SAGE is made up of a team of faculty, staff and students working together to enhance the environmental performance of electricity production.
SAGE is lead by Dr. Jochen Lauterbach within the chemical engineering department.
SmartStateTM Endowed Chair for Strategic Approaches to the Generation of Electricity
Professor, Chemical Engineering
Dr. Lauterbach focuses on the fundamental and applied research in heterogeneous catalysis and the synthesis of new nanomaterials, as applied to environmental processes for hydrocarbon based power generation.
The SAGE center is currently recruiting well qualified post-doctoral researchers.
B.S. - The University of Alabama, 2017
Blake is from West Palm Beach Florida and joined SAGE under the supervision of Dr.
Jochen Lauterbach in the Fall of 2017. He was awarded his bachelor’s degree in Chemical
and Biological Engineering from The University of Alabama with a minor in Mathematics.
His work focuses on producing platform chemicals and fuels from biomass derived sugar
alcohols. He works on utilizing statistical design of experiments for reaction and
catalyst optimization and fundamental catalyst characterization.
B.S. - The University of Alabama, 2017
Michael joined the SAGE center in Fall of 2017, first working for Dr. Bihter Padak
before working for Dr. Jochen Lauterbach. Since working in the SAGE center, Michael
has worked on several different projects including flame synthesis of nanomaterials,
pollutant remediation from natural gas furnaces and coal power plant exhaust, catalytic
upgrading of ethane to ethylene, diesel upgrading, and catalytic biomass torrefaction
to produce materials for novel polymers and to offset coal consumption in conventional
coal-fired power plants.
B.S. - University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, 2016
Rasika is from Sri Lanka. He received his B.S. in Chemical and Process Engineering
from University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. Then he entered the Ph.D. program at the University
of South Carolina in 2019. Currently his research is focused on the development of
novel methodologies for machine learning predictions for heterogeneous catalysts.
B.S. - University of Kansas, 2019
After living in numerous states, Andrew spent the majority of his childhood in Overland
Park, KS. He then attended the University of Kansas to receive his bachelor's degree
in Chemical Engineering; after which, he chose to attend the University of South Carolina
to pursue a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering. Under the advisership of Dr. Jochen Lauterbach,
Andrew's current experimental research is geared toward the catalytic cracking of
waste polyol plastics through the use of zeolite catalysts.
B.S. - University of South Carolina, 2019
Jennifer was born in Midwest City, Oklahoma and attended the University of South Carolina where she was awarded a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering. She entered the Ph.D. program at the University of South Carolina in the summer of 2019 and joined SAGE where she is advised by Dr. Jochen Lauterbach. Currently, her research is focused on the discovery and optimization of low pressure ammonia synthesis catalysts for hydrogen storage applications.
B.S. – Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran 2016
M.S. – University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran, 2019
Kaveh was born in Gachsaran, a small town in the southwest of Iran that is well-known for its gas and oil resources. He did his undergraduate study in Chemical Engineering at the Shiraz university located in Shiraz, a beautiful city where the tomb of Hafez and Saadi, two famous Persian poets, are located. He joined SAGE in Fall 2019 to pursue his graduate studies under Prof. Lauterbach’s supervision. He is currently working on shape-selective silver catalysts for ethylene epoxidation.