CBE Research Day

Content

UMass Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Research Day 

Time & date: 8:45 – 18:30 ET, March 13th, 2026

Location: Amherst Room (10th Floor of the Campus Center), 1 Campus Center Way,
Amherst, MA 01002

For more information:  https://r.bai.group/umass-cbe-research-day 
RSVP: https://r.bai.group/umass-cbe-research-day-rsvp

Friday, March 13th, 2026

8:45 am – Breakfast will be set out
9-10:20 – Four talks
10:20-10:30 – Coffee break
10:30-11:50 – Four talks
11:40 am – Lunch will be set out
11:50-1 pm – Lunch
1-2:20 – Four talks
2:20-2:30 – Coffee break
2:30-3:30 – Three talks
3:30-4:30 – Poster session
4pm – Dessert will be set out
4:30-5 – Brief award announcement
5-6/6:30 – Reception

List of talks:

Materials

1. John Arigbede – James Walsh Group - Studying Mn₇C₃ Under Extreme Pressure via
Neutron Diffraction and First-Principles Modeling
2. Siqi Chen – Zhou Lin Group - Learning Molecular Structure and Conformation Jointly
from Infrared and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectra
3. Agyemang, Anthony Nana Prempeh – Maria Santore Group – The Interactions and
Organization of Solid Domains within 2D Curved Membranes
4. Diwakaran Rathinam Palaniswamy – Sarah Perry & Craig Martin Group - Microfluidic
Platform for On-Demand Synthesis of Ultrapure RNA with Site-Specific
Modifications

Bioengineering

1. Aniruddha Dhondiram Pinjari – Ashish Kulkarni Group - Engineering mRNA cancer
vaccines to enhance immune stimulation without suppressing mRNA translation
2. John Bauer – Lauren Andrews Group - Development of Interspecies Genetic Circuits
in Bacterial Consortia for Bioremediation of Heavy Metals
3. Hannah Hargrove – X. Frank Zhang Group – In silico Generation and Screening of
Novel Peptide Drug Candidates
4. Daniel Cai – Chao Zhao Group - Nerve Blocking Agent with Reduced Systemic
Toxicity

Materials / Catalysis

5. Pulkit Jain – Clark Chen Group – Real-time monitoring of local pH at the catalyst–
ionomer interface using in situ surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy
6. Seungbo Hong – Scott Auerbach Group - Unraveling the Blind Spots of Zeolite
Formation: from Sol-Gel Properties to Crystalline Frameworks via Data Science and
Density Functional Theory
7. Success Eghosa Aiwekhoe – Wei Fan Group – Tuning Framework Al Distribution in
MFI and *BEA Zeolites via Fluoride-mediated Synthesis
8. Javed Khan – Peng Bai Group - Structure–reactivity relationships in zeolite-catalyzed
carbonylation reactions

Materials discovery

9. Ping Yang – Peng Bai Group - Machine learning of shape selective separation of longchain hydrocarbon isomers in zeolites
10.Majid Lasisi Balogun – Wei Fan Group – Machine Learning Assisted Direct Synthesis
of Porous Materials with Controllable Compositions
11. Nhan Huu Huy Tran – Clark Chen Group – High-throughput Discovery of Spinel Oxide
for Seawater Electrolysis