News
(11/11/2024) Congratulations to our newest PhD Candidate Huston! He passed his Thesis Proposal, woot!
(11/6/2024) Dave received the Paul H. Emmett Award in Fundamental Catalysis and will present a Plenary Lecture at the 2025 North American Catalysis Society Meeting (NAM29)! Congrats boss!
(10/26/2024) Suchi, Matt, Huston, Richa, Minju, and Yu presented their research at AIChE 2024 in San Diego!
(10/26/2024) Congratulations Suchi for winning the CRE Travel Award to AIChE 2024 in San Diego!
(10/11/2024) Welcome Khanh, Mohammad, and Will to our group! They join us from University of Kansas, Amirkabir University of Technology, and University of Minnesota, respectively. Welcome aboard!
(9/18/2024) Congratulations Minju for winning the WIC Travel Award to AIChE 2024 in San Diego!
(8/14/2024) Matt and Suchi presented their research at the 4th Year Graduate Colloquium for the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering!
(7/14/2024) Richa, Ching-Tien, and Dave presented their research at the 18th International Congress on Catalysis (ICC) in Lyon, France!
(7/14/2024) Congratulations to Richa whom received both the “Young Talent” label and a travel award to the 18th International Congress on Catalysis in Lyon, France!!
(6/24/2024) Jieun has started an internship at Braskem! Congrats Jieun!
(6/24/2024) Selma Kadric joins the group as a visiting student from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden! She will be working with the E-Chem crew on Tandem Electrocatalytic Generation of Green Hydrogen and Selective Oxidation of Hydrocarbons.
(6/17/2024) Richa was elected to co-chair the Gordon Research Seminar on Catalysis next meeting! Go Richa go!
(6/17/2024) Richa, Minju, and Dave attended the Gordon Research Conference on Catalysis, shared their research, and had a blast catching up with catalysis friends!
(6/3/2024) Sophia Ihrfelt joins the group as a visiting student from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden! She will be working with on Effects of Alkene Chain Length on Epoxidation at Electrochemical Interfaces.
(5/12/2024) Congratulations to our 2024 UIUC PhD graduates David and Ohsung, Masters graduates Richa, Suchi, and Matt, and Bachelors graduate Jess! We had a blast road-tripping to Illinois, attending the UIUC ChBE commencement, and catching up with old friends!
(5/2/2024) David, Chris, and Ohsung’s paper titled “Engineering intraporous solvent environments: effects of aqueous-organic solvent mixtures on competition between zeolite-catalyzed epoxidation and H2O2 decomposition pathways” was selected as a Chemical Science Most Popular Article for 2023! Go team epoxidation!
(4/16/2024) Congratulations to our FUNdergrad Nishchay, who presented his work at the GTUROP Annual Research Spring Symposium!
(4/12/2024) Richa was awarded the Shell Outstanding Teaching Award for her efforts TA’ing Dave’s kinetics class and Andy, Geoffrey, Jieun, Huston, Eric, and Adam received Exemplary Academic Achievement awards for their perfect 4.0’s! Good job everyone!!
(4/8/2024) We have another PhD candidate in the house (group)! Congratulations to Suchi for passing her thesis proposal!! Great work!
(4/4/2024) Congratulations to our fellow Fellows Huston and Geoffrey!! They each received the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship in recognition of their accomplishments and proposed research!
(4/2/2024) Fellowship alert! Suchi received the NSERC PGS-D Fellowship! Congrats Suchi!!
(3/30/2024) For our March group event, we went to Your 3rd Spot and enjoyed arcade and yard games!
(3/25/2024) Matt passed his Thesis proposal! Congratulations PhD Candidate Matt!
(2/19/2024) For our February Group Event, we had a nice lunch at Rreal Tacos with Dave!
(2/13/2024) We are proud of Richa and Suchi for receiving “best poster” awards at the Southeastern Catalysis Society’s 23rd Annual Symposium!
(2/12/2024) We had a great time sharing our ongoing work and catching up with other catalysis groups at the Southeastern Catalysis Society’s 23rd Annual Symposium! Yongwoo presented a talk and Richa, Matt, Jieun, Suchi, and Huston presented posters. Looking forward to next year!
(1/18/2024) Ching-Tien has officially ended his postdoc with us and will begin as an Assistant Professor at National Tsing Hua University! We bid him and his family farewell at the airport and hope to see him at conferences soon!
(12/1/2023) To celebrate the group and the end of another wild year, we held our annual competition of buying toys for Toys for Tots using money raised by the group. Afterward, we had a lovely group dinner!
(11/29/2023) Another Thesis Proposal passed! Congratulations Jieun, our newest PhD Candidate!!
(10/26/2023) Celebrating the great weather the fall has brought, our October group event included pumpkin carving and lots of pets!
(10/2/2023) Congratulations to our newest PhD Candidate Richa, who has passed her Thesis Proposal!
(9/27/2023) Welcome to our newest group members Geoff, Eric, and Adam!! We are excited to have these outstanding people join the team. Welcome aboard!
(9/21/2023) For our September group event, we explored the Georgia Aquarium!
