2026
October
Congrats Dr. Mahdi Malmali!
Dr. Mahdi Malmali has been honored with the Ed and Linda Whitacre Faculty Fellowship Award.
September
Industry Partnership with Pantex on Organic Waste Recovery
Dr. Malmali’s group, in partnership with Dr. Hadis Matinpour’s group, is involved in a three-year project with the Pantex Plant. The project combines computational fluid dynamics and experimental work to capture and reuse one of the facility’s major organic waste streams rather than sending it off-site for disposal. Read more here
Welcome Dr. Tanveer Mahtab!
ML welcomed postdoctoral researcher Dr. Tanveer Mahtab.
August
New member
Welcome to the lab, Aaron!
July
Best Poster Presentation Award at ICOM 2026
Congratulations to Aurelien Ruiz-Frachon on receiving the Best Poster Presentation Award at ICOM 2026. Aurélien presented his research, “Polyethersulfone Electrospun Mixed-Matrix Membrane for Li Adsorption.”
2026 International Congress on Membranes and Membrane Processes
Our group presented its latest research at the International Congress on Membranes and Membrane Processes (ICOM 2026) in San Antonio, Texas. The group contributed five oral presentations and two poster presentations on produced water treatment, lithium recovery, brine valorization, membrane distillation, rare earth element recovery, and advanced membrane materials.
Oral Presentations:
-
- Reverse osmosis for desalination of partially desalinated produced water to meet the regulatory standards. Hasib Mahbub, Larissa Rocha, Adrianne Lopez, Hadis Matinpour, Mahdi Malmali. Journal of Membrane Science (2025): 124669.
- Lithium Capture and Purification from Produced Waters. Najmul Haque Barbhuiya & Mahdi Malmali
- Valorization of High-Salinity Brines into Concentrated Acids and Bases. Larissa Rocha & Mahdi Malmali
- Surface-Heated Membrane Distillation. Hasib Mahbub & Mahdi Malmali
- Selective, Acid-Free Electrochemical Recovery of Rare Earth Elements. Shehab Shahreyar, Nishat Paul, Dr. Minxiang Zeng, Dr. Mahdi Malmali
Poster Presentation:
-
- Polyethersulfone electrospun mixed matrix membrane for Li adsorption. Aurélien Ruiz-Frachon, Md Shahriar Rahman, Mahdi Malmali
- Chemically Resistant PEEK MF & UF Membranes for Treatment of Harsh Water Streams. Utkarsh Misraa & Mahdi Malmali
June
Tanveer Mahtab defense
Congratulations to Dr. Tanveer Mahtab on successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis.
EMS Young Academics Award
Congratulations to our postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Najmul Haque Barbhuiya, on receiving the EMS Young Academics Award to attend ICOM 2026.
New members
Welcome to the lab, Anik and Josiah!
May
New Publication
Congrats, Tanveer, on his new publication. Follow this to read more
ICOM Travel Award
Shehab Shahreyar was selected as an ICOM Travel Award recipient to attend ICOM 2026.
April
Aurélien joined the group!
Aurélien Ruiz-Frachon joined the group as a summer research intern.
March
ACS Spring 2026
Tanveer Mahtab and Md Shahriar Rahman participated in the ACS Spring 2026 Conference in Atlanta, GA, presenting research on energy-efficient separations, methanol synthesis, and ammonia production under mild conditions.
-
- Leveraging ultra-stable sorbents for energy-efficient separation to enhance methanol synthesis. Tanveer Mahtab, Wenshuo Hu, Mahdi Malmali
- Demonstrating ammonia production under mild conditions through low-temperature catalysis and integrated absorptive separation. Md Shahriar Rahman, Mahdi Malmali
Seminar Speaker Visit
-
- Our group welcomed Dr. Michael Tsapatsis from Johns Hopkins University, who visited Texas Tech to give a Department of Chemical Engineering seminar and meet with the group.
- ML hosted Prof. Benny Freeman from the University of Texas at Austin for a Department of Chemical Engineering seminar, followed by a research visit and discussion with the group.
January
New member
Welcome to the lab, Numan!
Welcome, Dr. Utkarsh Misra!
ML welcomed postdoctoral researcher Dr. Utkarsh Misra.
2025
June
Congrats Dr. Mahdi Malmali!
Dr. Mahdi Malmali has received the 2025 Chancellor’s Council Distinguished Research Award! Read more here
Welcome, Dr. Hasib Mahbub!
ML welcomed postdoctoral researcher Dr. Hasib Mahbub.
April
Hasib Mahbub defense
Congratulations to Dr. Hasib Mahbub on successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis.
February
Research grant
Texas Tech Team Receives More than $3 Million for Critical Minerals Assessment. Read more here
2024
December
Welcome Dr. Najmul Haque Barbhuiya!
Dr. Najmul Haque Barbhuiya joined our group as a postdoctoral research associate.
October
- Congratulations, Dr. Fouzia Nowrin, on successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis.
May
Tanveer was awarded the prestigious TTU’s doctoral dissertation completion fellowship.
Hasib and Justin (alumni – currently a PhD student at UT Austin) won first and third place in the NAMS poster competition.
Research grant
Dr. Mahdi Malmali receives $2 Million Grant for Produced Water Research. Read more here
2023
May
- Hasib was awarded the prestigious TTU Doctoral Dissertation Completion Fellowship.
2022
November
- Malmali research group was recognized by TTU Safety Spotlight.
October
- Congratulations to Dr. Bosong Lin on successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis.
- Congratulations to Dr. I-Min Hsieh on successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis.
September
- Hasib received the Preston and Ima Smith Fellowship for research work that contributes to the West Texas area.
May
- Congrats, Bosong, for winning 1st Prize in the Student Poster Competition, 31st North American Membrane Society (NAMS) Annual Conference, Tempe, AZ
- Congrats, I-Min, for receiving James D. and Mary Hazlewood Memorial Graduate Fellowship
2021
November
- Amit received the Distinguished Staff Award in Recognition of his Significant Contributions and Shared Innovative Ideas to the Department and the Texas Tech Community. Presented by Texas Tech University.
April
- Congrats, I-Min, on receiving the Colin Tyrie Scholarship from the Produced Water Society.
- Amit received the Global Scholarship for the 21st Century in Recognition of Distinguished Academic Achievement, presented by Texas Tech University.
February
- I-Min received the Graduate Student Research Support Award