Deskins Research Group » Recent Activity

2024

Our paper examining the effect of electric fields on the ethanol oxidation reaction is published in PCCP. 10/24
Finished teaching CHE 515: Research Analysis and Design. 10/24
Finished teaching CHE 2011: Chemical Engineering Fundamentals. 10/24
Organized the first of the New Faculty Seminar series for the year on the topic of “Teaching Portfolios”. 10/24
Organized WPI’s New Faculty Orientation. 8/24
Finished teaching CHE 554: Molecular Modeling. 8/24
Published an article on niobium-based MXenes. 6/24
The WPI Journal publishes an article on several WPI researchers (including myself) in the area of clean energy. 5/24
Concluded organizing our graduate students seminar series in the department. 5/24
Finished advising an MQP (senior thesis) with Nate Demers entitled “Modeling Interactions Between Carbon Dioxide and Amino Acids”. 4/24
Finished advising an MQP (senior thesis) with Ben Traverso entitled “Mo-based Double Transition Metal MXenes: A DFT Analysis”. 4/24
Inside Higher Ed publishes an article on my work with introversion. 4/24
A course I teach on introversion is highlighted in WPI Today. 3/24
Finished organizing the last New Faculty Seminar of the year on faculty governance and service. 3/24
Our recent paper is highlighted in WPI news. 1/24
My h-index jumps to 36. 1/24

2023

Published a paper with Xiaowei Teng on urea oxidation in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. We also get a cover. 12/23

The third group of students completed their work in Prague for the Prague Project Center. The center is moving forward! 12/23
Finished teaching WPE 207X: Succeeding as an Introvert with Kris Boudreau. We had over 40 students this year! 12/23
Finished teaching a new course (for me) CHE 1011: Introduction to Chemical Engineering. 12/23
Gave invited talk at the New England High Performance Computing Day 2023 held at UMass Dartmouth. Loved the campus there. Lots of beautiful trees! 11/23
Gave guest lecture on “Overcoming Obstacles” to our graduate student seminar. 10/23
Organized the first of the New Faculty Seminar series for the year on the topic of “Stress Management”. 10/23
Finished teaching CHE 554: Molecular Modeling. 10/23
Another year organizing WPI’s New Faculty Orientation. 8/23
Advised Benjamin Traverso this summer as part of WPI’s REU program on clean energy and sustainable materials. 8/23
Finished teaching CHE 515: Research Analysis and Design during the summer term. 6/23
The 28th North American Catalysis Society Meeting (NAM28) took place in Providence, Rhode Island. I worked with Julia Valla at UConn to manage the Kokes Awards (graduate student travel awards). 6/23
Finished up appointment on the departmental tenure committee. 6/23
Finished advising an MQP (senior thesis) with Naomasa Tanaka on “Modeling Carbon Nitride Materials”. 5/23
Attended last meeting and completed appointment on the WPI Board of Trustees Student Affairs Committee. 5/23
Served on Julia Martin’s and Cam Armstrong’s PhD Committees. Congrats to both Julia and Cam for completing their PhDs! 4/23
Gave a talk at Stony Brook University in the department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering. 3/23
Published a paper with several colleagues analyzing the structure of cobalt-carbon nitride catalysts. 2/23
Organized Winter New England Catalysis Society meeting at WPI. 1/23