(8/5/2023) David and Dave attended the “Nanoporous Materials and Their Applications” Gordon Research Seminar and Conference to present their work in zeolites!
(7/12/2023) The ACS CATL Division 2023 Catalysis Summer School on the links between thermodynamics and kinetics is now in session! Dave opened the program with fundamentals and vignettes from the solid-liquid interface.
(7/1/2023) Welcome Minju, our newest post-doc addition to the group! She received her PhD from MIT in Chemical Engineering!
(6/26/2023) The Flaherty Lab (minus David and Ohsung) has moved to Georgia Tech!
(6/16/2023) Celebrating our last week all together before the move to GT, we had our weekly group lunch and rode the Illini Pub Cycle!
(6/3/2023) Over the weekend, we enjoyed yard games and good food at the Group BBQ at Dave’s House! The last one before we relocate to Atlanta at the end of the month!!
(5/25/2023) For our May group event, we brought out our creative sides and painted pottery!
(5/14/2023) Congratulations to our 2022-2023 PhD graduates Tomas, Claudia, and Chris and our Undergrad graduate Anna! This weekend we celebrated their accomplishments with the ChBE Convocation, Group Lunch, and plenty of selfies!
(5/9/2023) To celebrate all of their hard work and to wish them farewell, we had an Undergrad Celebration Dinner! Good luck to Anna who is off to the University of Michigan for her PhD, Drew who will continue doing research at UIUC while finishing his undergrad degree, and Jess who will return in the Fall to continue working with David!
(5/5/2023) Lab alum Dr. Jason Adams has accepted a position as an Assistant Professor in the CHBE Department at Rice University starting January 2025! Congrats Jason – we can’t wait to see what his lab will accomplish!
(5/4/2023) Introducing Dr. Chris Torres! Chris successfully defended his thesis “Solvent and Surface Effects on Alkene Oxidation Catalysis over Transition Metal Incorporated Zeolites.” We wish him luck as he joins Dr. Julie Rorrer at the University of Washington as a Clean Energy Institute Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow!
(4/27/2023) Congratulations to our FUNdergrads Anna, Jess, and Drew for presenting their research at the UIUC Undergraduate Research Symposium!
(4/13/2023) For our April group event, we visited a Trampoline Park which included a fierce game of trampoline dodgeball!
(3/27/2023) Chris and Dave presented oral presentations at the ACS Spring meeting in Indianapolis. Great work!
(2/11/2023) Happy International Women in Science Day! Four of the amazing women of the Flaherty Group (Suchi,
Richa, Yu, and Jieun) attended the weSTEM 2023 conference hosted by Illinois GradSWE – including Suchi and Richa on the planning committee!
(12/10/2022) After a 2 year hiatus, the Flaherty Holiday Party is back! We had a friendly competition at Target where we bought toys for Toys for Tots using money raised by the group. The undergraduate team was victorious. Afterward, we had a lovely group dinner. It was wonderful to celebrate the group and the end of the year!
(11/18/2022) Jason, Ohsung, David, and and Dave gave talks and Chris presented a poster at the 2022 AIChE Annual Meeting. Great work everyone!
(10/19/2022) Welcome to Huston, our newest PhD student addition to the group! He received his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Florida.
(10/18/2022) Congratulations to David and Vijay (from the Mironenko group) on our recent ACS Catalysis publication! Using a combination of experimental and computational techniques, they investigated the interplay between confined solvent molecules and increasingly large alkyl chains for alkene epoxidations within zeolites. Check it out here!
(10/14/2022) Congratulations to Richa for winning first place in the 2022 ChBE Graduate Research Symposium for her poster presentation!
(10/14/2022) Chris presented an oral presentation and Richa presented a poster presentation at the 2022 ChBE Graduate Research Symposium. Good work!
(9/22/2022) Congratulations to Claudia for defending her thesis on catalytic routes for oxygenate conversion on solid acids and supported metal nanoparticles! We wish you the best of luck as you start your career at Dow! Well done Dr. Berdugo-Díaz!!
(9/20/2022) Jess Komar and Drew Hollyfield join the group as undergraduate researchers. Jess is a junior in chemical engineering and will work with David and Drew is a freshman in chemical engineering and will work with Richa. Welcome!
(8/20/2022) Congratulations to Claudia for receiving the 2022 Gender Equity in Chemical Sciences runner up Inclusive Excellence award for her efforts in promoting diversity and inclusion. She was honored at the Gender Equity and Inclusion in the Chemical Sciences conference. Read about it here!
(8/8/2022) Yu Guo joins the group as a new post-doctoral researcher! She joins us from Peking University, where she received her PhD in Inorganic Chemistry. Yu will investigate silanizing reactions over silica materials in polydimethylsiloxane. Welcome!
(8/4/2022) Phinally Done! Tomas successfully defended his thesis on active site requirements for selective catalytic O2 reduction with H2. We wish you the best of luck as you start your new job as Catalyst Scientist at Amogy in September! Congratulations Dr. Ricciardulli!
(8/2/2022) Congratulations to Dave for being promoted to Full Professor! Read about it here!
