minnesota), Dr. Simon Bare (SLAC), and Dr. Conan Weiland (BNL). Congratulations Thuy as well as Shilpa and Sungmin!
Successful PhD Defense
Congratulations to Heng (now Dr. Dai) for successfully defending his PhD dissertation. Thank you Heng for your outstanding work and contributions to the group over the years, including your role as a mentor to so many in the group. You will definitely be missed. Congratulations!
College Best Dissertation Award
Thuy Le is the recipient of the 2021 Best Dissertation Award (1st Prize) in the Cullen College of Engineering. Congratulations Thuy!
Front Cover Article Accepted in CrystEngComm
Our work on organophosphates as potent inhibitors of barite crystallization was accepted for publication in CrystEngComm. This work was in collaboration with Dr. Mike Reynolds (Shell) and Prof. Jaci Conrad (U. Houston). Our artwork was also selected for the front cover of the November 28th issue. Congratulations Ricardo and great job with the cover design!
Departmental Best Dissertation Award
Rishabh Jain is a recipient of the 2021 Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Doctoral Dissertation Award. Congratulations Rishabh!
Multiple Honors for Parmar
Deependra received two awards for his work on zeolite catalysis. He received a 2021 Graduate Student Travel Award from the Catalysis and Reaction Engineering (CRE) Division to attend the annual AIChE Meeting. He also received a Poster Award for the upcoming Great Plains Catalysis Society (GPCS) Symposium where he will also have the chance to give an oral presentation. Deependra is coadvised by Prof. Grabow (U. Houston) and works on both experiments and computational studies. Congratulations DP!
Paper Accepted in Angew. Chemie
Our work in collaboration with Prof. Matteo Maestri (Politecnico di Milano) and SABIC (S. Chinta and D. West) on the thermodynamic and kinetic effects of molten salt media on the growth of faceted NiO catalysts was accepted for publication in Angewandte Chemie International Edition. Congratulations Mariano!
Photo Contest Winner
Doyoung’s beautiful struvite crystals won first prize in the 22nd American Conference on Crystal Growth and Epitaxy (ACCGE-22) photo contest in the category of digitally modified images. These crystals were prepared using phosphate-based modifiers, which direct the formation of these floral-like arrangements. Congratulations Doyoung!
Paper Accepted in Chem. Mater.
Our work on identifying hydroxycitrate as a unique and potent inhibitor of barite nucleation and growth was accepted for publication in Chemistry of Materials. This work was in collaboration with Dr. Mike Reynolds (Shell) and Prof. Jaci Conrad (U. Houston). Congratulations Ricardo and Xi!
Paper Accepted in PCCP
Our work on characterizing the thermodynamic effects of growth modifiers on one-dimensional zeolites was accepted for publication in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. This work was performed in collaboration with Profs. Jeremy Palmer (U. Houston) and Rob Rioux (Penn State). Congratulations Rui and James!
Front Cover in Mol. Syst. Des. Eng.
Our paper in collaboration with Dr. Mike Reynolds (Shell) and Prof. Jaci Conrad (UH) was featured on the front cover of Molecular System Design & Engineering. Great design and artwork by Ricardo!
Two Successful PhD Defenses
Congratulations to Doyoung (now Dr. Kim) and Ricardo (now Dr. Sosa) who both successfully defended their PhD dissertations. Doyoung will be heading to Samsung (South Korea) and Ricardo to Abbvie (Chicago, IL). Thank you both for your outstanding work and contributions to the group over the years – you will definitely be missed. Congratulations!
R01 Grant from NIH
We received a $1.2M grant from the National Institutes of Health in collaboration with lead PI Prof. Peter Vekilov (U. Houston) and Co-PI Dr. David Sullivan (Johns Hopkins). This work is focused on understanding the role of crystal growth modifiers in malaria. Check out the news articles appearing on the UH website [Link] and EurekAlert [Link].
Undergraduate Research Fellowship
This summer Khoa Nguyen will be joining our group to contact research. Khoa was the recipient of a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF). See the news story by UH on SURF awardees [Link]. Congratulations Khoa and welcome to the group!
Poster Award at the SWCS Symposium
Deependra Parmar, who is co-advised by Prof. Lars Grabow, won a best poster award at the 2021 Southwest Catalysis Society (SWCS) Symposium. He presented his work on toleuene alkylation by methanol over zeolite catalysts. Congratulations Deependra!
