Welcome to Prof. Xiao's Group

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Dr. Xiao is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Louisiana Tech University. We focus on fundamental research in heterogeneous catalysis and reaction engineering. We are funded by National Science Foundation and state grants including Louisiana Board of Regents, Space Grant Consortium, Transportation Research Center, and Materials Design Alliance. If you are interested in joining the group, please send CV and UG transcript to yxiao@latech.edu. We have the expertise in the followng areas.

• Catalyst Synthesis and Characterization;

• Measurement and Modeling of Kinetics;

• DFT Calculations.

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From left to right: Dr. Xiao, Robert Martin, Piper Smith, Caroline Cresap, Sarah Siharath (front), Xiaoyang Gao (back), Tobias Misicko, Henrik Ketting, Joaquin Herrero, Thapaswi Movva, and Mantasha Noyela. We have the following group members.

• Four PhD students;

• Three Master's students;

• Four undergraduate students.

We appreciate and acknowledge the financial support from the following funding agencies.

News

    April 2024:

    • Congratulations to Tobias Misicko on receiving the College's graduate research award!

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    • Congratulations to Caroline Cresap, an undergraduate researcher in the group, on receiving a $5,000 SURE (Supervised Undergraduate Research Experience) grant from NSF EPSCOR to conduct a Machine Learning investigation of catalyst design.

    March 2024:

    • The Xiao Group receives Transportation Innovation for Research Exploration (TIRE) grant sponsored by Louisiana Transportation Research Center (LTRC) for a project to convert methane to ethanol fuel via photo-thermo catalysis.

    • Welcome three graduate students to the Xiao Research Group: Joaquin Herrero is a PhD student, who obtained his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S.A. Mantasha Noyela is a PhD student, who obtained her B.S. in Computer Science from Daffodil International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Thapaswi Movva is a Master's student, who obtained her B.S. in Computer Science from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, India.

    • Dr. Xiao is organizing the "Catalysis on Low Dimensional Materials" session at the 2024 AIChE (American Institute of Chemical Engineers) Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA. We seek submissions on single-atom catalysis, and 2D catalysis such as MXene, MOF, COF, etc. Please check it here.

    • The Xiao Group will present a poster on the catalytic conversion of short alkanes at the ACS Spring 2024 Conference, Tuesday, March 19, 2024, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM, Hall C - Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, New Orleans, Louisiana.

    February 2024:

    • The Xiao Group received a COES RED Travel Grant.

    January 2024:

    • The Xiao Group received subsistence funds from the Louisiana Board of Regents to support a Ph.D. student to visit Oak Ridge National Laboratory for eight weeks.

    • In collaboration with Dr. Cao from Zhejiang University, our paper entitled "A Kinetic Model of the Cycloaddition Reactions Between Cyclopentadiene and 1, 3‐Butadiene for Synthesis of 5-vinyl-2-norbornene" is published in The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering. Check it HERE.

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    December 2023:

    • Our group has two immediate openings for Ph.D. students. A bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering or close fields is required. Please send your CV and transcripts to yxiao@latech.edu if you are interested.

    • We welcome Sean Clay joining the group as an Undergraduate Researcher!

    • The Xiao Group has a GC-MS instrument (Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry), which can separate (GC) and detect (MS) unknown species in a mixture.

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    November 2023:

    Dr. Xiao will chair the session of "Catalysis on Low Dimensional Materials" at the 2023 AIChE Annual Meeting on Sunday, November 5, 2023, 3:30 PM - 6:00 PM, Plaza International Ballroom J (Convention Level, Hyatt Regency Orlando) in Orlando, FL. Check the Agenda .

    October 2023:

    Dr. Xiao gave a talk at the Energy Transition Research Symposium on 10/6/2023 at LSU Energy, Coast & Environment Bldg. (93 S. Quad Drive, Baton Rouge, LA 70803), entitled: "Environmentally Sustainable Carbon-Free Hydrogen Generation by Catalytic Dehydrogenation of Short Alkanes". Check the Agenda .

    September 2023:

    We welcome Caroline Cresap to join the group as an undergraduate research assistant!

    We welcome Mst. Nusrat Yasmin to join the group as a PhD graduate research assistant!

    We welcome Piper Smith to join the group as an undergraduate research assistant!

    Our paper is accepted by LSU's Energy Transition Research Symposium. Dr. Xiao will give a presentation of hydrogen generation on 10/6/2023 at LSU En\ ergy, Coast & Environment Bldg. (93 S. Quad Drive, Baton Rouge, LA 70803). Check more info here.

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