-2023-
2023.11.15-16 Gunasooriya Lab had a productive time attending the American Chemical Society Southwest Regional Meeting (SWRM2023) in Oklahoma City.
Kasun gave 2 talks, one with a focus on challenges and opportunities in catalytic materials discovery for sustainable electrochemical applications and another with a focus on operando computational catalysis. Keishana gave an excellent talk on acid electrolyte effects on oxygen evolution catalysts for green hydrogen production. Arnold did an amazing job giving a poster with Keishana.
2023.11.05-09 Kasun attended AIChE - American Institute of Chemical Engineers Annual Meeting 2023 in Orlando. During the conference, Kasun gave 2 oral presentations, a poster presentation and chaired 3 sessions.
2023.10.16-27 Kasun visited the Petroleum and Petrochemical College at Chulalongkorn University as a visiting professor to teach Heterogeneous Catalysis.
Some of the topics we are discussing in the class:
- Introduction to Catalysis
- Real and Model Catalysts
- Adsorption
- Temperature Program Desorption
- Kinetics and Transition State Theory
- Theory of Catalysis by Metals, Acids, and Oxides
- Mass Transfer Effects in Heterogeneous Catalysis
2023.10.02-03 Kasun represented the University of Oklahoma delegation at the Hydrogen Americas Summit & Exhibition hosted by the Sustainable Energy Council and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) at Ronald Reagan International Trade Center, Washington DC. Kasun appreciates the generous funding from OU-Institute for Resilient Environmental & Energy Systems.
Discussions and panels included:
- Clean Hydrogen Leaders in the Americas: Projects, Policies & Investments
- DOE and Federal Agencies Across the US Government Creating Opportunities for Hydrogen
- Scaling Up Electrolysis for Large Scale End-Use
- Regional to Global Supply Chains: Linking The Americas with Global Partners
- Decarbonising Hydrogen Production with CCUS for the Energy Transition
- Decarbonising Hard to Abate Sectors through Hydrogen Applications
- Hydrogen Mobility Applications & Solutions
- An Outlook for Hydrogen’s Future
Photos: (1) Kasun and Hanping Ding from OU-AME, (2) Secretary Jennifer Granholm, U.S. Department of Energy (3) Sunita Satyapal, Director, Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies, U.S. DOE (4) a panel discussion.
2023.09.11 Thrilled to welcome Arnold to the Gunasooriya Lab at OU Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering!
2023.06.27 We had a wonderful meet-up with Prof. George Huber during his visit to the University of Oklahoma.
2023.04.28-29 Kasun gave an invited talk at the 2023 Hydrogen Conference organized by the University of Oklahoma CHEPS: Carbon-free H2 Production and Storage and Institute for Resilient Environmental & Energy Systems with a theme on “The Hydrogen-Powered Future: Transition to a New Energy Economy”. Kasun’s talk was focused on “Electrochemistry for Sustainable Production of Hydrogen” and Kasun had a wonderful stimulating and refreshing time with students, faculty from OU and beyond, industry partners, economists, social scientists, NSF, USDA, and other participants.
2023.04.15 Kasun served as the lead judge for the 35th annual Undergraduate Research Day organized by the University of Oklahoma Honors College.
2023.04.11 Had a great time interacting with Prof. Cathy Chin from the University of Toronto who was one of our alumni.
2023.01.29 Our group attended the University of Oklahoma Sustainability Forum which had a focus on a collaborative approach to social, technical, industrial, and environmental sustainability.
2023.01.17 Thrilled to welcome Keishana, the second graduate student in the Gunasooriya Lab at OU Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering, to the group!
-2022-
2022.10.18 We had a wonderful seminar titled “Designing and Interrogating Atomically Dispersed Precious Metal Catalysts” today by Prof. Phil Christopher from UC Santa Barbara. In the photo below: Prof. Steven Crossley, Prof. Phil Christopher, Prof. Daniel Resasco, Prof. Bin Wang
2022.10.11 We had Prof. Suljo Linic from the University of Michigan visiting us today and he gave a wonderful seminar titled “Electrochemistry of Low-Temperature Fuel Cells: From Kinetics and Spectroscopy to New Materials“. In the photo Prof. Bin Wang, Prof. Suljo Linic, Prof. Daniel Resasco.
2022.10.01 Excited to welcome Arian, the first graduate student in the Gunasooriya Lab at OU Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering, to the group!
2022.09.13 Kasun’s appointment at OU-CBME is highlighted by the Gallogly College of Engineering at the University of Oklahoma. link
2022.08.14 Kasun is excited to share that he joined the University of Oklahoma as an Assistant Professor of Chemical, Biological, and Materials Engineering starting this fall!
-2019-
2019.05.01 Kasun officially started his postdoctoral research under the direction of Prof. Jens K. Nørskov (link) at the Catalysis Theory Center at the Technical University of Denmark.
-2018-
2018.07.12 Kasun’s team won the 1st EFCATS Young Generation Catalysis Challenge organized by Prof. Bert Weckhuysen, Prof. Harry Bitter, Prof. Fabrizio Cavani, and Prof. Justin Hargreaves held at Wageningen.
1st prize (500 Euros each): Kasun Gunasooriya (Belgium), Katarzyna Adamska (Poland), Lars Kiewidt (The Netherlands), Mirtha Alejandra (Portugal), and Eleni Bletsa (Greece).
2018.04.15 Last day of ‘Oppervlakfenomenen en katalyse – Surface phenomena and catalysis’ class for this semester.
2018.03.16 Kasun and Pedro Mendes (LCT) are selected to represent Belgium (total 2 candidates per country) for the upcoming European Federation of Catalysis Societies EFCATS Young Generation Catalysis Challenge. This challenge provides a unique opportunity to strengthen the interactions and to more fully integrate the younger generation into the European catalysis community. This challenge will be held at Wageningen University and Research (WUR), The Netherlands from 9–11 July 2018.
-2017-
2017.12.08 Kasun’s work was presented as an invited lecture titled “Reaction Mechanisms in C1 Chemistry: Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis” at Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society (FHI), Berlin.
2017.11.02 Kasun gave two oral presentations during the 2017 AIChE Annual Meeting at Minneapolis.
1) Reaction mechanism and microkinetics of the cobalt catalyzed Fischer−Tropsch Synthesis link
Session: Reaction Chemistry and Engineering I
Date: Tuesday, October 31, 2017
Session time: 8.44 AM − 9.06 AM
Location: Minneapolis convention centre, L100B
2) CO adsorption on platinum and cobalt: Site preference and coverage effects link
Session: New Developments in Computational Catalysis II
Date: Tuesday, October 31, 2017
Session time: 2.43 AM − 3.00 AM
Location: Minneapolis convention centre, L100E
Selected highlights from the 2017 AIChE Annual Meeting in Minneapolis.
2017.06.23 Kasun’s first book chapter titled ‘Tuning the Activity of Supported Nanoparticles Through Charge Transfer’ is now published in the book ‘Nanotechnology in Catalysis: Applications in the Chemical Industry, Energy Development, and Environment Protection’ edited by Prof. Sels & Van de Voorde. link
2017.05.20 Kasun gave a TEDx talk at TEDxGhent main event! ”Hacking the carbon cycle using computers”
2017.03.28 Kasun won the TEDxGhent Ph.D./PostDoc Contest!
2017.03.06 Kasun has been selected to participate in the TEDxGhent Ph.D./PostDoc Contest 2017. link
2017.02.15 Kasun gave a pitch and presented a poster during Ghent University FEA Research Symposium 2017. link