Current students
Image Lastname Firstname Contact Short Bio
Gray Brian briancgray@usf.edu
Brian joined the group in 2019 as a doctoral student. He is working on modeling Biogas to Liquid systems. He is jointly advised by Dr.Kuhn.
Amaraibi Rarosue rarosue@usf.edu
Rarosue joined the group in 2019 as a doctoral student after completing a MS degree in Sustainability. She is looking at technoeconomic and life cycle analysis of Biogas to Liquid systems.She is jointly advised by Dr. Kuhn.
Bhattacharjee Eesha eesha@usf.edu
Eesha is a Master's student. Her research focuses on converting Biogas to Biomethane using hydrogen.She is jointly advised by Dr. Kuhn.
Jiang Changyi changyij@usf.edu
Changyi is a post-doctoral research associate. He joined the group in 2021 after completing his Ph.D. from LSU. He is jointly advised by Dr. Kuhn.
Johnson olusola olusolaisaac@mail.usf.edu
Shola an MSChE student. He is continuing the work started by Uma above. He is jointly advised by Dr. Kuhn.
Former students
Image Lastname Firstname Contact Short Bio
Zhao Xianhui xianhui.zhao.china@gmail.com
Andy was a post-doctoral student at USF advised by Dr. Kuhn and Dr. Joseph. Dr. Zhao obtained a Ph.D. in Agricultural, Biosystems and Mechanical Engineering from South Dakota State University, a M.S. in Materials Science from Beijing Jiaotong University (China), and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Heilongjiang University (China). After obtaining the MS, he has worked as a Research Assistant at Tsinghua University (China) for half a year. He is currently a Post-doctoral Research Associate at Oak Ridge National Lab.
Chang Yajing yajingchang@mail.usf.edu
Yajing completed her MS degree at USF.
Yetunde Sokefun ysokefun@usf.edu
Tosin graduated from University of Lagos, Nigeria with a BS in ChE. She obtained her MS in Material Science from USF in 2019. She is currently a doctoral candidate. Her research focuses on developing low temperature tri-reforming catalysts. She is jointly advised by Dr. Kuhn.
Seby Sreya Maria sreyaseby@usf.edu
Sreya completed her MSChE. She worked on developing high temperature Fischer-Tropsch catalysts. She was jointly advised by Dr. Kuhn.
Gopalakrishnan Umadevi umadevi@usf.edu
Uma completed her MSChE. She worked on developing low cost amine functionalized silica for separating CO2 from biogas. She was jointly advised by Dr. Kuhn.
Gardezi Syed Ali sgardez2@usf.edu
Ali finished his PhD in 2013. He then was a post-doc at the University of Houston for 2 years before joining industry in Houston area. He enrolled in PhD program in fall 2008. Research includes: Development of customer specific Fischer Tropsch Catalyst, Performance assessment of catalyst in Bench-top Fixed Bed Reactor, Modeling the startup of Fischer Tropsch process to evaluate pore filling time and parametric sensitivity especially temperature variation.
k Ngo Kassie (ThuHuong) kassi.ngo@gmail.com Kassie graduated with a PhD in 2016. She then joined the University of Oklahoma. She earned her B.S and M.S degrees in Chemical Engineering at The University of Tulsa, and The University of Oklahoma, respectively. Her research focuses on photocatalyst applications on CO2 reduction, using solar energy to convert CO2 to fuels such as CH4. She is experiened in experimental instruments such as photoreactors, GCMS, UV-vis and TEM for her research. Kassie is co-advised by Dr. Bhethanabotla
Kent Ryan ryankent@mail.usf.edu Ryan graduated with a BS/MSChE in 2016. Ryan Kent is from Pensacola. His research focused on the conversion of landfill gas to liquid fuels.Here is pictured working with his undergraduate research assistant: Charles "Andy" Sulesky ( on left).Ryan is co-advised by Dr. Kuhn
Cimenler Ummuhan ucimenler@mail.usf.edu Ummuhan graduated with PhD in 2016. She is now working at Catalent Pharma in St.Petersburg, Florida. Her research focused on zeolite coated catalysts with reactant selectivity with application to reforming and Fischer Tropsch Synthesis.Ummuhan is co-advised by Dr. Kuhn
Elsayed Nada nelsaye2@mail.usf.edu Nada completed her PhD in 2017. She is now working for Catalent Pharma in St. Petersburg, Florida. She has a BS in ChE from USF. She worked for a few years and then came back to do a PhD in Chemical Engineering. Her research focus is on low temperature tri-reforming catalysts. Nada is co-advised by Dr. Kuhn
Balakrishnan Nianthrini nbalakr2@mail.usf.edu Niathrini completed her PhD in 2012. She is now working for Veritas Technology in Mountain View, California. Niantrhini did her doctoral research on DFT modeling of cobalt catalysts for CO hydrogenation. She was co-advised by Dr. Bhethanabotla
Yang Chia chita@mail.usf.edu Chita finshed his PhD in 2015. He is now a post-doctoral research associate at Ohio State University. His work focused on the use of sub nanoparticles of Pt and Ag for enhancing photocatalytic activity of TiO2 for CO2 photoreduction. Chia is co-advised by Dr. Bhethanabotla