Current Group Members
Diana Katherine Condor
Katherine received her BS degree in Chemistry from Yachay Tech University in Ecuador. Her previous experience includes research on nanomaterials and the use of electrochemical and microscopic techniques for material characterization. Before joining the group, she completed research internships at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) in Japan and the Centro Conjunto de Investigación en Química Sustentable (CCIQS) in Mexico. In 2025, she joined our group first as a visiting student and then continued with her MS/PhD studies at KAUST. Her current research focuses on electrospinning biomass-derived membranes and the integration of machine learning for process optimization.
Paula Alvarez Hernandez
Paula received her BS in Nanotechnology and Molecular Engineering at Universidad de las Ámericas Puebla (UDLAP). Her interest lies in the intersection between chemistry and environmental impact. Her previous research was focused on computational chemistry, synthesis of metallic nanoparticles, as well as polymeric blends with nanopolymers. She was a VSRP student in the group in 2024, and started to focus on the synthesis and purification of catalysts. Paula is expected to graduate with an MS degree in 2027.
Nouf Alzaid
Nouf earned her BSc degree in Pharmaceutical Science from King Saud University in 2018. She is currently pursuing her MS degree in Bioscience at KAUST. Her research focuses on sustainable and green chemistry strategies for the membrane-assisted synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients. LinkedIn profile.
Dr. 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. He graduated in 2024 and remained in our group as a postdoc. ORCiD profile.
Dr. Hakkim Vovusha
Hakkim received his PhD in 2013 from University of Madras, Tamil Nadu, India. Before joining the group, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Uppsala University, Sweden, KAUST, Saudi Arabia, and Seoul National University, South Korea. His research interests mainly focus on DFT and MD simulation of reaction mechanism pathways, polymeric materials for separation, and two-dimensional materials for sensing. He is currently working as a Computational Specialist in our group since 2024. ORCiD and LinkedIn profiles.
Dr. Rifan Hardian
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 separation materials, membranes and machine learning. He joined the group as a postdoc in 2020 and got promoted to research scientist in 2023. Read more about Rifan at his Blog, LinkedIn and GoogleScholar profiles.
Andres Duarte Espinoza
Andres completed his Bachelor’s in Nanotechnology and Molecular Engineering at Universidad de las Américas Puebla in 2024. His previous experience includes research on graphene synthesis, extraction of bioactive compounds, and modified electrodes based on titanium dioxide nanotubes, with applications in the degradation of emerging contaminants. In 2024, he joined our group as a visiting student, and in 2025, he began his MS/PhD studies in the Environmental Science & Engineering program at KAUST. His research focuses on green extraction and separation technologies.
Zsofia Horvath
Zsofia received her BS degree in Chemical Engineering from the Budapest University of Science & Technology in 2024, with a specialization in pharmaceutical chemistry and technology. During her previous research, she focused on the development of rhodamine-based voltage sensitive dyes. She joined our group as a visiting student in June 2024, and started her MS/PhD studies at KAUST in 2025. Her research focuses on organic chemistry and process technology.
Kenia Moreno Martínez
Kenia received her BSc degree in Chemical Engineering from the Instituto Tecnológico de Ciudad Madero in 2019, specializing in chemical processes. She worked for two years in SABIC Innovative Plastics as a Production Engineer back in Mexico before deciding to study for her MSc degree at KAUST. Her previous research work focused on the upgrading of bio-oils to obtain biofuels through the hydrodeoxygenation of lignocellulosic pyrolysis bio-oil and the characterization of complex mixtures. She continued her PhD studies in KAUST and joined the group in 2024. ORCiD and profile.
Lana Bader
Lana earned her BEng degree from the University of Surrey, UK where she continued to further her education and completed an MSc degree in Chemical Engineering from University College London, UK. Lana worked for three years in industry in a membrane filtration company after which she decided to pursue a PhD degree. She has now joined the group as a PhD student to investigate organic solvent nanofiltration membranes using machine learning. Expected PhD graduation: 2026. ORCiD and LinkedIn profiles.
Viktor Toth
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. Expected PhD graduation: 2026. ORCiD and Twitter profiles.
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. Claudia completed her MS in 2022, and continued with her PhD. Expected PhD graduation: 2025. ORCiD and LinkedIn profiles.
Aron Beke
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. He graduation with an MS in 2022, and continued with his PhD. Expected PhD graduation: 2025. ORCiD profile, LinkedIn profile.
Diana Gulyas Oldal
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. She developed green electrospun nanofibrous membranes. Diana defended her MS Thesis focused on electrospinning biodegradable polymers using green solvents in April 2022, and she will continue her studies as a PhD student in our group. PhD graduation: 2025. ORCiD profile, LinkedIn profile.
Alumni Group Members
Anastasiia Chepeleva
Anastasiia received her BSc degree in Chemistry from Yaroslavl State University in 2021, specializing in medical and pharmaceutical chemistry. She completed her MSc at Saint Petersburg State University, specializing in membrane technologies, in particular pervaporation process for ethylene glycol regeneration. She joined the group as a visiting student in 2024-2025. Her research focused on high-throughput organic solvent nanofiltration. ORCiD profile.
