Postdoctoral Scholars
Dr. Anthony Ekennia
Anthony graduated with a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. At UC Berkeley, he is a postdoctoral scholar focused on developing catalysts/membranes for electrocatalytic water splitting and photovoltaic cells.
email: aekennia@berkeley.edu
Dr. Arunavo Chakraborty
Arun received his PhD from UC Santa Barbara working with Lior Sepunaru. At UC Berkeley, he will launch a new project targeting the development of intermediate temperature electrochemical platforms for decarbonization and fuel synthesis.
email: achakraborty2@berkeley.edu — linkedin
Dr. Andrew Pendergast
Andrew received his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Utah working with Prof. Henry S. White on electrical double layer effects on electron-, proton-, and phase-transfer processes in electrochemistry. He is passionate about understanding complex electrode/electrolyte interfaces, connecting fundamental electrochemistry with operando nanoscale measurements to quantify and control electrochemical microenvironments. At UC Berkeley he will be working to understand multiscale/multiphase phenomena in electrolzyer systems.
email: adpendergast@berkeley.edu — linkedin
Dr. Yang Zhao - 赵洋
Yang received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Oregon in May 2024 and is a graduate of the Boettcher group. Starting in August 2024, she continues her work in the Boettcher lab as a postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. During her Ph.D., she focused on fundamentally investigating the kinetics of ion transfer processes and surface-modified Cu catalysts for CO2 reduction reactions, funded by the Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA).
email: yangzhao0105@berkeley.edu — linkedin
Dr. Jin Wook Yang
Jin Wook received his Ph.D. from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Seoul National University, where he worked on the materials synthesis and designing (photo)electrocatalysts for energy conversion devices with Prof. Ho Won Jang. At UC Berkeley, his postdoctoral research will focus on artificial photosynthesis integrating biomass upgrading and green fuel production.
email: jwyang@berkeley.edu
Dr. Gwan Hyun Choi
Gwan Hyun received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) under Prof. Pil J. Yoo and later developed water electrolyzers as a postdoctoral associate at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) with Dr. Albert S. Lee. At UC Berkeley, his postdoctoral research will explore interfacial (electro)chemistry in bipolar membranes and an ammonia production system for sustainable energy conversion toward carbon neutrality.
email: gwanhchoi@berkeley.edu
Dr. Wenbo Zhang
Wenbo Zhang received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University. There, he studied the mechanisms of Li metal anode corrosion and recovery in batteries under the guidance of Professor Yi Cui. At Berkeley, he is developing operando platforms to characterize interfacial phenomena and material degradation in electrochemical systems.
email: wen_zhang@berkeley.edu
Dr. Dawei Xi
Dawei graduated with a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering from Harvard University, where he worked on flow chemistry and electrochemical engineering with Prof. Michael J. Aziz. He earned his M.S. and B.S. degree in Chemistry from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), where he worked on electrocatalysis with Prof. Yujie Xiong. At UC Berkeley, he is a postdoctoral scholar focusing on developing membrane mechanisms, and their applications in intermediate temperature and high pressure electrochemistry.
email: daweixi@berkeley.edu — linkedin
Dr. Sanghwi Han
Sanghwi received his Ph.D. in 2025 from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Seoul National University under the supervision of Prof. Jeyong Yoon. His doctoral research focused on the catalytic mechanisms and device-level processes of electrochemical energy conversion systems. At the University of California, Berkeley, he is conducting research on ion crossover in bipolar membranes and the electrolysis of seawater.
Dr. Chulhee Lim
Chulhee Lim received his Ph.D. from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, where he worked on the development of the conjugated polymers and oligomers for stretchable electronics with Prof. Bumjoon J. Kim. At UC Berkeley, his postdoctoral research will focus on designing ion-exchange polymers for bipolar membrane systems.
email: dr.ironman@berkeley.edu
Graduate Students
Nick D'Antona
Nick graduated from St. Mary’s College of Maryland with degrees in chemistry and applied physics. In the Boettcher lab he is studying the kinetics and mechanism of ion transfer at the interface between two immiscible electrolyte solutions (ITIES), primarily using nanopipette voltammetry.
email: ndantona@berkeley.edu
Kam Yun "Kelvin" Li
Kelvin is a PhD student working jointly with Gregory Su at LBNL Advanced Light Source (ALS) and the Boettcher group in studying ionomer nanocomposites and their structure-propriety relationships. He is currently working on morphological impacts of incorporating metal-oxide nanoparticles in perfluorinated sulfonic acid ionomers.
