Dr. Gennady Gor

Principal Investigator, Associate Professor

Dr. Gennady Gor is an associate professor at NJIT and a visiting research fellow at Princeton University. He received a PhD in theoretical physics from St. Petersburg University, Russia, in 2009. He continued his research in the United States, first at Rutgers University, and then at Princeton University and Naval Research Laboratory. In 2016, he joined the faculty of NJIT.

The central focus of Dr. Gor's research is in interactions of fluids with porous materials. He is an expert in molecular modeling of fluid adsorption, known for his contributions to modern methods of adsorption porosimetry and the development of the theory of adsorption-induced deformation. His current research interests include confined liquids and electrolytes, atmospheric aerosols, chemical warfare agents, lithium-ion batteries, and ultrasound propagation in porous media. Dr. Gor authored more than 70 peer-reviewed publications and is the recipient of the National Research Council Associateship (2014) and the NSF CAREER Award (2020).

Dr. Ashoka Karunarathne

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Co-advisor: Prof. Alexei Khalizov

Dr. Ashoka Karunarathne, an experimental physicist, received his B.Sc. degree specializing in physics (2015) from the University of Peradeniya. His undergraduate research project was based on dye sensitized solar cells under the supervision of Prof. K. Premaratne. Dr. Karunarathne received his Ph.D. in Physics (2020) under the supervision of Dr. Josh Gladden at the University of Mississippi. His dissertation project was based on Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopic (RUS) studies on the elasticity of porous ceramics and thermoelectric SnSe. In June 2020, Dr. Karunarathne joined the research group of Prof. Marc Geers at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands. In 2021-2022, Dr. Karunarathne worked at the Department of Science for Technology in the Faculty of Technology at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura as a Senior Lecturer. He joined NJIT in October 2022, working with Prof. Gor and Prof. Khalizov on designing novel adsorption-ultrasonic experiments to investigate the elasticity of fluids confined in nanoporous materials such as carbon xerogels, zeolites, glass and etc.

Dr. Andrei Kolesnikov

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Andrei joined the group as a postdoc after receiving his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Ivanovo State University and ISC RAS, Russia, in 2016. After that, he spent nearly a decade as a Researcher at the Institute for Non-Classical Chemistry in Leipzig, Germany, working on application-oriented projects in collaboration with different companies. In 2019, Andrei spent a semester in the Gor group as a DAAD Research Scholar. His research interests are focused on polymer physics, adsorption-induced deformation, and electrochemistry among others.

Santiago Alberto Flores Roman

PhD Student

Santiago joined NJIT in January 2022 after getting the BS degree in Physics from Meritorious Autonomous University of Puebla (BUAP) in Mexico. His BS thesis was about implementing Las Vegas+ algorithm in the C++ software DensToolKit to analyze electron correlations among atoms, bases and DFT methods through the Shannon entropy. Santiago is currently working on analyzing the mechanical properties of nano-confined fluids through different computational models.

Günel Nabiyeva

PhD Student

Günel obtained her BS degree from Baku Higher Oil School in Azerbaijan in 2022. Fresh out of college, she honed her skills as a process engineer during an internship at Halliburton's Pipeline and Process department. She joined NJIT in January 2023, where her research primarily focuses on adsorption-ultrasonic studies of porous materials and electrochemical energy storage systems. In July 2024, she started her internship at Colgate-Palmolive Company.

Egor Demidov

PhD Student (co-advised)

Primary advisor: Prof. Alexei Khalizov

Egor received his BS degree in Chemical Engineering from NJIT and stayed here to pursue a Ph.D. in Chemistry. Advised by Dr. Alexei Khalizov and co-advised by Dr. Gennady Gor, Egor is now working on developing a rigorous model for soot restructuring.

Elizaveta (Liza) Basharova

PhD Student

Elizaveta joined NJIT in the autumn of 2023 after successfully earning her Master's degree in Physics from the University of Leipzig, Germany. During her academic journey, she dedicated a semester as a visiting student with the Gor group. Additionally, in Leipzig, she contributed to the meteorological institute Tropos, where her focus was on software development for the verification of data from the Earth observational satellite, Aeolus. Currently, her research primarily revolves around conducting molecular simulations to investigate the thermodynamics of organophosphorus compounds.

