The Ellis Lab
Welcome to the Ellis Lab!
The Ellis Lab seeks to develop heterogeneous catalysts and sorbents to help foster a more environmentally sustainable society, especially as it pertains to a more circular economy. Our group mainly utilizes experimental tools, like custom liquid and vapor-phase reactors, temperature programmed systems, and characterization tools like chemisorption, BET, ICP, XPS, and modeling, to help elucidate the structure-property relations of our materials.
Currently much of our research focuses on developing new catalyst systems and reaction engineering concepts to help monetize the reclamation of waste plastics.
Ellis Group - Winter 2025
Left to Right: Kahlil Holavarri, Andreas Palmateer, Coleman Jennewein, Samantha Hoffmann, Dimitri Gatzios, Lucas Ellis, Mia Chang, Andrew Tran, Stephen Stockton, Joseph (Yoshi) Funk, Tyler Emerson, and Ella Farrel
Lab Announcements
March 2025 - Andrew Tran wins the prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Award based on his research project in the Ellis Lab!! Congrats Andrew!! This is two years in a row for undergraduate researchers in the Ellis lab to be recognized!
October 2024 - Professor Ellis was invited to serve as the keynote speaker at the Murdoch College Science Research Conference. What an honor to participate in the conference and hear about so many talented undergraduate researchers in the pacific northwest!
August 2024 - Stephen and Samantha wrapped up their Johnson Fellowships. Check out Samantha's accomplishments in developing new educational toys in catalysis on our 3D Printing page.
May 2024 - Stephen, Andrew, Samantha, and Ellie presented posters at the Celebrating Undergraduate Excellence (CUE) Symposium.
Ellie @ CUE
Andrew Tran @ CUE
Stephen Stockton @ CUE
March 2024 - Jose Naranjo-Mendez wins the prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Award based on his research project in the Ellis Lab!! Congrats Jose!! Link to the OSU announcement here.
March 2024 - Selena & Dimitri will be presenting (oral presentations) their work at ACS in New Orleans. See you there!
February 2024 - Selena Moore successfully defends her M.S. Thesis. Congratulations Selena!!
January 2024 - Hannah Frankovic was accepted into multiple Chemical Engineering Ph.D. programs. Congratulations Hannah!
November 2023 - Lucas, Henry, Andrew, Hannah, and Jose organized Make Your Own Biodiesel (CBEE & You) an educational event with a 15 minute lecture by Lucas Ellis, part of CBEE & You. (~30 students in attendance)
Henry Seely & Jose Naranjo Mendez showing first year engineering students how to make biodiesel from vegetable oil. (Not pictured: Hannah Frankovic, Andrew Tran, Lucas Ellis, and Skip Rochefort)
October 2023 - Lucas won the Doctoral New Investigator Grant from American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund!
October 2023 - Lucas participated in Engineering Day, organized by Critian Reyes, a full day of activities for underrepresented and underserved high school students (75 in total). Lucas organized two 1-hour, hands-on activities, titled, "What do Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineers actually do?"
High school students (Engineering Day) working in teams to develop a prototype to separate a mixture for the cheapest price.
September 2023 - Lucas participated in LSAMP Bridge Day, organized by Sahid Rosado Lausell, a full day of activities for underrepresented high school students transitioning to university. Lucas organized two 1-hour, hands-on activities, titled, "What do Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineers actually do?"
High school students transitioning to university (LSAMP Bridge Program) working in teams to develop a prototype to separate a mixture for the cheapest price.
July 2023 - Ameila Prins & Jessica Finnie had a 1-week project in the Ellis Lab through the Summer Experience in Science & Engineering for Youth (SESEY) program. Primary Mentors: Andreas Palmateer & Jose Naranjo-Mendez.
Left to Right: Jose Naranjo-Mendez, Jessica Finnie, Amelia Prins, & Andreas Palmateer
June 2023 - Selena is off to Owens-Corning for a Summer Internship, which is part of her GEM fellowship. She will be missed!
May 2023 - Hannah, Jose, and Andrew present their posters at Celebrating Undergraduate Excellence (CUE) Symposium. Awesome work Jose, Andrew, & Hannah!
Hannah Frankovic @ CUE
Andrew Tran @ CUE
Jose Naranjo Mendez @ CUE
April 2023 - Flexo is officially commissioned.
March 2023 - KIF is commissioned & fully operational.
March 2023 - Lucas arranged for a donation of an Agilent Cary 660 FTIR from Oregon OSHA.
February 2023 - Lucas gave an invited seminar to the Academy of Life-Long Learning at Oregon State University.
January 2023 - Dimitri passed his qualifying exam! Congratulations Dimitri!
January 2023 - Andreas presented his poster at the Johnson Symposium.
December 2022 - Lucas was interviewed by Geekwire. Check out the article here.
December 2022 - Lucas was interviewed by CNET. Check out the article here.
November 2022 - Lucas presented a poster & served as co-chair of several sessions at the AiChE annual meeting.
October 2022 - Lucas co-first authored a paper in Science! It was a pleasure to work with such a talented & interdisciplinary team at NREL, UW, MIT, and ORNL. Check out the publication here, TOC image below.
October 2022 - Lucas was interviewed by Inverse. Check out the article here.
October 2022 - Andreas presented his poster at the ACS Regional Meeting. Congrats Andreas!
July 2022 - Lucas presented a poster at the ASEE/AiChE Chemical Engineering Summer School.
June 2022 - Lucas presented a poster at the Gordon Research Conference.
June 2022 - Andreas received the Johnson Fellowship. Congrats Andreas!
April 2022 - Dimitri & Selena officially join the Ellis Lab! Welcome!
March 2022 - Professor Farnsworth is officially commissioned.
March 2022 - Bender is officially commissioned.