Postdoctoral research.  Dept. of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2015).

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Ph.D. Applied Physical Chemistry.  Universidad Autónoma de Madrid & ICP-CSIC, Spain (2011).

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B.S. Chemical Engineering.  Universidad de Málaga, Spain (2007).

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Dr. Ana C. Alba-Rubio is an associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Clemson University. She received her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Málaga, Spain in 2007. She then moved to the Institute of Catalysis and Petrochemistry (CSIC) in Madrid, Spain to pursue her doctoral studies under the supervision of Dr. Manuel López Granados. Her Ph.D. focused on base and acid catalysis for biodiesel production from vegetable oils. As a doctoral student, she enjoyed two short research stays in Brazil and the Netherlands. After receiving her Ph.D., Dr. Alba-Rubio joined the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to conduct postdoctoral research with Prof. James Dumesic and Prof. Manos Mavrikakis. She focused on the controlled synthesis of metal, bimetallic and bifunctional catalysts for reactions of interest in biomass conversion and the direct synthesis of H2O2 from H2 and O2. In 2015, she joined the faculty at the University of Toledo, and in 2021, she moved to Clemson University as an associate professor. Her current research interests involve the rational design and synthesis of heterogeneous catalysts to provide fuels and materials sustainably and the development of nanomaterials for sensing applications. She currently serves as a director of the AIChE Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division (CRE). In her spare time, you can find her listening to music, dancing, crafting, reading, or playing with her three dogs and three cats.

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• 2021 - Nanoscale 2021 Emerging Investigators. ​

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• 2020 - I&EC Research 2020 Class of Influential Researchers.

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• 2019 - UToledo College of Engineering Excellence in Supervision of Undergraduate Research Award.

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• 2019 - NSF CAREER Award for "Dual Function Materials for Capture and Conversion of CO2 into Methanol and Higher Alcohols."

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• 2018 - UToledo President's Award for Outstanding Contributions in Scholarship and Creative Activity.

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• 2018 - Carl Storm Underrepresented Minority (CSURM) Fellowship to attend the first Gordon Conference. 

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• 2010 - Scholarship from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) to a research stay in the Dept. of Chemical Engineering at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. 

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• 2009 - Scholarship from the Federal University of Ceará to do a research stay in the Dept. of Chemical Engineering. Fortaleza, Brazil.

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• 2006 - Undergraduate Research Scholarship from the Spanish Government to conduct research in the Dept. of Inorganic Chemistry, Crystallography, and Mineralogy at the University of Málaga, Spain.

Ibeh was born in Nigeria, and his interest in chemical engineering started when he was a high school student. After graduating as the best student in his school, he started his undergraduate studies at the prestigious University of Lagos. During his fourth year, he conducted a six-month mandatory internship at the fluid catalytic cracking unit of the Warri Refining and Petroleum Company, Nigeria. He graduated with first-class honors, and his final year project focused on experimental studies on a spray dryer. His love for the energy industry made him decide to pursue a master's degree at the Institute of Petroleum Studies at Portharcourt, Nigeria. There, Ibeh was exposed to the latest petroleum engineering drilling technique and reservoir modeling. He graduated with distinctions, and his project focused on modeling and simulation of a propane pre-cooled mixed exchanger for energy efficiency. Currently, Ibeh is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toledo. Ibeh is in his fifth year, and he has received numerous awards and recognitions, such as the UToledo College of Engineering research mentor award, Kokes award, best poster presentation award at the 4th UT-WSU Chemical Engineering Graduate Research Symposium, and an NSBE BCA/ Major/ Fellows Scholarship. Ibeh is currently developing dual-function materials for CO2 capture and conversion. He is married to Tolulope Omodolor, and they have a lovely daughter whose name is Isabelle.

Sai Teja Nekkanti

Ph.D. student

Sai Teja was born in India. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Sri Venkateswara University, India in 2020. As a part of his undergraduate curriculum, he pursued two industrial internships in his second and third years. His first internship was with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), Visakhapatnam where he studied a working diesel hydrotreating unit to produce ultra-low sulfur diesel. Then, he performed a whole plant mass balance in the production of diamino stilbene disulfonic acid during his second internship at Deepak Nitrite Ltd. After graduating, he started his research journey as a technical assistant under the supervision of Dr. Sunil Kumar Thamida at the Indian Institute of Technology, Tirupati. His work primarily focused on improving the simultaneous saccharification and fermentation reactions to produce bioethanol. He was involved in the commissioning of a pilot plant and lignocellulosic pretreatment studies. He went on to work at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras under the supervision of Dr. Preeti Aghalayam and Dr. Jithin John Varghese on a project for on-board NOx utilization in automobiles exhaust. He was responsible for the design and fabrication of the oxidation reactor followed by conducting experiments on the utilization of exhaust gases. Currently, Sai Teja is a first-year Ph.D. student in the Dept. of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Clemson University. Under the supervision of Dr. Ana C. Alba-Rubio, he is working on carbon capture and utilization technologies.