Professor Ahmed F. Ghoniem

Professor Ghoniem is the Ronald C. Crane ('72) professor of Mechanical Engineering and the director of the Center for 21st Century Energy at MIT. He holds B. S. (1973) and M. S. (1975) degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Cairo University in Egypt and a Ph. D. degree from the University of California, Berkeley (1980). He served as a research scientist at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory from 1980-83. Since 1983 he has been at MIT where he established the Reacting Gas Dynamics Laboratory and has supervised a number of M.S. & Ph.D. students, post-docs and research scientists. He is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

His research interest lie in the areas of high performance computing in turbulent reactive flow, computational mathematics, combustion dynamics and active control, modeling and simulation of transport-chemistry interactions in thermochemical and electrochemical systems including high temperature fuel cells, gasification processes and fuel production and analysis of high-performance, zero-emission integrated energy systems with CO2 capture.

Cheng Zhang, Ph. D.

Cheng is working on multi-scale simulation of solid fuel gasification, together with Mayank, Simcha, and Rory. His current research focuses on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling of coal gasification in entrained flow gasifiers.

Cheng earned his doctoral and masters degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. His doctoral work is on numerical simulation of noise generation from jets. He received his undergraduate degree in Engineering Thermophysics from the University of Science and Technology of China, Anhui, China.

Anup Shirgaonkar, Ph. D.

Anup's research, at present, focuses on Energy Conversion Process in Turbulent Reactive Flows. He is currently interested in developing new computational approaches for multi-scale simulations of multi-physics flows for energy systems. In the past, he has researched extensively on Biological Propulsion and Multiphase Flows with applications in the Environmental Sciences.

He arrived at MIT after a year and a half at Northwestern University where he worked as a post-doctoral fellow on high fidelity simulations of biological transport.

Anup holds PhD and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. At Stanford he was the recepient of the Eric and Illeana Benhamou Stanford Graduate Fellowship. His doctoral work on aircraft contrails earned him the Joseph A. Hartman paper award by the FAA. He got his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, in India.

Santosh Shanbhogue, Ph. D.

Santosh does research in the areas of Efficient Energy and Clean & Quiet Propulsion. These encompasses the fields of Combustion Dynamics, Turbulent Combustion, Experimental Fluid Mechanics, Flow Diagnostics and Aeroacoustics.

At MIT, he is presently working on understanding and control of combustion instabilities in swirl and backward step combustors that burn carbon-monoxide/hydrogen/propane blends. He also oversees the design and devlopment of the Oxy-Fuel Combustion Laboratory.

Santosh earned his doctoral and masters degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta. He received his undergraduate degree, also in Aerospace Engineering, from the Indian Insitute of Technology, Madras, in India.

Hossam El-Asrag, Ph. D.

Hossam research includes subgrid combustion modeling for Large Eddy simulation with the focus on new Energy conversion technologies and emissions control and reduction.

Hossam graduated with Master degree in Aerospace Engineering from Cairo University in Egypt in 2002. Following that he graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology with the PhD degree in Aerospace Engineering in 2007. He has been working in the area of combustion and energy since then as a post-doctoral associate in Stanford center for turbulence research and currently in MIT reacting gas dynamics laboratory. The most recent research includes, but not limited to, the development of new subgrid combustion models for premixed flames, coal gasification and combustion dynamics.

Sadegh Dabiri, Ph. D.

Sadegh's research focuses on modeling and simulation of mixing and reactions in a supercritical environment with applications in sour oil desulfurization.

Sadegh has joined the Reacting Gas Dynamics Laboratory after receiving his MS and PhD in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from University of California Irvine, where he was working on the effects of cavitation on high-pressure atomization. He has been awarded the Martin Summerfield Graduate Award from AIAA and the Graduate Dean's Dissertation Fellowship for his PhD research. Sadegh earned his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology in Iran.

Rory Monaghan

Rory's PhD research focuses on the development of Dynamic Reduced Order Models (DROMs) for entrained flow solid fuel gasification. Gasification-based CO2 capture and storage (CCS) systems are recognized as having the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from continued fossil fuel usage. Understanding and improving the dynamic operation of the gasifier within IGCC and polygeneration plants are essential for greater commercialization of gasification technology.

