Group Members
Weile Yan
Associate Professor, Ph.D.
Weile Yan completed her undergraduate education in Environmental Engineering at the National University of Singapore in 2002. She obtained her Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Lehigh University in 2011. Her current research is focused on the transformation of contaminants at solid-water interface and reactions catalyzed by earth-abundant materials in the aqueous environment. She enjoys travelling with her family and seeing different cultures.
Mythreyi Sivaraman
Ph.D. Student (2019 - present, UML)
Mythreyi is from Bangalore, India. Environment has been the focal point of her school and industrial experiences. She did her undergraduate final year project on “improvement of de-inking efficiency of recycled paper”. She completed M. Eng. in Chemical Engineering from U. Waterloo. While there, she researched on stability of nuclear waste containers in deep geological repository. She enjoys working on multidisciplinary research “that pushes me to think laterally and learn every step of the way…”
Lingfei Fan
Ph.D. Student (2020 - present, UML)
Lingfei received her M.S. degree in Environmental Engineering Sciences from the University of Florida in 2018. Her current research focuses on groundwater geochemistry and contaminant degradation. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling around with her friends and cooking all kinds of fancy food ranging from Chinese cuisine to western bakery – cooking is the biggest passion in her life.
Syful Islam
Ph.D. Student (2016 - Present, TTU)
Syful Islam grew up in a small town in Bangladesh and moved to USA in 2007. He received B.S. degree in Petroleum Engineering from TTU. He joined Dr. Yan’s group in the CECE department in 2016. Syful served as the president of the Association of Bangladeshi Students and Scholars at TTU. He spend his leisure time playing cricket, football (soccer), or listening to good music. Syful is studying surface modification of commercial ZVI products for enhanced reactivity.
Diana Pizarro
Undergraduate Student (honors project, 2021, UML)
Diana received a B.S in Civil Engineering from UMass Lowell. During her time at the university she took pleasure in exploring topics of environmental importance. Her honors thesis research involved utilizing Excel and ArcGIS to analyze crowdsourced data from National Geographic’s Marine Debris Tracker and pinpoint marine debris hotspots along the coast of New England. Diana enjoys the nature and has taken up backpacking as a hobby.
Cole Radke
Undergraduate Student (2021 - present, UML)
Cole is an undergraduate pursuing his degree in Environmental Engineering. Set to graduate in 2023, his current research is focused on microplastic pollution at local beaches. He has been working on sample collection and pretreatment as well as designing tools to allow facile density separation. He enjoys making music, being outdoors, and traveling during his free time.
Former Group Members
Graduate Students and Research Associates
Yue (Beatrice) Li
(Graduated with Ph.D. May 2018)
Beatrice studied iron-laden mineral colloids and their catalytic activity for aqueous contaminant transformation. She is interested in exploring the use of these humble yet reactive catalysts for water treatment and subsurface cleanup purposes. She likes to spend her free time exploring new recipes in the kitchen and tending her plants.
Nahirobe Barragan
Research Associate (2018)
Nahirobe is from Barcelona, Venezuela. She has a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering and Master’s in Chemical Processes. Nahirobe has worked in the refinery industry in charge of extra-heavy oil processes and has been a university professor for 6 years in Venezuela.
Lakshmanan Somasundaram
Research Associate (2017)
A recent graduate of M.S. in the Environmental Engineering program at TTU, Laks is an innovative and friendly person. His all time favorite is soccer ("soccer is my life" is what he said..), whether watching it on TV or playing on the field. He also enjoys studying match and chemistry. Laks is helping with the iron sulfidation and selective ion separation projects.
Yanlai Han
(Graduated with Ph.D. Aug 2016)
Yanlai's research focuses on transformation of chlorinated ethenes on abiotic surfaces, particularly, bimetallic and sulfur-modified iron materials for groundwater remediation applications. He is now working in the U.S. EPA studying nanoparticles fate and transport in surface waters. Yanlai's biggest hobby is cycling. He has cycled across the whole Texas with friends. His likes reading and his favorites are those by Agatha Cristie.
Undergraduate Researchers
Alyssa Acosta
(participated during 2018 - 2020, co-advised with Dr. Millerick)
Alyssa is originally from Laredo, TX. She is currently pursuing a 5-year MENVE at Texas Tech. Alyssa is actively involved on campus with the Society of Women Engineers and the Engineering Ambassadors. She is interested in environmental restoration and has spend over a year working on cultivation of sulfate reducing culture with Dr. Millerick to improve the performance of ZVI for reductively decomposing chlorinated contaminants.
Jon Vue
(Participated during 2015 - 2017)
Jon has evaluated selective ion removal from brine water using surface-enhanced electrodialysis process. He is also testing the performance of iron catalysts for advanced oxidation applications. He enjoys being in the outdoors and doing activities such as hiking and canoeing. He also likes visiting other countries and learning about their culture.
Meghan Robertson
(participated during 2013 - 2015)
Meghan studied the adsorption of aqueous iron onto silica and alumina nanoparticles to understand how reactive catalysts arise in natural systems. She also worked on outreach efforts to introduce EnvE basics to K-12 students. She penned and illustrated "Environmental Engineers Are Superheros", a collection of short stories for young audience to learn about what we (env. engineers) do. Along with researching, she has enjoyed mentoring for the honors college, being an officer for Chi Epsilon, and racing with the Tech Triathlon Team.
Paul Swope
(Participated during 2014-2015)
Paul examined selective ion removal from brine using surface-modified electrodialysis membrane.
Garret Bland
(Participated during 2013-2014)
Garret studied enhanced aresnite removal from water using a hybrid oxidation-coagulation treatment. He co-authored a paper on the same topic. His current research focus is on development of passive sampling method for mercury-contaminated sites. Garret is starting his PhD in Fall 2017.
Michael Yang
(Participated during 2012-2013)
Michael's project was on optimizing the synthesis of zero-valent iron nanoparticles. He co-authored a paper on this. He graduated from the MEnvE program at Texas Tech in 2016. Some of his hobbies are playing basket ball, watching movies, photography, and traveling.