Group News
2023
December: Welcome to the Farha Group’s newest visiting postdoc, Zi-Ming Ye!
December: Welcome to the Farha Group’s newest postdoc, Xiang-Jing Kong!
November: The Farha Group is happy to announce our newest graduate students, Julian Magdalenski and Haley Wellman!
November: Congratulations to Madeleine Gaidimas and Courtney Smoljan for each receiving IIN 2023 Outstanding Researchers Awards!
October: Congratulations to Courtney Smoljan on passing her Qualifying Exam!
October: Welcome to the Farha Group’s newest postdoc, Palak Garg!
September: Welcome to the Farha Group’s newest postdoc, Yunsung Yoo!
September: Congratulations to Dr. Zoha Syed on her successful thesis defense!
July: Welcome to the Farha Group’s newest postdocs, Mo Shehab and Bang Hou!
June: Congratulations to Dr. Julia Knapp on her successful thesis defense!
May: Best wishes to Dr. Timur Isamloglu who will be taking his talents to ULRI. Thanks for all of your hard work. We will miss you!
May: Congratulations to Dr. Karam Idrees on his successful thesis defense!
May: Congratulations to Dr. Kenton Hicks on his successful thesis defense!
May: Congrats to Seryeong Lee for passing her Qualifying Exam!
May: Congratulations to Zoha Syed on receiving the 2023 Anna Louise Hoffman Award for Outstanding Achievement in Graduate Research from Iota Sigma Pi (The National Honor Society for Women in Chemistry)!
May: Congratulations to Dr. Florencia Son on her successful thesis defense!
March: Congratulations to Zoha Syed for being named one of the 2023 CAS Future Leaders selected from around the world!
March: Congratulations to Zoha Syed who was chosen as a finalist for the University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Award!
February: Welcome to the Farha Group’s newest members, visiting scholars: Yongwei Chen and Chenghui Zhang!
February: Congratulations to Fanrui Sha! A 2023 Ludo Frevel Crystallography Scholarship recipient!
January: Congratulations to Dr. Sylvia Hanna on her successful thesis defense!
2022
November: The Farha Group is happy to announce our newest graduate students: Owen Bailey, Dawson Grimes, Minjung Kim, Alyson Plaman, and Christine Yu!
November: Welcome to the Farha Group’s newest member, visiting scholar: Yasemin Mutlu!
October: Congrats to Haomiao Xie, Debabrata Sengupta, and Fanrui Sha who placed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd at the NUANCE 2022 “Art of Science” Image Contest!
September: Welcome to the Farha Group’s newest members, post-doctoral researchers: Luana Andrade, Susanne Reischauer, Xianhui Tang, and Alejandra Torres!
August: Congratulations to Dr. Timothy Goetjen on his successful thesis defense!
July: The 2022 Innovations in Nuclear Technology R&D Award winners have been announced! Congrats to Sylvia Hanna and Julia Knapp for each earning first place awards in Material Recovery and Waste Form Development and Nuclear Science and Engineering, respectively. Read more here.
July: Welcome to Dr. Lauren Macreadie from the University of Sydney who’s visiting the Farha Lab as part of a collaborative project.
June: Welcome to the newest Farha Group member, Andrew Garcia, who is visiting this summer as part of the RET Program!
June: Bravo to the very talented Audrianna Wu for her amazing Senior Piano Recital Performance.
May: Congrats to Madeleine Gaidimas for passing her Qualifying Exam!
May: Congratulations to Dr. Megan Wasson on her successful thesis defense!
April: Congrats to Kira Fahy for passing her Qualifying Exam!
April: Congrats to Shengyi (Tony) Su for passing his Qualifying Exam!
April: The 2022 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) selections for Fellow candidate and Honorable Mention have been announced! Congratulations to Kira Fahy (awardee) and Madeleine Gaidimas (honorable mention)! Read more here.