(7/26/2022) Our work investigating reaction pathways and mechanisms to reduce esters with H2 on Pd nanoparticles supported on Nb2O5 was published in ACS Catalysis. Congratulations to Claudia, Yangsik, Melissa and our collaborators at Dow!
(7/21/2022) Congratulations to Abinaya and co-authors on their recent ACS Catalysis publication, in which they use SERS to study interfaces of supported Au nanoparticles to understand why Au catalysts are so reactive for oxidation reactions! Great work!
(7/7/2022) We welcome Yongwoo Kim to the group as a new post-doctoral researcher! Yongwoo received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from Seoul National University and was previously a Senior Researcher at Hyundai. He will be working on ethane ammoxidation. Welcome!
(7/5/2022) Congratulations to Dave for being named a 2022-23 College of LAS Dean’s Distinguished Professorial Scholar! Read all about it here!
(6/27/2022) Congratulations to Abinaya who will be joining the Chemical Engineering Department at IIT Gandhinagar as an Assistant Professor at the end of July! The Sampath Lab will use in situ Raman spectroscopy and operando measurements to study oxidation reactions. We wish you the best of luck as you start your independent research career!
(6/24/2022) Congratulations to Claudia on winning the Second Place Graduate Student Poster Prize at the 2022 Gordon Research Conference on Catalysis!
(6/2022) Claudia and Jason present posters at the 2022 Gordon Research Conference on Catalysis! Great job!
(6/10/2022) Congratulations to Danim and Yao on their recent publication in Reaction Chemistry and Engineering! They show how mechanistic insight and measurements of apparent kinetics for productive and non-productive reaction pathways guide the development of semi-batch reactors and reaction conditions for stable production of carboxylic acids and diacids over supported tungstates.
(6/8/2022) Congratulations to Zeynep for defending her thesis on the influence of inner and outer sphere effects on alkene epoxidations with H2O2 over supported transition metal atoms! Well done Dr. Ayla! We wish you the best of luck as you start as an Associate at Exponent!
(5/2022) Pranjali, Yao, Yangsik, Jason, Claudia, Zeynep, Tomas, Chris, David, Ohsung, and Dave gave talks and Claudia, Tomas, and David presented posters at NAM27. Great work everyone!
(5/21/2022) More exciting publication news! Congratulations to Yangsik, Claudia, and our collaborators at Dow for their recent Journal of Catalysis publication studying the importance of Brønsted acid sites during the hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis of esters on supported Pd nanoparticles!
(5/20/2022) Our recent publication on how outer sphere interactions impact alkene epoxidation reactions on atomically dispersed Ti sites on metal oxides was published in the Journal of Catalysis. Congratulations to Zeynep and co-authors!
(5/15/2022) Congratulations to our 2020-22 PhD graduates: Pranjali, Yao, Abinaya, Jason, and Zeynep! We celebrated their accomplishments at a group dinner and the first in-person Spring ChBE convocation in three years.
(4/25/2022) Congratulations to Dave for receiving the 2022 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research from The Grainger College of Engineering!
(4/10/2022) Congratulations to Tomas for receiving a Kokes Award to attend NAM27 in New York!
(4/6/2022) Ohsung passes his preliminary exam! Congratulations to our newest PhD Candidate!
(4/4/2022) The good news continues… Congratulations to Melissa for being awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship in recognition for all her accomplishments across campus and in our group with Claudia!
(4/4/2022) Jason successfully defends his thesis on the role of organic species, alloys, and support identity on H2 and O2 activation to H2O2 on metal nanoparticles. Congratulations Dr. Adams! We wish you the best of luck as you start your post-doc with the Manthiram Group at Caltech!
(3/16/2022) Congratulations to Claudia for receiving the CATL-ChemCatBio Graduate Student Travel Award! This award will support her participation in the Spring 2022 ACS National Meeting in San Diego, where she will present her work on the direct reduction of esters to ethers over supported Pd catalysts. Well done Claudia!
(3/3/2022) Abinaya successfully defends her thesis! She presented her dissertation work on examining activation of oxygen on Au using in situ surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. Congratulations Dr. Sampath!
(1/10/2022) Congratulations to Yao, Claudia, and co-authors on our paper discussing the mechanism and effects of pore hydrophobicity on aldol condensation and esterification over Ti-BEA being accepted in ACS Catalysis!
(12/2/2021) PhDone! Yao successfully defends his thesis. Congratulations Dr. Zhang!
(11/30/2021) Congratulations to our newest PhD Candidate David for passing his preliminary exam! Great work!
(11/26/2021) Congratulations to Devinda, Abinaya, and co-authors, including our collaborators from the Paolucci group, on our paper discussing reactive forms of oxygen species on Ag surfaces under ethylene epoxidation conditions being accepted in the Journal of Catalysis!
(11/26/2021) Congratulations to Jun and co-authors on our paper discussing transition state stabilization dependencies for epoxidations in zeolites being accepted in the Journal of Catalysis!
(11/19/2021) Our recent review on the effects of solvent structure and hydrogen bonding on catalysis at solid-liquid interfaces is featured on the cover of Chemical Society Reviews!
(11/16/2021) Ching-Tien Chen joins our group from the University of Tokyo as a new post-doctoral researcher. Welcome!