email: kelvinkyli@lbl.gov — linkedin
Manasa Rajeev
Currently at the University of Oregon. Manasa Rajeev graduated from University of Kerala with a degree in Chemistry. At UO, in collaboration with the Kempler group and Hgen, she is interested in improving efficiencies of low-cost alkaline water electrolyzers by studying integrated electrode-membrane architectures built for gas bubble management. Currently, she is investigating catalyst degradation during hydrogen generation from intermittent electricity sourced from wind and solar energy.
email: mrajeev@uoregon.edu — linkedin
Nicole Sagui
Nicole grew up in northern Italy, where she received a BS in Chemistry from the University of Milano-Bicocca. Before moving to Oregon, she lived in Sweden for a couple of years and completed the Chemistry for Renewable Energy MS program at Uppsala University. She joined the Boettcher lab in summer 2022 and will be studying fundamentals of water oxidation catalysis and applications in anion exchange membrane electrolyzers.
email: nsagui@berkeley.edu
Francisco "Kiko" Galang
Kiko is a PhD Candidate with Prof. Alexis T. Bell at UC Berkeley and Dr. Adam Z. Weber at LBNL and collaborates regularly with the Boettcher Lab. He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from UCLA in 2022. He works on the study of, theory development, and computational modelling of electrochemical systems in particular Bipolar Membranes for electrochemical devices. As a modeller, he collaborates with the experimentalists of the Boettcher Lab.
email: kgalang@berkeley.edu
Dwaipayan Roychowdhury
Currently at the University of Oregon. Roy earned his master's from the University of Kalyani, India, then researched on formic acid oxidation on Pt at IISc Bangalore's Ranjan Lab. In summer 2023, he joined the Boettcher Group, where he studies ion intercalation kinetics at solid-electrolyte interfaces.
He is a LFC supporter and is considerate towards people who call football “soccer”.
email: droychow@uoregon.edu
Rika Sato
Rika is a chemistry PhD student working jointly with Adam Weber at LBNL and the Boettcher group studying fundamental aspects of ionomers in electrolyzers.
email: kaolu24@berkeley.edu
Raj Shekhar
Currently at the University of Oregon. Raj is a PhD student studying the fundamentals of the electro-reduction of iron from its ores in collaboration with the Kempler group. He joined the Boettcher Lab in January 2023 after completing his MS from Paris-Saclay University in 2022. Previously, he graduated from NIT Rourkela with an integrated master’s in chemistry in 2021.
email: rajs@uoregon.edu — linkedin
Nathan Stovall
Nathan graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in chemistry in 2022. He is now a PhD student with Dr. Adam Weber at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. In collaboration with the Boettcher group, Nathan studies charge transfer reactions at polarized interfaces in bipolar membranes and other electrochemical interfaces.
email: nstovall@berkeley.edu
Louka Moutarlier
Currently at the University of Oregon. Louka graduated from the University of Oregon in 2019 with a B.Sc. in Biochemistry, before working as a high school Chemistry/Physics teacher for two years. In 2022, Louka earned an M.A. in Chemistry with an emphasis in Chemical Education from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He then returned to UO to join the Electrochemistry Masters Internship Program (class of 2023) where he interned with EnZinc studying advanced anodes for secondary zinc batteries. As a Ph.D. student he is researching metal oxide/metal conversion reactions in alkaline zinc anodes for grid-scale energy storage in collaboration with the Kempler group and EnZinc.
email: loukam@uoregon.edu — linkedin
Ethan Shi
Ethan is a chemistry PhD student. His undergraduate degree is from UCLA where he worked with Rich Kaner. In Berkeley, he is working to understand the role of solid state electrochemistry in thermochemical catalytic processes.
email: shingethan@berkeley.edu
Duha Syar
Duha received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2023. Her general research goals are to develop technologies for efficient and sustainable energy production. In the Boettcher lab, she currently wants to develop and characterize catalysts for water electrolysis.
email: duhasyar@berkeley.edu — linkedin
Catherine Wallace
Catherine is a PhD student studying fundamental ion transfer kinetics and mechanisms at the interfacial layer, with a current focus on copper corrosion. They completed their chemistry and mathematics B.S. degrees at Syracuse University where they conducted research with Timothy Korter. They are a proud cat mom to Tin (right) and Plutonium (left)!