March: Congratulations Zoha Syed who was awarded the 2021-22 McBride Student Award! Read more here.
March: The Farha Group is pleased to welcome a new visiting scholar, Bhajan Lal!
March: Congratulations to Sylvia Hanna for being named 1 of the 29 2022 CAS Future Leaders selected from around the world!
March: Welcome to the Farha Group’s newest member, post-doctoral researcher, Hui Cui!
February: Congratulations to Dr. Xinyi Gong on her successful thesis defense!
February: Congratulations to undergrad Kevin Kim who will accept an internship this summer at Argonne National Labs as part of the SULI program!
February: Welcome to the Farha Group’s newest members, visiting pre-doctorals, Patrizio Campitelli and Herich HLB Lima!
February: The Farha Group is pleased to welcome a new post-doctoral researcher, Tom Rayder!
January: The Farha Group is pleased to welcome a new post-doctoral researcher, Xiaoliang Wang!
January: Congrats to Sylvia Hanna for her story published on ScienceDirect. Check it out here!
January: Congratulations to Karam Idrees who was featured on Northwestern’s IIN news page!
January: The Farha Group is pleased to welcome a new post-doctoral researcher, Saptasree Bose!
2021
December: Congratulations to Zhijie Chen for receiving a 2021 Materials Research Society Award. Read more
October: Congratulations to Kaikai Ma and Megan Wasson for each earning a 2021 IIN Outstanding Researcher Award. Read more
August: Congratulations to Julia Knapp who was featured by The Graduate School on their Spotlight Page! Read more
August: The Farha Group is pleased to welcome a new post-doctoral researcher, Debabrata Sengupta!
June: Congratulations to Kira Fahy, Madeleine Gaidimas, and Tony Su on formally being admitted to the Northwestern Doctoral Program in Chemistry!
June: Congratulations to Sylvia Hanna! Sylvia was selected as one of the >40 talented students across the US in the 2nd annual 3M RISE (Raising Influence in Science and Engineering) symposium!
June: Congratulations to Dr. Yijing Chen on a successful thesis defense!
June: Congratulations to Dr. Lee Robison and Dr. Riki Drout on a graduation and well-deserved success!
April: Congratulations to Dr. Riki Drout on a successful thesis defense!
April: Congratulations to Julia Knapp! Julia was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science Graduate Student Research Program to receive training at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).
March: Congratulations to Kenton Hicks! Kenton was inducted into the Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society.
March: The Farha Group welcomes Dr. Ahmet Atilgan as a postdoctoral researcher. Ahmet completed his Ph.D. last month under the supervision of Prof. Joseph T. Hupp at Northwestern University. Welcome, Ahmet!
February: Congratulations to Sylvia Hanna! Sylvia and her poster, “Discovery of Spontaneous De-Interpenetration Through Charged Point-Point Repulsions,” were selected for the “Outstanding Poster Award” at the 2021 Stewardship Science Academic Programs Symposium, hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.
February: The Farha Group says farewell to Xinyao Liu. Xinyao will be returning to China to complete his Ph.D. at Jilin University.
January: The Farha Group welcomes two new members: Dr. Haomiao Xie and Dr. Xiaofeng Chen! Haomiao comes to the Farha Group from Texas A&M University where he studied under Prof. Kim Dunbar. Xiaofeng joins us from the Hupp Group and will continue to work with both groups as a visiting postdoc.
January: The Farha Group says farewell to Dr. Seung-Joon Lee. Seung-Joon will be returning to Korea to work in a national laboratory. Best of luck, Seung-Joon!
January: Congratulations to Prof. Timur Islamoglu! Effective January 1, 2021, Timur has been promoted to Research Assistant Professor with the Farha Group.
2020
December: Congratulations to Dr. Lee Robison for defending their thesis!
December: Welcome to our three new first year students: Kira Fahy, Madeleine Gaidimas, and Shengyi (Tony) Su!
December: Welcome to Dr. Wei Gong, our new visiting postdoctoral researcher. Dr. Gong previously worked as a postdoctoral researcher with Prof. Banglin Chen at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
November: The Farha Group wishes Lifeng Yang the best of luck as he returns to Zhejiang University to complete his Ph.D.
October: The Farha Group wishes Ran Cao the best of luck as she returns to the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences to complete her Ph.D.
September: Congratulations to Alyssa Olszewski, Yijing Chen, and Dr. Zhijie Chen! Alyssa was selected by the International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN) for its 2020 Outstanding Undergrad Student Researcher Award. Yijing was chosen for the 2020 IIN Outstanding Graduate Student Researcher Award, and Zhijie was honored with the 2020 IIN Outstanding Postdoc Fellow Researcher Award.
September: The Farha Group wishes Yongwei Chen the best of luck as he returns to the South China University of Technology to complete his Ph.D.
September: Congratulations to Xinyi Gong! She has been selected for a Ryan Fellowship by the International Institute for Nanotechnology.
June: Congratulations to Julia Knapp! She has been selected for an Innovations in Nuclear Technology R&D Award by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Technology Research and Development.
June: Congratulations to Dr. Louis Redfern for successfully defending his thesis!
May: Congratulations to Zoha Syed, Karam Idrees, Julia Knapp, and Florencia Son for successfully completing their qualifying exams!
May: The Farha Group sends Prof. Jing Xiao well wishes as she departs the group to resume her work at South China University of Technology where she is a professor of Chemical Engineering.
May: The Farha Group wishes Prof. Nak Cheon “NC” Jeong the best of luck as he returns to the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology to continue his work as an Associate Professor with the Department of Emerging Materials Science.
May: Congratulations to Dr. Yijun Liao for successfully defending her thesis!
May: Tim Goetjen has been selected to join the editorial board of Frontiers in Energy Research, the official newsletter of Department of Energy’s Energy Frontier Research Centers. Congratulations, Tim!
April: Congratulations to Florencia Son! Flo was selected for a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship.
April: Congratulations to Tim Goetjen! Tim was selected for a U. S. Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Student Research Award.
April: Congratulations to Riki Drout! Riki received the 2020 Edmund W. Gelewitz Award, recognizing “senior graduate students who demonstrate excellence in research and are active in the Northwestern chemistry department and the greater chemical community.”
March: Congratulations to Julia Knapp for being awarded a National Science Foundation Fellowship! Additional congratulations to Florencia Son and Karam Idrees for being named Honorable Mention for a National Science Foundation Fellowship!
February: The Farha Group welcomes Xingjie Wang and Kaikai Ma back to Northwestern University as newly minted Ph.Ds and postdoctoral researchers!
January: The Farha Group wishes Shinya Moribe all the best for the future as he returns to Japan to continue his work at Toyota Central R&D Labs., Inc. Shinya has been with the Farha Group since 2017 as a visiting scholar and his contributions to the group will be missed!
January: The Farha Group wishes Seung-Joon Lee the best of luck with his new position as a postdoctoral researcher working jointly at Northwestern University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
January: The Farha Group welcomes Yufang Wu as a visiting graduate student. Yufang joins us from South China University of Technology where she is pursuing her Ph.D. in chemical engineering. Welcome, Yufang!
January: Farha Group member Megan Wasson and her work are featured in a new profile from the International Institute for Nanotechnology. read more
2019
December: The Farha Group is pleased to welcome two new graduate students: Fanrui Sha and Jingyi Sui. Welcome Fanrui and Jingyi!
November: The Farha Group welcomes Lifeng Yang and Prof. Jing Xiao to the group. Lifeng joins us as a Ph.D. student from Zhejiang University while Jing joins us from South China University of Technology, where she is a Professor in Chemical Engineering. Welcome to Lifeng and Jing!
November: Cassandra Buru successfully defended her thesis – congratulations to Dr. Buru!
November: Hyunho Noh successfully defended his thesis – congratulations to Dr. Noh!
November: The Farha Group welcomes Ran Cao and Xinyao Liu to the group. Ran joins us from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences where she is a Ph.D. student while Xinyao joins us from Jilin University where he is currently a Ph.D. student.
August: The Farha Group says goodbye to visitors Satoshi Kato, Kaikai Ma, and Xingjie Wang. Satoshi is returning to his position at Asahi Kasei in Tokyo, Japan, while Kaikai and Xingjie are returning to Hong Kong Polytechnic University and South China University of Technology, respectively, to finish their Ph.D’s.
August: The Farha Group says goodbye to undergraduate researchers Annabella Strathman and Jamila Eatman. Both will be returning to continue their undergraduate students at Carelton College and Spelman College, respectively.
August: The Farha Group says goodbye to Dr. Peng Li. Peng has been with the Farha Group for over five years as a postdoc and will be returning to Fudan University in Shanghai, China.
August: Congratulations to Lee Robison for being awarded a Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Student Research Award! Lee will be working at Argonne National Lab for six months (11/1/19-5/1/20) to investigate the nucleation and growth mechanisms of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) using in-situ X-Ray diffraction and scattering techniques.
August: The Farha Groups is pleased to welcome Prof. Nak Cheon “NC” Jeong from Daegu Gyeongbok Institute of Science and Technology as a visiting scholar!
August: The Farha Group is pleased to welcome a new post-doctoral researcher, Dahee Jung!
July: The Farha Group is pleased to welcome three undergraduate researchers for the summer, Anna Strathman, Jamila Eatman, and Alyssa Olszewski!
June: Farha Group members Zoha Syed, Florencia Son, and Sylvia Hanna participated in the HerStory2019 outreach event at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, teaching young girls about the accomplishments of female chemists. read more
June: Congratulations to Riki Drout for receiving a 2019 Weinberg College Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award! read more
May: Congratulations to Sylvia Hanna for being awarded second place for the Department of Energy’s 2019 Innovations in Nuclear Technology Research and Development Award!
May: The Farha Group is pleased to welcome Kent Kirlikovali as a new post-doc!
April: Congratulations to Kenton Hicks for winning an award for his poster at the Catalysis Club of Chicago Spring Symposium!
April: Congratulations to Kenton Hicks, Megan Wasson, Sylvia Hanna, and Riki Drout for being recognized at the The Graduate School’s Spring Reception! Kenton was awarded honorable mention by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship. Megan was recognized for receiving a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Sylvia won the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowship. Riki was recognized for being a Ryan Fellow this year.
March: The Farha Group says goodbye to visiting scholar Jiafei Lyu. Jiafei is returning to China to finish up her Ph.D.
March: Congratulations to Sol Ahn for successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis!
January: The Farha Group welcomes Seung-Joon Lee from Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. Seung-Joon’s research will be focused on the use of MOFs for gas storage and separation. Welcome, Seung-Joon!
2018
Jiafei Lyu’s award-winning image, “Bloom”
November: The Farha Group welcomes four new graduate student members: Julia Knapp, Karam Idrees, Florencia Son, and Zoha Syed. Welcome to the Farha Group!
October: Congratulations to Jiafei Lyu for her well-earned recognition in NUANCE’s annual “The Art of Science” image contest! Jiafei’s image, titled “Bloom”, placed third in the web division.
October: The Farha Group welcomes two new visiting scholars this month: Yongwei Chen from South China University of Technology and Md. Rasel Mian from Tohoku University. Yongwei will be with the Group for two years and Rasel will be with the group for a year and a half.
September: The Farha Group welcomes visiting scholar Kaikai Ma from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He will be with the Farha Group for one year.
August: The Farha Group says goodbye to visiting scholars Tae-Ung Yoon and Ah-Reum Kim as they return to South Korea to continue work on their PhDs.
