Principal Investigator
Dr. Seifitokaldani is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at McGill University. His research lab unites experiment and theory to address the issues of energy consumption, CO2 conversion and biowastes upgrading via an efficient and cost-effective conversion of renewable electricity into stored chemical energy. His lab is focused on high throughput materials discovery based on the density functional theory (DFT) computations and machine learning modeling, and develops new electrocatalysts and electrochemical systems for electrochemical reactions.
Visiting Professors
Prof. Muhammad Bilal
Dr. Muhammad Bilal is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry, Kohat University of Science and Technology, Pakistan. He received his PhD in heterogeneous catalysis from University of Glasgow, UK. During his stay in the Electrocatalysis Lab he is going to employ his expertise in materials chemistry and catalysis to develop novel electrochemical systems with improved electrocatalytic performances.
Postdoctoral Fellows
Dr. Foad Arvani
Foad received his PhD from the University of Toronto and works with the Electrocatalysis Lab on a collaborative Mitacs project with Pahk Solutions.
Dr. Ignacio Aguilar
Ignacio Aguilar is a Postdoctoral Researcher working on a research project led by the Electrocatalysis Lab, in the Chemical Engineering Department at McGill University, and the Social Exergy Lab, in the Department of Geography at University of Victoria under supervision of Prof. Christina Hoicka. His current work focuses on identifying the socioecological and economic implications of, and proposing supporting policies and initiatives to, scaling-up a technology to produce hydrogen from biowastes as a renewable energy option. He holds a PhD in Social and Ecological Sustainability by the University of Waterloo. He has a master’s degree in business administration and a BSc in tourism management, both by Universidad Autónoma de Occidente in Mazatlan, Mexico.
Dr. Li Shi
Li completed his Ph.D. in Energy and Materials Sciences at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) in July 2023, under the supervision of Professor Federico Rosei. His doctoral research concentrated on the development of MOF-templated metal and metal oxide electrodes, with a particular emphasis on their applications in energy conversion and storage. In September 2024, he joined the Electrocatalysis Lab as a postdoctoral fellow, where he is now focused on exploring innovative methods for CO2 conversion through electrocatalysis, aiming to develop sustainable technologies for carbon utilization.
Dr. Sai Phani Kumar Vangala
Sai is a postdoc working with us in the Department of Chemical Engineering at McGill University. His postdoctoral research focuses on Computational Design of Catalysts for the Electrochemical Reduction of Nitrogen and CO2 to Valuable Products. He has strong expertise in modeling metal oxide based materials for heterogeneous catalysis, surface chemistry and site specific activities, high-performance LIBs, and bio-nano interactions implementing hybrid DFT methods and semi empirical MD simulations. Soon, he will be starting his independent research career as an Assistant Professor at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal (IISERB).
Dr. Xin Liu
Xin Liu is a FRQNT-supported postdoctoral scholar in Professor Seifitokaldani’s research group. Her expertise lies in the synthesis of quantum dots and their utilization in harnessing solar energy for electricity generation and hydrogen production. Her current research direction, which is guided by collaboration with Prof. Guay from INRS, involves the investigation of single-atom materials and porous materials for the electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction.
Grad Students
Alaleh Esfandiari
Alaleh is a Chemical Engineering PhD student at McGill University. She studied Materials Science and Engineering at University of Tehran. Her project is on developing single atom catalyst for CO2 electroreduction to value-added products such as alcohol.
Amirhossein Farzi
Amirhossein is a Chemical Engineering PhD student at McGill University. He studied Chemical Engineering and Economics in his bachelor’s and Catalysis during his master’s at Sharif University of Technology in Iran. His project is mainly associated with computational methods such as DFT and applying them to the electrocatalytic systems. In his free times, Amirhossein enjoys reading novels, cooking foods and listening to the music.
Andrew Carkner
Andrew is a PhD student co-supervised by Prof. Jan Kopyscinski in the Department of Chemical Engineering at McGill University. His project is about lignin conversion into value-added products such as guaiacol and vanillin using electrocatalysis at elevated temperature and pressure. More information can be found here.
Chris Akl
Hamed Heidarpour
Hamed is a PhD student at McGill University. He completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at Sharif University of Technology. His current research focuses on the development of electrochemical systems for the conversion of CO2 and nitrogenous compounds into valuable chemicals.
Jiayin (Eve) Zhang
Eve is graduated from Beijing University of Chemical Technology with a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering and an LL.B. with a minor in Law, joined the group in the summer of 2024 and is currently pursuing her master’s degree.
Mahdi Salehi
Mahdi is a Chemical Engineering PhD candidate at McGill University. He completed his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering at Sharif University of Technology and University of Tehran, respectively. His project is about electrocatalytic systems combining CO2 reduction and biomass upgrading. In his spare time, Mahdi plays futsal (indoor soccer) and enjoys listening to pop music.
Obaida Zeno
Summia Saed Aldien
Summia is a first year Chemical Engineering masters student at McGill University. She graduated from McGill with a Bachelors of Bioresource Engineering in 2017. Prior to joining the Electrocatalysis Lab, Summia worked in diverse industries including sustainability, cybersecurity, software implementation and energy efficiency. As for research project , she is eager to investigate innovative electrocatalytic hydrogen production method coupled with biomass transformation.
Undergrad Students
Arin Yaffe
Brigit Wilson
Jiayi He
Josh Goldman
Josh is an undergraduate student studying Honours Math and Computer Science. He joined the lab in the Winter of 2024. His current project mainly focuses on the computational method of DFT.
Michael Yang
Omar Abou El-oon
Omar is an undergraduate Chemical Engineering student at McGill University. He joined the lab as a summer research student in 2022. He is currently working on a project which uses electrocatalytic systems to extract valuable aromatic compounds from lignin to produce organic chemicals. Apart from academics, Omar enjoys cycling, listening to music and playing chess.
Shuhan Fan
Shuhan is an undergraduate Chemical Engineering student at McGill University. She is currently working on electrochemical conversion of biomass model molecules such as HMF to value-added products such as DFF.
Yuanming Zhang
Left to right: Hamed, Sebastian, Mahdi, Jessica, Summia, Qinyi, Amirhossein, Jolin, Omar, Hasan, Yolanda, Vraj, Shenyi, Kevin, Andrew’s family, Rongyu, Ali, and Nickan (Summer 2022)
Left to right: Hamed, William, Summia, Ali, Dorothy, Qi, Roger, Kefang, Kevin, Jessica, Sebastian, Xiao, Mahdi, Amirhossein, Noah (Xmas 2021)
Left to right: Roger, Amirhossein, Andrew, Sebastian, Rongyu, Kevin, Kefang, Ali, Mahdi, Hasan, Hamed (Fall 2021)
Left to right: Ali, Nickan, Ashwini, Poojan, Yiwei, Mahdi, Lucy, Portia, Kevin, Xiao, Roger, Daniel (September 2019)
Left to right: Ali, Portia, Minnan, Hasan, Kevin, Roger (May 2019)