Supun Rangana

PhD Student

Supun holds his bachelor's degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. His academic journey included a pivotal internship at the National Centre for Non-Destructive Testing, where he honed skills as a materials engineer. After graduation, he acquired valuable experience as a materials engineer in the aluminum manufacturing industry. He then transitioned to academia, serving as a graduate teaching assistant in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Sri Jayawardenepura. Currently, Supun is pursuing his PhD at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) focusing on adsorption-ultrasonic studies of porous materials.

Geordy Jomon

BS Student

He joined the group while being a student at Bergen Community College as a summer intern in Summer 2023. He is a rising junior majoring in Electrical Engineering at NJIT. He is working with Santiago A. Flores Roman and Jason Ogbebor on molecular modeling of methane in nanopores. He is also working with Dr. Andrei Kolesnikov on parameterization of cDFT models for slit pores.

Trinh Quoc Dat Luong (Daniel Luong)

BS Student

Daniel is a senior major in Chemical Engineering at NJIT. He is working with Dr. Ashoka Karunarathne on ultrasonic testing of mycelium leather material.

Ella Ivanova

PhD Student (2019 - 2024)

Co-advisor: Prof. Alexei Khalizov

Ella joined NJIT after receiving a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from St. Petersburg State University, Russia, in 2019. Her research at NJIT focused on modeling aerosol properties on multiple scales. She worked on restructuring soot aggregates (in collaboration with Khalizov's group) and predicting the thermodynamic and transport properties of organophosphorus compounds (in collaboration with Dreizin's group). During her studies at NJIT, she won the Gary Thomas Fellowship (2019-2021), the Graduate Student Early Publication Award (2020), a travel grant for the International Conference on Fundamentals of Adsorption (FOA14 2022) and the American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR 2023), and the best poster award at the MSEE Annual Technical Review (2023). After defending her thesis "Molecular-to-Continuum Scale Modeling of Aerosols: Atmospheric Application and Beyond," she joined UCR as a postdoc.

Dr. Alina Emelianova

PhD Student (2018 - 2023)

Alina joined NJIT after getting her diploma in engineering physics at MEPhI (Moscow, Russia) and carrying out experimental research on fluids in nanoporous media. Her main research interests at NJIT included computational methods for problems related to nanoporous materials and nanostructured solids and fluids. After defending her thesis "Molecular Simulations of Mechanical Effects of Adsorption in Gas and Liquid Phases", she joined Princeton University as a postdoc working on modeling biomolecular condensates and their interactions with small molecules.

2023 PhD Success Story: Exploring the Intricate World of Cellular Processes: A PhD's Path From Moscow to Princeton Via NJIT, also in the Fall 2023 issue of NJIT Magazine [PDF].

Dr. Max Maximov

PhD Student (2017 - 2021)

Max joined the lab in 2017 as a Ph.D. student after obtaining BS and MS in Computational Physics at St Petersburg University and working several years in industry as a senior software engineer. In Summer 2021 he defended his thesis on "Advances in Modeling Gas Adsorption in Porous Materials for the Characterization Applications". He is currently a Senior Software Engineer at Uber Health and Central.

Dr. Christopher Dobrzanski

PhD Student (2016 - 2020)

Chris has been a PhD student in Dr. Gor's lab. Prior to joining NJIT, he graduated from Rutgers University with a BS and MS in chemical and biochemical engineering. On April 17, 2020 Chris successfully defended his thesis "Calculating Elastic Properties of Confined Simple Fluids". He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Rowan University working on molecular modeling of biochemical systems.

Dr. Andrei Kolesnikov

Visiting Research Scholar (Fall 2019)

While being a researcher at Institute for Non-Classical Chemistry in Leipzig, Germany, Andrei spent a Fall 2019 semester in the Gor group as a DAAD Research Scholar. He worked on density functional theory modeling of adsorption and adsorption-induced deformation in carbon materials.