Reka Nemeth
Reka received my BS degree in Chemical Engineering from the Budapest University of Science and Technology in 2023, specializing in industrial pharmaceutics. During her previous research, she focused on the application of heterogeneous organocatalysts in the chemical depolymerization of polymer waste. After joining our group as a visiting student in June 2022, she continued with an MS and defended her thesis on PAT for membranes in 2025.
Dr. Iqbaal Abdurrokhman
Iqbaal completed his PhD in Material Science at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, from 2017 to 2021, under the guidance of Prof. Anna Martinelli. He then went to the Universite Littoral Cote d’Opale in Dunkerque, France, to work with Prof. Sophie Fourmentin, studying on protic ionic liquids for use in capturing volatile organic compounds. His scientific interests include protic ionic liquid synthesis, characterizations its transport properties with intended application for proton conducting materials, and utilising protic ionic liquids for volatile organic compound absorption. Iqbaal is currently a postdoc in our group since 2023. LinkedIn and GoogleScholar profiles.
Dr. Gopalsamy Karuppasamy
Gopalsamy received his PhD in 2016 from AcSIR, India under the guidance of Dr. Venkatesan Subramanian. Prior to joining KAUST, he worked as a postdoctoral research fellow with Prof. Guillaume Maurin (CNRS-ICGM, France), Dr. Ravichandar Babaro (RMIT University, Australia), Dr. Raghunath O. Ramabhadran (IISER-Tirupati, India) and Prof. Jerome Delhommelle (University of North Dakota, USA). His research interest is mainly focusing on the rational design and development of porous separation materials using multiscale computational modelling techniques. Gopalsamy is currently a research scientist in our group since 2023. LinkedIn and GoogleScholar profiles.
Dr. Gergo Ignacz
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.
Dr. Banan Alhazmi
Banan received her MS from KAUST, under the guidance of Prof. Suzana Nunes, where her thesis research focused on solvent-resistant nanofiltration membranes. She remained at KAUST for her PhD under the co-supervision of Profs Nunes and Szekely. She graduated in 2025 with a thesis on polymeric membranes with enhanced selectivity for pharmaceutical and chemical separations. ORCiD and LinkedIn profiles.
Dr. Nawader Alqadhi
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. She graduated in 2024. ORCiD profile.
Dr. M. Irshad Baig
Irshad received his PhD from the University of Twente, The Netherlands in 2021 under the supervision of Prof. Wiebe M. de Vos. His research focused on developing the aqueous phase separation approach for the production of polymeric membranes in completely aqueous conditions. Prior to his PhD, Irshad worked as a research assistant at the Korea Institute of Energy Research, where his research was mainly focused on incorporating nanomaterials in the polyamide layer of TFC membranes for water vapor separation. He received his MEng degree from Korea University of Science and Technology under the supervision of Prof. Heung-Keun Lee. His research interests are sustainable processes, TFC and nanocomposite membranes. Irshad was a postdoc in our group in 2023-2024.
Dr. Abdul Ghaffar
Abdul received his PhD in 2019 in Environmental Science from Zhejiang University, China, under the supervision of Prof. Baoliang Chen. He then moved to the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Zhejiang University-University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Institute to carry out his early career postdoctoral research. His research interests include adsorption and membrane technology, and environmental functional materials for water and wastewater treatment. He has been working on 2D materials, biomass derived carbon, ultrathin membranes, stimuli responsive membranes, solar-water desalination and energy generation. Abdul was a postdoc in our group in 2023-2024.
Dr. 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. She graduated with a PhD from KAUST in 2023.
Dr. Jiahui Hu
Jiahui received her MS degree from the University of Manchester under the supervision of Dr Thomas Rodgers. Jiahui’s PhD research focused on exploring the potential of artificial intelligence for advancing membrane separations, and developing novel membranes for organic solvent nanofiltration. She graduated with a PhD from KAUST in 2023.
Dr. Gergo Ignacz
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.
Dr. Cong Yang
Cong received her MS degree from the University of Manchester. Cong’s PhD research focuses on developing green, solvent-resistant thin film composite membranes for organic solvent nanofiltration. Cong graduated with a PhD from KAUST in 2023.
Dr. Fadhilah Alduraiei
Fadhilah received her MS degree from KAUST under Prof Peng Wang. Her project focused on superwettable membranes for highly efficient separation of oil in water emulsions. She worked on multiple environmental sustainability projects, which looks into treating industrial waste. During her PhD in the group, Fadhilah developed TFC membranes for separations in non-polar organic solvents in collaboration with Professor Suzana Nunes. Fadhilah graduated with a PhD from KAUST in 2023.
Dr. Mohamed Abdellah
Mohamed got his PhD degree in the synthesis and utilization of polymeric OSN membranes from The University of Melbourne in 2020. He worked as a research fellow at The University of Melbourne for one year before Joining KAUST as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in our group in 2021-2022. Mohamed’s research interest focuses on the synthesis of bio-derived selective membranes and their applications in liquid and gas separation.
