Lab Members

PI/Group Leader

Dr. Bihter Padak

Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Associate Director, UCI Combustion Laboratory

bpadak@uci.edu

Ph.D. (2011), Stanford University, Energy Resources Engineering
M.S. (2007), Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Chemical Engineering
B.S. (2005), Istanbul Technical University, Chemical Engineering

Dr. Bihter Padak joined the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department at UCI in 2018 as an assistant professor. She also serves as the associate director of the UC Irvine Combustion Laboratory (UCICL) under the Advanced Power and Energy Program. Her research focuses on combustion and emission control technologies and aims to reduce the environmental impacts of combustion processes. Prior to joining UCI, she was on the Chemical Engineering faculty at University of South Carolina, associated with the SmartState Center for the Strategic Approaches to the Generation of Electricity (SAGE). She has received the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ (AIChE) 35Under35 Award in the Energy area for her contributions to the Institute and the chemical engineering profession.

Postdoctoral Researchers

Dr. Varun N. Viswamithra
vnrao@uci.edu
Ph.D. (2023), Louisiana State University, Mechanical Engineering
M.S. (2016), University of Texas at Arlington, Mechanical Engineering
B.S. (2012), Visvesvaraya Technological University, Mechanical Engineering

Dr. Varun N. Viswamithra is from Bangalore, India. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University. He completed his master’s degree in mechanical engineering at University of Texas at Arlington with research in the field of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). He interned at Dassault Systems before starting his Ph.D. at Louisiana State University in 2019. His research focuses on the use of ammonia as a fuel with applications in swirl combustors in gas turbine engines for stationary power generation. He was awarded his doctoral degree in the Fall of 2023. Dr. Viswamithra will continue his research at UCI and work on high-pressure ammonia and hydrogen combustion.

Graduate Students

Zoey Ferman
Ph.D. student
zferman@uci.edu
M.S. (2023), University of California Irvine, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
B.S. (2020), California State University Long Beach, Aerospace Engineering

Zoey Ferman earned her bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from California State University Long Beach. She then came to UCI where she earned her M.S. degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. with Dr. Padak. She has a background in thermal and transport sciences and is currently conducting research on catalytic combustion of fuel blends.