(10/22/2021) Welcome to our newest group members, Suchi and Vijay!! We are looking forward to doing some exciting science together, and we are very excited to have two great people join the lab!
(10/11/2021) Congratulations to Tomas and co-authors, including our collaborators from the Karim group and Shell, on our recent paper investigating direct synthesis of H2O2 on Pt and PtAu bimetallic nanoparticles being accepted in the Journal of Catalysis!
(9/27/2021) Our review on the effect of interactions between solvent molecules and reactants at solid-liquid interfaces was published in Chemical Society Reviews. Check it out here. Congratulations to all contributors!
(9/20/2021) Check out our work on the effect of water structure in zeolites on epoxidation reactions in Nature Catalysis! Congratulations to Daniel and co-authors, including our collaborators from the Shukla group and Honeywell UOP!
(9/15/2021) Jieun, Matt, and Richa pass their Research Qualifying exams. Congratulations!
(9/3/2021) Another SWE award for Claudia!! She was recognized as an outstanding collegiate member as part of SWE’s annual awards! The award honors collegiate members who made outstanding contributions to SWE, their school, and the engineering community. Congratulations on this recognition Claudia! See the full awards list here.
(8/26/2021) Our perspective on advances in the understanding of hydrogenolysis reactions over heterogeneous catalysts was recently published in ACS Catalysis! Great work, Yangsik and Claudia!!
(8/20/2021) More fellowship news! Claudia received the 3M Corporate Fellowship from the ChBE department, congratulations! Look for an updated list of fellowship recipients for this year here.
(8/20/2021) Congratulations to Jason for receiving the A.T. Widiger Fellowship from the ChBE department at Illinois for the 2021-2022 year!
(6/1/2021) AAAS and EurekAlert! released a nice write-up about our recent work about hydrogen peroxide synthesis over palladium-gold nanoparticles, published in JACS. Check out the news release here!
(5/21/2021) Our collaborative work with the Rodríguez-López lab on the relationships between electro- and thermocatalysis for H2O2 production was accepted by JACS!! Great work by Jason and co-authors, check it out here.
(5/14/2021) David wins 1st poster prize at the CCC Spring Symposium for 2021. Congratulations!!
(5/1/2021) Melissa was selected as a Clare Boothe Luce Research Scholar for the 2021-2022 academic year. She was one of eight selected for the program this year, which supports women undergraduates who aim to pursue graduate studies in STEM. Congratulations Melissa!! Read more about the program here.
(4/30/2021) Chris and Jason were selected to the Mavis Future Faculty Fellow program for the 2021-2022 academic year! The program supports and trains graduate students who aim to become future faculty in STEM. Congratulations Chris and Jason!! Read more about the Mavis program here.
(4/20/2021) Chris passes his preliminary exam and is now officially a PhD candidate. Congratulations Chris, great work!!
(4/17/2021) Our work on the effect of bromide adsorption for H2O2 synthesis over Pd nanoparticles was accepted by Journal of Catalysis! Congratulations to Pranjali and co-authors!
(4/16/2021) Claudia received an LAS Impact Award for her efforts to maintain undergraduate training and research mentorship during the pandemic. Inspiring work, thank you and congratulations Claudia!
(4/6/2021) David was awarded a 2021 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Congratulations!! Read about it here.
(3/24/2021) Our work on the effects of active site structure for H2O2 synthesis over PdAu catalysts was accepted by JACS!! Congratulations to Tomas and co-authors, and thank you to our collaborators at Minnesota and Virginia Tech! Check it out here.
(2/15/2021) Claudia is awarded the SWE 2021 WE Local Rising Star Award! She was recognized as one of 16 collegiate SWE members who made outstanding contributions to the engineering community this past year. Congratulations on this great honor, Claudia!!
(2/9/2021) C&E News published a story on our recent work in Science. Thank you for the nice write-up – check it out here!
(2/9/2021) A great day for our lab – we had two papers accepted today! Congratulations to Danim for her work on oxidative cleavage over tungsten oxide catalysts (accepted in ACS Catalysis) and Gina, our collaborator from the Coperet group, for her work on CO2 hydrogenation over copper-based catalysts (accepted in Angewandte Chemie). Great work by all co-authors and collaborators involved – check out these papers!
(2/4/2021) Excited to announce that our work on solvent molecules co-catalyzing oxygen reduction reactions was published in Science! Awesome work by Jason and co-authors, including our great collaborators at Minnesota and Virginia Tech!
(1/6/2021) Check out our latest work in ACS Applied Polymer Materials on the effects of oxygen plasma treatments on carbon fiber composites! Excellent and exciting work by Yao and collaborators!
(12/16/2020) Our work on epoxidations over groups 4-6 metal-substituted BEA zeolites was published by ACS Catalysis! Congratulations to Zeynep and co-authors!
(11/07/2020) Announcement of our new collaborative effort to manufacture renewable chemicals and fuels. We are excited and grateful for the opportunity to take on this important challenge with our talented colleagues!
(10/19/2020) Congratulations, Dr. Pranjali!
(10/14/2020) We welcome Richa, Jieun, and Matthew to the group!