2022

The second group of students completed their work in Prague for the Prague Project Center. 12/22
Finished teaching PE 207X: Succeeding as an Introvert. 12/22
I received a collaborative appointment with the Department of Physics at WPI. 11/22
Completed “Recognizing and Responding to Student Distress” training. 11/22
Attended the Values-Based Academic Leadership Institute at MIT, a workshop hosted by Success 4 Higher Education. 10/22
Finished teaching CHE 2011: Chemical Engineering Fundamentals. 10/22
Finished teaching CHE 515: Research Analysis and Design (RAD). 10/22
Finished advising an IQP with Sarah Abatiello and Eric Murdza on “Improving the First Year College Experience for Introverts”. co-advised with Kris Boudreau. 9/22
Successfully organized this year’s New Faculty Orientation as part of my responsibilities with the Morgan Teaching and Learning Center. 8/22
Advised Naomasa Tanaka this summer as part of WPI’s REU program on clean energy and sustainable materials. 8/22
Finished teaching my molecular modeling course, CHE 554. 7/22
A chapter in the Springer Handbook of Inorganic Photochemistry, “Charge Carrier Management in Semiconductors: Modeling Charge Transport and Recombination”, is published. COVID put a halt to its publication, and it’s good see it finally published. 7/22
Started serving as Associate Head of my department. 6/22
Published a paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society with Xiaowei Teng on using iron hydroxides as a battery electrode. The paper was also accepted with a supplementary cover. 6/22

Published a paper in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C examining the structure of Co-C₃N₄ catalysts with Gonghu Li. 5/22
Became the Associate Director for New Faculty Programs at the Morgan Teaching and Learning Center at WPI. 5/22
Finished advising an MQP (senior thesis) with Hunter Wieckowski, Julia Bryant, and Ashli Silvera on “Discovering Solar Materials Through Materials Modeling”. 5/22
Finished advising an MQP (senior thesis) with Achilles Gatsonis on “Investigation of Heavy Metal Adsorption to Hydrothermal Char”. co-advised with Mike Timko. 5/22
The Board of Trustees approves my promotion to full Professor, effective July 2022. 3/22
WPI held its annual Graduate Research Innovation Exchange, our poster competition/showcase for graduate students. I was a lead judge for the “Chemical Engineering & Materials Science” section. 2/22
Helped hosted the winter New England Catalysis Society meeting (thanks to Andrew Teixeira for organizing over gather.town). This year I’m serving as chair of the society. 2/22

2021

The first batch of students finished up their projects in Prague for the Prague Project Center. So glad they could make it to Prague this last year. 12/21
Finished teaching ID 207X: Succeeding as an Introvert, a new course I co-developed with Kris Boudreau. Excited to see where this goes in the future! 12/21
Became faculty appointee to the WPI Board of Trustees Student Affairs Committee. 10/21
Finished teaching CHE 515: Research Analysis and Design. 10/21
Finished teaching our first sophomore-series course CHE 2011: Chemical Engineering Fundamentals. 10/21
Two new graduate students have joined the group. Emily Sutherland joined early this summer and Qian Qian joined this August. 8/21
It was great to have Jolina and William both here this summer as undergraduate researchers from WPI’s REU programs on clean energy and sustainable materials. 8/21
Along with Gonghu Li (University of New Hampshire) and Anatoly Frenkel (Stony Brook University), received funding from NSF to study single-atom catalysts supported on 2D carbon nitride for CO₂ reduction. 8/21
Finished teaching an advanced statistics course at the Natick army laboratory. 7/21
Finished teaching my molecular modeling course, CHE 554. 7/21
Our paper examining solvation effects in ethanol oxidation is published in PCCP. 7/21
Congratulations to Yuhan, who defended her PhD dissertation! 6/21
Finished teaching a basic statistics course at the Natick army laboratory. 6/21
Started serving as chair of the New England Catalysis Society. 5/21
Hosted a virtual meeting of the New England Catalysis Society (NECS). 5/21
Finished advising an MQP (senior thesis) for Ariana Ly, Vicky Luu, and Jacob Hazerjian on “Solar-Grade Silicon: Techno-economic Assessment, COMSOL Modeling, and Electrolysis”. co-advised with Adam Powell. 5/21
I started serving on my department’s tenure committee and my department’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee. 5/21
Our website, modelingpolarons.org, is up and ready with an introduction to DFT modeling of polarons. 4/21
Gave a guest lecture on analyzing data and designing experiments for WPI’s Responsible Conduct of Research course. 2/21
Our paper, “Cellobiose as a Model Carbohydrate for Predicting Solubilities in Nonaqueous Solvents” is published in Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research with Mike Timko. 2/21

