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Prathima C Nalam
Associate Professor 

Department of Materials Department and Innovation

School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

College of Arts and Science

128 Bell Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260-2000

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Office: 716.645.9193

Email: prathima@buffalo.edu

Website: www.engineering.buffalo.edu/mdi

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Education:
Ph.D. 2012, Department of Materials, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zürich.
M.Sc. 2007, Department of Materials, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH, Zürich.
B. Tech. 2002, Department of Mechanical Engineering, India.

Academic Appointments:
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA.
NBIC Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania, USA.
SNSF Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania, USA.
Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Materials, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETH), Switzerland.
Research Assistant, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, India.

Current Group:

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Deepak Kumar
Post Doctoral Fellow
Email: dkumar6@buffalo.edu
Research Topic: Liquids at 2D confinement.

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Gbassey S. A. Oteme
Ph.D Student
Email: gbasseyo@buffalo.edu
Research Topic: PFAS at interfaces

Bidhari Pidhatika
Visiting Scientist, Fulbright Scholar
Email: bidhari.pidhatika@brin.go.id
Research Topic: Dental Tribology

Past Lab Members:

Graduated PhD Students:

  1. Behnoosh Sattari Baboukani: Atomic-scale friction mechanisms of two-dimensional materials in non-polar solvents, Graduated: December 2021, Currently at University of California, Berkeley

  2. Tashfia Mosharraf Mohona PhD thesis: Understanding Polyamide Membranes at the Microscopic Scale: Degradation by Oxidants and Partitioning of Trace Organic Contaminants Graduated: August 2023 (co-supervised by Dr. Ning Dai, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering)

  3. Mruganka Sandip Parasnis PhD Thesis: Harnessing Dry Mycelium-Based Microporous Membranes for Lead Remediation: Exploring Design Strategies and Mechanistic Insights
    Graduated: May 2024

Graduated Master Students:

  1. Rebekah Finster (Graduated in Fall 2023). Molecular understanding of adsorption behavior of Telomer PFAS on homogeneous hydrophobic surfaces.

  2. Stephanie Oteme Gbassey (Graduated Fall 2022): Molecular understanding of adsorption behavior of PFAS on homogeneous and heterogeneous adsorption membranes

  3. Mruganka Sandip Parasnis (Graduated Fall 2020): Mycelium Development as filtration membranes. Continuing as PhD Candidate at MDI.

  4. Faemia Zullfikar Chaggan (Graduated Summer 2020): Micromechanical characterization of the heterogeneous structure of mycelium. Working as People Data Analyst, SE Health, Canada.

  5. Eric Oliverio (Graduated Fall 2019): Comprehensive quantification of the heterogeneous structure of mycelium. Working as Functional Developer, Equisoft.

  6. Michael McCann (Graduated Fall 2019): Wear characterization of electrically induced bearing discharge. Working as Lead Supplier Development Engineer, SpaceX.

  7. Shruthi Goggi (Graduated Fall 2019): Investigation of the microstructure of mycelium networks. Working as an EV Drive Train Test Engineer at UTAC, California.

  8. Thaicia Stona De Almeida (Graduated Fall 2018): Microstructure analysis of Mycelium networks. Working as Assistant Vice President in US Bank.

  9. Adam Nielsen (Graduated Fall 2018): Quantitative characterization of the impact of polymer surface roughness on 2D nanomaterial adsorption.

  10. Behnoosh Sattari Baboukani (Graduated Fall 2018): Investigation of nanotribological properties of the 2D nanomaterials in lubricating oil. Conducting Postdoctoral Fellowship at UC Berkeley.

  11. Christina Cisneros (Graduated Fall 2017): Estimation of the viscoelastic properties of the 3D-printed hydrogels.

 Undergraduate Research Students:

  1. Ben Boyack (REU Student, Summer 2023)

  2. Microstructure analysis of heterogeneous MXene-Mycelium hybrid networks.

  3. Maximillian Urban (MDI Student, Fall 2022-Spring 2023): Nanotribological studies of MoS2 2D-Materials

  4. Kaela Guest (REU Student, Summer 2022): Functionalization of 2D materials

  5. Albert Vathapally (REU Student, Summer 2022): Understanding Adsorption Characterization of PFAS.

  6. Jiaming Huang (REU Student, Summer 2022): Enhancing the friction reduction performance of organic friction modifier additives using data science approach.

  7. Anna Lin (REU Student, Summer 2021): Predicting Electrochemical Performance of Nanoconfined Fluids in 2D Materials.

  8. Eliana Kenner (REU Student, Summer 2021): Development of Database Framework to Estimate the Adsorption Capacity of PFAS Molecules.

  9. Walter Zhao (Summer 2018): Nanomechanical characterization of oriented hydrogels (Summer Intern from BioXFEL fellowship, HWI)

  10. Janhavi Nistane (Summer 2018): Adsorption Kinetics of 2D nanomaterials on polymer-coated surfaces using quartz crystal microbalance. (Summer Intern from India)

Group Photos

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December 2017,  Congrats to Cristina on your graduation​

July 2018,  Summer @ Buffalo

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Nov 2021, CoVID Party

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Fall Hike 2023

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May 2019, STLE Annual Exhibition 

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Mruganka Graduation, 2024

Fall Hike 2023

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