Chinmoy Baroi, Ph.D.

Research Interests

Baroi’s research interests include technology development, maturation, and commercialization in carbon management, such as CO2 capture and conversion, super pollutant capture and conversion (e.g., methane, nitrous oxide, carbon particles, water vapor, refrigerants), and critical minerals recovery and extraction. His interests also include voluntary carbon credit scenario analysis and integration, the development of new voluntary carbon credit protocols, digitization of carbon credits, and project financing through various routes.

Chinmoy Baroi, Ph.D., joined the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) in 2019. He is the Associate Director for Technology Maturation and serves as the head of Direct Air Capture (DAC) and DAC Hub business development at ISTC and the Net-Zero Center of Excellence under the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Baroi’s business development efforts have resulted in three DAC Hub projects funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the most prestigious of which is the “Illinois Basin DAC Hub,” which he is actively managing.

Baroi holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. He has more than 15 years of research and development experience in catalysis, reaction engineering, renewable energy research, shale gas conversion, carbon dioxide capture and conversion, techno-economics, and life-cycle analysis. Before joining ISTC, he was a postdoctoral fellow at DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL), USA.

Sustainability Engineering Joint Research Program Researcher

Prairie Research Institute: Illinois Sustainable Technology Center

Jenna Chaffeur, G.I.T, B.S.

Research Interests

My research lies at the intersection of environmental systems and society. I am particularly interested in how landscapes, water systems, and waste streams evolve over human timescales, and how these variables are influenced by anthropogenic stressors such as environmental pollution and impacts from local and regional effects of climate change. I explore questions related to the long-term impacts of industrial activities, the geologic and geomorphic processes that govern contaminant transport and landform change, and how scientific insight can inform more sustainable, community-driven, and equitable environmental policy and decision-making.

I am a geologist with a strong foundation in environmental geology, geospatial information systems, and geomorphology. I received my B.S. in geology at Northern Arizona University in 2019, and in 2020, I pursued my M.S. in geology from Western Washington University, where I researched and documented an active fault in the North Olympic region of Washington State. In 2022, I worked for the U.S. Geological Survey within the Earthquake Science Center, evaluating over 25 years of earthquake data in California. I have over five years of experience in consulting, fieldwork, and laboratory research. My career has included roles in the public and private sectors, from conducting field investigations in remote regions of the Pacific Northwest to implementing remediation strategies and managing projects for complex industrial sites in the Midwest. I am passionate about work that serves people by restoring land, protecting water, and educating communities.

Senior Scientific Specialist, Environmental Geology

Prairie Research Institute: Illinois State Geological Survey

Franck Delpomdor, Ph.D.

Research Interests

My research focuses on the inventory and characterization of critical minerals (Zn, Ge, Ga, In, Ba, Cu, Co, REEs) in Zn-Pb-Cu-Co ore bodies, coals, mine wastes, slags, bedrock geologic and mineral resource mapping, aggregate materials, and the geology in carbon storage and capture systems.

Delpomdor is an Associate Research Scientist, Sedimentologist, at the Illinois State Geological Survey at the Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is recognized for his work in the mineralized-rich regions in Central Africa. He is currently working for the USGS-STATEMAP geologic mapping program, CarbonSAFE carbon sequestration, Earth MRI, and CORE-CM mineral exploration in Illinois (USA). Delpomdor has published over 30 papers in reputable international journals and 19 geological maps. Delpomdor received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium). His postdoctoral work was at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Brazil).

Associate Research Scientist, Sedimentologist

Prairie Research Institute: Illinois State Geological Survey

Nishant Garg, Ph.D.

Nishant Garg is an Assistant Professor in the CEE department, working on the chemistry and characterization of construction materials.

Previously, he was a Lecturer and Postdoctoral Researcher at Princeton University, where he applied X-ray and neutron scattering to characterize novel and sustainable cements. He obtained his Ph.D. in Nanoscience at Aarhus University, Denmark, in 2015, where he used solid-state NMR to study cements and clay minerals. With his multidisciplinary background in chemistry, materials science, and civil engineering, he has spent his research career developing a fundamental understanding of sustainable, durable, and environment-friendly cement-based materials.

 Sustainability Engineering Joint Research Program Researcher

Grainger College of Engineering: Civil and Environmental Engineering Dept.

Jiajun He, Ph.D.

Research Interests

Molecular Simulations
Methane and Hydrogen Storage
Surface Science and Surface Chemistry
Carbon Capture
Porous Materials

Sustainability Engineering Joint Research Program Researcher

Grainger College of Engineering: Mechanical Science and Engineering

Yongqi Lu, Ph.D.

Research Interests

Materials and processes for CO₂ capture & utilization
Materials and processes for recovery of critical minerals
Clean energy conversion and utilization
Waste management and beneficial utilization
Chemical process modeling, techno-economic analysis, and life cycle analysis

Lu’s research focuses on advancing materials and systems for carbon capture & utilization, recovering critical minerals from unconventional resources, and conducting engineering analysis through process modeling, techno-economic analysis, and life cycle environmental assessment. He is dedicated to developing scalable, commercially viable solutions for decarbonization, clean energy, and sustainable critical minerals that balance environmental sustainability with economic feasibility. He has secured over 20 major research grants as PI or co-PI, published approximately 60 peer-reviewed journal articles, and holds more than 10 U.S. patents. Lu earned his Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Tsinghua University, an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Zhejiang University, and completed postdoctoral research at the University of Sheffield.