2020

The inaugural group of students working with the Prague Project Center finishes their IQPs. Check out the great website some students created! 12/20
Gave a talk at Clark University. 12/20
Published a paper with Nan Yi at the University of New Hampshire on N-doped TiO₂. 12/20
Gave a talk (through Zoom) at the New Mexico State University Chemical & Materials Engineering department. 11/20
Published a paper in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters with colleagues at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory on the fate of adsorbed hydrogen at TiO2 surfaces. 10/20
Published a paper with Tao Yan, a recent PhD graduate at WPI, and Pratap Rao on the nature of edges for SnS₂ in Physical Review B. 10/20
Finished teaching CHE 2011: Chemical Engineering Fundamentals. 10/20
Finished teaching CHE 515: Research Analysis and Design (RAD). 10/20
We publish a paper with Mike Timko on analyzing hydrochar structure using Raman spectroscopy. 10/20
Published a paper in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C with Ron Grimm on Cs₂TiBr₆. 9/20
Along with several WPI colleagues, we received a 5-year $3 million NRT grant entitled “Data-Driven Sustainable Engineering for a Circular Economy”, which aims to educate students in the chemical sciences on using data science methods to solve chemistry-related problems. 9/20
Received funding from NSF with Mike Timko on using nitrogen-containing hydrochars for adsorption applications. 9/20
Started advising an MQP (senior thesis) with Adam Powell on “Solar Silicon Electrolysis”. 9/20
Our paper with Mike Timko on using hydrothermal chars for heavy metal adsorption is published. 8/20
Taught CHE 554: Molecular Modeling as an online course this summer. 7/20
Thang Pham was an excellent undergrad at WPI (currently in grad school at Northwestern), and we published a paper in the Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation describing how to efficiently model polarons. 6/20
Finished advising an MQP (senior thesis) with Adam Powell for Alexander McMahon, Yi Jie Wu on “Solar Silicon Epitaxy by Molten Salt Electrolysis”. 5/20
While serving as chair of WPI’s Committee for Tenure and Academic Freedom, we passed a resolution with the faculty to allow pre-tenure faculty to stop their tenure clock due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 4/20
Tao Yan finished her PhD Dissertation, focused on modeling dichalcogenide materials for electrochemical applications. 4/20
Our joint paper with Gonghu Li at UNH on anchored molecular complexes for CO₂ reduction is published in ChemPhotoChem here. 2/20
I’m serving as the chemical engineering department’s graduate chair this year, and we had a very successful PhD recruiting weekend. 2/20
Gave a guest lecture on analyzing data and designing experiments for WPI’s Responsible Conduct of Research course. 2/20
WPI held its annual Graduate Research Innovation Exchange, our poster competition/showcase. I was lead judge for the “Chemical Engineering & Materials Science” section. 2/20
We hosted the winter New England Catalysis Society meeting at WPI. This year I’m serving as vice-chair of the society. 1/20

