2025 Tripathy Memorial Endowed Graduate Fellowship Award Recipients

Award winners: Jia Tu (left) and Shabdiki Chaurasia (right).
The Tripathy Memorial is proud to present the 2025 Tripathy Memorial Endowed Graduate Fellowship Award to Jia Tu and Shabdiki Chaurasia. These graduate students have presented outstanding work in their dedicated research areas and continue to push the boundaries of science, engineering, and knowledge. Highlighted below are the summaries to their research. Congratulations to these remarkable students!
Jia Tu
2025 Fellowship Awardee
- Advisor: Professor Mingdi Yan, Department of Chemistry
- Research Topic for Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Degree:Substrate-Modulated Reactivity of Pristine Graphene
Graphene has become an important nanomaterial, however, its low chemical reactivity hinders its potential in applications such as electronics, sensing, and catalysis. My research aims to enhance the reactivity of pristine graphene by introducing charge doping through substrate engineering. Metals such as Cu(111) are selected due to their ability of increasing the electron density of graphene, enhancing its reactivity towards electrophiles as demonstrated by computation. During my Ph.D. research, I first developed a cost-effective method to convert polycrystalline Cu foils into high-quality single-crystal Cu(111), enabling the growth of continuous monolayer graphene with no or minimal defects. Additionally, I investigated the Diels–Alder reaction of tropone with graphene on Cu(111) , revealing distinct reaction pathways depending on the catalyst: a [4+2] adduct with B(C6F5)3 and a [8+2] adduct with B(C6H5)3. My summer research will investigate additional reactions of graphene and study the impact of substrates on reaction kinetics.
Shabdiki Chaurasia
2025 Fellowship Awardee
- Advisor: Professor Ertan Agar, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
- Research Topic for Ph.D. Degree:Flow-Assisted Electrochemical Systems for Redox Mediated Water Electrolysis and Industrial Decarbonization
At E2STL, this doctoral dissertation explores flow-based electrochemical systems for green hydrogen gas production and industrial decarbonization. Manganese-vanadium redox flow batteries (Mn/V RFBs) were investigated as dual-function devices for energy storage and redox-mediated water electrolysis. The Mn³+/Mn²+ redox couple (~1.51 V vs SHE), was used for indirect hydrogen generation. A major challenge is spontaneous Mn³+ disproportionation into MnO2, which was mitigated through additives. Electrochemical techniques including ultramicroelectrode voltammetry, impedance spectroscopy, alongside gas chromatography were employed to assess electrolyte stability and optimize hydrogen gas evolution conditions. In parallel, room temperature electrolysis was studied to obtain calcium hydroxide (a key ingredient of Portland cement) from calcium carbonate and other neutral salts as an alternative to traditional cement clinker production responsible for ~8% of global CO2 emissions. Emphasis was placed on membrane stability and compatibility to improve performance. These efforts have enabled the development of novel flow-based electrochemical processes to support the hydrogen economy and decarbonization in chemical manufacturing.

Pictured left to right: Ertan Agar, Sourabh Kulkarni, Jayant Kumar, Ashok Cholli, Shayesten Tafazoli, Susan Tripathy, Paul Bryce, and Ramaswamy Nagarajan.
The Selection Committee
- Jayant Kumar, Professor Physics and Applied Physics, Director of the Center for Advanced Materials (CAM), Email: Jayant_Kumar@uml.edu
- Ramaswamy Nagarajan, Professor, Plastics Engineering, and Co-Director of the Harnessing Emerging Research Opportunities to Empower Soldiers (HEROES) Initiative, Email: Ramaswamy_Nagarajan@uml.edu
- Susan Thomson-Tripathy, Email: Susan_Tripathy@uml.edu
- Dhimiter Bello, Associate Professor, Director of Research and Graduate Studies for the Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences, Email: Dhimiter_Bello@uml.edu
- Ashok Cholli, President, Polnox Corporation, Email: ACholli@Polnox.com