Current Members

Dr. Gergo Ignacz

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Gergo received his MRes from the University of Manchester in 2018 and his PhD from KAUST in 2023, both at The Szekely Group. Inbetween, he worked one year in the pharmaceutical industry. Gergo has been active in the fields of nature-inspired polymers and machine learning for membrane separations, in particular organic solvent nanofiltration. Gergo is currently a postdoc in our group at KAUST since 2023. LinkedIn and GoogleScholar profiles.

Publications:

Dr Rifan Hardian

Rifan photo

Rifan received his PhD in Materials Science from Aix-Marseille University, France, within the European Commission’s Marie Curie Actions under the supervision of Philip Llewellyn and Marie-Vanessa Coulet. He worked as an Early Stage Researcher at MADIREL Laboratory to investigate the interplay between texture, structure, and reactivity in Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs), particularly in the case of defective, amorphous, and metal-encapsulated MOFs. His research interest encompasses gas storage, separation, and heterogenous catalysis. Read more about Rifan at his Blog, LinkedIn and GoogleScholar profiles.

Publications:

Viktor Toth

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Viktor received his BSc and MSc in Chemistry from the Comenius University in Bratislava at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, where he focused on enantioselective organocatalytic Diels-Alder reactions, and hydantoin precursors for SARS-CoV-2 Mpro protease inhibitors. He joined our group as a visiting student in July 2022, followed by PhD studies from 2023. Viktor’s research now focuses on the synthesis of polymers of intrinsic microporosity for the development of organic solvent nanofiltration membranes. PhD graduation: 2026. ORCiD and Twitter profiles.

Claudia Iluhi Oviedo Osornio

Claudia Iluhi Oviedo Osornio

Claudia earned her bachelor’s degree in Medicinal Chemistry at UAQ in Mexico, which provided her with a broad knowledge in chemistry, pharmacy, and biology. Throughout the degree, she was selected for an international placement in Spain and another one within Mexico’s top universities, UNAM in Mexico City. At UNAM, she completed her dissertation, which centered on complementing computational tools, statistics, and laboratory results to drastically reduce the time required for drug discovery. Nowadays, she is working towards her MS-PhD degree focused on the effect of deacetylation on cellulose acetate membranes for liquid separations. Expected MS graduation: 2022, PhD graduation: 2025. ORCiD profile, LinkedIn profile.

Aron Beke

Aron 2

Aron received his Chemical Engineering BSc degree from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, with a specialization in pharmaceutical chemistry and technology. By combining the pharmaceutical sciences with process engineering and machine learning, Aron worked on modeling continuous pharmaceutical technologies before joining the group as an MS/PhD student in 2021 to extend his work to membrane processes. Expected MS graduation: 2022, PhD graduation: 2025. ORCiD profile, LinkedIn profile.

Publications:

  1. G. Ignacz, A.K. Beke, G. Szekely, Data-driven future for nanofiltration: escaping linearity, Journal of Membrane Science Letters, 2023, 3, 100040 Open_Access_logo small
  2. G. Ignacz, A.K. Beke, G. Szekely, Data-driven investigation of process solvent and membrane material on organic solvent nanofiltration, Journal of Membrane Science, 2023, 674, 121519 – IF: 10.5
  3. A.K. Beke, G. Szekely, Enantioselective nanofiltration using predictive process modeling: Bridging the gap between materials development and process requirements, Journal of Membrane Science, 2022, 663, 121020 – IF: 10.5
  4. S. Overmans, G. Ignacz, A.K. Beke, J. Xu, P. Saikaly, G. Szekely, K.J. Lauersen, Continuous extraction and concentration of secreted metabolites from engineered microbes using membrane technology, Green Chemistry, 2022, 5479 (selected for 2022 HOT Green Chemistry article; selected for front cover) Open_Access_logo small – IF: 11

Diana Gulyas Oldal

Diana

Diana received her BS degree in Chemical Engineering from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and she joined the group as a visiting student in January 2020. She continued her work in the group as an MS student from August 2020. Diana defended her MS thesis, focused on electrospinning biodegradable polymers using green solvents, in April 2022. She was awarded the highly competitive KAUST Discovery Doctoral Fellowship and now continues her studies as a PhD student in our group. Expected PhD graduation: 2025. ORCiD profile, LinkedIn profile.

Publications:

  1. D.G. Oldal, F. Topuz, T. Holtzl, G. Szekely, Green Electrospinning of Biodegradable Cellulose Acetate 2 Nanofibrous Membranes with Tunable Porosity, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 2023, 11, 994 – IF: 9.2
  2. F. Topuz, D.G. Oldal, G. Szekely, Valorization of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Plastic Wastes as Nanofibrous Membranes for Oil Removal: Sustainable Solution for Plastic Waste and Oil Pollution, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 2022, 61, 9077 – IF: 4.3

Nawader Alqadhi

Nawader A

Nawader received her MS degree in Chemistry from Taibah University, Saudi Arabia. Nawader was a lecturer at Taibah University, after which she decided to pursue a PhD degree. She joined the group as a PhD student to investigate the solvent effect in the field of organic solvent nanofiltration. PhD graduation: 2024. ORCiD profile.

Publications:

  1. G. Ignacz, N. Alqadhi, G. Szekely, Explainable machine learning for unraveling solvent effects in polyimide organic solvent nanofiltration membranes, Advanced Membranes, 2023, 3, 100061 Open_Access_logo small

Joyce Cavalcante

Joyce Cavalcante

Joyce received her MS degree in Material Science and Engineering from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, in Brazil. She joined the group as a PhD student to investigate the fabrication and characterization of biopolymer-based membranes, and their separation performance in organic media. PhD graduation: 2023. LinkedIn profile.

Publications:

Martin Gede

Martin Gede

Martin received his BEng and MEng degrees in Chemical Engineering from Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and he was a visiting student in the group during the summer of 2019. He joined the group as a PhD student in 2020 to develop nanocomposite membranes and intrinsically microporous polymers for various separation challenges. PhD graduation: 2023. ORCiD profile.

Publications:

  1. J. Hu, R. Hardian, M. Gede, T. Holtzl, G. Szekely, Reversible crosslinking of polybenzimidazole-based organic solvent nanofiltration membranes using difunctional organic acids: Toward sustainable crosslinking approaches, Journal of Membrane Science, 2022, 648, 120383 – IF: 9.2