2019

I had the wonderful opportunity to give an invited talk at the “Polarons in the 21st Century” workshop help at the Erwin Schrödinger Institute in Vienna, Austria. Cool to be at a place where so many developments in modern physics occurred. 12/19
Gave a talk at the University of New Hampshire. Great institution! 12/19
Lida’s paper on surface segregation of bimetallic alloys is published. 10/19
Finished teaching a graduate course CHE 554: Molecular Modeling. 10/19
Finished teaching CHE 2011: Chemical Engineering Fundamentals to our sophomores. 10/19
The Prague, Czech Republic Project Center website is live! 9/19
Our paper on the stability of supported metal atoms/clusters is published in The Journal of Chemical Physics as part of the special topics “Catalytic Properties of Model Supported Nanoparticles” and is also an Editor’s Pick. 8/19
So excited to have Tyler and Brad here this last summer as REU students to do some great research. 8/19
Gave a talk at the 2019 North American Catalysis Society Meeting in Chicago. 6/19
Organized the second New England Energy Research Forum at WPI. Lots of talks and posters from some great energy researchers in the area. 6/19
A major milestone. My 50th journal article is accepted for publication in the Journal of the American Chemical Society! Great to work with Prof. Xiaowei Teng. 6/19
I had a wonderful visit to Prague, looking for student housing. Excited to start a project center as part of WPI’s global program. 6/19
Congratulations to Lida for a great PhD defense on ethanol oxidation catalysts! 5/19
Gave a talk at the New England Catalysis Society meeting at Brown University on our work on stability of atomically dispersed catalysts. 5/19
The NSF funds a proposal with Drs. Lyuba Titova and Kathy Chen to start an REU center at WPI: “REU Site: Developing a Clean Energy Future with Underserved Students” . 4/19
Major Qualifying Project (senior thesis) advised: “Efficient Strategies for Modeling Polarons using Density Functional Theory”. Nice job Thang – good luck at graduate school! 4/19
Gave a talk at Brown University on our work involving atomically dispersed catalysts. 4/19
Congratulations to Oskar who finished his thesis research here at WPI modeling CO₂ photoreduction, and is heading back to RWTH Aachen University in Germany to finish up writing his thesis. 4/19
Finished teaching an advanced statistics course at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center. 3/19
Lida participated in WPI’s yearly graduate poster contest, the Graduate Research Innovation Exchange (GRIE), and advanced to the finals. Congratulations Lida! 2/19
Gave a guest lecture on research analysis and design for WPI’s Responsible Conduct of Research course. 1/19

2018

Finished duties as a faculty advisor for WPI’s Insight program. 12/18
Finished teaching a basic statistics course at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center. 12/18
Finished teaching CHE 580: Research Analysis and Design, a graduate course to teach students to better analyze their data and perform better experiments. 12/18
Gave a talk at Tufts University, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. 12/18
Our paper examining trends of adsorbed single metal atoms supported on TiO₂ is published. 10/18
Finished teaching CHE 2011: Chemical Engineering Fundamentals. 10/18
Thang Pham, an undergraduate in our research group, won the “Best Presentation Computation and Theory” presentation at the Gulf Coast Undergraduate Research Symposium at Rice University. Congratulations Thang! 10/18
Our paper with Gonghu Li at UNH and Ron Grimm at WPI on photoreduction of CO₂ using supported metal atoms and oxygen defects is published in ACS Catalysis. 10/18
Gave a presentation to the WPI graduate student population on navigating the publishing process as part of WPI’s Research Communication Series. 10/18
Presented work on metal atoms over TiO₂ at the National ACS meeting in Boston. 8/18
Attended the Gordon Conference on Catalysis and shared work on metals/TiO₂. 6/18
Satish Iyemperumal finished his PhD and moved to MIT for a post-doctoral position. 6/18
Junbo Chen completed his MS degree. 6/18
Mentored two REU students, Erin and Samer. 5/18-8/18.
Hosted the spring meeting of the New England Catalysis Society at WPI. 5/18
Junbo Chen wins 2nd Place in the “Chemical Engineering and Materials Science” division at WPI’s yearly graduate poster contest, the Graduate Research Innovation Exchange (GRIE). 4/18