(09/01/2020) We have multiple positions for new graduate students or post-doctoral researchers to join. Please see the “Open Positions” page for more information.
(08/28/2020) Zeynep and Abinaya win poster awards at the CCC Symposium 2020. Congrats!
(08/12/2020) Our work on the Consequences of Oxidant, Alkene, and Pore Structure on Epoxidation is accepted in ACS Catal. Congrats!
(08/06/2020) Our work on Altering Silanol Density and Water Adsorption in Metal Substituted Silicalite is accepted in Chem. Mater. Good Work Team!
(08/01/2020) Dave is selected as a 2020 Young Investigator by JACS! Congrats!
(07/31/2020) Claudia was selected as 2020-21 A. T. Widiger Chemical Engineering Fellow by the ChBE department. Good News!
(07/21/2020) Our work on Non-oxidative Dehydrogenation over Phosphorus modified Ru is accepted in JPCC. Congrats!
(06/22/2020) Tomas is a recipient of SCS Graduate Student Teaching Award! Congratulations!
(05/2020) Our work on Potentiometric Titration to identify Functional Group on Carbon is accepted! Good Work!
(04/2020) Tom and Claudia pass their Preliminary Exams! Congrats!
(04/02/2020) Daniel successfully defends!. Congrats Dr. Daniel Bregante!
(04/02/2020) Chris is selected for the NSF GRFP. Congrats!
(04/01/2020) Zeynep passes her Preliminary Exam. Great Work!
(03/19/2020) Chris is awarded the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship. Congratulations!
(1/15/2020) Dave selected to the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by graduate students of ChBE 551! Congrats! Good work!
(1/15/2020) Tom and Claudia selected to the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by students of ChBE 422 and ChBE 551 respectively! Congrats!
(1/10/2020) Our work on understanding the effects of phosphorus addition to Pd for selective dehydrogenation is accepted by Catalysis Science & Technology. Good work!
(12/09/2019) Dave and Daniel file the group’s first patent on heteroatom substituted zeolites with ultra-low Al content. Great Work!
(11/18/2019) Pranjali, Daniel and Yao give talks at AICHE. Great Work!
(11/03/2019) Our work on synthesizing metal-substituted FAU for selective oxidations is accepted by Catalysis Science & Technology. Great work, all!
(10/22/2019) Pranjali presents at the Research Live final! Good Work!
(10/22/2019) David and Ohsung join our group. Welcome!
(10/21/2019) Our latest work on understanding solvent restructuring within Lewis acid zeolites is accepted by ACS Catalysis. Nice work!
(10/18/2019) Jason gives a talk at the ChBE Symposium; Zeynep and Tom give posters. Good Work!
(10/12/2019) Pranjali’s work on understanding the type of catalytically-active Pd for direct synthesis is accepted in AIChE Journal. Great work!
(09/26/2019) Megan may no longer be with us, but her spirit lives on with her latest JACS paper on identifying reaction intermediates within the “organometallic zoo.” Congrats!
(09/18/2019) Daniel is selected as an ARCS Foundation Scholar! Congrats!
(08/2019) Daniel and Dave give five (!) talks at ACS in San Diego!
(08/05/2019) Zeynep selected to the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by students for the undergraduate class ChBE 424! Congrats!
(08/03/2019) Daniel presents at the GRC on Nanoporous Materials and Their Applications. Good work!
(08/2019) Daniel is selected as one of the two graduate student presenters at the Gordon Research Conference on Nanoporous Materials and their Applications! Congrats!
(08/01/2019) Dave receives the DOE’s Early Career Research Program Award! Congrats!
(07/11/2019) Dave is promoted to the rank of Associate Professor! Congrats!
(06/2019) Pranjali, Daniel, Jason, Abinaya, Tom, Claudia, and Zeynep give talks at NAM 2019. Good work!
(05/14/2019) Daniel is awarded a Dissertation Completion Fellowship! Good Stuff!
(04/22/2019) Yao passes his preliminary exam. Congrats!
(04/16/2018) Jason wins the best poster prize at the Catalysis Club of Chicago’s Annual Symposium! Congrats!
(04/16/2018) The group goes to Chicago for the Catalysis Club of Chicago’s Annual Symposium! Pranjali, Daniel, Jason, Abinaya, Claudia, and Zeynep all give poster presentations, all were well-received!
(04/15/2019) Jason passes his preliminary exam. Congrats!
(04/2019) Dave is appointed to the ACS Catalysis Early Career Advisory Board. Congratulations!
(04/2019) Recent work on ester hydrogenation gets accepted by J. Catal. Good job!
(04/08/2019) Abinaya passes her preliminary exam. Congrats!
(04/2019) David and Danim join our group. Welcome, both of you!
(12/28/2018) The group’s latest work on solvent effects on epoxidation within zeolites is accepted by JACS! Congrats all!
(12/10/2017) Megan successfully defends her thesis and is now Dr. Witzke! Congrats!
(12/07/2018) The group goes out for our annual Toys for Tots – Price is Right competition; team Megan, Jason, and Zeynep won! We then celebrated with a holiday dinner, good work all for a successful 2018 — looking forward to an even better 2019!
