Interested in joining Plamen Atanassov’s group? Please contact either one of the Postdoctoral Scholars or Prof. Atanassov directly!
Plamen Atanassov graduated from the University of Sofia (1987) with an MSc in Chemical Physics & Theoretical Chemistry. He joined the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) and become a Member of Technical Staff of its Central Laboratory of Electrochemical Power Sources (now the Institute for Electrochemistry & Power Systems). His initial work included materials solutions for metal-air batteries. He was a visiting scientist at the Frumkin’s Institute of Electrochemistry, Moscow, Russia studying bio-electrochemistry of enzymes and received a PhD in Physical Chemistry/ Electrochemistry from BAS for his work on enzyme biosensors.
Dr. Atanassov moved to the United States in 1992 and became a research faculty with the University of New Mexico (UNM). During the 90s he was involved in development of a several electrochemical biosensor technologies for biomedical, environmental, food safety and defense applications. In 1999 Plamen Atanassov joined Superior MicroPowders LLC (acquired later by Cabot Corp.), were he was a project leader in fuel cell electrocatalysts development, and introduced spray pyrolysis for catalyst synthesis on industrial scale. He returned to UNM in 2000 as faculty member of the Chemical & Nuclear Engineering department. In 2007 Dr. Atanassov founded the UNM Center for Emerging Energy Technologies (CEET). From January 2012 to December 2013 Dr. Atanassov was the Associate Dean for Research of the UNM School of Engineering. July of 2015 Dr. Atanassov was promoted to a Distinguished Professor of Chemical & Biological Engineering and Chemistry & Chemical Biology. From January 2015 to September 2018 he served as director of the UNM Center for Micro-Engineered Materials (CMEM).
Starting October 2018 Dr. Atanassov joined University of California, Irvine where he is a Chancellor’s Professor with Henry Samueli School of Engineering, with the newly formed Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, holding secondary appointments with Materials Science & Engineering and with Chemistry. He is also affiliated with Los Alamos National Laboratory and is honorary professor of The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. He served as a Vice-President of the International Society of Electrochemistry (2015-2017) and is a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society. In 2018 he was inducted in the National Academy of Inventors.
Postdoctoral Researchers and Research Scientists:
was trained as a Material’s chemist (Master’s Degree) in France and immediately used her skills in Materials for Energy conversion with a focus on Hydrogen related catalysts. She joined the French atomic and alternative energies research center (CEA) for a 6-month Master’s thesis making Fe-MoS2 catalysts for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction. She then started a PhD on Pt-free catalysts for Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR) using Carbon Aerogels to develop a family of porous Fe-N-C catalysts. As a freshly graduated Doctor, she joined LEPMI’s team in Grenoble, France to work as a postdoctoral researcher on the integration of shaped-PtNi catalysts for ORR. She joined Atanassov research team in October 2023 and her work now focuses on Iridium catalysts for Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER) and Carbon supports for Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR).
Graduate Research Assistants:
Giovanni Ferro
is a PhD student, the lab’s most ancient member (except for Plamen) and the safety officer.
He loves Math, Chemistry and his baby
He speaks English, Italian, French and Spanish,
He doesn’t like doing two things at a time and writing his description for the website.
He loves making catalysts, staying late in the lab and saying “thank you so much” for the most unimportant things.
graduated from The University of California, Irvine (2022) with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering. During his undergrad, he researched water contact angle estimation in gas diffusion layers for proton exchange membrane fuel cell water management under the supervision of Prof. Iryna Zenyuk. He joined the Atanassov group in August 2022 and investigates PGM-free catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction in both acidic and alkaline media. Chris is also a NSF Graduate Research Fellow and the President of the ECS Student Chapter at UCI (ECS@UCI).
