Team

Yeonjoon grew up in Daejeon, South Korea. He obtained his PhD in 2018 at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). His PhD research focused on computational investigation of organic/organometallic reaction mechanisms and development of methods for automated prediction of chemical reaction pathways. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (2018-2020). He joined the Kim group in January 2021. His current research interests include computational modeling to design catalysts for efficient upgrading of biomass to biofuels and to investigate ignition pathways of biofuel compounds. He is pursuing to apply state-of-the-art machine learning techniques to predict catalytic activity and biofuel properties. In his spare time, he enjoys listening to music and embroidering.

Juan obtained his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Alicante (Spain) and his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Zaragoza (Spain) under the supervision of Dr. Raquel P. Herrera and Dr. María E. Marqués López in December 2017. During his Ph.D., he mainly worked as an experimental chemist focused on developing asymmetric organocatalytic reactions. He also employed computational chemistry to complement different experimental mechanistic studies. In March 2018, he joined the Paton group at Colorado State University as a postdoctoral researcher, where he is working on computational mechanistic studies and machine learning predictions. In March 2021, he is going to become part of the Kim group as a research scientist, where he will mainly study mechanisms of reactions with marked industrial interest. In his free time, he enjoys hanging out with friends, playing all types of competitive sports (especially soccer) and board games.

Mohammed completed M.S. in Applied Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He moved to North Dakota State University (NDSU), and obtained Ph.D. in Computational Chemistry in 2020, where he studied surface and interface effects on excited-state processes in metal and semimetal nanoclusters. After the Ph.D. defense in October-2020, he started the first postdoctoral research in the late Dr. Tao Yu group at the University of North Dakota (UND) October-2020. At Yu group, he studied electron beam enhanced surface plasmon in Ag nanoclusters for N₂ dissociation catalysis and excited state dynamics in graphene quantum dots (GQD) to tune the optical properties. He has joined the Kim group in November 2021, where he will study reaction mechanisms using ab initio and machine learning methods. Besides, he loves outdoor activities like – traveling, camping, and hiking.

Sabari spent his childhood first in the Bay Area, then in a small town in South India. After leaving Pomona College, where he performed research on electron transfer in dendritic zeolites and novel anti-malarial chemotypes with Dr. Roberto Garza-Lopez, he obtained his undergraduate degree in Chemistry and Mathematics from CU Boulder in 2019, performing a senior project using mathematical modeling techniques to study soil plutonium concentrations at the Rocky Flats Superfund Site. Sabari worked in the tech and environmental engineering sectors before starting his graduate studies at CSU in 2021. As part of the Kim group, Sabari applies machine learning techniques to design novel biofuel candidates, with an interest in exploring enzyme-driven synthetic techniques. In his free time, Sabari loves to explore Colorado’s mountains, and can be found biking, rock climbing, and skiing.

David Price was born in Phoenix, Arizona. He enrolled at ASU to pursue a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering but later switched to chemical engineering. Price later switched to chemistry after just one semester of studying chemical engineering. As an undergraduate, he conducted research on thin film growth and device integration with the Kouvetakis group while also performing water quality assessments at one of Arizona’s primary public utility companies. Price graduated with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 2020 and started his graduate career at Colorado State University after joining the Kim group later that year.

Hojin grew up in Seoul, Korea. In 2020, he obtained his B.S. in engineering (chemical and biomolecular) from Yonsei University. After starting his graduate career at the Yonsei University, he joined the group as a visiting program in January 2021. He is motivated with a passion for AI application in various process domains. In his spare time, Hojin enjoys watching movie, running, and cooking.

Alex is from Fort Collins Colorado. He is a 3rd year undergraduate at CSU, with plans to graduate in Spring 2021. He is interested in the machine learning side of the group. For fun, Alex loves to run, go hiking, and watch movies.