Dr. Lukas Ludescher

PhD Student (Visiting, Fall 2017)

Lukas was a Ph.D. student in Physics from the Montanuniversitaet Leoben, Austria. His research focuses on the experimental evaluation of sorption induced deformation in biological and synthesised materials and on the modeling of scattering and deformation of porous materials using computational methods. He spent a semester in the lab as a Marshall scholar.

Gurdeep Singh

Community College Summer Intern (Summer 2024)

Gurdeep joined the group as an intern through the Bergen Community College Summer Research Program after graduating with an Associates Degree in Professional Studies and transferred to NJIT in the fall as a Computer Science major. He worked on automation and data processing for sorption-ultrasonics experiments.

Allen Reed

Undergraduate Researcher (Fall 2021 - Fall 2023)

Allen was a Chemical Engineering student at NJIT working with Alina on molecular modeling of adsorption in MOFs. Allen recently finished a Co-op with Sun Chemical formulating and testing UV cured inks for narrow web packaging labels. He was also a co-captain on NJIT's ChemE Car team which competed at the 2022 AIChE National Conference. After graduation he continued as a process engineer at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company in Arizona.

Matthew Stickles

Undergraduate Researcher (Spring 2022 - Fall 2023)

Matt was a Chemical Engineering student at NJIT. He worked with Elly on molecular modeling and theoretical predictions of properties of organophosphorus liquids.

Jason Ogbebor

Undergraduate Researcher (Spring 2020 - Summer 2023)

Jason got his BS in Chemical Engineering at NJIT and joined the group in 2020. He studied the elastic properties of water and simple fluids confined in nanopores through molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations. He was also involved in ultrasound experiments on water-saturated porous materials in collaboration with Khalizov's group, which led to a first-author publication in Physical Review E. He is now pursuing a Ph.D. in materials science at MIT. His current research is focused on using atomistic simulations to model thermodynamics and phase stability in high-entropy alloys.

2023 Senior Success Story: Chemical Engineering Star Jason Ogbebor's Journey from NJIT to MIT

Mory Diane

Undergraduate Researcher (Spring 2022)

Mory graduated with a Bachelors in Chemical Engineering at NJIT and a life-long learner. He joined Dr. Gennady Gor's computational research group in the Spring of 2023 and worked on molecular simulations of adsorption.

Marcos Molina

Undergraduate Researcher (Spring 2019 - Summer 2022)

Marcos joined the group as a freshman and worked in the group till graduating the end of the Summer 2022. He worked on molecular simulations of fluid sorption in porous materials, modeling mechanics of polymers, and modeling transient diffusion problem in liquid-gas system. In the Fall 2022 he joined Princeton University as a PhD student. His current research focuses on training machine learning models of carbon dioxide and water to make more accurate and less computationally expensive molecular dynamics simulations.

2022 Senior Success Story: Published Researcher Marcos Molina to Pursue PhD at Princeton

Vincent Tews

Undergraduate Researcher (Spring 2020 - Fall 2021)

Vinny graduated from NJIT majoring in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Computer Science. He worked with Alina Emelianova on molecular simulation of deformable porous materials. He is a recipient of the 2021 URI research grant. During his study at NJIT he also worked as a Co-Op with the Advanced Performance Materials division of The Chemours Company. He joined Chemours as a Process Engineer after graduation.

Manisha Kannan

Undergraduate Researcher (Spring 2022)

Manisha graduate with the BS in Chemical Engineering in 2022. She worked with Gennady on changing the way computational courses are taught to chemical engineers. She currently works for BP in the Trading and Shipping Rotational Program for Analytics.

Nicholas Winay

Undergraduate Researcher (Summer 2021)

Nicholas was a senior Chemical Engineering student at NJIT who worked on numerical methods for solving ordinary and partial differential equations related to bubble growth in supersaturated solutions. He joined Chemours as a Research and Development Engineer after graduation.

Sydney Sweet

Undergraduate Researcher (Fall 2020)

Sydney graduated from the CME department with honors in May 2021 and was selected as the 2021 NCE Outstanding Senior (Overall). Sydney worked with Ella Ivanova researching the restructuring of soot particles in the atmosphere and is currently working as a Process Engineer at Lummus Technology.