obtained her BS degree in Chemical Engineering from National Taiwan University. There, she worked in the Biomolecular Engineering lab and conducted research toward determining the mechanisms and inhibitory effects of specific compounds on amyloid fibril formation relevant to neurodegenerative diseases. Later, she worked in the petrochemical industry for 6 years as a business agent for critical equipment used in fluid catalytic cracking and ethylene plants. Currently, she is a PhD student in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UC Irvine. She joined Atanassov’s team in January, 2023, she is focused on the project of CO2 and NO3 co-reduction and urea electrosynthesis.
graduated from Mahidol University, Thailand with a B.E. and M.E. degree in Chemical Engineering. He is currently part of Atanassov research team and co-advised by Prof. Iryna Zenyuk. His research interests consist of: Electrochemistry, carbon dioxide reduction, system design and optimization. His hobbies are: learning history, following news, and playing video games.
graduated as a Physical Engineer in Italy at Politecnico di Torino, with a focus on electrochemical energy conversion systems. The first approach towards electrochemistry occurred during my master’s thesis, where dye-sensitized solar cells were approached in terms of fabrication, design, and characterization. Later, I joined Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia for a PhD based on the characterization and optimization of systems for electrocatalysis, mainly related to oxygen reduction reaction for PEM fuel cell applications. The main focus is on the synthesis and characterization of FeNC-based catalysts for ORR in different setups, like RRDE and GDE. In October 2023 I joined the Atanassov group for 6 months, to work on the optimization of the FeNC catalyst synthesis and its testing in MEA. The goal is to validate the performance of my catalyst, achieved in RRDE, in the MEA setup in different operating conditions, with the subsequent aim to predict them with a physical model developed through COMSOL simulations.
graduated as an Industrial Chemist in Italy at Università degli Studi di Milano, with a focus on the development of heterogeneous catalysts for the valorization of biomass into value-added products. In 2022, she began a PhD sponsored by the Italian company RSE S.p.A, focusing on clean energy systems research. The first year of her PhD was dedicated to studyingy microbial fuel cell systems and monitoring the corrosion of the cathode material. In 2024, she joined the Atanassov group for 6 months to work on the development of oxygen evolution catalysts with Iridium Oxide supported on doped titanium dioxide.
obtained his B.S. degree in Chemical and Food Engineering (2020) from Politecnico di Torino and his Masters of Science degree, in Chemical and Sustainable Process Engineering (2022) writing his Master’s Thesis on novel acid-free process intensification for the synthesis of non-precious metal-nitrogen-carbon electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction. After a short experience as a process engineer, Alessio is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UCI. He is currently part of Atanassov research team focusing his research on urea electrosynthesis. Alessio loves playing the piano, and practicing sports in contact with nature, such as surfing and hiking.
obtained his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from UCI (2023). Loki has worked on: electrochemical CO₂ reduction reactions (CO2RR) with Metal-Nitrogen-Carbon and Copper as catalysts aiming for gas phase and liquid phase products respectively. Al-Air Battery design, investigating corrosion of different anode alloys in various pH. Ni-Mo electrocatalysts design for Hydrogen Oxidation Reaction. Hydrocarbon-based membranes and ionomers testing for PEM Fuel Cells. He is currently a PhD student in the CBE department.
graduated from Amirkabir University of Technology in Iran (2023) with a bachelor’s degree in Polymer Engineering. She is now a graduate student at UCI in Chemical and Biomolecular engineering. She joined Prof. Plamen Atanassov’s group to work on synthesizing catalysts used for Urea synthesis with concentration on spray pyrolysis method.
Undergraduate Research Assistants:
is a junior pursuing his B.S. in Chemical Engineering at UCI. He joined Atanassov research team in September 2023, focusing his research in the development of novel electrocatalysts: non-platinum and platinum-based electrocatalysts for fuel cells, nano-structured catalysts for oxidation of complex fuels, and new materials and technologies for energy conversion and storage. Ethan’s interest consist of: playing volleyball, drinking boba, and thrill seeking.
Lindsay Zhang
is a freshmen pursuing her B.S. in Chemical Engineering at UCI. She is joining Atanassov research team in the Spring Quarter of 2024.