Hi! I am Yeonsu Kwak, a fifth-year PhD candidate in Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware, advised by Prof. Dion Vlachos. My research focuses on electrifying catalytic and thermochemical processes to enable scalable and intensified chemical manufacturing.
Prior to my PhD, I worked as a researcher at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology and Institute for Advanced Engineering, where I contributed to hydrogen and biofuel process development and pilot-scale validation.
My first-author publications span electrified and intensified reaction systems, including performance-advantaged microwave-assisted propane dehydrogenation (Science Advances, 2023), rapid pulse Joule heating for tandem methane and CO₂ upgrading (ACS Energy Letters, 2025), internally-heated short contact time ethane cracking (Chemical Engineering Journal, 2025), and scalable ALD-titania layered oxide-supported catalysts for low-noble-metal dehydrogenation (Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2024). Together, these works demonstrate integrated strengths in reactor design, process intensification, catalyst engineering, and scalable implementation.
Prior to my PhD, I worked as a researcher at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology and Institute for Advanced Engineering, where I contributed to hydrogen and biofuel process development and pilot-scale validation.
My first-author publications span electrified and intensified reaction systems, including performance-advantaged microwave-assisted propane dehydrogenation (Science Advances, 2023), rapid pulse Joule heating for tandem methane and CO₂ upgrading (ACS Energy Letters, 2025), internally-heated short contact time ethane cracking (Chemical Engineering Journal, 2025), and scalable ALD-titania layered oxide-supported catalysts for low-noble-metal dehydrogenation (Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2024). Together, these works demonstrate integrated strengths in reactor design, process intensification, catalyst engineering, and scalable implementation.