Richa Ghosh graduated from UCLA Samueli in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. During her time at UCLA, she worked as an undergraduate researcher in both Professor Dante Simonetti’s lab and Professor Carlos Morales-Guio’s lab and served as the president of AIChE’s UCLA chapter. In 2020, she received the prestigious honor of a graduate research fellowship from the National Science Foundation. This past fall, Ghosh began her Ph.D. program in chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She is this year’s recipient of the Edward K. Rice Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award.

“I was very surprised and humbled when I found out that I had received this award. I know many of the previous student award winners and how accomplished they all are, so it truly means a lot to be recognized. Receiving this award has also made me feel reconnected to the UCLA Samueli community…”

Q: How did your time as an undergraduate student at UCLA Samueli help prepare you to pursue a Ph.D.?
A: I always knew that I wanted to pursue higher education, and my undergraduate experience at UCLA Samueli further inspired me to pursue a PhD.

During my freshman through junior years, I worked in Prof. Dante Simonetti’s lab where I focused on removing hazardous contaminants from natural gas and oil. I was able to communicate my findings at various conferences and through two journal publications. This experience taught me about the methodical nature of the scientific process and the importance of disseminating research for a far-reaching effect. In my junior year, I helped set up the lab of Prof. Carlos Morales-Guio’s group in chemical and biomolecular engineering. This group’s research focuses on electrochemical catalysis, specifically regarding CO2 reduction, for applications in renewable energy storage and utilization. I independently developed a project to investigate current limitations related to reaction and mass transfer processes during the copper-based electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 to fuels. Through my work in the group, I gained experience in proposing research projects and writing proposals.

Another aspect of my undergraduate experience that pushed me to pursue an academic career was my work in the UCLA Samueli Makerspace. Through the Makerspace I had the opportunity to mentor other students, as well as develop and teach two of my own courses: “Soap Synthesis” and “Design of Coffee.” This was an amazing opportunity, and the experience made me realize my love for teaching. Not many engineering students have the opportunity to design their own courses or do hands-on engineering work early-on in their undergraduate studies, and having a resource like the Makerspace available at UCLA Samueli is incredibly special and unique.

Q: How did you feel when Dean Murthy notified you that you had won the Edward K. Rice Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award?
A: I was very surprised and humbled when I found out that I had received this award. I know many of the previous student award winners and how accomplished they all are, so it truly means a lot to be recognized. Receiving this award has also made me feel reconnected to the UCLA Samueli community and has given me a sense of closure after not being able to have a traditional graduation ceremony or finish my undergraduate degree on campus due to the Covid-19 pandemic. I am really excited and hope to have the opportunity to come back to campus in February to receive my award in-person.

Q: How has your research progressed from your time at UCLA Samueli to now? What are some of the research projects that you are planning to focus on for this year?
A: At UCLA Samueli, I worked in two different labs — a heterogeneous catalysis lab and electrocatalysis lab. Now, in my Ph.D. program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I am combining concepts and using techniques that I learned from both of these labs. I am using techniques from heterogeneous catalysis, such as kinetic studies, reaction network modeling, and in situ spectroscopy, to investigate the electrochemical oxidation of substrates derived from regional feedstocks (biomass, natural gas, etc.) to value-added chemicals. By doing this, I hope to learn about the fundamental kinetic phenomena of these reactions, which can then be used to design better catalysts and reactors for these reactions which can be translated to industry. The long-term goal of this project is to learn more about electrochemical oxidation of substrates derived from regional feedstocks so that we can transition to using these types of feedstocks, rather than non-renewable petroleum feedstocks for chemical production.

This next year I will be working on investigating fundamental reaction kinetic phenomena of flow electrooxidations of substrates derived from regional feedstocks. Flow systems are very interesting because more industrial chemical processes occur in flow, and electrooxidations in flow are not well understood. I will specifically be looking at flow electrooxidations of alkenes, as current industrial alkene epoxidations use environmentally harmful reagents. Industrial alkene epoxidations are done to produce epoxides, such as propylene oxides, which are used to produce plastics, resins, surfactants and detergents.

Q: How can your research be translated into new technologies? Or how do you hope your research will help “engineer change” in the world?
A: By fundamentally studying the kinetic phenomena of electrooxidations, we can gain knowledge that can then be used to develop catalysts, which are reactors that allow for more robust and efficient electrooxidations. Hopefully the knowledge I learn can be used to develop catalysts and reactors that can be implemented in industry. Currently electrooxidations are not commonly done in industry. The hope is that within the next 20-30 years the chemical industry will switch over from using thermochemistry to transform petroleum to commodity chemicals, to using electrochemistry to transform regional feedstocks (natural gas, biomass) to commodity chemicals. This can only be done once researchers’, like myself, study electrooxidations in more depth. Ultimately, my goal is to build a foundation from which we can make energy more renewable and sustainable.