Major Qualifying Project (senior thesis) advised with Pratap Rao of the Mechanical Engineering department : “Experimental and Theoretical Optimization of BiI₃ Selective-Contact Solar Cell Materials”. 4/18
WPI holds a Three-Minute Thesis competition and Lida wins first place! 3/18
I obtain a collaborative appointment with the department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at WPI. 3/18
Major Qualifying Project (senior thesis) advised: “A Study of Potential Organometallic Photosensitizers for TiO₂ Using Density Functional Theory”. 3/18
Interactive Qualifying Project (junior-level project equivalent to three courses) advised with Amy Peterson: “Advancing Chemistry Education with 3D Printed Tools”. 3/18
A proposal is successful with XSEDE for computational hours at national supercomputing facilities. 3/18
A paper is accepted in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C on modeling geopolymer formation. 3/18
Gave a campus-wide talk to graduate students on data analysis and collection through the Student Training and Readiness Series (STARS) program. 1/18

2017

A proposal for computational time submitted to Argonne National Laboratory’s Center for Nanoscale Materials is awarded. 12/17
Finished teaching an undergraduate course I developed, CHE 3702: Energy Challenges in the 21^st Century. 12/17
Hosted the fall meeting of the New England Catalysis Society at WPI. There was a great turn out and lots of quality work! 12/17
Gave a campus-wide talk to graduate students on the peer-review process. 12/17
Gave a talk in WPI’s mechanical engineering department. 11/17
Co-chaired several sessions at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers meeting in Minneapolis. 11/17
Satish and Lida gave great presentations at the national American Institute of Chemical Engineers meeting in Minneapolis. 11/17
Finished teaching CHE 554: Molecular Modeling. 10/17
Finished teaching CHE 2011: Chemical Engineering Fundamentals. 10/17
Gave a talk in WPI’s chemistry department. 10/17
Satish’s work on CO₂ activation by Cu clusters is accepted in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. 10/17
We have a paper on Bi₂S₃ accepted in Sustainable Energy & Fuels. In collaboration with Prof. Rao in WPI’s mechanical engineering department. 9/17
A paper in collaboration with Prof. Mike Timko is accepted in Carbon. 9/17
The NSF funds work with Prof. Rao to study sulfur-based materials for photocatalysis, as detailed here. 8/17
Satish and Lida both gave great talks at the national ACS meeting in D.C. on their work. Satish on modeling solvation effects and Cu/TiO₂ catalysts for CO₂ reduction. Lida on modeling alloys. 8/17
We published a paper with Prof. Teng at the University of New Hampshire in the Journal of Catalysis. 8/17
An inside cover image is published with our paper on solvent effects in ChemPhysChem. 8/17
The NSF funds work in collaboration with Prof. Teng at the University of New Hampshire to study ethanol oxidation catalysis. 7/17
Our paper on reduced amorphous titania was accepted in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. 7/17
Satish and I attended the Gordon Research Conference on “Clusters & Nanostructures” at Mount Holyoke College. 7/17
Organized the 1st New England Energy Research Forum -“Materials and Processes for Clean Energy” held at WPI. Around 95 people attended from schools in the New England area. We had 24 oral presentations and 38 posters – a great success! This conference was highlighted in a WPI news release. 6/17
Elected Secretary of the New England Catalysis Society. 5/17
Satish’s paper “Evaluating Solvent Effects at the Aqueous/Pt (111) Interface” was accepted for publication in ChemPhysChem. 5/17
Taught a new graduate course that I designed, CHE 580: Research Analysis, Design, and Ethics. 3/17 to 5/17
Major Qualifying Project (senior thesis) advised: “A Density Functional Theory Study of the Structure and Chemistry of Zeolite Linde Type A (LTA)”. 5/17
Major Qualifying Project (senior thesis) advised: “Tailored Annealing and Surface Treatment of Bi₂S₃ Thin Film to Enhance Optoelectronic Performance”. 5/17
Major Qualifying Project (senior thesis) advised: “Molecular Interactions between Simple Sugars and Styrene Derivatives: Identifying Favorable Binding Agents for Bifunctional Solid Acid Catalysts”. 5/17
Zhehao Zhu won 1st Place on Project Presentation Day in Chemistry, 2nd Place on Project Presentation Day in Chemical Engineering, and the Salisbury Prize in the Chemistry & Biochemistry department for his work on Bi₂S₃. 4/17
Served as lead judge in the engineering division for WPI’s yearly graduate poster contest, the Graduate Research Innovation Exchange (GRIE). 2/17 to 4/17
Satish Kumar Iymperumal, my graduate student, won the Ph.D. award in the chemical engineering department from the New England Institute of Chemists (NEIC). 4/17
Attended an NSF workshop on big data in chemistry. 4/17
Became a full member of Sigma Xi. 4/17
Gave an invited talk at the “Workshop on Charge Trapping Defects in Semiconductors and Insulators” in York, UK (beautiful city!). 3/17
Successful proposal with XSEDE for computational hours at national supercomputing facilities. 3/17
Elected to WPI’s campus-wide tenure committe, the Committee on Tenure and Academic Freedom (CTAF). 2/17
Gave a campus-wide talk to graduate students as part of the seminar series Student Training and Readiness Sessions (STARS) on academic publishing. 1/17

