Mustafa Hadj-Nacer

Dr. Mustafa Hadj-Nacer is a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Nevada Reno (UNR). Dr. Hadj-Nacer’s research is focused on applying and developing experimentally benchmarked computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models for several applications ranging from Nuclear Packaging to Enhanced Heat Transfer and Cooling systems.

Dr. Hadj-Nacer received a Ph.D. from Aix-Marseille University, France. His research included gas-surface interaction in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and the measurement of the mass flow rate through micro-tubes of different cross-section shapes and materials. He also developed analytical and numerical approaches to calculate the mass flow rate in the slip, transitional and free molecular flow regimes.

Daniel Trugman

Dr. Trugman’s research focuses on developing and applying new techniques to analyze large datasets of seismic waveforms in order to better understand earthquake rupture processes and their relation to seismic hazards. His research team at the University is broadly interested in leveraging concepts from big data and scientific machine learning alongside high-fidelity physical modeling in order to advance earthquake science.

Topics of particular interest include to Dr. Trugman’s research team include:
– Nevada seismicity, tectonics, and earthquake sequences
– Earthquake source properties (magnitude, stress drop, and radiated energy estimates)
– Earthquake nucleation and rupture dynamics
– Stress transfer and earthquake triggering
– Earthquake early warning systems
– Ground motion prediction and hazard analysis
– Forensic seismology and nuclear monitoring

Elnaz Seylabi

I am an assistant professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Nevada Reno. Before joining UNR in 2019, I was a postdoctoral scholar at the Mechanical and Civil Engineering Department at the California Institute of Technology (2017-2019). I received a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (with a major in Structural Mechanics and a minor in Applied Mathematics) from the University of California Los Angeles, an M.Sc. in Earthquake Engineering, and a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the Sharif University of Technology. My research focuses on risk-informed engineering of geostructural systems, near-surface characterization, and computational methods for efficient performance-based engineering and uncertainty quantification.

Ana de Bettencourt-Dias

Ana de Bettencourt-Dias received her ‘licenciatura’ (M.S. equivalent) in Technological Chemistry from the University of Lisbon in 1993, and her ‘Dr. rer. nat.’ (Ph.D. equivalent) in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Cologne in 1997 with Prof. Thomas Kruck. In her graduate work, she isolated new titanium complexes as single source precursors for the chemical vapor deposition of TiN thin layers. She joined the group of Prof. Alan Balch at UC Davis in 1998 as a Gulbenkian postdoctoral fellow, where she studied the electrochemistry and structure of fullerenes and endohedral fullerenes.

In 2001 she joined the faculty at Syracuse University and started her work on luminescent lanthanide ion complexes. She moved to the University of Nevada, Reno as associate professor in 2007 and was promoted to professor in 2013. Her research centers on light-emitting compounds and coordination chemistry of the f block of the periodic table. She has published over 80 peer-reviewed manuscripts, several book chapters and invited editorials and edited two books in lanthanide photophysics. Her work has been funded by the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, the Petroleum Research Fund, the Department of Agriculture, the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technologic Development, and the Research Foundation of the State of São Paulo.

She served on the editorial advisory board for Inorganic Chemistry from 2013 to 2015, has been on the editorial advisory board for Comments on Inorganic Chemistry since 2016, is a managing member of the editorial board of the Journal of Rare Earths since 2014 and an associate editor for Inorganics since 2022. She has given over 200 oral presentations and was plenary or keynote speaker at several international conferences. She was program chair of the 2011 and conference chair of the 2014 Rare Earth Research Conference, organized the lanthanides and actinides symposia at the national meetings of the American Chemical Society, was the 2019 Chair of the Division of Inorganic Chemistry of the American Chemical Society and is co-program chair for the Division since 2022. She served as the Associate Vice President for Research at the University from 2015 to 2019. She returned to being a full-time faculty in July 2019, and is now the Susan Magee & Gary Clemons Professor of Chemistry. She received the 2006 Science & Technology Award of the Technology Alliance of Central New York, is a 2021 Fellow of the American Chemical Society and a 2022 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has also been named a Foundation Professor and received the 2023 Outstanding Researcher Award from the University.