Sustainability Engineering Joint Research Program Researcher

Prairie Research Institute: Illinois State Geological Survey

 Jeffery R. Roesler, Ph.D.

Research Interests

3D concrete printing of 1-story buildings, fatigue and fracture of concrete materials, micro-scale urban heat island and thermal and optical properties of construction materials, recycled concrete materials, mechanistic-empirical design of rigid pavements, continuously reinforced concrete pavements, bonded and unbonded concrete overlays, fiber-reinforced concrete, moisture/temperature curling of concrete slabs, internal curing, roller compacted concrete, foamed cellular concrete, photocatalytic concrete materials, contact and non-contact ultrasonic testing of early-age and hardened concrete, passive sensing for advanced driver assist systems for work zones and lateral roadway positioning.

Jeffery Roesler holds B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He has been on the faculty of CEE at Illinois since 2000. Before joining the faculty at the University of Illinois, Roesler was a Visiting Post-Doctoral Researcher at the University of California at Berkeley.

Sustainability Engineering Joint Research Program Researcher

Grainger College of Engineering: Civil and Environmental Engineering Dept.

Lance Schideman, Ph.D.

Research Interests

Water and wastewater treatment processes focusing on:
Adsorption, membrane, and membrane bioreactor technologies
Emerging micropollutants, including pharmaceuticals, endocrine disruptors, and homeland security contaminants
Bio-energy recovery from human, animal, and food waste streams
New materials for water purification and other aqueous phase separations- adsorbents, membranes, catalysts, etc.
Integrated water reuse systems
Environmental occurrence, transport, and effects of nanomaterials and pharmaceuticals
Intelligent infrastructure for self-optimizing water systems

Sustainability Engineering Joint Research Program Researcher

Prairie Research Institute: Illinois Sustainable Technology Center

Xiao Su, Ph.D.

Research Interests

Develops advanced materials for molecularly selective separations and process intensification for applications in energy, environment, and chemical manufacturing.

Our interest lies in developing novel technologies for advanced separations and process intensification by leveraging stimuli-responsive materials and molecular engineering tools.

A primary aim is to design electrochemical interfaces with a high degree of molecular specificity. We combine materials synthesis with fundamental mechanistic studies to leverage chemical interactions in electrochemical systems for ion-selective sorption and transformation. Our program is strongly interdisciplinary, with broad interests in energy and environmental processes, water treatment/purification, chemical and biological manufacturing, and materials synthesis.

Grainger College of Engineering( +LAS): Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

Lav R. Varshney, Ph.D.

Research Interests

My research focuses on the science and engineering of informational systems involving humans and machines. It is driven by a desire to improve individual and collective intelligence in modern environments.

Grainger College of Engineering( +LAS): Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

Dong Wang, Ph.D.

Research Interests

Social sensing and intelligence, human-centered AI, human-AI teaming, AI for social good, responsible AI, data quality, big data analytics, cyber-physical-human systems, smart cities, and edge computing.

Wang’s work has been applied in a wide range of real-world applications, such as social network analysis, crowdsourcing, disaster response, education,  smart cities, synthetic biology, and environmental sustainability. He has published over 150 technical papers in peer-reviewed conferences and journals. His research on social sensing, intelligence, and computing resulted in software tools that found applications in academia, industry, and government research labs.

Sustainability Engineering Joint Research Program Researcher

School  of Information Sciences

Na Wei, Ph.D.

Research Interests

The overarching theme of my research is to understand and manipulate microbial systems at the molecular level for beneficial applications towards environmental sustainability. Our research is at the interface of environmental engineering and molecular and synthetic biology, with interests in: 1) Renewable biocatalysis for water reclamation and reuse, 2) Waste-to-energy/value biotransformation and resource recovery, and 3) Disease control to protect public health.

Sustainability Engineering Joint Research Program Researcher

Grainger College of Engineering: Civil and Environmental Engineering Dept.

Hong Yang, Ph.D.

Research Interests: Uses material chemistry approaches to the design of nanostructures for energy and biological applications.

Hong Yang is the Richard C. Alkire Professor of Chemical Engineering. Yang is recognized for his work in nanotechnology, especially nanomaterials of well-defined structure and composition. He is particularly interested in the design and synthesis of bi- and multi-metallic nanostructures, which are evaluated for a range of catalytic applications, including fuel cell and water splitting. An elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, Yang is a section editor on Nanotechnology for the Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering, and he serves on the editorial board of Nano Today and other journals. He joined the department in 2012. Yang received his B.S. from Tsinghua University, his M.S. from the University of Victoria, and his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. His postdoctoral work was at Harvard University. Before joining the Illinois faculty, he was a faculty member at the University of Rochester.

Sustainability Engineering Joint Research Program Researcher

Grainger College of Engineering( +LAS): Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering