Matthias Vandichel
Group leader
Matthias obtained his PhD at Ghent University in 2012. He enjoyed postdoctoral periods in Ghent University (2013-2015), IRCELYON (2015-2016), Chalmers (2016-2018) and Aalto University (2018-2019). Since Oct 2019, he holds a faculty position at the University of Limerick and lectures in Chemical Engineering (Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics; Process Control, Instrumentation and modelling; Chemical Engineering Design Methods). Matthias lectures chemical engineering modules at the University of Limerick and leads a dynamic multidisciplinary team (Materials and Catalysis Modelling group – https://macatamo-group.com). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC).
His main research interests are: computational materials and catalysis research, porous materials and inorganic interfaces.
Sousa Javannikkhah
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Career-FIT PLUS Research Fellow
Sousa is developing methodologies to describe hormone delivery vesicles.
Lakbira El Atouani
EPS-IRC Postdoctoral Fellow
Kabira is studying traditional materials used in piezo-actuators using first-principles electronic structure methods.
TBA
Postdoctoral Researcher (2023-)
The new HERMES-postdoc is developing methods to study various metal-based electrocatalytic systems. The HERMES-project is in collaboration with 6 other partners in Europe (H2020-FETproactive HERMES).
Raju Lipin
IRC-PhD student
Lipin is developing methodologies to describe electrochemical reaction on carbon-based materials in the framework of his IRC-project C-BUDDY (09/2022-08/2024). The CARE project run by Raju Lipin & Niamh Terranova is one of UL's Sustainability Challenge 2022 winners. Previously, Lipin has been developing methodologies to describe electrochemical reactions on metal-hydrides and other systems, while working on the HERMES project.
Pedram Vousoughi
EPS-IRC PhD student
Pedram is developing methods to describe corrosion phenomena.
Keshav Hibare
PhD student
Keshav is working on a project at the interface of bioinformatics, cheminformatics and molecular modelling (supervisors: Dr. Virag Sharma, Dr. Matthias Vandichel, Prof. Dr. Tewfik Soulimane).
Hooman Hasheminejad
PhD student
Hooman is working on adsorption within porous materials. He is currently funded through the SFI-centre AMBER.
Niamh Terranova
Undergraduate student, research intern via UPSTaRT program
Niamh is studying the hydrogen evolution reaction on innovative electrocatalysts in collaboration with Raju Lipin. The CARE project run by Raju Lipin & Niamh Terranova is one of UL's Sustainability Challenge 2022 winners.
Visiting Staff
Jiri Bednar
Visiting postdoctoral researcher, Postdoc MEYS research internship (01/02/2022-30/11/2022)
VSB-TU Ostrava
Jiri is modelling a nanoparticles’ aggregation at the sublimation interface of a rapidly frozen dispersion. The main research interests are preparation and characterization of nanostructured materials and their incorporation into filtration membranes and developing new means of material testing.
Alumni and Affiliated researchers
Ryan Lacdao Arevalo
Current position: Associate Professor, Akashi National Institute of Technology, Osaka, Japan
Marie Skłodowska-Curie PROCESS COFUND Research Fellow (2021-2022)
Ryan was developing multiscale modelling and high-throughput approaches to design novel nanoporous materials for methane activation and drug delivery systems.
Postdoctoral Researcher (2021)
For HERMES, Ryan was developing methodologies to describe electrochemical reactions in/on metal-hydrides and other systems. His project is in collaboration with 6 other partners in Europe (H2020-FETproactive HERMES).
Venkata Surya Kumar Choutipalli
Current position: Postdoctoral researcher, Baylor University, Texas, USA
Postdoctoral Researcher (2021-2022)
Surya was developing methodologies to study a variety of electrochemical reactions on metal-hydrides. The HERMES-project is in collaboration with 6 other partners in Europe (H2020-FETproactive HERMES).
Amin Koochaki
Postgraduate Student (2020-2023)
Amin was working (for ~2 years and 3 months) on methods to describe gas sorption and separation within flexible porous materials. This project was in collaboration with Prof. Zaworotko’s group and is supported by the SFI-centre AMBER.
Ciara O'Sullivan
Current position: Process engineer, Merck
MSc student (2021-2022)
Ciara was learning multiscale modelling methodologies (for ~9 months) to design dendritic polymer-based platforms for theranostic applications, including but not limited to chemotherapeutic theranostics, biotherapeutic theranostics, phototherapeutic theranostics, and combined therapeutic theranostics.