BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Harsh Vardhan received his Master of Science degree in Chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur. Subsequently, he worked with Prof. Francis Verpoort at Laboratory of Organometallics, Catalysis, and Ordered Materials, Wuhan University of Technology, China. In 2016, he came to United States to pursue Ph.D. in Chemistry under the guidance of Dr. Shengqian Ma and Dr. James Leahy at University of South Florida. His research focussed on “establishing structure-function-property relationship of covalent organic frameworks for heterogeneous catalysis including C-H activation". Following this, he was appointed postdoctoral research fellow at Northwestern-Argonne Institute of Science and Engineering, where he worked on “structure-function-property relationship of covalent organic framework based mixed matrix membrane on selective ion rejection”. As Rice academy fellow, Dr. Vardhan will be working with Dr. Rafael Verduzco to investigate the role of Covalent Organic Frameworks in PFAS degradation and selective removal of metal ions from water. He has also recipient of several awards, including research grant, Alexiou Award in Environmental Chemistry, Martin Travel award, Conference Presentation Grant Program Award, Most helpful faculty by students, and Sigma Xi membership.