People

Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering

Ben joined the Chakrabarty lab as a postdoctoral scholar in 2020 after receiving his Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis, and after this appointment he remained as a Senior Staff Scientist. His focus is on novel optical instrumentation to measure the radiative impacts of biomass burning emissions, particularly brown carbon aerosol as it evolves in the atmosphere. He also contributes expertise in two-phase flow and instrumentation design to develop real-time virus detection systems for indoor spaces and at patient point-of-care.

Joseph, a second-year postdoctoral researcher, earned his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 2022, he joined the Chakrabarty lab as a WashU-IITB Postdoctoral Fellow. At WashU, he focuses on aerosol-related health effects. He collaborates with the WashU School of Medicine to develop real-time airborne virus detection systems and a novel mice air pollution exposure model for Alzheimer’s biomarker study. Joseph also investigates the oxidative potential of biomass-burning aerosols and its links to their chemical and optical properties.

Taveen joined the group as a Postdoc in 2023 after getting his PhD from IIT Bombay, India. He studied biomass burning aerosols aerosol particles and their optical properties, with a focus on agricultural residue burning emissions.

Joshin embarked on his doctoral journey with the Chakrabarty research lab in Fall 2020. His research focuses on understanding the optical properties of atmospheric aerosols and their interplay with solar radiation. Leveraging modeling, simulations, and machine learning, the ultimate objective of his work is to gain deeper insights into how these aerosols influence our climate.

Ganesh Srinivas Chelluboyina aspires to improve our understanding of aerosol-solar radiation interactions in the cryosphere. In his research, he studies the radiative forcing effects of wildfire-originating dark-Brown Carbon aerosol deposition on snow. After graduating from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay with a Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering in 2020, he joined the PhD program in Aerosol Science and Technology at Washington University in St. Louis. Ganesh is also a recipient of the McDonnell International Scholars graduate fellowship.

Dishit joined the Chakrabarty Group as a PhD student in Fall 2021. His research is centered around the design of novel diagnostic tools tailored for the rapid and point-of-care detection of respiratory viruses, including but not limited to SARS-CoV-2. He is currently working on in-lab fabrication of screen-printed carbon electrodes (SPCEs) as an alternative to commercial electrodes for potential applications in electrochemical biosensing.

Joining Dr. Rajan Chakrabarty’s lab in Fall 2021, August initially worked on intercomparing the absorption coefficient measurements between filter-based and particles-phase instruments on biomass burning aerosols. He also participated in the TRACER field campaign during summer of 2022, investigating the physical, chemical, and optical properties of ambient aerosols in La Porte, Texas. His current research focuses on understanding the health effects of different aerosol particles through exposure studies.

Shu-Wen joined the Chakrabarty Group as a PhD student in Fall 2022. His research interest involves dark brown carbon (d-BrC) tar balls generation and the effects of atmospheric aging on their optical properties.

Prabhav joined the Chakrabarty Group as a PhD student in Fall 2022. His current research  focuses on modelling the photoacoustic design to optimize the geometry and maximising acoustic amplification.

Navinya Chimurkar, a Fulbright visiting research scholar, has joined our team since September 2023. At WashU, he dedicates his research efforts to comprehending the climate impact of brown carbon particles stemming from various sources. Alongside his work with us, Navinya is a full-time PhD student in Climate Studies at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India, where he focuses on characterizing aerosol emissions from the non-cooking residential sector in India.

Valerie Viteri joined the Chakrabarty group in Spring 2023 seeking to explore her passion for sustainability through the lenses of research. She is an undergraduate student majoring in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Energy Engineering. Initially, she was learning about current research projects and working on HYSPLIT imaging. Now, she is investigating aerosol pollution through the SPARTAN database.