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Congratulations to Martin Gede on completing an excellent PhD thesis titled Advancing Sustainable Photoredox Catalysis with Polymers of Intrinsic Microporosity: from Catalyst Design to Continuous–Flow Process!  Many thanks to their committee members, namely Profs Javier Ruiz-Martinez and Monika Chodasiewicz from KAUST and Prof Timothy Noël from the University of Amsterdam. 🙏 

It has been a true pleasure working with you throughout this journey, and your hard work and dedication are evident in the depth and quality of your research. You are not only a brilliant researcher but also a great colleague, and I have thoroughly enjoyed supervising your PhD research. I have no doubt that your future career will be filled with success and exciting opportunities. Wishing you all the best in your next steps. I’m confident you’ll continue to make a meaningful impact! 🚀

Martin’s thesis was selected as the best chemical engineering thesis in 2024 and was nominated for the best PhD thesis in the Physical Science and Engineering Division at KAUST. 💡 Congratulations! 

🚨 Revolutionizing Energy Efficiency in Chemical Separations! We’re thrilled to share our latest open access research 🔓, just out in Nature Energy!

Our paradigm-shifting hybrid modeling approach combines cutting-edge machine learning with mechanistic insights, unlocking the potential to…
🔋 slash energy use and CO₂ emissions by up to 90% in pharmaceutical purifications;
🌎 achieve 40% energy reduction overall in chemical separations; and
💡 enable membrane technology to enhance up to 74% of chemical separations.

We analyzed a staggering 7.1 million scenarios across a wide range of application domains to guide sustainable technology choices in the chemical industry.

👏 A huge congratulations to the team:
Gergő Ignácz 🤖📊 – The Robot, who trained the AI
Aron Kristof Beke ⚙️⚡ – The Energizer, who powered the separations
Viktor Toth ⚗️🥼 – The Chemist, who cooked the drugs

👨‍💻 Dive into the future of energy-efficient separations here if you want to read the article, or listen to an AI-generated podcast:

Read the story behind the article in the KAUST Discovery magazine published under ‘Slashing industrial emissions using a hybrid model approach‘.

Read the commentary by Professor Michael Tsapatsis from Johns Hopkins University under ‘Facilitating decision making‘ published in the News & Views section of Nature Energy.

🌐 Use our online open access tools to enhance your separations at the OSN Database: www.OSNdatabase.com

Congratulations to Nawader Alqadhi for passing her PhD defense at KAUST in July 2024. Many thanks to their committee members, namely Profs Pascal Saikaly and NorEddine Ghaffour from KAUST and Prof Christopher Fellows from the University of New England in Australia and the Saudi Water Authority. Hard work always pays off. You nailed your thesis defense! Wishing you all the best for your future career!

It was a pleasure to talk about our mycelium-based  membranes with Lewis Vaughan Jones through a live BBC News interview. Good to see that our research has interest beyond academia. 📺

Thanks to Joyce, my PhD alumni, who developed the membranes, and BBC for the opportunity!

The research article is open access, enjoy!

Here is the JMCA front cover for th article:

Image credit: Ivan Gromicho @KAUST

Check out our new article on biobased interpenetrating polymer network membranes for sustainable molecular sieving. The article was selected for the cover of ACS Nano. We developed a solely biobased interpenetrating polymer network membrane. Congrats to all the contributors in my team, namely Joyce, Diana, Aron and Rifan, as well as our collaborators from the Schwingenschlogl group!

The interface engineering synergistically combined natural latex and agarose.🌱 nanoIR and cryo-SEM revealed unique features of the membranes. The nanofiltration membranes demonstrated excellent solvent resistance and molecular sieving properties under harsh conditions.

The membranes were successfully used for pharmaceutical purification, 💉 and they removed impurities below the threshold level of toxicological concern. The biodegradability of the membranes enable an environmentally friendly end-of-life treatment. ♻️

Image credit: Ana Bigio @KAUST