We are researching how nanoporous materials can (help) save the world.
Research
We are interested in novel materials such as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), as well as traditional materials like zeolites that are already widely used in industry. Porous materials with well-controlled structures at the nanoscale can be extremely useful because of their ability to recognize and discriminate between adsorbed molecules. This leads to applications of nanoporous materials in adsorption separations, catalysis, membrane processes, sensing, and energy storage.
Publications
Read our team’s journal articles, book chapters, editorials, letters to the editor, and conference proceedings.
Team
Our group comprises professors, postdocs, graduate students, visitors, undergraduates, and alumni.
Software & Database
Learn how to obtain the software and data libraries employed by our research group.
News
2024
- December 2024: Congratulations to Kunhuan Liu on defending his PhD!
- September 2024: Work by visiting student Hilal Daglar published in Nature Chemistry was highlighted in Chemistry World, C&E News, and Phys.org.
- August 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Xijun Wang on receiving the 2024 International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN) Outstanding Researcher Leader Award! He will be recognized at the IIN Rosemary Schnell Annual Symposium on October 10th.
- August 2024: Congratulations to Filip Formalik on receiving the best poster award at the FOMMS conference!
- May 2024: Congratulations to Thang Pham on defending his PhD!
- April 2024: Congratulations to Kunhuan Liu for winning 1st Place in the Static Visualization competition at the Northwestern Computation and Data Exchange (CoDEx) Symposium.
- January 2024: The group published a review article on predictive modeling for discovery of MOF adsorbents in Nature Energy.
- January 2024: The group welcomes new graduate students Aastha Kasera, Pratyaksha Pathak, and Xiaoyi Zhang.
2023
- November 2023: Congratulations to Courtney on receiving a Chevron Graduate Student Award from the Materials Engineering and Sciences Division of AIChE!
- November 2023: Congratulations to Randy Snurr for being named to the Highly Cited Researchers 2023 List by Clarivate Analytics!
- October 2023: Courtney Smoljan has been selected to receive the 2023 International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN) Outstanding Researcher Visionary Award. Congratulations, Courtney!
- August 2023: Courtney Smoljan and Hilal Daglar presented their work at the Gordon Research Conference, and Courtney was one of two students selected to give an oral presentation.
- August 2023: Congratulations to Zhao Li on defending his PhD!
- July 2023: Congratulations to Rebecca Goncalves on defending her PhD!
- July 2023: Congratulations to Thang Pham on receiving a Terminal Year Fellowship!
- July 2023: The group welcomes visiting scholar Dr. Kenji Mochida.
- May 2023: Congratulations to Maytham Alzayer on defending his MS thesis!
- March 2023: Dr. Manuel Tsotsalas has received a Feodor-Lynen Fellowship for experienced researchers from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Congratulations!
- February 2023: The paper by Scotty Bobbitt, Kaihang Shi, Ben Bucior, Haoyuan Chen, Nathaniel Tracy-Amoroso, Zhao Li, Julia Merlin, Randy Snurr, and our collaborators on MOFX-DB database was featured on the February cover of the Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data.
- January 2023: The group welcomes visiting scholar Hilal Daglar.
- January 2023: The group welcomes new PhD students Kevin Yao and Qianhui Wang.
2022
- November 2022: Congratulations to Randy Snurr for being named to the Highly Cited Researchers 2022 List by Clarivate Analytics!
- November 2022: Randy Snurr published News & Views pieces in Nature and Nature Materials! He can also be heard discussing new materials for separating heavy water on a Nature podcast.
- October 2022: Our paper in npj Computational Materials on the QMOF Database was highlighted in the MRS Bulletin.
- October 2022: The group welcomes visiting scholar Dr. Manuel Tsotsalas.
- September 2022: The group welcomes visiting scholar Junkil Park.
- July 2022: Congratulations to Zhao Li on receiving a Terminal Year Fellowship!
- April 2022: Congratulations to Rebecca Goncalves on receiving a DAAD fellowship to support a research stay at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nürnberg!
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March 2022: The group welcomes a new master student Maytham Alzayer.
- February 2022: The group welcomes new post-doc Filip Formalik and congratulates him on receiving a fellowship from the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange through their Bekker NAWA Programme.
2021
- December 2021: The group welcomes new PhD students Jiayang Liu and Courtney Smoljan.
