• October 2021 – Madeline Talebi attended the NextProf Pathfinder workshop at the University of Michigan for graduate students interested in pursuing careers in academia.
  • August 2021 – Kyle Horiuchi won the “SMART Scholarship”.
  • June 2021 – Turna Barua and Madeline Talebi were awarded scholarships through the Society of Women Engineers – Orange County (SWE – OC).
  • February 2021 – Jose Alejandro Santamaria Rodriguez won the “Miguel Velez Scholarship”.
  • December 2020 – Dr. Padak received an industrial grant from SoCalGas Company.
  • September 2020 – Sahand Faraji successfully passed his Ph.D. qualifying exam.
  • June 2020 – Congratulations to Madeline Talebi for receiving her BSc degree and joining the group as a PhD student!
  • March 2020  – Dr. Padak joined the Diversity Task Force of the Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division of AIChE
  • March 2019 – Dr. Padak gave an invited keynote presentation as a featured young researcher in the 2019 National Symposium of Chemical Reaction Engineering (NASCRE).
  • March 2019 – Dr. Padak was elected to serve as a member of the Board of the Western States Section of the Combustion Institute
  • December 2018 – Congratulations to Nazli Asgari for receiving her PhD degree!
  • November 2018 – Dr. Padak co-chaired AIChE’s Topical Conference: Women’s Initiative Committee (WIC) 20th Anniversary Symposium: Celebrating Women in Chemical Engineering.
  • August 2018 – Dr. Padak joined the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at UCI as the Associate Director of the UCI Combustion Laboratory and PACE Lab moved to UCI.
  • April 2018 – Dr. Padak received an industrial grant from LAB, France.
  • April 2018 – Congratulations to Michael Royko for receiving an honorable mention for the 2018 NSF-GRFP
  • April 2018 – Congratulations to Sam Horlick for winning the best poster presentation award at the University South Carolina’s Discovery Day.
  • March 2018 – Dr. Padak gave a talk at the Alpha Omega Epsilon Engineering Sorority Event.
  • March 2018 – The coating ceremony was held for the first time for the chemical engineering department to honor all of the graduate students who have passed their comprehensive exams.
  • March 2018 – Dr. Padak was elected to serve a three-year term (2018-2021) as a member of the Board of Directors for the Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division (Area 20) of AIChE.
  • March 2018 – Turna Barua successfully passed her Ph.D. comprehensive exam.
  • February 2018 – Dr. Padak served on the committee of AIChE’s Topical Conference: Women’s Initiative Committee (WIC) 20th Anniversary Symposium: Celebrating Women in Chemical Engineering.
  • January 2018 – Sahand Faraji and Michael Royko successfully passed their Admission to Candidacy Exam (ATC).
  • December 2017-Congratulations to Nujhat Choudhury for receiving her PhD degree!
  • August 2017 – Dr. Padak was selected to receive the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ (AIChE) 35Under35 Award in the Energy area and is featured in the August 2017 issue of the Chemical Engineering Progress (CEP) Magazine, which is delivered to more than 45,000 AIChE members worldwide. This award was created to acknowledge the success of AIChE members under the age of 35 who have made significant contributions to the Institute and to the chemical engineering profession.

Interview with Dr. Padak: click here

  • April 2017 – Congratulations to Nujhat Choudhury for winning the 1st place for the three–minute thesis presentation competition at USC’s Discovery Day.
  • July 2017 – Dr. Padak presented a workshop on Teaching Assistant Training/Mentoring with Dr. Brad Bundy (Brigham Young University) at the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) Chemical Engineering Faculty Summer School.
  • April 2017 – Michael Royko received an honorable mention for the 2017 NSF-GRFP.
  • April 2017 – Dr. Padak was invited to submit a manuscript to the AIChE Journal’s special issue called the Futures Issue that will include contributions from early career researchers who are considered to be future leaders in the chemical engineering profession.
  • January 2017 – Turna Barua successfully passed her Admission to Candidacy Exam (ATC).
  • December 2016-Congratulations to Ben Galloway for receiving his PhD degree!
  • November 2016 – Dr. Padak visited GE Power and gave an invited seminar – Greenville, SC.
  • August 2016 – Dr. Padak visited Dr. Sang-Sup Lee and Dr. Dong Hee Lim at the Chungbuk National University in South Korea and gave an invited seminar – Cheongju, South Korea.
  • June 2016 – Dr. Padak was featured as a rising young researcher at the International Symposium of Chemical Reaction Engineering where she gave an invited talk – Minneapolis, MN.
  • June 2016 – Dr. Padak received a grant from the National Science Foundation’s Combustion and Fire Systems program to study the interaction of nitrogen and sulfur species with oxygen carriers in chemical looping with oxygen uncoupling.
  • May 2016 – Dr. Padak gave an invited presentation at the ACS Florida Annual Meeting and Exposition – Palm Harbor, FL.
  • April 2016 – Dr. Padak received an industrial grant from the Electric Power Research Institute and the Southern Company.
  • March 2016 – Congratulations to Nujhat Choudhury for winning the 1st place in the poster competition at the Chemical Engineering Graduate Research Symposium at USC.
  • February 2016 – Dr. Padak was elected to serve as the Programming Chair of Reaction Engineering (Area 20B) under the Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division of AIChE between 2016-2018.
  • September 2015- Nazli Asgari successfully passed her Ph.D. comprehensive exam.
  • January 2015 – Nazli Asgari received a University of South Carolina SPARC Graduate Research Grant Program award.
  • January 2015 – Dr. Padak received an industrial grant from the Milliken & Company.
  • September 2014 – Dr. Padak gave an invited talk at the USC Energy Leadership Institute Forum “Cradle to Grave: CO2 Opportunities and Challenges” – Columbia, SC.
  • December 2013 – Nazli Asgari successfully passed her Admission to Candidacy Exam (ATC).
  • October 2013 – Dr. Padak received a grant from the Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory’s (NETL) University Turbine Systems Research (UTSR) Program to study NOx formation in high hydrogen content (HHC) fuel combustion in gas turbines in collaboration with Dr. Tanvir Farouk (USC) and Dr. Fred Dryer (Princeton University).
  • February 2013 – Dr. Padak visited Babcock & Wilcox Company Research Center and gave an invited seminar – Barberton, OH.
  • September 2012 – Dr. Padak received a grant from National Science Foundation’s Combustion and Fire Systems Program to study pollutant formation during oxy-combustion of coal.