2021 Senior Success Story: Accomplished Engineering Grad Says NJIT Opened Doors to Her Success

Chris Kossor

Undergraduate Researcher (Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Spring 2021)

Chris graduated with a BS in Chemical Engineering in May 2021, receiving the President's Medal for Academic Excellence. He joined the group in Fall 2019 during a Thermodynamics II research project course enhancement. In the academic year 2020-2021, he continued working with Alina Emelianova on molecular simulations of chemical warfare simulants and water mixtures. He continues his research at NJIT as a Ph.D. candidate with Dr. Rajesh Dave's group. Currently, he is a project lead coordinator regarding particle engineering of amorphous solid dispersions in the NSF IUCRC Center for Integrated Material Science and Engineering of Pharmaceutical Products (CIMSEPP).

Grecia Manrique

Undergraduate Researcher (Fall 2020)

Grecia was a chemical engineering student at NJIT. She worked with Elly on modeling of the restructuring of soot particles in the atmosphere.

Elizaveta (Liza) Basharova

Undergraduate Researcher (Visiting, Fall 2019)

Elizaveta was an undergraduate student at University of Leipzig, Germany, who spent a Fall 2019 semester in the Gor group. She worked on molecular simulation of thermodynamics of organophosphorus compounds.

Nicholas Corrente

Undergraduate Researcher (Spring 2018 - Summer 2019)

Nick graduated from the CME department with honors, and continued to work on his research during the Summer of 2019. Nick worked with Chris Dobrzanski on Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamics simulations of confined fluids, contributing to two manuscripts. Nick is a professional photographer; many of the pictures on this web page are done by him. In Fall 2019 Nick started as a Ph.D. student at Rutgers University in Alexander Neimark's group. His research focuses on adsorption processes in nanoporous carbons. Nick is also a lecturer at Rutgers University. He currently teaches undergraduate Chemical Engineering Material and Energy Balances and Thermodynamics 1.

Student Profile by Rutgers University: Meet Doctoral Student Nicholas Corrente

Emma King

BS Student (Visiting, Summer 2018)

Emma studied at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She was working with Max Maximov on adapting the group models for predictions of vapor-liquid equilibrium in organic compounds relevant to atmospheric chemistry

Taylor Kvist

Undergraduate Researcher (Spring 2018 - Fall 2018)

Taylor's research was on application of Monte Carlo methods for calculation of adsorption in complex pore networks (working with Max Maximov). After getting his BS in Chemical Engineering Taylor joined Infineum. While working at Infineum, he came back to NJIT to earn his MS in Computer Science.

Armani-Christian Roxas

Undergraduate Researcher (Fall 2016 - Summer 2017)

Armani worked on molecular dynamics simulations using the GROMACS software package for aromatic hydrocarbon-carbon systems in order to calculate surface stresses. With these simulations, some light can be shed on condensation-induced soot restructuring. After graduation he continued as a Quality Control Laboratory Technician at Promotion In Motion.

Maithili Chaudhari

High School Student (Summer 2024)

Maithili joined the lab through the Partners in Science Program as a rising senior at McNair Academic High School. She worked with Gunel Nabiyeva and studied the adsorption and absorption-induced deformation of nanoporous materials. She also learned to utilize Python to produce graphs based on data sets.

Alan Qu

High School Student (Summer 2024)

Alan participated in the Partners in Science Program, being a rising senior (class of 2025) at The Academy for Mathematics, Science & Engineering, a public magnet program in Rockaway, NJ. He worked with Maithili on adsorption-induced deformation of nanoporous materials.

Emely Urena

High School Student (Summer 2023)

Emely was an intern in the lab through the ACS SEED program during the summer of 2023. Emely worked with Matthew Stickles and Ella Ivanova and utilized Python for theoretical predictions of properties of organophosphorus compounds. She continued her journey at NJIT as Albert Dorman Scholar, majoring in Chemical Engineering

Rishan Tilve

High School Student (Summer 2023)

Rishan was a senior at South Brunswick High School and joined the lab through the Liberty Science Center Partners in Science program. He worked with Geordy Jomon and Santiago Flores Roman on studying the properties and applications of liquid metals such as gallium. Rishan continued as a Electrical and Computer Engineering major ar Carnegie Mellon University.