- November 2021: Congratulations to Randy Snurr for being named to the Highly Cited Researchers 2021 List by Clarivate Analytics!
- March 2021: Congratulations to Kaihang Shi for receiving the 2020 James K. Ferrell Outstanding Ph.D. Graduate Award from NC State!
February 2021: The paper by Yongchul Greg Chung, Ben Bucior, Hongda Zhang, Randy Snurr, and their collaborators on the updated CoRE MOF Database was featured on the February cover of the Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data- January 2021: The group’s new paper on machine learning to discover new materials appeared in Nature Machine Intelligence.
You can read more about it here. - January 2021: Congratulations to Andrew Rosen for being awarded a Miller Research Fellowship! He will be pursuing a postdoc at UC Berkeley.
2020
- November 2020: Congratulations to Randy Snurr for being named to the Highly Cited Researchers 2020 List by Clarivate Analytics!
- October 2020: Congratulations to Shaelyn Iyer on receiving the International Institute for Nanotechnology’s Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award!
- September 2020: Congratulations to Zhao Li on receiving the George Thodos Teaching Assistant Award!
- August 2020: Congratulations to Brandon Bukowski on receiving one of the Poster Prizes at the Annual Symposium of the Catalysis Club of Chicago!
- August 2020: Andrew Rosen has been awarded the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department’s Distinguished Graduate Researcher Award for 2020. Congratulations!
We look forward to your seminar in a few weeks at the Department Retreat. - April 2020: Andrew Rosen was selected as one of six Presidential Fellows by Northwestern University. This is the most prestigious fellowship awarded to graduate students by the University. Congratulations!
- April 2020: Congratulations to Matt Mendonca on defending his PhD!
- March 2020: Congratulations to Andrew Rosen for being selected for the 2020 CAS Future Leaders program!
- March 2020: Randy Snurr was elected a Fellow of the International Adsorption Society!
- March 2020: Congratulations to Brandon Bukowski on receiving a Travel Award to attend the 17th International Congress on Catalysis in San Diego!
- March 2020: Rebecca Goncalves has been awarded a GEM Fellowship. Congratulations!
- March 2020: Congratulations to Melissa Barona on defending her PhD!
- February 2020: Andrew Rosen has received a Travel Award from the Division of Inorganic Chemistry to attend the Spring 2020 Meeting of the American Chemical Society. Congratulations!
- February 2020: Ben Bucior, Scotty Bobbitt, Arun Gopalan, Randy Snurr, and their co-authors received the Senior Moulton Medal from IChemE “for best paper published by the Institution” in 2019-2020 for their paper “Energy-based descriptors to rapidly predict hydrogen storage in metal-organic frameworks,” Molec. Systems Design Eng. 4, 162-174 (2019).
2019
- December 2019: Randy Snurr was identified as one of twenty outstanding reviewers in 2019 by the ACS Committee on the Petroleum Research Fund.
- November 2019: Randy Snurr has been named a “Highly Cited Researcher ” by the Web of Science Group. Congratulations!
October 2019: Our joint paper with Andrea Rossin’s group has appeared on the cover of Molecular Systems Design & Engineering.- September 2019: Congratulations to Josh Kirkham on receiving the George
Thodos Teaching Assistant Award! - September 2019: Congratulations to Matt Mendonca on being named a
runner-up for the department’s Distinguished Graduate Researcher Award!
Matt will give a talk on his research at the annual department retreat. - August 2019: Congratulations to Matt Mendonca on receiving a terminal-year fellowship from Northwestern!
- July 2019: Congratulations to Ben Bucior on defending his PhD!
- June 2019: Congratulations to Iza Samek on defending her PhD!
May 2019: A new paper by Matthew Mendonca has been featured on the cover of Chemistry – A European Journal.- April 2019: Ben Bucior won the 1st place graduate poster award at the the 2019 AIChE Chicago Annual Student Poster Competition. Congratulations, Ben!
- April 2019: A new paper by Andrew Rosen in ACS Catalysis was featured in Chemical & Engineering News!
- April 2019: Randy Snurr has been elected as a corresponding member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences. The academy was founded in 1846 and is now one of the regional academies in Germany. The list of previous members includes Boltzmann, Heisenberg, and Planck.
- February 2019: A new paper by Haoyuan Chen with the Farha group has been featured in Chemical & Engineering News!
February 2019: A new paper by the group has been featured on the cover of Molecular Systems Design & Engineering.