Dr. Sushil Kumar
Sushil received his PhD in Inorganic chemistry from the University of Delhi, India. He worked as a SERB-Young Scientist at CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune (India), and a postdoctoral fellow at KAUST investigating the synthesis and applications of covalent organic frameworks. His research interest encompasses designing and synthesizing novel porous polymers for different industrial applications. He was a postdoc in the group from 2020 for 2.5 years.
Dr. Robert McNair
Rob explores membrane capacitive deionisation techniques to remove undesirable ions from water. The ultimate aim of the project will strive to achieve clean, drinkable water. As part of the Graphene NOWNANO CDT, Rob develops graphene-based membranes and other 2D materials as a means of deionisation and desalination in collaboration with Professor Robert Dryfe from the School of Chemistry at The University of Manchester. Rob graduated with a PhD from Manchester in 2021.
Dr. Abdulaziz Alammar
Abdulaziz investigates the formation and mitigation of tight water/oil emulsions in the petrochemical industry. In particular, he is developing new materials and processes with sustainability in mind. Abdulaziz graduated with a PhD from Manchester in 2021 and returned to Saudi Aramco.
Dr. Mahmoud Abdulhamid
Mahmoud joined the group in 2019 as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in KAUST after finishing his PhD in Chemical Science under the supervision of Prof. Ingo Pinnau at AMPMC-KAUST. He worked on designing and synthesizing novel porous polymers for different industrial applications including gas separation and organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN). His research focuses on developing newly fashioned polymers prepared from contorted structures and study their transport performance. Having spent almost 3 years in the group, he accepted a new role as a research faculty at KFUPM.
Dr. Levente Cseri
Levente worked on advanced materials and ion-exchange membranes for various seprations, in particular electrodialysis to tackle the 21st century’s engineering grand challenge of clean water. His research is carried out in close collaboration with Professor Peter Budd from The University of Manchester, and Professor Linda Zou from Masdar Institute. Levente graduated with a PhD from Manchester in 2021 and started working at Femtonics.
Dr. Hai Anh Le Phuong
Hai Anh explored innovative membrane-based approaches for separations utilising green chemistry and engineering. Her project is carried out in a close collaboration with Dr Christopher Blanford from the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology. Hai Anh graduated with a PhD from Manchester in 2021 and started working at RichterGedeon.
Dr. Fuat Topuz
Fuat joined the group as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2019-2021) at KAUST. He obtained his PhD from RWTH Aachen after which he was a postdoc UNAM-National Nanotechnology Research Center of Turkey. Fuat focused on the engineering of functional nanomaterials for environmental applications and separations in organic media.
Dr. Sang-Hee Park
Sang-Hee joined the group as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2019-2020) in KAUST moving from the Sustainable & Environmental Materials Laboratory at Korea University. He worked on thin film composite (TFC) membranes for organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN). His research focused on exploring the structure-performance-property correlation via fine-turning the membrane structures and their intrinsic properties. Currently he is an assistant professor at Korea University.
Zsolt Fulop
Zsolt 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 worked on the development of OSN membranes using renewable resources. S.-H. Park, A. Alammar, Z. Fulop, B. Pulido, S. Nunes, G. Szekely,He has co-authored the article on Hydrophobic thin film composite nanofiltration membranes derived solely from sustainable sources, Green Chemistry, 2021, 23, 1175. (selected for front cover) 
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Virag Voros
Virag spent her Erasmus scholarship in the group at Manchester in 2018 and visited KAUST in 2019. His research focused on modelling of hybrid processes for nanofiltration-enabled waste utilization. She has co-authors an article Process Intensification via Continuous and Simultaneous Isolation of Antioxidants: An Upcycling Approach for Olive Leaf Waste, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 2019, 7, 18444, which was featured on the front cover of the journal.
Dr. Fan Fei
Fan developed graphene-based membranes for molecular level separations in organic media. He was mainly based in the School of Materials, and he investigated new techniques to characterise graphene oxide membranes. His project was carried out in close cooperation with Dr Christopher Blanford from the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology. Fan graduated with a PhD from Manchester in 2019.
Dr. Gergo Ignacz
Gergo developed robust polymers and polymer blends for organic solvent nanofiltration. He focused on polymers of intrinsic microporosity and polybenzimidazole. He graduated with an MRes from Manchester in 2018.
Dr. Christos Didaskalou
Christos worked in the group toward his PhD between 2014 and 2017. His research focused on the development of sustainable separation processes using advanced materials. Christos developed membranes for organic solvent nanofiltration and imprinted polymers for scavenging natural products. He graduated with a PhD from Manchester in 2017.
Mayamin Razali
Mayamin worked in the group in Manchester between 2015 and 2017. Her research focused on sustainable wastewater treatment for the membrane manufacturing industry, long-term stability of molecularly imprinted polymers and revealing the effect of solvent treatment on membrane separation.
Dr. Tamas Fodi
Tamas spent his Campus Mundi PhD secondment in the group in Manchester in 2017. His research focused on heterogeneous catalysis in flow reactors with integrated membrane-based separation. He co-authored a publication on Nanofiltration‐enabled in situ solvent and reagent recycle for sustainable continuous‐flow synthesis, ChemSusChem, 2017, 10, 3435.
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