email: cswallace@berkeley.edu
Yifan Wu - 吴一凡
Yifan received his B.S. in Chemistry at Wuhan University. In the Boettcher group, he studies the catalysts for water dissociation in bipolar membranes. Currently, he is excited about learning different characterization techniques. He is a crazy fictional map creator. Please reach out if you want to discuss map art with him!
email: yifan-wu@berkeley.edu — linkedin
Madelaine Dolich
email: mdolich@berkeley.edu
Yiwen Sun
Yiwen graduated with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Rochester in 2024. Her research is centered on promoting green technology. Currently, in the Boettcher Lab, she is focused on enhancing the durability of anion exchange membranes (AEMs) and exploring the fundamental aspects of ionomers in electrolyzers.
email: yiwen_sun74@berkeley.edu
Meg Takezawa
Meg received a BS in Chemistry from the University of Washington, Seattle. In the Boettcher group, she is engineering a high-throughput electrochemical setup to enable clean, reproducible capacitance measurements and benchmark differential capacitance behaviors of samples under various experimental conditions.
email: meg_takezawa@berkeley.edu — linkedin
Jihan Zhang
Jihan received his BS in Chemistry from Peking University, where he worked on heterogeneous catalysis for hydrogen production with Prof. Ding Ma and Prof. Wulin Yang. He also spent a summer at Johns Hopkins, working with Prof. Yayuan Liu, focusing on electrochemical metal recovery and direct air CO2 capture. In Berkeley, he will keep working on catalysis and related characterization.
email: jihan_zhang@berkeley.edu
Martha Kubakh
Martha received her B.S in Chemistry and minor in Sustainability, Energy and Environment from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2025. She worked for Prof. Paul Braun working on solid-state lithium batteries and worked on electrochemical mediated changes to graphite electrodes in dual-ion battery systems with Prof. Joaquín Rodríguez-López. At the Boettcher Lab, she investigates carrier-selective contacts and how barrier heights are modulated at electrocatalyst–semiconductor interfaces. Outside of lab, she enjoys going to Chem Keg every Friday, hiking, and exploring SF.
email: marthakubakh@berkeley.edu
Sree Sundararaman
Sree received her B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University in 2024, where she worked on thin film solid state electrolytes in Will Chueh’s group. Prior to starting her Ph.D. at Berkeley, she spent a year working at Ammobia, a startup focusing on low temperature, low pressure ammonia synthesis. At the Boettcher lab, her research focuses on the development of combined electrochemical-thermocatalytic reactors for decarbonisation of fuels. Outside of the lab she enjoys weightlifting, reading, hiking and drinking coffee.
email: sreesundar@berkeley.edu — linkedin
Visiting Scientists
Yun-Seok Kang
Yun-Seok is a Ph.D. student in Energy Engineering at the Ulsan National Institute of Science & Technology (UNIST) in Jungki's group. His research has focused on manipulating bubbles in water electrolysis systems by managing wetting properties and analyzing fluid flow and mass transport. Currently, he is a visiting scholar at the Boettcher lab, studying the interactions between electrocatalysts and ionomers for durable water electrolysis.
email: flyingkang@berkeley.edu
Yu-Wei Chuang
Yu-Wei is a master’s student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan. She works in Professor Che-Ning Yeh’s group, focusing on catalyst and electrode design for lithium–sulfur batteries. Currently, she is investigating water dissociation mechanisms in bipolar membranes in the Boettcher lab.
email: ywchuang@berkeley.edu
Undergraduate Students
Zachary Asawesna
Zach is an undergraduate majoring in Chemical Engineering, developing digital twins for nano electrolyzers and multi-physics modelling of interfaces within electrolyzers.
email: zacharyasa05@berkeley.edu
Katherine Li
Katherine is an undergrad researcher majoring in Chemical Engineering studying OER catalysts.
email: katherine.li8@berkeley.edu
Ben Tonnos
Ben is an undergraduate majoring in chemical engineering and nuclear engineering studying deuterium separation by utilizing water dissociation in a palladium membrane.
email: bentonnos1@berkeley.edu
Joshua Wright
Joshua is an undergraduate chemical engineering student studying water dissociation catalysts in bipolar membranes.
email: jwright123@berkeley.edu