Alexandra Whittle

High School Student (Summer 2023)

Being a senior at Holmdel High School Allie Whittle was an intern with the lab through the Partners in Science Program. She worked with Gunel on modeling ultrasound propagation in lithium-ion batteries. After graduation she continued as a Chemical Engineering major at UPenn

Sharvani Vadlamani

High School Student (Summer 2022)

Sharvani attended the South Brunswick High School and was an intern with the lab through the Partners in Science Program. She worked with Ella Ivanova on predicting the surface tension of organophosphorus liquids using Python scripts. After graduation she joined Columbia University as an Egleston Scholar, majoring in Electrical or Computer Engineering.

Joshua Oliveira

High School Student (Summer 2022)

Josh attended St. Joseph High School and was a part of the Liberty Science Center Partners in Science Program. He worked with Ella Ivanova and Matthew Stickles on a project to develop theoretical predictions and models for surface tension and viscosity of organophosphorus liquids. He continued as a mechanical engineering student at Rutgers University.

Siddarth Kunisetty

High School Student (Summer 2021)

Sid was a student at the Middlesex County Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Technologies (hoping to major in chemical engineering). He worked on predicting the restructuring of soot aggregates with Ella Ivanova in summer 2021. In the Fall 2022 he joined Carnegie Mellon University, majoring in chemical and computer engineering.

Caroline Zhao

High School Student (Summer 2020 - Summer 2021)

Caroline was a student at Union County Magnet High School. She has been working with Alina Emelianova and Max Maximov on calculation of the solvation pressure and compressibility of a confined square-well fluid using an equation of state and molecular simulations. In the Fall 2021 she started her undergraduate studies at Princeton University, majoring in chemical engineering.

Aditya Sivaraman

High School Student (Summer 2020)

Aditya was a student studying at South Brunswick High School. During the summer of 2020 he worked with Max Maximov and Alina Emelianova on calculating the isothermal modulus of square-well fluids in nanopores using Grand Canonical Monte Carlo Simulations. After graduating high school Aditya continued his education at Virginia Tech majoring in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

Suneedhi Laddha

High School Student (Summer 2019)

Suneedhi was a high school student studying at JP Stevens High School. During the summer of 2019, she worked with Alina Emelianova and incorporated python in her research to analyze various characteristics of sandstones through their nitrogen adsorption isotherms. After graduating high school Suneedhi continued her education at Stevens Institute of Technology majoring in Computer Science.

Juan Valencia

High School Student (Summer 2018 and 2019)

Juan was a high school student working within the ACS SEED program. Juan worked with Emma King and Max Maximov, exploring the predictive models to calculate saturated vapor pressure for chemicals relevant to atmospheric chemistry. During his second Summer he worked with Chris Dobrzanski on molecular dynamics simulations of confined fluids.

Zachary Lyandres

High School Student (Summer 2017 and 2018)

Zach was a high school student working within the Provost Summer Research Internship. Zach worked with Armani-Christian Roxas, Nick Corrente and Christopher Dobrzanski, writing Python scripts for analysis of atomistic structures generated in molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations. During the Summer 2017 Zach's research project was to relate the structure of the adsorbed benzene to mechanical stresses it induces on the surface. During the Summer 2018, Zach developed a Python script for analyzing the correlation between the ordering in confined fluid and its elastic properties. After graduating high school Zach continued his education at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute majoring in Computer Science.

Marcelo Munoz

High School Student (Summer 2017)

Marcelo was a high school student working within the ACS SEED program. Marcelo worked with Christopher Dobrzanski, whose research was focused on molecular modeling of adsorption of simple fluids in nanoporous materials. Marcelo uses python for analysis of atomistic structures generated in Monte Carlo simulations. The overall goal of his research project was to relate the structure of the adsorbed argon to its elastic properties. After graduating high school Marcelo continued his education at Saint Peter's University majoring in Computer Science.