Meet our Team
Director
Professor Aimy Bazylak
Email: aimy (dot) bazylak (at) utoronto (dot) ca
Prof. Aimy Bazylak is the Canada Research Chair in Clean Energy and Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the U of T. In 2011, she was awarded the I.W. Smith Award from the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, and she received the Ontario Early Researcher Award in 2012. From 2015-2018, she served as the Director of the U of T Institute for Sustainable Energy. In 2015 she was named an Alexander Von Humboldt Fellow (Germany), and in 2019 she was named a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In 2020, she was named a Helmholtz International Fellow (Germany), was awarded the U of T McLean Award, and was elected to the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. She was also recently elected as a 2022 Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC) for excellence in engineering and services to the profession and to society.
Research Associate
Najme Kishani Farahni
Email: najme (dot) kishanifarahani (at) utoronto (dot) ca
Najme Kishani Farahani is a Research Associate at the University of Toronto focused on advancing gender analysis and women’s equity in engineering. Najme did her PhD at OISE. Her research interests in her PhD and Postdoctoral fellowship involved the role of education in enhancing young people’s hope, motivation, and capability to transform social conflicts and build peace, with the focus on non-democratic and conflict-affected settings. In her careers in international development at UNICEF and Education Development Center, in the Middle East and East Africa, Najme had been working to strengthen institutional capacity to promote equity and justice for minoritized populations and women. Before switching into education, Najme was a civil engineer for eight years. Her passion for education and development led her to shift from engineering to the social sciences. Her current role, as a Research Associate with the Bazylak Group, bridges her engineering background to her passion and endeavors for social justice and gender equity.
Postdoctoral Fellows
Alicia Battaglia
Postdoctoral Fellow
Email: alicia (dot) battaglia (at) mail (dot) utoronto (dot) ca
Alicia (she/her) graduated with a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Toronto in 2024, where she developed novel polymers as binders for organic electrodes in metal-ion batteries. In 2025, she joined the Bazylak Group to apply her polymer expertise to a new field. She is currently working on advancing CO2 electrolysis through innovative catalyst and ionomer designs.
Mohammad Soltaniayan
Postdoctoral Fellow
Email: m (dot) soltaniayan (at) mail (dot) utoronto (dot) ca
Mohammad completed his PhD in 2024 in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Toronto, where he focused on developing sustainable coatings and wettability engineering to enable passive liquid transport across solid and porous materials. As a postdoctoral fellow in the Bazylak Group, he is applying this expertise to electrochemical systems, studying how surface treatments affect water management, interfacial behavior, and fuel cell performance. Outside the lab, he enjoys playing soccer and going on bike rides.
Graduate Students
Jason Chan
PhD Student
Email: jasonk (dot) chan (at) mail (dot) utoronto (dot) ca
Jason Chan graduated from the University of Alberta in 2018 with a BSc. in Mechanical Engineering (Biomedical Option). During his undergraduate studies, Jason studied the biomechanical responses of the lumbar spine, and also the mechanical dislodgement of kidney stones. Jason completed his MASc with the Bazylak Group, where he studied the mechanisms underlying the recellularization of the lung.
Beste Derebaşı
PhD Student
Email: beste (dot) derebasi (at) mail (dot) utoronto (dot) ca
Beste Derebaşı graduated from Middle East Technical University (METU) with a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering department in 2020. She completed her M.Sc. degree at the same department at METU in 2023. She also worked as a research assistant at METU during her graduate education. Her M.Sc. thesis focused on the modeling and experimental study of heat pipes, specifically investigating the two-phase flow physics. Based on her interest in green energy and sustainability, Beste joined the Bazylak Group in 2023.
Kyle Dessa
MASc Student
Email: kyle (dot) dessa (at) mail (dot) utoronto (dot) ca
Kyle completed his B.Eng in 2025 in Mechanical Engineering with a specialization in Sustainable Energy at the University of Guelph. His undergraduate capstone project focused on the development of a waste heat recovery system for residential natural gas generators to reduce household energy usage. Kyle’s interest in clean energy technology led him to join the Bazylak Group, where his research focuses on using scanning transmission X-ray microscopy to characterize PEM fuel cell catalyst coated membranes to improve cell performance and fabrication techniques.
Arianna Economou
PhD Student
Email: arianna (dot) economou (at) mail (dot) utoronto (dot) ca
Arianna Economou graduated from Toronto Metropolitan University in 2024 with a B.Eng. in Chemical Engineering. During her undergraduate studies, Arianna engaged in research on ammonia fuel cell electrode fabrication techniques and OSDA-free interzeolite synthesis. Arianna joined the Bazylak Group as a PhD student in 2024 and is currently investigating mechanisms of water and hydroxide ion transport in AEM water electrolyzers.
Ashley Henry
MASc Student
Email: ashley (dot) henry (at) mail (dot) utoronto (dot) ca
Ashley Henry graduated from the University of Toronto with a BASc. in Chemical Engineering. During her undergraduate studies, Ashley studied cogenerating systems in fast fission nuclear reactors, specifically for supporting thermochemical hydrogen generating facilities. With the Bazylak Group, Ashley is studying catalyst fabrication for PEM fuel cells.
