Lab Members

 

CURRENT POSTDOC RESEARCHERS

 

Dr. Daniel Lachos Perez  

Current project: Hydrothermal liquefaction of mixed plastic waste in the presence of supercritical water and superheated steam.

PhD, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil

MS, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil

BS, Universidad Nacional Pedro Ruíz Gallo, Peru

ACS Bridge Fellow

Dr. Antara Sharma

Current projects: Durable flame retardant and textile finishes for nylon-cotton polymer blend (co-advised with Prof. Ram Nagarajan).

PhD, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany

MS, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany

BS, University of Delhi, India

Current PhD Students

Pongkhun Prommart  

Current projects: Identification and design of more sustainable meal-ready-to-eat food packaging.

PhD Candidate in Plastics Engineering

BS Chemical Engineering, University of Cincinnati

Kalsoom Jan

Current project: Deconstruction of post-consumer packaging waste using safer solvents and supercritical water. 

PhD Candidate in Polymer Chemistry

MS Plastics Engineering, UMass Lowell

MS Computational Chemistry, National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Pakistan

Kerry Candlen  

Current project: Investigating weathering and biodegradation behavior of plastic packaging materials in the environment for guiding the design of more sustainable packaging 

PhD Candidate in Plastics Engineering

MS Plastics Engineering, UMass Lowell

BS Plastics Engineering, UMass Lowell

ORISE Fellow

Evan M. Yu 

Current project: 1) Removing colorants from e-waste plastics using safer solvents, and 2) In-situ observing hydrothermal liquefaction of plastic waste in sub-/super-critical water. 

PhD Candidate in Plastics Engineering

MS Material Science & Engineering, Nanyang Technological University Singapore, Singapore

BS Plastics Engineering, UMass Lowell

CURRENT UNDERGRAD STUDENTS

Olivia Hosterman, Class 2025

Current project: 1) Interfacial interactions between biofilm and plastics in marine and estuarine environment, 2) Setting up hydrothermal diamond anvil cell for in-situ hydrothermal liquefaction of polyolefin waste

BS Plastics Engineering, UMass Lowell

Caralyn Conrad, Class 2025

Current project: 1) Characterize the degradability of biodegradable mulch film made of soy waste biomass and PBAT/PLA blends, 2) Investigate the plant adaptability of  biodegradable mulch film made of soy waste biomass and PBAT/PLA blends (co-advised with Prof. Yanfen Li).

BS Mechanical Engineering, UMass Lowell

 

Andrew Halloran, Class 2025

Current project: Hydrothermal liquefaction of polyethylene-based waste plastic mixtures in supercritical water.

BS Chemistry, UMass Lowell

Logan Lavallee, Class 2026

Current project: Formulating pumpable feedstocks made of plastics and biomass to enable continuous hydrothermal liquefaction

BS Mechanical Engineering, UMass Lowell