(11/2018) Pranjali and Daniel give awesome presentations at the 2018 annual AIChE meeting. Good job!
(10/2018) Megan, Abinaya, and Dave give great talks at the annual American Vacuum Society (AVS) meeting. Great work!
(10/15/2018) Chris and Devinda join our group. Welcome, both of you!
(10/12/2018) Jason receives third place in the poster presentation of the ChBE Symposium. Congrats!
(10/12/2018) Pranjali gives a talk, while Jason, Yao, and Abinaya give poster presentations at the ChBE symposium, all were well-received!
(09/06/2018) Dave is awarded the Early Career Award from the American Vacuum Society Prairie Chapter. Congrats, Dave; this is well deserved!
(09/06/2018) Megan and Abinaya are awarded the Dorothy M. and Earl S. Hoffman Travel Grant to attend the AVS 65th International Symposium & Exhibition held in California this October! Congrats!
(09/04/2018) Claudia, Tom, and Zeynep all pass their Research Qualifying Exams. Good work, all!
(09/2018) Yangsik Yun joins our group from Seoul National University as a new post-doctoral researcher. Welcome!
(09/2018) Jun Zhi Tan joins our group to work on green epoxidations. Good to have you!
(08/17/2018) Daniel is awarded a Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Travel Award to attend the 2018 Annual AIChE Meeting. Congrats!
(07/11/2018) Dave and the group are featured in the latest edition of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department’s Newsletter, Mass Transfer!
(06/22/2018) Megan’s work on selective C-O bond cleavage over Ni and NixPy catalysts is accepted by ACS Catalysis! Congrats!
(06/21/2018) Daniel is awarded a School of Chemical Sciences Graduate Teaching Award! Great work!
(06/08/2018) Daniel, Ami, and Alayna’s work on catalytic thiophene oxidation was accepted by the Journal of Catalysis. Good work, team!
(05/30/2018) We welcome Chris Torres through the Summer Predoctoral Instutite and Rebecca and Gayatri through the Summer Research Opportunities Programs! All will be spending their summer with the Flaherty group working on clean oxidations or the direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide. Welcome!
(05/11/2018) The group goes to Chicago for the Catalysis Club of Chicago’s Annual Symposium! Megan, Pranjali, Jason, Abinaya, Yao, Zeynep, and Arian all give poster presentations, while Daniel gives a talk, all were well-received!
(03/30/2018) Alayna wins a prestigious Goldwater scholarship. Congratulations, Alayna! This is well deserved! Links to news stories in UIUC News Bureau, Chemistry, and ChBE.
(03/2018) Ami is awarded the R.J. Van Mynen Chemical Engineering Scholarship! Well done!
(03/2018) Gayatri and Rebecca join our group to work on Direct Synthesis and Green Oxidations, respectively. Welcome!
(03/05/2018) Our work on selective epoxidations was chosen as a cover article for ACS Catalysis. Congrats!
(02/27/2018) Neil’s and Hongbo’s papers on Direct Synthesis and Ethanol Upgrading at Accepted into ACS Catalysis and Journal of Catalysis, respectively! Congrats! Great day for the Flaherty group!
(02/15/2018) Daniel’s collaborative work with the Notestein group at NU on the consequences of confinement for alkene epoxidation is accepted into ACS Catalysis. Congrats!
(02/12/2018) Dave receives the College of Engineering Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research! Great work!
(02/03/2018) Daniel wins the 2018 Graduate Student Award in Environmental Chemistry from the American Chemical Society!
(01/06/2018) Dave is named to the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students for teaching the undergraduate class ChBE 422, Mass Transfer Operations.
(01/06/2018) Daniel is named to the List of Teachers Ranked as Outstanding (top 10% of instructors) by Their Students for TA’ing the undergraduate class ChBE 422, Mass Transfer Operations.
(01/2018) Taka wins the Society of Chemical Engineers, Japan (SCEJ) Outstanding Young Researcher Award for his work on “Ethanol upgrading via cascade C-C bond formation reactions!” Congrats, Taka; this is well-deserved! Link to news story.
(12/09/2017) The group went out to donate to Toys for Tots and, of course, made it a competition where Megan, Pranjali, Zeynep, and Hongbo won “Price is right”. We then celebrated with a Holiday Dinner!
(12/04/2017) Neil successfully depends his thesis and is now Dr. Wilson! Congrats! We wish you the best of luck at LAM research!
(11/17/2017) The group celebrates Andy’s successful defense with food and by casually saving the world – from both evil AI and doomsday devices!
(11/10/2017) Andy successfully defends his thesis and becomes the first Ph.D. graduate from our group! Well done, Dr. Chang! Good luck on your future endeavors!
Congrats Andy!
(11/2017) Andy wins the “Best Young Scientist Presentation at AVS 64 in Tampa Bay, FL. Well done!
(11/2017) Megan, Pranjali, Daniel, and Dave give well-received presentations at 2017 AIChE in Minneapolis, MN! Good work, all.
(10/16/2017) Claudia, Zeynep, and Tomas join our group! Welcome!
(10/2017) Alayna wins best oral presentation at the Eastern Central Illinois American Chemical Society (ECI-ACS) Undergraduate Conference! Well done!
