Principal Investigator
Dr. Prashun Gorai
Dr. Gorai is an assistant professor (starting Jan 2025) in Chemical and Biological Engineering at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is also a research assistant professor in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines and holds a joint appointment at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). He obtained his Bachelor’s degree (IIT Madras) and PhD (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) in Chemical Engineering. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Mines and NREL. Outside of work, he enjoys cooking, hiking, photography, and traveling to Japan and Italy.
Google Scholar Email: goraip<at>rpi<dot>edu, pgorai<at>mines<dot>edu
Research Associate
Dr. Cheng-Wei Lee
Cheng-Wei is a research associate in the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines (CSM). He obtained his Ph.D. in Materials Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2019, and his Master’s degree from Cornell University in 2014. Cheng-Wei’s work focuses on the discovery of new tetrahedral ferroelectric and multiferroic materials, understanding the effect of defects and dopants on ion transport in solid electrolytes, and developing interatomic potentials for multiscale simulations. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with his daughter, and seeking out good food.
Google Scholar Email: clee2<at>mines<dot>edu
Postdoctoral Researchers
Dr. Rinkumoni (Rinku) Chaliha
Rinku is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. She has a Ph.D. in computational chemistry from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (India). She holds a Master’s degree from Tezpur University (India). Rinku’s postdoctoral research centers on the design and understanding of novel Zintl phases using graph neural networks and ab initio methods. She is also interested in the electrochemical degradation of PFAS. In her free time, she finds pleasure in hiking in the mountains.
Email: rinkumoni<dot>chaliha<at>mines<dot>edu
Dr. Neha Yadav
Neha is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. She obtained her Master’s from the Indian Institute of Technology Ropar (India) in 2017 followed by her Ph.D. in Theoretical and Computational Chemistry in 2022. Neha’s postdoctoral research focuses on ultrawide band gap semiconductors for microelectronics and glassy solid electrolytes for Na-ion batteries. She loves crafts, painting, and is a fitness enthusiast enjoying her time in the gym and running.
Google Scholar Email: neha<dot>yadav<at>mines<dot>edu
Graduate Researchers
Michael Toriyama
Michael is a PhD student in Jeff Snyder‘s group at Northwestern University, with a Bachelors in Materials Science and Applied Mathematics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He studies the defect chemistry of thermoelectric materials and models the electronic structure of topological insulators. He enjoys running, playing chess, and cuddling with his cat Newton.
Google Scholar Email: mathtoriyama [at] gmail [dot] com
Thi Nguyen
Thi is a Ph.D. student, with a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Applied Chemistry from the Kyushu University, Japan. Her graduate research will focus on the discovery of new wurtzite-type ferroelectrics and developing design rules for future engineering of this new class of ferroelectrics. Outside of work, she enjoys making handcrafts, karaoke, and drawing.
Email: nguyet18<at>rpi<dot>edu
Undergraduate Researchers
Victoria Bradford
Victoria is an undergraduate researcher in Pamir Alpay’s group at the University of Connecticut. She participated in the Mines NSF-REU program (Summer 2024) and worked on the design of new wurtzite ferroelectrics using a co-alloying approach. As part of her senior design project, she will explore other co-alloying approaches. Outside of work, she can be found enjoying cans of tuna and sardines.
Email: victoria [dot] bradford [at] uconn [dot edu
Group Alumni
Dr. Manish Kumar Kothakonda (Postdoctoral Fellow, 2022-2023), Currently: Postdoc, Northeastern University
Dr. Naseem Ud Din (Postdoctoral Fellow, 2022-2023)
Dr. Shubham Pandey (Postdoctoral Fellow, 2020-2021), Currently: Materials Design, Inc.
Adam N. Carranco (Undergraduate Researcher, 2021-2022), Currently: Affiliated Engineers, Inc.
Alvaro Carbonero (DOE SULI Undergraduate Intern at NREL, 2022), Currently: PhD program, MIT EECS
Henley Sartin (NSF-REU Undergraduate Researcher from Harvey Mudd College, Summer 2020), Currently: PhD program, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Mitchell Koerner (Citrine NextGen Undergraduate Research Fellow from UCSB, 2018), Currently: Arista Networks