Welcome New Faculty and Staff

The EMS Energy Institute welcomes the following new members who have joined the Institute since our last publication. Detailed profiles can be found at energy.psu.edu.

Ozge Deniz Bozkurt 
Postdoctoral Scholar

Bozkurt has bachelor of science degrees in chemical engineering and molecular biology and genetics from Istanbul Technical University. She has a master of science degree in life science and technology from Delft Technical University and completed her master's thesis on the kinetics of anaerobic digestion. She received her doctorate from Koc University, wherein she conducted experimental research on heterogeneous catalysis. Bozkurt worked in the oil and gas industry for almost three years as a senior R&D engineer with a specialization in renewable fuels. In March 2022, she joined the Toraman Research Group at Penn State to research catalytic and non-catalytic pyrolysis of mixed plastic waste.

Waleed Mohammed Mahmoud El Sayed 
Research Assistant

El Sayed is a research assistant for Meng Weng. He earned his doctorate and master of science in applied microbiology and his bachelor of science in microbiology, all from Al-Azhar University. Prior to joining Penn State, he was a researcher at the Marine Microbiology Laboratory, Marine Environment Division, at the National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries Red Sea branch.

Stephanie Emigh 
Financial Coordinator

Emigh joined the Energy Institute in August 2021 as a financial coordinator. Prior to joining the institute, she worked at Penn State Mail Services as a financial assistant for fifteen years.

Mamoru Fujii 
Research Assistant

Fujii is a research assistant for Randy Vander Wal. He earned his bachelor of industrial chemistry in catalysts and ceramics from Chuo University and was a fellow of graduate school at Shonan Institute of Technology. Prior to joining Vander Wal’s team, Fujii worked with Chunshan Song. Fujii’s research centers on materials and development of inorganic functional material such as catalysts and ceramics but also building evaluation methods including system design. He is also a member of the American Chemical Society.

Paige McCarthy 
Administrative Assistant

McCarthy joined the EMS Energy Institute in March 2022 as an administrative assistant. She received her associate of science degree from Penn State in criminal justice last year.

Anne Menefee 
Assistant Professor

Menefee is an assistant professor of energy and mineral engineering and a co-funded faculty in the Institutes of Energy and the Environment. Her research is broadly focused on decarbonizing the energy sector through subsurface systems for low-carbon energy production, energy storage to enable renewables, and carbon sequestration. She holds a doctoral degree and master of science in environmental engineering from the University of Michigan and a bachelor of science in civil engineering from the University of Virginia.

Fnu Pushap Raj 
Postdoctoral Scholar

Raj received his doctorate in supramolecular chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology where he studied the development of dipodal organic receptors as fluorescence sensors for heavy metals ions, pesticides, and biomolecules. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Changnam National University before joining Penn State as a postdoctoral scholar in the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering where he developed nanomaterials-based biosensors for enzyme and bacteria pathogen detection. His current research is focused on the design and synthesis of polymer chelators for critical minerals extractions. Raj is advised by Athanasios Karamalidis.