B. Frank Gupton, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair
Professor Gupton's research is focused on the development of new technologies that will streamline organic synthesis.
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Saeed Ahmad, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor
Dr. Ahmad specializes in the development of using small molecules, peptides and proteins.
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Eliseu De Oliveira, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor
Eliseu De Oliveira, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Life Science and Chemical Engineering of Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), where he develops new drug chemical process with special emphasis on drugs needed to treat patients with HIV and AIDS in developing countries.
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Rudy Krack
Instructor & Lab Manager
Rudy Krack is a chemical engineer with 30+ years experience in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. Now in his 9th year of an "encore career" in academia. Teaches 2 CLSE undergraduate lab courses. Manage CLSE instructional laboratories, maintain equipment and instrumentation, promote lab safety. Assist with capstone senior design projects. Provide raw material cost estimates for new processes from the Gupton research group.
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Stan Gilliland, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Associate
Dr. Stanley E. Gilliland III has been a Postdoctoral fellow at Virginia Commonwealth University since 2015. His main research focus is in rational development and production of heterogeneous metal catalysts, specifically palladium nanoparticles supported on graphene materials. Through collaboration with researchers at University of South Carolina and the Center for Rational Catalyst Synthesis (CeRCaS) he continues to research precise catalyst site synthesis using strong electrostatic adsorption and microwave reduction methods for specific carbon-carbon bond formation and carbon-hydrogen activa
Sudhar Korwar, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Associate
Dr. Korwar received her Bachelor of Pharmacy in 2010 from Manipal University, India. She completed M.S. (2012) and Ph.D. (2016) in Pharmaceutical Sciences under the supervision of Dr. Keith Ellis at Virginia Commonwealth University. She joined the Gupton lab in 2016, and is working on developing continuous and cost-effective routes for the synthesis of anti-fungal and anti-viral drugs.
Michael Burkholder
Graduate Student
Michael Burkholder is a second-year graduate student in the Chemical and Life Science Engineering program working in the Catalysis Lab for Dr. Gupton. He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry at VCU in 2014 and has been a part of the Gupton group since 2013. His research focus includes the development and characterization of novel metal catalysts supported on carbon and design of process systems. Currently, he is collaborating with the University of South Carolina to develop a process for a continuous oxidation of alcohols.
Caleb Kong
Graduate Student
Caleb was born and raised in Northern Virginia. After obtaining his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia, he moved to Richmond to begin a brief stint working in polymer chemistry at Evonik Industries. In the Gupton group, his current research interests include flow methodology, API synthesis, and catalysis.
Yuan Yang
Graduate Student
Graduate Student in Chemical and Life Science Engineering department. Current research is focusing on developing Carbon based (graphene, carbon nanotube and etc.) metal nano-particle heterogeneous catalyst for carbon-carbon crossing-coupling reaction via a combined theoretical and experimental methodology. Ab initio method as density functional theory (DFT) is used to set up novel modeling system of metal cluster, carbon supported system and catalysis process.
