Georgia Tech ChBE 125th Anniversary Symposium Series
The first Symposium celebrates our alumni in academic careers, featuring:
Dun-Yen Kang (PhD 2012), Professor, National Taiwan University, Dun-Yen@NTU
Adriana San Miguel (PhD 2011/Postdoc 2015), Associate Professor & Director of Graduate Programs, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, San Miguel Lab at NC State
Naechul Shin (PhD 2013), Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Inha University, Shin Research Group at INHA | Semiconductor Nanomaterials Laboratory
Dun-Yen Kang's Talk: “MOF Membranes for Gas Separation: Achievements and Unresolved Challenges”
Abstract: Since the first report of a metal-organic framework (MOF) membrane for gas separation in 2009, this field has attracted extensive research interest. Over the past 15 years, numerous MOF membranes with impressive H2/CO2 selectivities have been developed. However, despite computational predictions that many MOF structures could perform effectively in flue gas CO2 capture, only a limited number of experimentally fabricated pure MOF membranes exhibit CO2/N2 selectivities that rival those of other membrane classes such as polymers and carbon molecular sieves.
In this talk, I will first highlight several MOF membranes recently synthesized in my laboratory that demonstrate promising CO2 separation performance. I will then present our discovery of single-file diffusion in UTSA-280 membranes, which results in exceptionally high CO2/N2 selectivity (>600). Finally, I will discuss ongoing work employing kinetic Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the critical role of interfacial adsorption and desorption phenomena in governing gas permeation. This interfacial effect, though potentially decisive for separation performance, remains insufficiently understood and requires systematic study.
Bio: Born in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1981, Dun-Yen Kang began his academic journey at National Taiwan University (NTU), where he earned his BS in Chemical Engineering in 2004. He pursued doctoral studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2008 and received his PhD in 2012 under the joint supervision of Sankar Nair and Christopher W. Jones. Following his doctorate, he spent one year as a postdoctoral fellow in Seth Marder’s group at Georgia Tech.
Dun-Yen launched his independent career as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at NTU, where he was promoted to Associate Professor in 2017 and Full Professor in 2021. In 2024, he was named Distinguished Professor at NTU. His honors include the Ta-You Wu Memorial Award (2021) and the Outstanding Research Award (2023) from the National Science and Technology Council, along with eight NTU Teaching Excellence Awards. His research focuses on membranes for gas separation, CO2 capture, and mass transport phenomena in porous materials.
Adriana San Miguel's Talk: “Shedding light on neurodegeneration through AI-aided
neuron structure analysis in C. elegans”
Abstract: The incidence of neurodegenerative diseases has been rising in recent decades and is expected to continue increasing alongside global population aging. While diverse in etiology and mechanisms, many neurodegenerative diseases share common features, including morphological changes in neurons that are now recognized as hallmarks of cellular stress. A wide range of stressors can trigger these alterations, which are often accompanied by functional and molecular changes. One of these morphological alterations is neuronal beading, where bead-like swellings are generated along dendritic or axonal segments. Despite their prevalence, the significance of neuronal beading as a marker of neuronal damage remains unclear, as does its physicochemical nature. Intriguingly, beads can retract under some conditions while in others they appear to be indicative of imminent cell death, raising the question of whether they represent a harmful byproduct of stress or a protective adaptive response. Addressing this requires detailed, quantitative analysis of beading patterns and regeneration dynamics.
In this talk, I will show how AI-driven image analysis can help to characterize morphological alterations of neurons under stress. I will introduce two independent pipelines: one for bead extraction and in-depth quantification, and another for tracing and classifying sub-dendritic segments. Applying these tools, we uncovered a redistribution of structural components to regions prone to regeneration. Our unbiased quantitative analysis further suggests a link between the well-known HIF-1 stress response pathway and the dendritic periodic cytoskeleton. This work is a first step to disentangle an important intersection of genetic pathways and structural alterations that could serve as important therapeutic targets.
Bio: Adriana San Miguel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at N.C. State University, where she also serves as Director of Graduate Programs. She is part of the Synthetic and Systems Biology Cluster in the Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence Program. She obtained a BS in Chemical Engineering from the Monterrey Institute of Technology in her native México and received her PhD in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Tech in 2011, where she conducted research on stimulus-responsive capsules and emulsions under the supervision of Sven Behrens. She subsequently joined Hang Lu’s group as a Postdoctoral Researcher, where she was awarded a K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award from the NIH to study aging of the nervous system in C. elegans. She also conducted postdoctoral research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, in Marc Vidal’s group, focusing on protein–protein interaction networks. During her recent sabbatical, San Miguel investigated RNA transport, extracellular vesicle biology, and cellular models of polyglutamine diseases. This work was carried out as a Visiting Scientist in Derrick Gibbings’ group at the University of Ottawa and as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar in Clévio Nóbrega’s group at the University of Algarve in Portugal. Her research group at N.C. State develops engineering approaches to understand aging, organismal stress regulation, and neurodegeneration.
Naechul Shin's Talk: “Dimensional Engineering of van der Waals nanostructures”
Abstract: Van der Waals (vdW) semiconductors with anisotropic structures exhibit unique physical and electronic properties compared to conventional 3D crystalline semiconductors. A critical aspect of these materials is the absence of surface dangling bonds, which enables the formation of vdW heterostructures free from interfacial lattice mismatch. However, because of their inherently planar geometry, the design space of such structures has been largely confined to planar stacking. Beyond the superior intrinsic properties of 2D vdW semiconductors, expanding their structural control into other dimensions offers new opportunities to explore structure-function relationships in these systems.
In this talk, I will present several approaches from our laboratory to achieve dimensional engineering of vdW materials. Using multiple vdW semiconductors as model systems, we demonstrate that the stacking of vdW layers can be kinetically controlled within 1D nanowire framework via a vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) growth process. These nanowires, composed of 2D layer stacks with varying orientations, feature sidewall facets with distinct atomic configurations. Such structural variations directly influence their optical responses, while interfacing them with other 2D semiconductors generates junctions with unique atomic registries. We show that these atomic registries give rise to localized, geometry-dependent excitonic emissions. Furthermore, we illustrate how design principles established in nanowire systems (e.g., sidewall facets, modulated diameters) can be transferred to vdW heterointerfaces, providing a new strategy to engineer vdW heterostructure-based photonic and optoelectronic devices.
Bio: Naechul Shin received his BS and MS degrees in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Seoul National University in 2006 and 2008, respectively, and his PhD in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2013 under the supervision of Michael Filler. He then conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2014. In 2015, he joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at Inha University, where he is currently an Associate Professor. His research group focuses on the structural engineering of semiconductor nanomaterials using vapor-deposition techniques, with ongoing studies on vdW nanowires, two-dimensional materials, and metal halide perovskites.