School of Engineering
Showing 221-240 of 270 Results
-
William Abraham Tarpeh
Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering and, by courtesy, of Civil and Environmental Engineering
BioReimagining liquid waste streams as resources can lead to recovery of valuable products and more efficient, less costly approaches to reducing harmful discharges to the environment. Pollutants in effluent streams can be captured and used as valuable inputs to other processes. For example, municipal wastewater contains resources like energy, water, nutrients, and metals. The Tarpeh Lab develops and evaluates novel approaches to resource recovery from “waste” waters at several synergistic scales: molecular mechanisms of chemical transport and transformation; novel unit processes that increase resource efficiency; and systems-level assessments that identify optimization opportunities. We employ understanding of electrochemistry, separations, thermodynamics, kinetics, and reactor design to preferentially recover resources from waste. We leverage these molecular-scale insights to increase the sustainability of engineered processes in terms of energy, environmental impact, and cost.
-
Jeffrey B. Tok
Laboratory Director, Chemical Engineering
BioEducation:
The University of Washington, Seattle, WA, B.Sc. (Chemistry & Biochemistry), 1989-1992
The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, Ph.D. (Bioorganic Chemistry), 1992-1996
Harvard University, Boston, MA, Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Bioorganic Chemistry), 1997-1999
Work Experience:
Assistant Professor, City University of New York, York College and Graduate Center, 1999-2003
Associate Professor, City University of New York, York College and Graduate Center, 2003-2004
Principal Scientist (Indefinite), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 2004-2008
Chief BioScientist, Micropoint Bioscience Inc, 2008-2010
Senior Research Engineer/Scientist, Stanford University, 2010-present
Director, Uytengsu Teaching Center, Shriram Center, 2015-present
Manager, Soft & Hybrid Materials Shared Facility, Stanford Nano Shared Facility, 2010-present
Manager & Instructor, Dept of Chemical Engineering Teaching Lab, 2010-present
Research Activities (via 'Google Scholar'):
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=hXSGJC0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra -
Rupin Vaidya
Masters Student in Chemical Engineering, admitted Autumn 2025
BioHere to learn, share, and meet new people. Feel free to reach out!
HCP Stanford Masters Student in Chemical Engineering, beginning Autumn 2025
Full-Time Process Engineer I at Lummus Technology based in Houston, TX, July 2025
Graduated with a Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, May 2025 -
Carlos Vera
Postdoctoral Scholar, Chemical Engineering
BioCarlos obtained his B.S. in Industrial Biotechnology from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. He received his PhD from the University of Colorado at Boulder working with Dr. Leslie Leinwand on myosin myopathies. His dissertation focused on analyzing the effects on myosin's cross-bridge cycle from mutations associated to Hypertrophic (HCM) and Dilated (DCM) cardiomyopathies. For his postdoc he will focus on disease mechanisms that can influence severity.
-
Pingyu Wang
Postdoctoral Scholar, Chemical Engineering
BioPingyu is a postdoctoral scholar in the Tarpeh Lab at Stanford University, where he develops low-cost, continuous sensing technologies for environmental monitoring. His current research focuses on multiplex detection of reactive nitrogen species to improve nitrogen management in agriculture and wastewater treatment.
Pingyu earned his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford, where he developed high-density neural interfaces for retinal prostheses aimed at vision restoration. Drawing on his background in bioelectronics and sensor design, he is interested in advancing sensing technologies to support data-driven solutions for environmental challenges. -
Robert Waymouth
Robert Eckles Swain Professor of Chemistry and Professor, by courtesy, of Chemical Engineering
BioRobert Eckles Swain Professor in Chemistry Robert Waymouth investigates new catalytic strategies to create useful new molecules, including bioactive polymers, synthetic fuels, and sustainable plastics. In one such breakthrough, Professor Waymouth and Professor Wender developed a new class of gene delivery agents.
Born in 1960 in Warner Robins, Georgia, Robert Waymouth studied chemistry and mathematics at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia (B.S. and B.A., respectively, both summa cum laude, 1982). He developed an interest in synthetic and mechanistic organometallic chemistry during his doctoral studies in chemistry at the California Institute of Technology under Professor R.H. Grubbs (Ph.D., 1987). His postdoctoral research with Professor Piero Pino at the Institut fur Polymere, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, focused on catalytic hydrogenation with chiral metallocene catalysts. He joined the Stanford University faculty as assistant professor in 1988, becoming full professor in 1997 and in 2000 the Robert Eckles Swain Professor of Chemistry.
Today, the Waymouth Group applies mechanistic principles to develop new concepts in catalysis, with particular focus on the development of organometallic and organic catalysts for the synthesis of complex macromolecular architectures. In organometallic catalysis, the group devised a highly selective alcohol oxidation catalyst that selectively oxidizes unprotected polyols and carbohydrates to alpha-hyroxyketones. In collaboration with Dr. James Hedrick of IBM, we have developed a platform of highly active organic catalysts and continuous flow reactors that provide access to polymer architectures that are difficult to access by conventional approaches.
The Waymouth group has devised selective organocatalytic strategies for the synthesis of functional degradable polymers and oligomers that function as "molecular transporters" to deliver genes, drugs and probes into cells and live animals. These advances led to the joint discovery with the Wender group of a general, safe, and remarkably effective concept for RNA delivery based on a new class of synthetic cationic materials, Charge-Altering Releasable Transporters (CARTs). This technology has been shown to be effective for mRNA based cancer vaccines.