Rory completed his Masters in Mechanical Engineering at MIT in 2005. He received a First Class Honors Degree, also in Mechanical Engineering, from the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG) in 2002. He worked two internships with Sustainable Energy Ireland helping to develop national policy for CCS, and served as Content Director for the 2009 MIT Energy Conference. When not simulating gasification, Rory enjoys avoiding injury by playing soccer, basketball, rugby and Gaelic football. He is also a keen runner and back-packer.

Ray Speth

Ray studies combustion dynamics in lean premixed systems, with a particular focus on the use of coal-derived syngas for power generation. His research includes experimental investigations of thermoacoustic instabilities, combustion diagnostics, and the development of computational combustion models. He also maintains Pharos, the RGD Lab's 500 processor Linux cluster.

Ray earned his Masters and Bachelors degrees in Mechanical Engineering from MIT.

Mayank Kumar

Mayank obtained his BTech from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India in 2004 and his MS from MIT in 2007. He is currently doing doctoral research on the simulation of combustion and gasification of solid feedstocks like coal and biomass.

Simcha Singer

Simcha's research focuses on modeling solid fuel combustion and gasification, with an emphasis on the processes that occur at the particle scale.

He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University in 2004 and his Masters from MIT in 2006 while doing research on PEM fuel cell electrodes. He has been a member of the Reacting Gas Dynamics Lab since the summer of 2007.

Won-Yong Lee

Won Yong is interested in the modeling of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs) using dry hydrocarbon fuels such as methane and syngas. It includes chemically reacting flow analysis with detailed thermochemistry as well as detailed electrochemistry and carbon deposition mechanisms.

In the past, he has worked on the design of Aegis-class destroyer at Hyundai Heavy Industries, especially on infra-red radiation reduction system, CFD analysis of the exhaust gas, and propulsion system design.

Won Yong completed his Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering at MIT in 2006 with Padmakar P. Lele student award for outstanding research and thesis. He earned his Bachelor's degree with summa cum laude also in Mechanical Engineering from Seoul National University in 2001. He is a recipient of Samsung Scholarship for the graduate study at MIT.

Fabrice Schlegel

Fabrice's research focuses on Computational Fluid Dynamics, and more especially high Reynolds number reacting flows.

His current interests includes three-dimensional Lagrangian methods, vortex dynamics, transport processes, fluid mixing, chemically reacting flows, as well as computational mathematics and their applications to the numerical modeling of multiphysics problems.

Fabrice graduated from MIT with a MS in Mechanical Engineering in June 2007, after completing a Diplôme d'Ingénieur at MATMECA Engineering School (Bordeaux 1 University, France), in modeling and scientific computing. He joined the group as PhD candidate in June 2008.

John Hong

John's PhD research focuses on fundamental understanding of combustion dynamics and its instability mitigation. He is currently working on the backward step combustor that stabilizes flames by sudden expansion and thus producing recirculating flows in the wake behind the step, with various syngas fuel conditions.

John completed his Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering at MIT in 2009, and he earned his B.S. also in Mechanical Engineering at Seoul National University, Korea in 2007. His master work is concerned with active control of supersonic impinging jet - which can be seen by Short Take Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) aircraft - using pulsed microjet actuators. He joined this group as a PhD candidate in February 2009.

James Hong

James's PhD research is focused on physical-chemistry and dynamics of the Ion Transport Membrane (ITM) oxygen separation system. He develops and validates models and multi-scale simulation tools for predicting the performance of oxygen transport reactions over a wide range of operating conditions, which include geometry, membrane design, pressure, temperature, concentrations and so on. In his Master's program, he conducted the thermo-chemical analysis of the pressurized oxy-fuel combustion power cycle. He examined the strengths and weaknesses of the pressurized oxy-fuel system and studied the thermodynamic system performance.

James earned his Master's degree in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT in 2009 with the support of Kwanjeong Educational Foundation Scholarship. In 2007, He completed his Bachelor's degree in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Seoul National University in Korea. He was a Fulbright-GE Foundation Scholarship recipient.

Outside the office, James was working as a cultural chair in his dormitory community (Sidney-Pacific Graduate Community) and a Graduate Student Council (GSC) Representative of Graduate Association of Mechanical Engineers (GAME) during his Master's program. Currently, he devotes his time for all of the MIT Graduate Communities as a GSC Activities Committee chair.

