Postdocs
Dr. Caroline Hill
Caroline graduated from the University of Tennessee in 2017 with a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering. While attending UT, she worked as an undergraduate teaching assistant and served on the officer board for Tau Beta Pi and the Society of Women Engineers. After graduation, she worked with the Mechanical R&D department at Siemens Healthcare to design the next generation of Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography (PET-CT) technology. The primary project she assisted with involved the development of a precision alignment system to improve image quality and facilitate better diagnosis and treatment of disease by medical professionals.
email: caroline.hill@ufl.edu
Dr. Durgesh Ranjan
Durgesh earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Cochin University of Science and Technology in 2017 and his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Patna in 2019. His master’s research explored the characterizing the acoustic of pool boiling in aqueous surfactants solution and designing a feedback device to control the thermal runaway. After completing his Ph.D. from Syracuse University, he joined Prof. Scheffe’s lab as a Postdoctoral Associate in March 2023. His doctoral work is primarily focused on surface nanofabrication, surface wettability and heat transfer using micro/nano structured geometries. He intends to pursue a career in academia.
email: durgeshranjan@ufl.edu
Ph.D. Students
Ahmed Aljabr
Ahmed received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical engineering from King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM), Saudi Arabia. Upon completion of his B.S., he was assigned as a teaching assistant and then a lecturer in the mechanical engineering department in KFUPM. During his career in KFUPM, Ahmed taught material science, thermofluids, and measurement and control laboratories. Besides, he was a member of safety, industrial relations, and public relations departmental committees. During his MS, he was given the opportunity to participate in a research project related to electrical power production utilizing concentrated solar energy. The project was under the Clean Water, Clean Energy program, which is a collaborated program between KFUPM and MIT. For his M.S. thesis, he studied different combinations of water desalination systems coupled with renewable energy technologies. To get the opportunity to explore a new promising utilization technique, Ahmed is pursuing his Ph.D. with Prof. Scheffe’s research group in the Renewable Energy Conversion Laboratory.
email: aljabra@ufl.edu
Alaa Al-Bukhari
Alaa is an international student from Saudi Arabia. In 2015, he graduated top of his class with a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM). After graduation, he worked in the petrochemical industry for two years at a joint venture between SABIC and ExxonMobil. His main duties involved leading mechanical projects, and inspecting fixed and rotating equipment while providing technical assistance to the operation department. In 2020, Alaa received his M.S. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Florida. Currently, he is pursuing his Ph.D. with Dr. Scheffe to become a prominent professor in the field of thermal and renewable energy.
email: albukhari.a@ufl.edu
Francesca Barbieri
Francesca graduated with a MEng in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Bristol, UK, in July 2023. During her undergraduate studies, her research focused on testing of instrumentation for balloon-borne application, used to characterize atmospheric radioactive particles to study their impact on the Earth’s climate. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. with Dr. Scheffe in the field of solar thermochemical hydrogen production.
email: f.barbieri@ufl.edu
Dylan McCord
Dylan graduated from the University of North Florida in 2019 with a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering. During his undergraduate studies, he served as an officer in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He spent his senior year working on a project with GE Oil and Gas where he and the UNF team developed a multiphysics model of a pressure relief valve to determine operating conditions that would cause mechanical failure. Through elective studies, Dylan received training on a range of material characterization techniques in the UNF Materials Science and Engineering Research Facility (MSERF). He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, specializing in Thermal Science and Fluid Dynamics.
email: dylanmccord@ufl.edu
Kathryn G. Trimm
Kate received her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Louisiana Tech University in spring of 2020 and M.S. from the University of Florida in 2022. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering with research focusing on solar thermochemical reforming processes.
email: ktrimm@ufl.edu
Master’s Students
Philip Ignatoff
email: philipignatoff@ufl.edu
Undergraduate Students
Jamar Ivey
email: jamarivey@ufl.edu
Taylor Johnson
email: johnsontaylor@ufl.edu
Ethan Myrick
email: ethanmyrick@ufl.edu
Nikhil Srinivasan
email: n.srinivasan@ufl.edu
Former Ph.D Students
Caroline Hill (Fall 2019 – Spring 2023), Kangjae Lee (August 2016 – Spring 2020), Kent Warren (Sept. 2015 – May 2019), Richard Carrillo (Sept. 2015 – August 2019)
Former M.S Students
Chase Montgomery (Spring 2022 – Spring 2023), Julio Roncal (Spring 2022-Fall 2023), Anthony Concepcion (Spring 2021 – Summer 2022), Ali Rahal (Spring 2021 – Fall 2021), Diego Gordon (Fall 2019 – Fall 2020), Rishab Ramaswamy (July 2017 – July 2018), Qusai Nalawala (Spring 2020 – Spring 2021), Vikram Ganesan (Fall 2018 – Spring 2020), Abdalla Aleghfeli (June 2017 – May 2018), Surabhi Singh (October 2016 – June 2017), Vijeet Chandorkar (2015 – 2016)
Former Undergraduate Students
Victoria Stevenson (Spring 2023), Erin Volpe (Spring 2023), Rachel Robbins (Spring 2020 – Spring 2022, Honors), Enrique Hernaiz (August 2019 – 2021, USP), Bryan Noll (August 2019 – 2021), Lauren Rogers (January 2019 – Spring 2020), Collin Hamilton (May 2018 – Spring 2020, Honors), Zorana Visic (January 2019 – Fall 2020), Martin Nguyen (August 2018 – December 2019), Ali Rahal (June 2019 – December 2019), Diego Gordon (May 2018 – May 2019), Elizabeth McMaster (July 2017 – June 2019), Amy Bohinsky (July 2017 – June 2019, USP), Samuel Mueller (May 2017 – June 2018), Abigale Mattingly (March 2017 – June 2019, USP), Jacob Misura (August 2016 – June 2019), Brian Kusnick (May 2017 – June 2018, Honors), Charles Pett (Feb. 2016 – June 2018, USP), Julie Riem (Feb. 2015 – June 2017,USP), Cory Rogers (Sept. 2014- June 2017, Honors)