Paper Accepted in Cryst. Growth Des.
Our paper in collaboration with Dr. Julian Gale (U. Curtin) was accepted for publication in ACS Crystal Growth & Design. This work identifies the unique role of zinc ions as inhibitors of calcium oxalate crystallization. Congratulations Bryan!
Successful PhD Defense
Congratulations to Wenchuan (now Dr. Ma) who successfully defended his PhD dissertation. Wenchuan is co-advised by Prof. Peter Vekilov (UH). He will be starting a postdoc position at MIT next month. Thanks Wenchuan for being a wonderful group member, and for the high quality research you performed during your PhD. We wish you luck at MIT!
Paper Accepted in Sci. Adv.
Our paper in collaboration with Prof. Valentin Valtchev (LCS, Caen) was accepted for publication in Science Advances. This work uses a unique method of dissolution to decipher nonclassical mechanisms of zeolite crystallization. Congratulations Thuy!
Paper Accepted in Mol. Syst. Des. Eng.
Our paper in collaboration with Dr. Mike Reynolds (Shell) and Prof. Jaci Conrad (UH) was accepted for publication in Molecular System Design & Engineering. This work identifies a green compound capable of inhibiting nucleation and growth of barite mineral scale. Congratulations Xi and Ricardo!
Paper Accepted in Adv. Mater.
Our paper in collaboration with Prof. Javier Garcia Martinez (U. Alicante) was accepted for publication in Advanced Materials. This work identifies an organic-free route to produce self-pillared pentasil zeolites that exhibit outstanding catalytic performance. Check out the news article published by the University of Houston [Link] and EurekAlert [Link]. Congratulations Rishabh and Aseem!
Cover Article in Chem. Mater.
Our paper in collaboration with Dr. Siva Chinta (SABIC) was accepted for publication in Chemistry of Materials. This work identifies ways of controlling crystal habit of metal oxide solution solutions using molten salt syntheses. It was featured as one of the supplementary covers. Congratulations Mariano and great design of the cover artwork!
Departmental Best Dissertation Award
Dr. Aseem Chawla is a recipient of the 2020 Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Doctoral Dissertation Award. Congratulations Aseem!
New Members Joining the Group
We are pleased to welcome 6 new members to the Rimer Group. Five graduate students joined in January: Vraj Chauhan, Dipayan Chakraborty, Muhammad Fiji, Chenfeng Huang, and Zhiyin Niu. One postdoc joined in February: Dr. Seungwan Seo.
Prof. Rimer Elected a Senior Member of the NAI
The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) has announcement their 2021 Class of Senior Members, which includes Prof. Rimer. Many thanks to all the amazing graduate students and postdocs in the group (past and present) whose innovation and hard work has made this possible. For more information, refer to news articles from the University of Houston and PR Newswire.
Paper Accepted in ACS Mater. Lett.
Our paper in collaboration with Prof. Allan Jacobson (UH) was accepted for publication in ACS Materials Letters. This work examines the use of alkaline earth metals as both accelerants and structure-directing agents in zeolite synthesis. Congratulations Yu Liang!
Prof. Rimer Joins ACS Editorial Board
In January 2021, Prof. Rimer joined ACS Crystal Growth & Design as an Associate Editor. Read the news story written by the University of Houston Daily Cougar (Link), the Cullen College of Engineering at UH (Link), and a “Get to Know the Editor” profile published by ACS (Link).
Graduate Student Awards at AIChE
Our group won two awards at the 2020 AIChE Annual Meeting, both given by the Materials Engineering & Sciences Division (MESD). Rishabh Jain received second place in the Graduate Student Award Competition in the Inorganic Chemistry Area. Ricardo Sosa received third place in the MESD Poster Competition. Congratulations Rishabh and Ricardo!
Paper Accepted in JBC
Our paper in collaboration with Profs. Vekilov and Miljanic (UH) and Prof. David Sullivan (Johns Hopkins) was accepted for publication in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. This work identifies a second mechanism of artemisinins’ therapeutic action against malaria parasites. Congratulations Wenchuan and Katy!
