Patrick is a GEM fellow who received his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from California State University, Fullerton in 2021. During his time at CSU Fullerton, he was a member of the 2019 NASA Micro-g Neutral Buoyancy Experiment Design Team (Micro-g NExT) and the 2019 MITTIC program, both held at the Johnson Space Center. He also led the 2021 award winning university CubeSat Team. Patrick enjoys mentoring and serves as a mentor for the Patti Grace Smith Fellowship Foundation. His current research interests are in phase change heat transfer and desalination. Patrick joined Tfel in September 2021 and is working on passive water harvesting systems.

Email: pbabb@ucsb.edu 

I grew up in Park City, Utah, so I love spending time outdoors. I attended undergrad at The University of Chicago where I conducted research in atomic, optical, and molecular physics. After deciding cold, windy winters were not for me, I spent a year working in the Bay Area at AOSense, Inc. I am currently utilizing transient grating spectroscopy and NMR techniques to research dendrite formation in Zinc aqueous batteries. Outside of the lab, I can be found skiing, backpacking, and surfing with friends.

Email: codygoogin@ucsb.edu

Natnael received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Khalifa University of Science and Technology (KU), UAE. He also obtained his Master of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Khalifa University with research focussed on Solar-driven Water Harvesting from Porous Media for In-situ Resource Utilization. Natnael joined TFEL in January 2024, and his research focus is on the suppression of flow boiling instability by using surface structures.
Email: natnaelfitsum@ucsb.edu

Vijay received his Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical and Automation Engineering from Amity University, India, in 2017. He then moved to the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Patna and earned his Master’ Degree in 2020. After his master’s, he worked as a Senior Research Fellow at IIT Patna. During his time at IIT Patna, Vijay has been working on phase change heat transfer in terrestrial and microgravity applications, and boiling acoustics. Vijay joined Tfel in July 2021 and is working on Raman characterization based the in-situ temperature measurements during phase change heat transfer.

Email: vijaykumar@ucsb.edu

Xichen received her bachelor’s degree in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the Ohio State University in 2018. During the time in OSU, she worked on electrocatalysis on carbon dioxide reduction with dye molecules catalyst in the lab of Professor Yiying Wu. Her current research focuses on using Raman characterization for understanding thermal and fluid transport during phase change.

Email: xichenliang@ucsb.edu

Harsh joined after completing his Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Patna (IIT Patna) in 2022. During his time at IIT Patna, He has been working on phase change heat transfer in terrestrial and microgravity applications which involved designing and fabricating a payload for ISRO. He also has worked on forecasting and classification of Boiling Crisis for Pool Boiling using LSTM-RNN. Harsh joined TFEL in July 2022 and is working on understanding the role of surface structures on flow boiling instabilities.

Email: harsh@ucsb.edu

Emily received her bachelor's degree in Engineering Science and Mechanics from Virginia Tech in 2021. During her time there, she concentrated her studies on fluid dynamics and spent her free time playing club rugby. Her current research interests are in the intersection of thermofluids and sustainable energy solutions. 

Email: espitaleri@ucsb.edu

Harrison received his BS in Chemistry from Santa Clara University in 2019. During his time at Santa Clara, he worked on solvent engineering of the active layer for lead halide perovskite solar cells in the labs of Professor Richard Barber and Professor Brian McNelis. His current research interests are focused on in situ and operando temperature measurements of lithium-ion cells.

Email: hszeto@ucsb.edu

I grew up in Carrboro, North Carolina and studied at North Carolina State University, earning my BS in Materials Science and Engineering. I am excited to be getting back to my California roots while studying at UCSB. In my free time, I love to hike, work on learning a new language, or play beach volleyball.  Current project (co-advised by Prof. Raphaële Clément) involves in operando analysis of lithium growth in batteries with heterogeneous heating profiles. Smooth plating and dendritic/mossy lithium growth are compared using in operano techniques, including NMR and EPR.

Email: oawander@ucsb.edu

Runqing earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) in 2019. Since his junior year, he has been actively involved in theoretical research as an undergraduate researcher in UCSB TEALab, where he focused on advancing the field of phonon transport. He was honored with the Chancellor's Fellowship upon joining the Mechanical Engineering department. Runqing has recently become a member of the TFEL and his research interests include utilizing Transient Grating Spectroscopy (TGS) to study the freeze-thaw processes in Li-ion batteries.

Email: runqingyang@ucsb.edu