Lei Chen

Lei's present research focuses on the high fidelity Computational Fluid Dynamics modeling of solid fuel conversion process. More especially, the combustion regimes and flow patterns in pressurized Oxy-combustion.

His research interests are energy conversion and environmental conservation. Before pursuing the Ph.D study at MIT, he worked as a scientist in the Gasification Fundamental Advanced Technology program in Coal Poly-generation Tech Lab of GE Global Research in China.

Lei earned his M.S and B.S degree in Thermal Engineering Department from Tsinghua University, Beijing, in China. His Thesis work for Master and Bachelor Degree are the onsite test and modeling of mercury emission, and the particulate matters emission from typical pulverized coal-fired power plants in China, respectively.

Cristina Botero

Cristina's main research interests are sustainable large-scale power generation systems. Her research work focuses on the modeling and simulation of low-emission electricity production with carbon dioxide capture and sequestration (CCS), including systems based on oxyfuel-combustion and gasification of fossil fuels.

Cristina began her undergraduate studies in Chemical Engineering at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and earned her masters degree in 2007 from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. Prior to starting her PhD in Mechanical Engineering at MIT, she worked as a research scientist in the Alternative Energy Lab of General Electric's European Research Center in Munich/Germany

Zach Labry

Zach is working on understanding the physics underlying combustion instability. He is currently studying passive modification of the flow field in the combustion environment as a means of suppressing instability in swirl combustors.

Zach earned his undergraduate degrees from MIT in Physics and Aeronautical Engineering in 2008. Out of lab, he is an active cyclist, racing for the MIT Cycling Team, and occasionally conducting experiments on bicycles in the MIT Wind Tunnel.

Kushal Kedia

Kushal's research focuses on implementing high efficiency computational schemes for reacting flows with detailed chemical kinetic mechanisms. He is currently working on operator split-stiff integration approaches for two-dimensional, laminar, perforated plate stabilized flames and investigating the steady and dynamical characteristics of such systems. He is interested in combustion instabilities, CFD and multi-physics flow simulations in propulsion systems. In the past, he has worked on Thermo-acoustic Instabilities in a Rijke tube with a novel non-normal analysis.

He is presently a masters student in the Computation for Design and Optimization program at MIT. He is currently the Resources and Reservations officer in his graduate dormitory house government, Edgerton House and he enjoys extra curricular activities like sailing, ice skating, tennis and squash.

Kushal is a recipient of the National Talent Search Scholarship (India) and the General Electric Foundation Scholarship. He earned his master's and bachelor's degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, in India.

Chukwunwike "Nwiki" Illoeje

Chukwunwike's is part of the Oxy-Coal research team at MIT. His research focuses on modeling, thermodynamic analysis and optimization of Oxy-Coal combustion power plants. He is currently carrying out sensitivity studies to track acid gas condensation behaviour in pressurized oxy systems for application in corrosion control.

Chukwunwike got is Bachelors degree at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and is a masters student in the department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and holds a Total Fellowship. He is presently a Member of the MIT Energy club Executive committee and holds the position of the Tour Series Chair.

Sze Zheng Yong

Yong's research is in the area of Oxy-Coal Combustion. One of his research foci is the modeling of char evolution during devolatilization to address the issues of structural change that accompanies devolatilization. He is also working on the modeling of slagging combustion to include char capture and consumption in slag.

He was a recipient of the Malaysian Public Service Department scholarship for his undergraduate studies. He earned a Diplom(FH) in Automotive Engineering - Mechatronics at Esslingen University of Applied Sciences in Esslingen, Germany. He is currently pursuing his SM degree at MIT and holds the position of a Graduate Student Council Representative of the MIT Graduate Association of Mechanical Engineers.

Andrew Shroll

Andrew is working on a swirl-stabilized combustor in the Oxy-Fuel Combustion Laboratory. His research focuses on characterizing the flame stability of natural gas in operation regimes which are similar to conventional combustion in air.

In 2008, Andrew earned his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In spare time, he enjoys playing soccer, mountain biking, and playing percussion.

Alex Chapman

Alex's research focuses on the characterization of biomass as a feedstock for gasification, with the purpose of creating simulation models.

Alex received his Bachelors degree at the University of California, Los Angeles and is currently pursuing his SM at MIT.