August: Sylvia and Peng traveled to the University of Notre Dame for the Actinide Center for Excellence Annual Review Meeting. Sylvia presented at the meeting – check out a photo of her presenting in the Gallery page!
August: Congratulations to Peng Li, Yijing Chen, and Lee Robison for being named Center for Molecular Innovation and Drug Discovery (CMIDD) Scholars! They were selected after applying for the award, which recognizes contributions to the field of biomedical research. Up to 12 researchers are recognized each year (6 grad students and 6 postdocs) so the Farha Group is especially proud to have 25% of the award recipients! Peng, Yijing, and Lee will be recognized at a colloquium event later this month.
August: The Farha Group welcomes visiting scholar Rodrigo Gil San Millán from the University of Granada.
August: The Farha Group says goodbye to Kenichi Otake. He is moving to Kyoto, Japan to accept a position as Assistant Professor at the Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences at Kyoto University. Congratulations, Kenichi!
August: The Farha Group says goodbye to Aaron Peters as he moves to New Jersey to start work with Exxon Mobil corporation. The Farha Group also says goodbye to Zhanyong Li as he starts a new job with Honeywell UOP here in Illinois. Congratulations and best of luck to you both!
July: The Farha Group says goodbye and good luck to Chung-Wei Kung. He is returning to Taiwan to begin work as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at National Cheng Kung University. Congratulations, Chung-Wei!
July: Congratulations to Dr. Aaron Peters for successfully defending his dissertation to receive his PhD!
July: Congratulations to Riki Drout for receiving the Ryan Fellowship. Given by The Graduate School at Northwestern University, the Ryan Fellowship “supports the finest graduate students in the country and provides them with the education and experience to assume leadership roles in the realm of nanotechnology.” The interdisciplinary nature of nanotechnology means Ryan Fellows are selected from a broad spectrum of programs and schools, including: the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Judd A. and Marjorie Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine, and TGS Interdisciplinary Programs including: Driskill Graduate Program in Life Sciences (DGP), Interdisciplinary Biological Sciences Program (IBiS), and Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program (NUIN).
July: The Farha Group says goodbye to visiting scholar Ghada Ayoub. She returns to McGill University in Montreal, Canada to complete her PhD.
July: The Farha Group welcomes visiting postdoc Fenfen Wang, who joins us from the Guangdong University of Technology.
June: The Farha Group welcomes Cornelius Audu as a postdoc. Cornelius recently earned his PhD in Hupp and Nguyen groups at Northwestern and is now doing work in the Hupp and Farha groups.
June: Congratulations to Riki Drout for receiving the L. Carroll King Award for Excellence in 100-Level Teaching. Given by the Northwestern University chapter of PLU, the award recognizes excellence in student teaching. These awards are distributed among graduate students teaching at all levels of the undergraduate and graduate chemistry curriculum. Riki is one of just two recipients of the 100-level award in the department for the 2017-18 school year.
May: Congratulations to Peng for having the featured/cover article in the May 10, 2018 issue of Chem for his article “Hierarchically Engineered Mesoporous Metal-Organic Frameworks toward Cell-free Immobilized Enzyme Systems.” See the image in the Gallery.
May: Peng Li will present the SPIE (Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers)-MRSEC (Materials Research Science and Engineering Center) Student Seminar Series on Wednesday, May 9. Peng’s talk, “Encapsulation Enzymes in Metal-Organic Frameworks for Catalysis,” is based on his work as a postdoctoral fellow in the Farha and Hupp groups. We are confident Peng will do a great job and represent NU Chemistry well at the McCormick School of Engineering event.
May: Congrats to Yijing for passing her Qualifying Exam!
May: The Farha Group welcomes postdoctoral fellow Zhijie Chen. Zhijie recently completed his PhD at King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia in the research group of Prof. Mohamed Eddaoudi.
