Principal Investigator

Dr. Bezawit Getachew

Dr. Getachew is an Assistant Professor in Environmental Engineering at Rice University. She completed her Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Chemical and Environmental Engineering at Yale University, where she worked on making the first self-healing water filtration membranes. She also holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering (ABET) from Yale. Prior to joining Rice University, Dr. Getachew spent two years as a Postdoctoral Associate at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Getachew was born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia before coming to the US to pursue her undergraduate education.

Soobin Cho (4th year, PhD)

Soobin earned her BS and MS in Environmental Engineering from Pusan National University in Busan, South Korea. Her Masters thesis focused on Electrochemical degradation of ibuprofen using an activated-carbon-based continuous flow three-dimensional electrode reactor. She worked as an Associate research Engineer at the Institute for Research and Industry Cooperation at Pusan National University prior to starting her Ph.D. at Rice University. For her graduate work, she is studying conductive membranes on which patterned electrodes are scribed to develop practical low-fouling membrane processes. During her spare time, Soobin enjoys indoor cycling, going jogging, listening to music.

Daewon Kim (4th year, PhD)

Co-advised with Dr. Yimo Han

Daewon earned his MS in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering from Louisiana State University (advised by Dr. Sunggook Park) where he worked on polymer nanofluidic biosensors using Nanoimprint lithography(NIL) for DNA detection via nanoscale structures. Prior to joining LSU, he earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Sunmoon University in South Korea. He currently works on in-situ visualization of extrinsic self-healing polymers using electron microscopy techniques, and also on ion-exchange membrane with atomic layer deposition(ALD) coatings to improve the selectivity of the membranes. In his free time, Daewon enjoys playing soccer and doing cross-fit.

Sarah Glass (3rd year, PhD)

Co-advised with Dr. Pedro Alvarez

Sarah earned her BS in Chemical Engineering from Louisiana State University. While at LSU, her research focused on photocatalytic generation of hydrogen peroxide for water disinfection using visible light. She also interned at Athlon, an industrial water treatment company. For her graduate work, she is working on electrocatalytic degradation of PFAs. In her free time, Sarah enjoys exploring Houston, running, and painting.

Audrey (Jiaman) Wang (1st year, PhD)

Jiaman earned her MS in Chemical Engineering from Brown University, where she worked with Dr. Robert Hurt on crumpled graphene-oxide-based nanosheet films, focusing on their reversible stretchability and water repellency. Prior to that, she earned her BS in Environmental Engineering from Beijing Jiaotong University, conducting research with Dr. Weiwei Cai on the impact of extracellular DNA (exDNA) on biofilm formation using microbial electrolysis cells. Her current research explores the fabrication and characterization of membranes modified using vapor phase infiltration of metal organic precursors to understand the transport properties of organic-inorganic hybrid membranes. In her free time, she enjoys climbing, hiking, and exploring new experiences.

Alumni

Eliana Cadena Semanate (MS Thesis, Aug 2022 – May 2024, now an Environmental Engineer at GSI Environmental)

Georgia Nelson (MS Thesis, Aug 2022 – Dec 2023)

Durnian Parulski-Seager (MS Thesis, Aug 2020 – Dec 2023, now a graduate student at UTEP)

Amanda Suarez (MS Research, Summer 2022 – Spring 2023, now a Material Engineer at Gencores)

Ruth Hailemariam (Visiting PhD Student, Spring 2022, now at Harris Country Engineering Department)

Dr. Jayan Karunarathna (Postdoc, Jan 2020-Jan 2021, now a Process Engineer at Intel)

Vanessa Mendoza (Undergraduate Researcher, Summer 2021)

Karla Chapa (Undergraduate Researcher, Summer 2021)