(10/2017) Dave gives well-received seminars at Georgia Tech and Rice University to showcase our group’s latest research!
(9/2017) All three now-second years (Abinaya, Jason, and Yao) pass their Oral Qualifying Exams! Good job, all!
(7/2017) A publication by Andy and Vivek on the mechanism for C-C and C-O bond cleavage in Acetic Acid over Ru and P-doped Ru is accepted by J. Catal. Great job!
(7/05/2017) Andy and Vivek’s work on the effects of phosphorous on C-H, C-C, and C-O bond cleavage is published by the J. Vac. Sci. Tech. Good work!
(6/04/2017) Dave, Megan, and Daniel give well-received talks at the 25th Meetings of the North American Catalysis Society in Denver, CO!
(6/2017) Our work on epoxidations with hydrogen peroxide is highlighted by Illinois News Bureau, Phys.org, EurekAlert! (AAAS), ChemEurope, etc.!
(4/28/2017) Daniel’s paper on the mechanism, reactive intermediates, and reactivity descriptors for epoxidations with hydrogen peroxide in metal substituted *BEA is accepted by J. Am. Chem. Soc.!
(4/15/2017) Daniel is selected as a Mavis Future Faculty Fellow by the College of Engineering. Congrats.
(4/2017) Dave, Megan, and Daniel all present the group’s latest work on H2O2 DS, HDO, and Epoxidation at the 253rd ACS Meeting in San Francisco, CA!
(3/24/2017) Megan was selected by the College of Engineering an FMC Technologies Fellow for 2017-2018. Well done!
(3/17/2017) Jason is named as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow. Congrats, Jason!
(3/16/2017) A publication by Taka, Andrew, and Daniel on the mechanisms for forming aromatic products from acetaldehyde and 2-butenal reactants is accepted by ChemCatChem. Nice work!
(3/10/2017) Congrats, Daniel. His paper describing the mechanism and active intermediates for cyclohexene epoxidation with H2O2 on Nb substituted BEA zeolite is published in the Journal of Catalysis.
(03/07/2017) Dave presented the groups work on catalytic oxidations and oxidants at his alma mater, the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.
(2/9/2017) Daniel is a recipient of a Richard A. Kokes Travel Award to support his attendance at the 25th North American Catalysis Society meeting in Denver this June.
(2/9/2017) Megan and Daniel are both awarded Hanratty Travel Awards from the ChBE department to attend the ACS National Meeting in San Francisco this April.
(2/6/2017) Megan receives a travel award from the CATL division of ACS to attend the spring meeting in San Francisco. Congrats, Megan.
(1/28/2017) Abinaya, Yao, and Jason all pass their quantitative qualifying exams. Congratulations!
(12/2016) Nice work, Megan! Her structure function investigation of Cu catalysts for dehydrogeation reactions was published in Chemical Communications.
(12/01/2016) Dave presented the groups work on direct synthesis and epoxidations in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Northwestern University.
(11/15/2016) Andy, Neil, and Dave discuss the group’s work at the AIChE Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
(11/08/2016) Dave gave a talk in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan.
(11/01/2016) Dave gave a seminar at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at The Ohio State University.
(10/2016) Daniel wins first place in the department’s annual Graduate Student Research Symposium for his oral presentation. Great job Daniel
(10/2016) Abinaya, Yao, and Jason join our group! Welcome all!
(10/11/2016) Andy’s paper describing how phosphourous influences the mechanism of formic acid conversion and barriers for C-H and C-O bond activation is accepted by The Journal of Physical Chemistry C. Well done, Andy!
(9/29/2016) Taka’s paper on acetaldehyde oligomerization and cyclization reactions was accepted by ACS Catalysis. Congrats, Taka!
(9/27/2016) Taka “graduates” and returns to Japan where he will start his group working in the areas of materials synthesis and catalysis at the University of Tokyo. Good luck, Taka!
(9/15/2016) Dave gave seminars at ExxonMobil Chemicals and the University of Houston, Department of Chemical Engineering.
(8/23/2016) Dave gave two invited presentations in the Energy and Fuels division at the Fall ACS Meeting in Philly.
(8/19/2016) Andy submitted his paper on the effects of phosphorous on C-O and C-H rupture on Ru to JPCC.
(8/10/2016) Daniel and Pranjali submit their work on epoxidations on Nb-BEA to ACS Catalysis.
(8/9/2016) Megan is named to the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent By Their Students for her work as a TA in ChBE 422, Mass Transfer Operations.
(7/15/2016) Neil, Daniel, and Pranjali submitted a review chapter on the production and use of H2O2 for atom-efficient oxidations to the RSC series Catalysis.
(7/6/2016) Dave gave a presentation at the International Congress on Catalysis in Beijing on the direct synthesis of H2O2 on Pd and AuPd nanoclusters.
(6/9/2016) Our review written in collaboration with Lipeng Wu, Amit A. Gokhale, and Dean Toste is now available online in the new journal Chem by Cell Press.
(6/9/2016) Taka’s paper was selected as an “ACS Editor’s Choice“!
(6/1/2016) Aaliya, Katherine, and Vivek join the group. Welcome y’all.