Paper Accepted in ACS Appl. Mater. Interface
Our paper in collaboration with Dr. Mike Reynolds (Shell) and Profs. Jaci Conrad and Jeremy Palmer (UH) was accepted for publication in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. This work examines the use of alginate as a green and highly efficient treatment for barite scale. Congratulations Ricardo and Xi!
Paper Accepted in Catal. Sci. Technol.
Our paper in collaboration with Prof. Praveen Bollini (UH) was accepted for publication in Catalysis Science & Technology. This work examines the impact of nonstoichiometric oxygen in NiO catalysts. Congratulations Xiaohui and Mariano!
Paper Accepted in PNAS
Our paper on time-resolved in situ AFM analysis of zeolite A crystallization was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS). This work highlights the prevalence and role of defects in zeolite crystallization. Congratulations Madhuresh and Rishabh!
Best Dissertation Award
Aseem Chawla received the 2020 Best Dissertation Award from the UH Cullen College of Engineering for his PhD dissertation titled “Controlling Microporous and Mesoporous Domains in Zeolite Crystallization.” Congratulations Aseem on this very prestigious and highly deserving honor!
AIChE Travel Awards
Congratulations to Heng and Xiaohui (co-advised with Prof. Bollini) on receiving 2020 CRE Travel Awards to virtually attend the AIChE Annual Meeting. Great job to both of you!
Successful PhD Defense
Congratulations to Thuy (now Dr. Le) who successfully defended her PhD dissertation. She will be starting her new position at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory later this month. Thanks Thuy for being an amazing group member, and for all of the high quality and diverse research you performed during your PhD. We wish you luck at PNNL and you will be missed!
New Award from DOE
Prof. Rimer received an award from the Department of Energy (DOE) Basic Energy Sciences (BES) to examine mechanisms of zeolite crystallization. This project involves a collaboration with Prof. Jeremy Palmer (U. Houston).
Paper Accepted in AIChE Journal
Our DOE NEUP project in collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh and PNNL resulted in a paper on density functional theory calculations of (alumino)silicate oligomerization. Many thanks to Yanni and Emily at Pitt for leading this effort!
Paper Accepted in Chem. Mater.
Our paper in collaboration with Queens University (Belfast, Ireland) was accepted for publication in Chemistry of Materials. This work examines the ability of polyphosphates to inhibit both nucleation and growth of struvite crystals. Congratulations Doyoung!
Review Accepted in ChemCatChem
Our review in collaboration with Prof. Praveen Bollini (U. Houston) entitled “Synthesis, Structure, and Catalytic Properties of Faceted Oxide Crystals” was accepted for publication in ChemCatChem. Congratulations and thanks to Xiaohui and Mariano for their hard work!
Presentations at the 2020 GPCS Fall Symposium
Four students in our group will be presenting their posters at the 2020 Great Plains Catalysis Society (GPCS) Virtual Symposium: Yu Liang, Rishabh Jain, XiaohuiZhao, and Heng Dai. A special congratulations to Heng Dai for receiving an award for his poster entitled “Finned Zeolite Catalysts”! For details of the program check out their website [link].
Publication in Nature Materials
Our research article introducing a new class of nanoporous materials, “finned zeolite catalysts”, has been published in Nature Materials. This work was a collaborative effort with Professors Xiaodong Zou (Stockholm University), Bert Weckhuysen (Utrecht University), Paul Dauenhauer (University of Minnesota), Jeremy Palmer (University of Houston), and Michael Tsapatsis (Johns Hopkins University). Congratulations Heng, Yufeng, and Thuy! See also news articles published by the University of Houston (link), University of Minnesota (link), Utrecht University (link), Stockholm University (link), Science Daily (link), SCIENMAG (link), Phys.org (link), and EurekAlert (link).
VIP Paper Accepted in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.
Our research article in collaboration with Lars Grabow and Scott Smith (UH), Anatoly Frenkel (Brookhaven National Lab), Jing Liu (Manhattan College), and Ken Whitmire (Rice Univ.) on the nature and role of Ga species in Ga-ZSM-5 catalysts for ethylene dehydroaromatization was accepted for publication in Angewandte Chemie International Edition. The article is listed as a Very Important Paper (VIP). Congratulations Yunwen!
Live on Twitter!
The Rimer Group now has a Twitter account. Follow us live on @UH_RimerGroup.