Principal Investigator

headshot of adam holewinski

Adam Holewinski

Principal Investigator
Adam joined CU in fall 2015 as Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is also a Fellow of the CU-NREL Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI), as well as an affiliated faculty member of the CU Materials Science Engineering Program. He obtained a Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Georgia Tech. His research interests lie in heterogeneous catalysis and electrochemistry for sustainable production of energy and chemicals, with emphasis in characterization through kinetics, spectroscopy, and computational modeling.
adam.holewinski@colorado.edu

Post-Doctoral Researchers

headshot of Haoran Ding

Haoran Ding

Haoran鈥檚 research focuses on in-situ investigation of surface composition of Cu and Cu-M alloy electrodes in electrochemical CO2 reduction using Low Energy Ion Scattering (LEIS).
haoran.ding@colorado.edu
headshot of rupali mittal

Rupali Mittal

Rupali's research centers on electrocatalytic oxidative dehydrogenation for dual-electrode hydrogen evolution and the electro-oxidative valorization of biomass. Additionally, she explores reaction kinetics through rotating disk electrode techniques.
rupali.mittal@colorado.edu

Graduate Students

headshot of Varun Awasthi

Varun Awasthi

2nd Year PhD Student • Co-advised with Charles Musgrave
Varun's research is focused on experimental and theoretical characterization of the effect of cathodic corrosion on the mechanism of reduction of biomass-derived compounds like levulinic acid, and the electrochemical reduction of carboxylic acids in strongly acidic, non-aqueous media.
varun.awasthi@colorado.edu
emma hollis headshot

Emma Hollis

2nd Year PhD Student
Emma's research is focused on the effects of supports for Pt catalyst selection used to tune selectivites during oxidation of biomass-derived compounds like furfural. She also works on materials characterization including the surface of catalyst through techniques such as X-Ray Adsorption spectroscopy and Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy.
emma.hollis@colorado.edu
headshot of marc manye

Marc Manye Ibanez

3rd Year PhD Student • Co-advised with Will Medlin
Marc's research is focused on efficient, renewable, and environmentally benign catalytic processes for the production of energy, as well as commodity and fine chemicals with a special interest in electrochemical routes. He is currently researching the various potential regimes of the electro-oxidation of biomass-derived furanic compounds.
marc.manye@colorado.edu
headshot of Jonathan Paul

Jonathan Paul

2nd Year PhD Student
Jonathan Paul's research is focused on understanding the corrosion-mediated reduction of biomass-derived molecules via homogeneous electrocatalysis. He also studies deposition techniques, such as metal and gas UPD, in hopes of developing ECSA characterization methods for multi-metallic nanoparticle catalysts.
jonathan.paul-1@colorado.edu
headshot of Nathanael Ramos

Nathanael Ramos

5th Year PhD Student • Co-advised with Will Medlin
Nathanael's research investigates the reaction kinetics and selectivity of aldehyde electrooxidation to anodic hydrogen and carboxylates in alkaline media using rotating disk electrode. He also is investigating the influence of surface pretreatment on the surface composition of electrocatalysts using low energy ion scattering (LEIS).
nathanael.ramos@colorado.edu
headshot of Todd Whittaker

Todd Whittaker

5th Year PhD Student • Co-advised with Charles Musgrave
Todd's research goal is to use experimental reaction kinetics and self-consistent constant potential quantum chemical simulations to identify reaction mechanisms and design next generation electrocatalytic materials.
todd.whittaker-1@colorado.edu
headshot of Yiqi Xu

Yiqi Xu

4th Year PhD Student • Co-advised with Will Medlin
Yiqi鈥檚 research focuses on one-pot upcycling of plastic and kinetic studies of lignin depolymerization. He is also interested in selective hydrogenation reactions.
yiqi.xu@colorado.edu

Alumni

Post Doctoral Researchers听

  • Dr. Yaran Zhao, PhD Physical Chemistry, Nankai University, 2019
  • Dr. Zachary Barton, PhD Chemistry U. Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2019
  • Dr. F. Willian S. Lucas, PhD Physical Chemistry, Federal University of Sao Carlos, 2016

Graduate Students

  • Taylor Spivey: PhD in Chemical Engineering, 2024
  • Faysal Khulaifi: PhD in Chemical Engineering, 2024听
  • Joseph Hasse: PhD in Chemical Engineering, 2023
  • Adam Baz: PhD in Chemical Engineering, 2022
  • Alexander Delluva: PhD in Chemical Engineering, 2021
  • Jessica Dudoff: Masters of Materials Science & Engineering, 2020
  • Grey Garrett: Masters of Materials Science & Engineering, 2019
  • Alex Roman: PhD in Chemical Engineering, 2018
  • Cody Barnhill: Masters of Chemical Engineering, 2016

Undergraduate Students听

Student Researchers

  • Isabella Hughes
  • Joe Sullivan
  • Hudson Neyer
  • Sarah Burns
  • Roy Madrid
  • George Curtis
  • Jonas-Kulberg Savercool
  • Lindsey Hamblin
  • Matthew Zhang
  • Hussain Almajed
  • Nicholas Kurtyka
  • Nina Hooper
  • Robert Benke

Visiting Researchers听

  • Sonja Murtz
  • Jordan Finzel听
  • Sam Kaczaral
  • Griffin Drake
  • Mason Lyons
  • Kasie Coogan

听