2016

Publications in 2016:
- “Photocatalytic CO2 reduction by highly dispersed Cu sites on TiO2“, Liu C, Iyemperumal SK, Deskins NA, Li G, J. Photon. Energy. 7(1), 012004, 2016. doi:10.1117/1.JPE.7.012004
- “Non-directed aromatic C–H amination: catalytic and mechanistic studies enabled by Pd catalyst and reagent design”, Bandara HMD, Jin D, Mantell MA, Field KD, Wang A, Narayanan RP, Deskins NA and Emmert MH, Catalysis Science & Technology, 6, 5304, 2016 doi:10.1039/C6CY00457A
- “Local Interfacial Structure Influences Charge Localization in Titania Composites: Beyond the Band Alignment Paradigm”, Nolan M, Deskins NA, Schwartzenberg K, Gray K, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 120, 1808, 2016 doi:10.1021/acs.jpcc.5b12326
Reviewed in 2016 for Journal of Physical Chemistry, Applied Catalysis B, RSC Advances, Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing, the Department of Energy, the ACS Petroleum Research Fund, and the National Science Foundation.
Visited the University of Milano-Bicocca and Prof. Cristiana Di Valentin to give a talk on my research. 12/16
Spent 2 fabulous months in Venice, Italy advising 27 students part of the Venice Project Center, 10/16 to 12/16
Taught CHE 2011: Chemical Engineering Fundamentals. 8/16 to 10/16
Chaired a session and spoke at the Theory and Applications of Computational Chemistry conference in Seattle WA. 9/16
Helped organize WPI’s Chemical Engineering Graduate Organization (CEGO) and started serving as faculty advisor. 9/16
Starting serving on search committee for Manning Chair. 8/16
Attended a KEEN workshop to learn more about developing an engineering entrepreneurial mindset in students. 8/16
Lida Mehdizadegan, my graduate student, spent the summer with Prof. Yuge at the University of Tokyo as part of an NSF EAPSI grant to learn more about modeling alloys. 6/16 to 8/16
Spoke at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland WA. 6/16
Spoke at ACS Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference conference in Portland OR. 6/16
Elected to the campus-wide Committee on Graduate Studies and Research (CGSR). 5/16
Taught CHE 554: Molecular Modeling. 1/16 to 5/16
Satish Kumar Iymperumal, my graduate student, won 1st Place in the Engineering division at Graduate Research Innovation Exchange, WPI’s yearly graduate poster contest. 4/16
Taught a course I instituted at WPI, CHE 3702: Energy Challenges in the 21st Century. 1/16 to 3/16
Spoke at the annual spring American Chemical Society meeting in San Diego. 3/16
Organized the first graduate student recruiting weekend in the chemical engineering department. 2/16

2015

Became chair of the graduate committee in WPI’s Chemical Engineering department
Elected Vice Chair of WPI’s Energy Research Group.