Xiaoliang Wang

Dr. Wang’s overarching research theme is to understand air pollutant emissions, transformations, and impacts. Specifically, his research interests include physical and chemical characterization of aerosols, pollution source emission measurement, and aerosol instrument development.
Dr. Wang has developed several widely used aerosol instruments. He is a co-inventor of nanoparticle aerodynamic lenses for efficiently delivering particles into aerosol mass spectrometers and the TSI DustTrak DRX Aerosol Monitor for measuring size-segregated aerosol mass concentrations in real time. He led the design of the DRI Portable Emissions Measurement System (PEMS) that has been used for characterizing gases and particles from vehicle exhaust, stack emissions, biomass burning, and biomass-derived syngas. Dr. Wang also led the design of the DRI Model 2015 Multiwavelength Thermal/Optical Carbon Analyzer that has been commercialized and used worldwide.
Dr. Wang has been studying real-world emissions from pollution sources with the goal of improving air quality management. His projects include researching dust emissions in underground coal mines, tailpipe and non-tailpipe (i.e., brake and tire wear, as well as road dust) emissions from vehicle traffic, toxic gas and particle emissions from the open burning of household solid waste in South Africa, smoke emissions from burning lithium-ion batteries and spacecraft-relevant materials, and mining fleet/industrial stack/fugitive dust emissions in the oil sands region of Canada. Recently, he participated in several projects to study the impact of visibility, air quality, and atmospheric deposition of particles generated from wildfires and prescribed burns in the Lake Tahoe Basin.
Dr. Wang is an active participant in several scientific organizations. He conducts peer reviews for scientific publications and funding agencies. He served as co-chair and chair of the Instrumentation Working Group of the American Association of Aerosol Research (AAAR) annual conferences and chair of the Young Investigators Committee of the AAAR.
Dr. Wang has been granted three patents and published three book chapters and 90+ peer-reviewed journal articles. He is the recipient of the 2020 AAAR Benjamin Y. H. Liu Award that recognizes outstanding contributions to aerosol instrumentation and experimental techniques. Most recently, he received the 2021 DRI Science Medal for his outstanding scientific contributions.

Derek Kauneckis

Dr. Derek Kauneckis is an affiliated associate research faculty in the Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences at the Desert Research Institute and associate professor of environmental studies at Ohio University. His research focuses on regional environmental governance, how people interact with environmental resources, and the emergence of cooperative institutions. He has examined behavioral and institutional components of resilience planning, climate policy networks, and the role of technology in the science/policy interface. His research has been published in the Journal of Coastal Management, Simulation & Gaming, Environmental Management, Studies in Comparative International Development, Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, among others. Dr. Kauneckis currently serves as an Advisory Committee Member for the Department of Homeland Security’s Resilient Investment Planning and Development Working Group, and leads the Advisory Group on Professional Education for the American Society of Adaptation Professionals (ASAP). Dr. Kauneckis’ research has been sponsored by Fulbright, National Science Foundation (NSF), National Oceans and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Department of Agriculture (USDA), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

Shengjie Zhai

Dr. Shengjie (Patrick) Zhai is an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His research expertise is centered around five key areas: 1) Novel nanomaterials and patterning techniques for bioelectronics, optoelectronics, and photovoltaics, 2) Plasmonic-enhanced biosensors for single-molecule biomedical analysis, 3) Micro/Nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS), 4) Physiological organ biomimetic systems built on microfluidic chips and multi-external driven, scaffold-free engineered human tissue models, and 5) Artificial intelligence-assisted health assessment.
His research contributions include the development of micro-engineered multichannel organ-on-a-chip devices, AI-reinforced biomimetic biosensors, and novel biomaterials for low-noise, comfortable personal health wearable monitor bioelectronics (PHWMB). Dr. Zhai has authored over 20 peer-reviewed articles published in respected journals such as Advanced Optical Materials, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, and IEEE COMPSAC, and holds nine patents in his field.
Among his accolades, Dr. Zhai is a recipient of two National Science Foundation Fund Awards (2021, 2019), the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development Fund Award (2020), the NASA-Colgate Funding Award (2019), and a Department of Energy Research Award (2022). He has also served as an editor for the Journal of Renewable Materials and as a contributing reviewer for the Royal Society of Chemistry Advances. His academic services extend to numerous other academic journals, and he has participated as a panelist for NSF, DOE, and NASA grant review processes.

Lazaro Perez

My work seeks to identify and understand the coupling between physical heterogeneity and biochemical processes that control environmental biogeochemical reactions, energy, and mass transfer processes in the environment. We design and implement multiscale laboratory experiments visualization and numerical modeling.
My research is highly collaborative and multidisciplinary that provides domain expertise in scale biogeochemistry, reactive transport processes, multiphase flow systems, lab-to-field-scale hydrogeology, and computational geochemistry.

Mohamed Trabia

Introduction
Dr. Mohamed Trabia is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering since 2000 at UNLV. His research interests include design and optimization of mechanical systems, characterization of material properties under dynamic loading, system identification and control of smart actuators. Dr. Trabia has been the author of more than 200 technical journal and conference papers. He was involved in multiple funded research projects. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

Pradeep Menezes

Dr. Menezes is an Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Nevada, Reno. Before joining the University, he worked as an adjunct assistant professor in the Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering Department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) and post-doctoral research associate in the Industrial Engineering Department at the University of Pittsburgh.