Alexander Lopez

Name: Alexander Lopez

Email: [email protected]

Phone Number: 918-343-6886

Title: Department Head and Associate Professor

Department: Mathematics & Physical Sciences

Office: Library, Room 103

Dr. Alexander LopezAbout Me

Dr. Lopez currently serves as an Associate Professor and Department Head of Mathematics and Physical Sciences and the Director of Chemical Engineering at Rogers State University.

Education

  • Ph.D. Chemical Engineering
    University of Arkansas
  • B.S. Chemical Engineering
    University of Arkansas

Professional Experience

  • 2024-Present, Department Head and Associate Professor
    Department of Math and Physical Sciences, Rogers State University
  • 2023 – 2024, Associate Professor
    Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Mississippi
  • 2016 – 2023, Assistant Professor
    Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Mississippi
  • 2015 – 2016, Postdoctoral Research Associate
    Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder

Professional Affiliations

  • American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE)
  • North American Membrane Society (NAMS)
  • Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society
  • Omega Chi Epsilon Chemical Engineering Honor Society

Research

Dr. Lopez’s research is focused on the synthesis, characterization, and testing of polymer/ionic liquid-based composite materials for use within thin films, coatings, and membranes for water production, charged product recovery, and gas separations.

Awards

  • 2021 Junior Faculty Research Award, School of Engineering, The University of Mississippi
  • 2021 Faculty Service Award, School of Engineering, The University of Mississippi
  • 2019 Travel Grant to attend the Great Minds in STEM Early-Career Faculty Symposium
  • 2019 Travel Grant to attend the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers National Meeting and Faculty Development Symposium

 

Grants

  1. AIChE Project Connect Grant 7/1/2023 – 6/30/2024 “Mid-South Local Section Senior Design Competition”
  2. University of Mississippi Equity in Action Support Fund 8/1/2022 – 7/31/2023 “Development of Engineering-Specific Gender Bias and Microaggressions Training to Reduce Hostility toward Female Engineering Students”
  3. National Aeronautics and Space Administration 3/1/2022 – 5/31/2024 “Conceptual Optimization for a Cement-Like Lunar Pad.”
  4. National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Mississippi Space Grant Consortium 9/1/2021 – 5/31/2023 “Computational Investigation of Thermal Performance and High-Energy-Particle Impact Resistance of Polyetherimide/Graphene Nanocomposites as Spacecraft Materials.”
  5. Viking Range LLC. “Viking and UM Collaboration for Food Science and Production Teaching Laboratories.” 9/1/2021 – 8/30/2023.
  6. Unified Brands, LLC. 5/1/2021 – 11/30/2021 “Metal Analysis for Unified Brands”
  7. National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Mississippi Space Grant Consortium 8/3/2020 – 7/31/2021 “A Particle-Based Numerical Framework for Continuum-Level Modeling and Simulation of Titanium Alloys for In-Space Additive Manufacturing”
  8. Mississippi Development Authority 4/15/2021 – 6/26/2021 “Rapid Prototyping of a Commercially Viable of a Membrane Module for a Vacuum Sweep Dehumidification (VSD) System for Building Air Conditioning Applications”
  9. National Science Foundation 9/1/2020 – 8/31/2025 “Rationally Designed Biphasic Block Co-Polymer/Ionic Liquid Transport Platforms through Manipulation of Physical Chemistry and Nano-Confinement”
  10. National Science Foundation 8/1/2020 – 7/31/2024 “MRI – Acquisition of a Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation Monitoring for Enhanced Research and Teaching of Interfacial Science in the State of Mississippi”
  11. National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Mississippi Space Grant Consortium 10/15/2010 – 5/31/2020 “Experimentally-validated Computational Research on Ionic Liquid Solvation of Martian Regolith Minerals: Insights into “Chemical Sintering” Mechanisms”
  12. AIChE Project Connect Grant 10/1/2019 – 6/30/2022 “Mid-South Local Section Senior Design Competition”
  13. National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Mississippi Space Grant Consortium 6/1/2019 – 5/31/2020 “Large-Scale Molecular Dynamics Modeling and Simulation for Coupled Interface-Sintering Problems during In-Space Additive Manufacturing of Titanium Alloys”
  14. Stuller Inc. 7/1/2019 – 5/31/2020 “Characterization of Stuller Inc. Masters and Masters Products”
  15. Sentient Corporation 6/16/2016 – 2/28/2019 “High Porosity CMC for Cooling and Drag Reduction”
  16. National Aeronautics and Space Administration 2/1/2019 – 5/31/2020 “Developing a Novel Method to Bond Planetary Regolith to Form Rigid Structures for Space-Based Habitats”
  17. AIChE Project Connect Grant 10/1/2018 – 6/30/2019 “Mid-South Local Section Senior Design Competition”
  18. National Aeronautics and Space Administration 6/1/2018 – 5/31/2019 “An Integrated Computational Framework for Atomic-level Investigation of the Sintering Mechanisms During In-Space Additive Manufacturing of Metals and Alloys”
  19. National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Mississippi Space Grant Consortium 9/1/2017 – 5/31/2019 “In Situ Extraction of Materials from Simulated Martian Regolith Using Ionic Liquid-Based Separation Platforms: A Holistic Approach.
  20. National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Mississippi Space Grant Consortium 9/1/2017 – 5/15/2019 “Additively Manufactured Ionic Liquid Epoxy/Metal Oxide Structural Materials for Mars Habitat Design and Construction Program.

