Prof. Thomas J. Schwartz
Principal Investigator
Office: 307A Jenness Hall
Phone: 207-581-2294
Fax: 207-581-2323
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Professor Thomas Schwartz hails originally from Amesbury, MA. He studied at the University of Maine to earn B.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering and Biological Engineering in 2010. While a student at UMaine, he participated in the development of Thermal Deoxygenation (TDO) as a means of producing hydrocarbon fuels from biomass with high energy efficiency. In 2010, he moved to Madison, WI to pursue a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering under the supervision of Prof. James A. Dumesic. His thesis work focused on the integration of heterogneous chemical catalysis with biological catalysis, with the goal of producing biobased alternatives to petrochemicals. As an Assistant Professor at the University of Maine, his research interests remain focused on the conversion of carbon-based feedstocks (including biomass, petroleum, and natural gas), applying reaction kinetics and in situ and operando spectroscopic studies to develop a molecular-level understanding of the processes that occur on catalytic surfaces.
Graduate Students
Hussein Abdulrazzaq
Ph.D. Student
Hussein was born and raised in Iraq and received a Bachelor's degree in Petrochemical Engineering from Basrah University in 2010. His background includes two years of industrial experience in oil field exploration and production, two years in oil well completion, and one year of laboratory work in chemical engineering. He completed a M.S. degree at UMaine and is now pursuing a Ph.D. His research focuses specifically on developing new catalysts for the synthesis of butadiene from ethanol. The goal is to investigate the effect of catalyst preparation and morphology on butadiene production, develop structure-activity relationships for these materials, and study the reaction kinetics for butadiene production.
Jalal Tavana
Ph.D. Student
Jalal graduated from Tehran Polytechnic, Iran. He did his Master’s on Nanotechnology; his research was on synthesis and characterization of nanometallic oxides. He started his PhD at University of Maine in 2016 and his research involves FTIR studies of the mechanism of C-Cl bond cleavage.
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Publications:
- Tavana, J. and Edrisi, M. (2016). "Synthesis of cobalt ferrite nanoparticles from thermolysis of prospective metal nitrosonaphtol complexes and their photochemical application in removing methylene blue." Materials Research Express 3(3):035009.
- Tavana, J. and Edrisi, M. (2014) "CoFe2O4 nanocrystalline powders prepared by ultrasonic assisted co-precipitation method: synthesis, structure." 5th International Conference on Nanostructures (ICNS5), Kish Island, Iran.
Elnaz Jamalzade
Ph.D. Student
Elnaz got her B.Sc. in pure Chemistry from Sharif University of Technology and her M.sc. in Analytical Chemistry from Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran. Her Master's thesis was about developing bio-analytical sensors for detecting carcinogenic compounds. Elnaz joined the group in Summer 2017 and she is working on developing catalysts for converting Maine's forest biomass to bio-lubricants.
Daniela Stuck
M.S. Student
Chemical Engineering from the University of Concepción, Chile. During her undergraduate degree she was assistant to first year engineering students and in 2015 she became vice-president of the Chilean Asociation of Chemical Engineering Students (AChEIQ). During her senior year (summer 2016) she was accepted for a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program from the Forest Bioproducts Research Institute (FBRI) at the University of Maine. She worked on testing the 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) in liquid and gas flow reactors with Dr. Brian Frederick at the Laboratory of Surface Science Technology (LASST), in coolaboration from Dr. Thomas Schwartz. She graduated at the University of Concepción in January 2017 receiving a Engineering Faculty Award. After that she started a M. S. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Maine and continues to facilitate for the FBRI REU program. Her first project was evaluating the kinetics of the HMF reaction and as a Main project she studies phenol HDO over TiO2 catslysts.
Chris Albert
M.S. Student
Chris holds a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the the University of Maine. He will start in the Fall of 2018, and his project will focus on the fundamentals of Kraft pulping.
Undergraduate Students
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Javiera Navarro (REU, Summer 2018)
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Chris Albert (2017-2018)
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Tristan Strack-Grose (2016-2017)
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Griffin Drake (REU, Summer 2017)
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Aiden Crane (Summer 2017)
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Logan Doucette (High School Student, Supper 2017)
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Rachel Karno (Honors, 2016-2017)
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Mara Kuenen (REU, Summer 2016)
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Sam Terry (Spring, 2016)
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Caroline Faria (Spring, 2016)
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Matt Boucher (2015-2016)
Group Alumni
Meredith Allen
M.S. 2017
Completed her Bachelor's degree at St. Lawrence University in Chemistry. Worked for several years at Northeast Laboratory Services as a Chemistry Analyst on water and soil samples. Returned to school to pursue a Master's degree in Chemical Engineering. Her research at the University of Maine included the development of a catalytic reaction scheme to create renewable tunable polymers from hydroxymethylfurfural.