(5/4/2016) Taka’s paper “Mechanistic Insight to C-C Bond Formation and Predictive Models for Cascade Reactions among Alcohols on Ca- and Sr-Hydroxyapatites” was accepted by ACS Catalysis! Nice job, Taka!
(4/21/2016) Andy passed his preliminary examination this afternoon. Congrats, Andy!
(4/18/2016) Megan has successfully completed her preliminary examination. Nicely done, Megan!
(4/1/2016) Daniel Bregante receives a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship. He is one of only 200 people nationwide to honored with this award in 2016. Congratulations Daniel!
(3/22/2016) The Dow Chemical Company invites Dave for a site visit and a presentation with the Inorganic Materials and Heterogeneous Catalysis group in Midland, Michigan.
(3/21/2016) Dave gives an invited talk at the monthly meeting of the Michigan Catalysis Society.
(3/18/2016) Our work on the mechanism for the direct synthesis of H2O2 is highlighted by the Materials Research Society.
(3/15/2016) Neil and Megan present their work at ACS in San Diego. Dave gives two invited presentations in the CATL division.
(3/1/2016) Neil and Megan have been selected by the Catalysis, Science, and Technology Division of ACS to receive travel awards to attend the 251st ACS National Meeting in San Diego. Congrats!
(2/17/2016) Dave recently earned an NSF CAREER Award for our group’s work on the direct synthesis of H2O2. Nicely done!
(1/22/2016) Our recent paper on the direct synthesis of H2O2 is featured on the cover of J. Am. Chem. Soc., selected as an ACS Editors’ Choice, and highlighted by the College of Engineering at Illinois, EurekAlert! (AAAS), Phys.org, , ChemEurope, etc (as well as C & E News earlier).
(12/30/2015) Work describing the effects of branching on alkane hydrogenolysis rates is now published in ACS Catalysis.
(12/7/2015) Our recent paper on the direct synthesis of H2O2 is highlighted in the December 7th issue of Chemical and Engineering News.
(11/27/2015) Neil’s paper “Mechanism for the Direct Synthesis of H2O2 on Pd Clusters: Heterolytic Reaction Pathways at the Liquid-Solid Interface” was accepted by J. Am. Chem. Soc.
(11/20/2015) Our group visited a local Escape Room adventrure and “saved the world” in record time on Friday night and then went out to celebrate.
(11/13/2015) Neil, Megan, Taka, and Dave all traveled to the 2015 Annual AIChE Conference in Salt Lake City, where our group gave four presentations on our most recent research results.
(10/23/2015) Andy, Neil, and Megan were all selected to participate in the annual ChBE Graduate Research Symposium and gave great presentations. Neil placed third in the oral presentation competition, and Andy placed second in the poster competition. Congratulations!
(10/12/2015) Daniel Bregante (UC-Berkeley) joins the group. Welcome to the group, Daniel!
(10/12/2015) Dave and Neil submit the group’s first paper on the direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide to J. Am. Chem. Soc.
(10/06/2015) Dave receives one of the 2015 School of Chemical Sciences Teaching Awards
(9/18/2015) Megan and Neil receive Hanratty Travel Awards to present their work at the annual AIChE Meeting in Salt Lake City.
(9/15/2015) Neil passed his preliminary exam (in July) and Pranjali passed her qual. Congratulations to both of you.
(05/26/2015) Dave is named to the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent By Their Students for teaching the undergraduate class ChBE 422, Mass Transfer Operations.
(5/17/2015) Graduation! Rong, Christine, Han, Aileen and Rogan all receive their B.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Congratulations, we know you will all do great as you move on to your jobs and graduate schools.
(5/14/2015) The group presents at the annual Spring Symposium of the Catalysis Club of Chicago. Dave gave an invited talk on the direct synthesis of H2O2
(4/17/2015) Megan is named as a Mavis Future Faculty Fellow by the College of Engineering. Congratulations Meg!
(02/22/2015) Dave is included on the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent By Their Students for teaching the graduate class ChBE 551, Chemical Kinetics and Catalysis.
(01/11/2015) Recent paper now in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C describes reaction mechanisms for ring opening cyclic hydrocarbons to form diesel fuels.
(1/07/2014) BELATED UPDATE. Pranjali Priyadarshini joins our group. Welcome Pranjali!
(08/20/2014) Andy and Dave are named to the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent By Their Students for their work in ChBE 422, Mass Transfer Operations.
(08/03/2014) Neil and Malek are awarded Dow Chemical Company Graduate Fellowships in recognition of their research accomplishments in our group. Congratulations!
(07/15/2014) Another JACS article explores the effects of alloying Pd & Au on the selectivity for decomposing HCOOH
(07/02/2014) New JACS publication explains why substitution of reactants changes rates for breaking C-C bonds at metal surfaces
(02/01/2014) New Journal of Catalysis publication identifies intermediates and driving forces for hydrogenolysis
(12/04/2013) New JACS publication explains selectivity and rates of hydrogenolysis reactions
(10/11/2013) Megan Witzke (Case Western) and Malek Ibrahim (formerly of UOP and Cairo University) join our group. Welcome to the team, Megan and Malek!