Publications and Presentations

Refereed Journal Publications

  1. Salmankhani, A., Scovazzo, P., Lopez, A. M., Smith, A. E., & Nouranian, S. Self-Assembled Morphologies of Polystyrene-block-poly (ethylene oxide)/1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium Thiocyanate Membranes by Mesoscopic Dynamics Simulation. Macromolecules (2023), 56(17), 7153-7165.
  2. Mansourian-Tabei, M., Jiang, S., Alkhateb H., Lopez, A.M., Al-Ostaz, A., Nouranian, S. “A systematic molecular dynamics study of the thermal conductivities of polyetherimide/graphene nanocomposites using response surface methodology” Polymer Composites. (2023) 1-14. DOI: 10.1002/pc.27645
  3. Fasuyi, A., Lopez, A.M. “Influence of Poly(ionic) Liquid Incorporation within Resin Wafer Electrodeionization for Reduced Energy Consumption in Brackish Water Desalination” Chemical Engineering Journal (2022) 454 . DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2022.140209
  4. Nouranian, S., Asiaee, A., Rahmani, F., Jiang, S., Lopez, A.M., Fiske, M.R., Edmunson, J.E., Fox, E.T., Kaukler, W.F., Alkhateb, H., “Solvation of potential stable cations and anions originating from the Martian regolith in select ionic liquids.” Journal of Molecular Liquids. (2021). 324, DOI: 10.1016/j.molliq.2020.114691
  5. Asiaee, A., Nouranian, S., Jiang, S., Lopez, A.M., Fiske, M.R., Edmunson, J.E., Fox, E.T., Kaukler, W.F., Alkhateb, H., “On the potential of ionic liquids to recover metals from Martian regolith: Computational insights into interfacial interactions.” Journal of Molecular Liquids. (2020). 319, DOI: 10.1016/j.molliq.2020.114208.
  6. Kaviani, S., Kolahchyan, S., Bavarian, M., Hickenbottom, K.L., Lopez, A.M., Nejati, S. “Encapsulated Ionic Liquids with Enhanced Capacity for Carbon Dioxide Capture” Chemical Engineering Journal (2018) 354, 767-776. DOI: 1080/01496395.2017.1404612.
  7. Lopez, A.M., Cowan, M.G., Gin, D.L., Noble, R.D. “Phosphonium-based poly(ionic liquid)/ionic liquid ion gel membranes: Influence of structure and ionic liquid loading on ion conductivity and light gas separation performance” Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data. (2018). DOI: 10.1021/acs.jced.7b00541.
