Post-Docs
Dr. Xiang (Shawn) Zhang (2018-Present)
Dr. Xiang completed his PhD at University of Maryland where he focused on additively manufactured high temperature compact heat exchanger. He has designed, fabricated, and operated a high temperature experimental setup for testing different heat exchanger configurations. Xiang came to OSU - Cascades as a postdoc in December 2018 and became a research associate in December 2019. Xiang is now also working as machine shop and makerspace manager at OSU - Cascades. His research interest includes heat transfer, thermal management and advanced manufacturing.
Dr. Durga Prasad Ghosh (2019-Present)
Dr. Ghosh received his doctorate from Indian Institute of Technology, Patna, where he worked on flow boiling in nanostructured microchannels. He has designed, fabricated, and operated a high temperature experimental setup for testing different techniques to mitigate thermohydraulic fluctuations typically occurring during flow boiling in microchannels. Durga joined OSU - Cascades as a postdoc in December 2019. His research interest includes heat transfer and transport phenomena in multi-phase systems, thermal management, energy conversion and surface engineering. His current research work focuses on solar desalination process and wastewater treatment.
Deepak Sharma (2022-Present)
Dr. Sharma is currently working as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate. He received his doctorate (2019-22) from Oregon State University in Thermal-Fluid Sciences supervised by Dr. Bahman Abbasi, where he developed technology for complete thermal actuation of humidification-dehumidification water desalination system, and making the process electricity free. He also identified the root cause fouling in airblast atomizers and developed a novel airblast atomization mechanism with complete suppression of fouling. Before his Ph.D., he worked as Junior Research Fellow (2017-2018) focusing on the development of an agriculture waste based gasifier system as an alternate source of energy in off-grid areas. He received his Master’s degree (2015-17) from Indian Institute of Technology Patna, under the supervision of Dr. Rishi Raj. He was awarded with the Best Master’s Thesis Award in the Department of Mechanical Engineering for his work on suppression of thermos-fluidic fluctuations in microchannel heat sinks during flow boiling. His research interests are energy, water purification, interfacial science, thermal and fluid transport, surface engineering, multi-phase flow, and phase-change phenomena. His hobbies are reading, surfing, painting, hiking, and rock climbing.
Lab Manager
Sandra Dennis
Sandra is a recent OSU graduate completing her Bachelor of Arts degree in Arts, Media, and Technology. She joined the WET Lab in 2019 as an Undergraduate Research Assistant and now works as an Instrument Technician. Her background is in the field of Automotive Technology having worked as an ASE Master Tech for 15 years. She is involved in design, fabrication and testing of experimental facilities. She is also responsible for WET Lab advertisement and promotions, 3D design of experimental facilities and technical figures for research publications.
Graduate Research Assistant
Mohammed A. Elhashimi (2018-Present)
Mohammed completed his MS in Mechanical Engineering at Oregon State University. He is currently working on his PhD developing new measurement techniques for evaporation rates in spray environments, cyclone separators for humid air operation, as well as optimization and AI tools for water desalination technologies. Mohammed has experience in the oil & gas industry as a mechanical and piping engineer.
Hannah O’Hern (2019-Present)
Hannah is a graduate student in the mechanical engineering program at OSU. She received her B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Tulsa in 2016. She then received her M.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Tulsa in 2018. Her masters project involved modeling of hybrid solar thermal and photovoltaic power plants. Hannah joined the lab in January 2019 and has been primarily working on system modeling in python and CFD as well as developing AI based digital twins for system components. Outside of work, Hannah enjoys cooking, gardening, and hiking.
Kyle Anderson (2020-Present)
Kyle joined the Water and Energy Technology (WET) lab fall of 2019 as an Energy Systems Engineering undergraduate working on his capstone design project. This project was primarily focused on collecting efficiency data on a demister device used to separate contaminated air from clean liquid water. Starting spring of 2020, Kyle decided to continue his education by enrolling as a graduate student at Oregon State University’s School of Mechanical Engineering. Kyle’s focus as a master’s student is in thermal fluid science research related to water purification that is currently ongoing at the WET lab. Outside of school, Kyle enjoys whitewater kayaking, rock climbing, snowboarding and many other activities in the outdoors.
Morgon Messer (2020-Present)
Morgan is a masters student working as graduate research assistant in mechanical engineering program at OSU. She completed her undergraduate degrees at Oregon State University in both Energy Systems Engineering and Sustainability. She has previous experience at Warn industries working on manufacturing processes, Daimler Trucks North America working on electric semi-trucks, and at OSU working on improving coin cell battery life. She works on a fracking wastewater treatment project for the WET-lab at OSU-Cascades.
Graduate Students
Elnaz Nikooei (2019-Present)
Elnaz graduated in Energy Systems Engineering from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran. She has a background in Chemical Engineering and more than three years of work experience in the energy industry. She has experience in wastewater treatment, air quality modeling and applying intelligent systems in optimization and forecasting problems. Elnaz is currently a Ph.D. student in mechanical engineering at OSU and joined the FRESH-Frac project in June 2019. She works on the separation process and designing the relevant experiments.
Katerina Reynolds (2021-Present)
Katerina graduated with Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from University of Colorado. After working in product design for 2 years at Entegris she joined the WET lab in 2021. Katerina is currently working on her Masters in mechanical engineering, researching the treatment of wastewater from hydraulic fracturing.
Muawia Hassan (2021-Present)
Muawia joined WET Lab as mechanical engineering graduate student of Dr. Abbasi at Oregon State University. He received his Bachelor’s in Engineering from University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan. He has worked in renewable energy industry on commercial and utility solar plants along with a water treatment startup serving 300 households. Currently, he is working with the SCEPTR (FRESH-Frach) team for treatment of hydraulic fracturing wastewater. His hobbies are reading, language exchange, outdoor activities and cooking.
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Michelle Gee
Michelle is a senior energy systems engineering undergraduate and currently enrolled in the accelerated masters program for mechanical engineering. She will graduate with her BS in spring 2022 and her MS in spring 2024. She has been working on the solar desalination demo in the WET lab since 2021, and is looking forward to furthering the pursuit of bringing drinkable water to the masses at low cost.
Alumni
Graduate Students
Kyle Anderson (2020-2022), Master of Science (2020-2022), continued working as Graduate Research Assistant at WET Lab for concluding the overall project.
Mohammed Elhashimi, Philosophy of Doctorate (2019-2022), currently working as Graduate Research Assistant at WET Lab for concluding the overall project.
Hannah O'hern, Philosophy of Doctorate (2019-2022), currently working as Graduate Research Assistant at WET Lab for concluding the overall project.
Morgan Messer, Master of Science (2020-2022), currently working as Graduate Research Assistant at WET Lab for concluding the overall project.
Deepak Sharma, Philosophy of Doctorate (2019-2022), currently working as Post-Doc at Water and Energy Technologies Laboratory and Propulsion Laboratory.
Ifeanyi Uwaoma, Master of Science (2019-2021), currently he is working as a science teacher in Texas.
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Jordan Rote (2019-2022) is graduating in 2022 from OSU-C in the Energy Systems Engineering program and plans on attending graduate school.
Sandra Dennis (2019-2022) is currently working as Lab Manager at Water and Energy Technologies, OSU.