April: Riki, Sylvia and Peng traveled with Omar to Santa Fe and Los Alamos, New Mexico, to attend the NNSA Actinide Center for Excellence All-Hands Meeting.
April: Congrats to Riki for passing her Qualifying Exam!
April: Congratulations to Riki Drout for receiving a 2018 Innovations in Nuclear Technology Award, given by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Technology Research and Development. Riki was awarded first place in the Material Recovery and Waste Form Development category. In addition to cash prizes, award winners may have opportunities to participate in events such as the 2018 Nuclear Technology R&D Annual Meeting, the 2018 American Nuclear Society Winter Meeting, and an Innovators’ Forum, a forum designed to engage students in advancing innovations in nuclear technology research.
April: Congratulations to Louis Redfern for receiving the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science Graduate Student Research award! The SCGSR program provides supplemental awards to outstanding U.S. graduate students to pursue part of their graduate thesis research at a DOE laboratory/facility in areas that address scientific challenges central to the Office of Science mission. Louis will travel regularly to Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne, IL) to conduct research for the next year.
April: Congratulations to Sylvia Hanna for receiving an Honorable Mention recognition in the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship program.
April: The Farha Group welcomes visiting scholars Ah-Reum Kim and Tae-Ung Yoon, doctoral students at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea.
March: Subhadip traveled to New Orleans to attend the 255th American Chemical Society National Meeting.
February: Aaron Peters and Sol Ahn received PPG 4th Year ORP Fellowships in the fall quarter. This award, sponsored by PPG, is awarded by a faculty committee to 4th year grad students who presented outstanding original research projects. Aaron’s award was given by the Department of Chemistry and Sol’s PPG fellowship was awarded from the McCormick School of Engineering.
February: Congratulations to Farha Group members Riki Drout, Kenichi Otake, and Timur Islamoglu (and Farha Group alumna Ashlee Howarth) for having the cover article in the Feb. 27 issue of Chemistry of Materials. Check out the cover in the Gallery section of the Farha Group website.
February: The Farha Group says goodbye to visiting scholar Isil Akpinar. She will return to London to finish writing her PhD.
February: The Farha Group welcomes visiting scholar Ghada Ayoub, a doctoral student at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
February: The Farha Group says goodbye to visiting scholar Johannes Osterrieth. He will return to Cambridge to continue work on his PhD.
2017
November: The Farha Group welcomes visiting scholar Yuanyuan Zhang. She is a PhD student at the Beijing Institute of Technology.
November: Cassandra Buru attended the 2017 Chemical and Biological Defense Science & Technology conference in Long Beach, CA.
November: The Farha Group welcomes the following first-year graduate students to the group: Sylvia Hanna, Tim Goetjen, Xinyi Gong, Kenton Hicks, Rodrigo Maldonado, and Megan Wasson.
November: The Farha Group welcomes visiting scholar Johannes Osterrieth. He is a PhD student at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
November: The Farha Group welcomes visiting scholar Jie Wu. He is a Professor of Chemistry at Zhengzhou University in China.
October: The Farha Group welcomes visiting scholar Xingjie Wang to the group. He is a PhD student at the South China University of Technology.
October: The Farha Group welcomes visiting scholar Jiafei Lyu. She is a PhD student at Tianjin University in China.
October: The Farha Group welcomes Lee Robison and Louis Redfern to the group. Lee and Louis are both third-year grad students who are joining the Farha group from other research groups at Northwestern.
September: Jian Liu, Zhanyong Li, and Xuan Zhang attended the Inorganometallic Catalyst Design Center (ICDC) All-Hands Meeting in Minneapolis, MN.
September: The Farha Group welcomes visiting scholar Isil Akpinar. She is a PhD student at University College London in the United Kingdom.
September: The Farha Group welcomes visiting scholar Satoshi Kato. He is a scientist at Asahi Kasei Corporation in Japan.
September: The Farha Group is formed! The group begins with seven graduate students, eight postdocs, and one visiting scholar.