  8. Busic, A., Cooley, M.C., Lopez, A.M., Steuart, A.J., Penney, W.R., Clausen, E.C. “Determining the Net Positive Suction Heat of a Magnetic Drive Pump” Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer, CRC Press. (2018). 3-10.
  9. Lopez, A.M., Demydov, D., Rogers, B., Cleous, H., Tran, L., Smith, C., Williams, M., Schmelzle, J., Hestekin, J. A. “Economic Comparison of Pressure Driven Membrane Processes to Electrically Driven Processes for Use in Hydraulic Fracturing” Separation Science Technology (2017). 1-10.
  10. Lopez, A.M., Williams, M., Paiva, M., Demydov, D., Do, T.D., Fairey, J.L., Lin, Y.J., Hestekin, J.A., Potential of electrodialytic techniques in brackish desalination and recovery of industrial process water for reuse, Desalination. 409 (2017) 108–114. doi:10.1016/j.desal.2017.01.010.
  11. Cowan, M.G., Lopez, A.M., Masuda, M. Kohno, Y., McDanel, W.M., Noble, R.D., Gin, D.L., “Imidazolium-based poly(ionic liquid)/ionic liquid ion-gels with high ionic conductivity prepared from a curable poly(ionic liquid)” Macromolecular Rapid Communications. (2016). 37, 11501154. DOI: 10.1002/marc.201600029.
  12. Lopez, A.M., Dunsworth, H., Hestekin, J.A., “Reduction of the Shadow Spacer Effect using Reverse Electrodeionization and its Applications in Water Recycling for Hydraulic Fracturing Operations” Separation and      Purification         (2016). 162, 84-90.     DOI: 10.1016/j.seppur.2016.02.020. 
  13. Lopez, A.M., Hestekin, J.A., “Improved Organic Acid Purification through Wafer Enhanced Electrodeionization Utilizing Ionic Liquids”. Journal of Membrane Science. (2015). 493, 200-205. DOI: 10.1016/j.memsci.2015.06.008.
  14. Hestekin, J.A., Lopez, A.M., Clausen, E.C., Potts, T.M., “BioButanol: An Important Biofuel and Bioproduct”. Applications of Microbial Engineering. (2013). 450-479.
  15. Lopez, A.M., Hestekin, J.A. “Separation of Organic Acids from Water using Ionic Liquid Assisted Electrodialysis & Bipolar Electrodialysis”. Separation and Purification Technology. (2013). 116, 162-169.
  16. Ambati, J., Lopez, A. M., Cochran, D., Wattamwar, P., Bean, K., Dziubla, T. D., et al. “Engineered silica nanocarriers as a high-payload delivery vehicle for antioxidant enzymes”. Acta Biomaterialia. (2012).

Patents

  1. Lopez, A.M., Dunsworth, H.A., Hestekin, J.A., “Reverse Electrodialysis Systems Comprising Water and Applications Thereof.” U.S. Patent No. 10,651,493. (2020).

Technical Conference Presentations

  1. Salmankhani, A., Scovzzo, P., Lopez, A.M., Smith, A., Nouranian, S. “Experimentally Validated Simulation of Self-Assembled Morphologies and Gas Transport Properties in PS-b-Pdmaema / [EMIM][SCN] Membranes” 2023 AIChE National Meeting
  2. Knight, C., Salmankhani, A., Scovazzo, P., Nournaian, S., Smith, A., Lopez, A.M., “Influence of Block Size and Ionic Liquid Loading within PS-b-Pdmaema and PS-b-Peg Biphasic Block Copolymer Thin Films for Gas Separation Applications.” 2023 AIChE National Meeting
  3. Salmankhani, A., Scovzzo, P., Lopez, A.M., Smith, A., Nouranian, S. “Coarse-Grained Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Phase Behavior in Poly(styrene)-Block-Poly(ethylene glycol)/1-Ethyl-3-Methylimidazolium Thiocyanate Mixtures” 2022 AIChE National Meeting
  4. Knight, C., Scovazzo, P., Nournaian, S., Smith, A., Lopez, A.M., “Tunable Amphiphilic Pdmaema-b-PS Block Copolymer and Ionic Liquid Composite Thin Films for Gas Separations” 2022 AIChE National Meeting
  5. Asiaee, A., Nouranian, S., Rahmani, F., Jiang, S., Lopez, A.M., Alkhateb, H., “Thermodynamics of Mineral Extraction from Martian Regolith Using Ionic Liquids: Insights from Molecular Dynamics Simulation” 2020 AIChE National Meeting
  6. Fasuyi, A., Kolahchyan, S., Lopez, A.M., “Development of Robust, Ion-selective Polymeric Ionic Liquid Composites for Reduced Specific Energy Consumption within Water Purification via Electrodialytic Separations.” 2019 AIChE National Meeting
  7. Nouranian, S., Asiaee, A., Rahmani F., Jiang S., Lopez, A.M., Alkhateb, H., “Chemical and Mechanical Stability of A Model Ionic Liquid Epoxy Material Exposed to Galactic Cosmit Ray in A Simulated Martian Environment. 2019 AIChE National Meeting
  8. Fasuyi, A. Lopez, A.M., “Design of Ionic Liquid Epoxy Functionalized Ion Exchange Resin Wafers for Low Energy Electrodeionization” 2018 UM Graduate Student Research Symposium
  9. Kolahchyan, S., Lopez, A.M., “Ionic Liquid-based Composite Thin-films for Selective Ion Separations in Electrodialysis for Water Treatment Applications” 2018 UM Graduate Student Research Symposium
  10. Kolahchyan, S., Lopez, A.M., “Ionic Liquid-based Composite Thin-films for Selective Ion Separations in Electrodialysis for Water Treatment Applications” 2018 AIChE National Meeting
  11. Lopez, A.M., Nouranian, S., Jiang, S., Alkhateb, H., “Additive Manufacturing Research and Education Cluster – An Opportunity for Collaborated Research and Education” 2018 UM/UMMC Research Day
  12. Kolahchyan, S., Lopez, A.M., “Development of robust, ion-selective anion exchange membranes through incorporation of ionic liquid materials for water purification via electrodialysis, 2017 AIChE National Meeting.
  13. Fasuyi, A., Lopez, A.M., “Design of Ionic Liquid Epoxy Functionalized Ion Exchange Resins for Low Energy Electrodeionization. 2017 AIChE National Meeting.
  14. Kolahchyan, S., Lopez, A.M., “Development of robust, ion-selective anion exchange membranes through incorporation of ionic liquid materials for water purification via electrodialysis. UM Research Day 2017.
  15. Fasuyi, A., Lopez, A.M., “Design of Ionic Liquid Epoxy Functionalized Ion Exchange Resin Wafers for Ion-selective Electrodeionization. UM Research Day 2017.
  16. Lopez, A.M. Gin, D.L., Noble, R. “Phosphonium Based Poly(Ionic Liquid)/Ionic Liquid Membranes for High Temperature Ion Conductance. September 12th 2016. Engineering Conferences International Advanced Membrane Technology VII.

Invited Talks

  1. Lopez, A.M., “From Membranes to Mars” The University of Arkansas. November 29th, 2018.
  2. Lopez, A.M., “Applications of Ionic Liquid Composite Materials for Selective Separations in Water, Mineral, and Gas Treatment” Case Western Reserve University. March 2nd, 2022.
  3. Lopez, AM., “Applications of Composite Materials for Selective Separations in Water and Gas Treatment” Mississippi State University. September 22nd, 2023.