Zayneb Hussain
MASc Student
Email: zayneb (dot) hussain (at) mail (dot) utoronto (dot) ca
Zayneb Hussain graduated from the University of Toronto with a BASc. in Mechanical Engineering. During her undergraduate studies, she investigated CO2 electrolyzers, focusing on the effects of relative humidity on cell performance. She was awarded the MIE Summer Reseach Award prior to her MASc, initiating her research on CO2 capture technologies. At the Bazylak Group, Zayneb is continuing her research in CO2 capture and conversion technologies.
Leya Kober
MASc Student
Email: leya (dot) kober (at) mail (dot) utoronto (dot) ca
Leya Kober completed her undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from Ryerson University, and in 2021 joined the Bazylak Group to advance PEM fuel cell performance through the techniques of advanced X-ray radiography and tomography to elucidate interfacial multiphase transport phenomena.
Spencer Lytle
PhD Student
Email: spencer (dot) lytle (at) mail (dot) utoronto (dot) ca
Spencer graduated from Ontario Tech University in 2022 with a B.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering with an Energy Engineering specialization. His passion for vehicle design and environmental sustainability incited his interest in hydrogen and fuel cell engineering for vehicular applications. Spencer previously conducted research on the production of hydrogen gas via the plasmolysis of water vapor in his undergraduate program funded by NSERC’s USRA in 2019. Prior to starting his MASc in the Bazylak Group, he was awarded NSERC’s USRA a second time for the summer of 2022, where he commenced his clean electrochemical gas-to-power research in the Bazylak Group exploring and designing custom catalyst coated membranes through electrochemical characterizations to ultimately enhance the performance of PEM fuel cells.
Shayan Marand
PhD Student
Email: shayan (dot) talebimarand (at) mail (dot) utoronto (dot) ca
Shayan graduated from McMaster University in 2024 with a B.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering. His final year capstone project centered on developing smoke and surface-oil visualization techniques to study flow dynamics around aerodynamic bodies in a wind tunnel laboratory. During his undergraduate studies, Shayan was an active member of McMaster’s Formula Electric Racing Club, contributing to the drivetrain team with a focus on modeling gearbox components using Finite Element Methods. Shayan joined the Bazylak Group to conduct numerical modeling of flow within the gas diffusion layers of PEM fuel cells.
Dana Murdoch
MASc Student
Email: dana (dot) murdoch (at) mail (dot) utoronto (dot) ca
Dana Murdoch completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto in Materials Science and Engineering. During her undergraduate studies, she performed research on the synthesis, characterization and performance of engineered nanostructured photocatalysts for solar fuels, as well as research on unusual hardening observed in electrodeposited nanocrystalline medium entropy alloys using advanced microscopy techniques. Dana was also the Thermal Lead for Space Systems with the University of Toronto Aerospace Team, focusing on modeling and analyzing thermal simulations for a CubeSat satellite.
Sharon Otieno
PhD Student
Email: sharon (dot) otieno (at) mail (dot) utoronto (dot) ca
Sharon holds a BSc in Biochemistry from Jomo Kenyatta University and a European Master’s in Chemical Regulation and Innovation from the Universities of Barcelona, Algarve, and Bologna. Her research focused on sustainable catalyst design using triphenylene-based MOFs for C–C coupling, and self-healing proton exchange membranes for fuel cells during her internship at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology. Currently, she focuses on advancing CO2 electrolysis through novel catalyst coated membranes informed through scanning transmission X-ray microscopy.
Harsharaj Parmar
PhD Candidate
Email: harsharaj (dot) parmar (at) mail (dot) utoronto (dot) ca
Harsharaj graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (India) in 2019 with a B.Tech. degree in Mechanical Engineering. During his undergraduate years he formulated high accuracy Chebyshev spectral codes for fluid flow and heat transfer. In 2021, he received his M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University where he developed energy efficient thermal desalination systems in the Warsinger Water Lab. Presently, he is a PhD candidate in the Bazylak Group and works towards optimizing the multiphase transport phenomena through gas diffusion layers in fuel cells.
Salvatore Ranieri
PhD Student
Email: sal (dot) ranieri (at) mail (dot) utoronto (dot) ca
Salvatore (Sal) Ranieri graduated from Ontario Tech University in 2016 with a B.Eng. and in 2019 with a M.ASc. in Mechanical Engineering. His final year capstone team project focused on high-efficiency hybrid cycle (HEHC) engine analysis, design, and demonstration of a miniature rotary engine. During his master’s program, he developed thermodynamic models to investigate and optimize Stirling cycle engines. Sal has spent the past four years working in the PEM Fuel Cell industry as a system performance and flow field engineer, developing turbocharged fuel cell engine maps and bipolar plates for both graphitic and metallic substrates. Sal joined the Bazylak Group to further pursue his passion for clean energy and is working towards advancing PEM fuel cell components by optimizing the symbiotic multiphase mass transport phenomena between the gas diffusion layers and bipolar plates.
Tess Seip
PhD Candidate
Email: tess (dot) seip (at) mail (dot) utoronto (dot) ca
Tess graduated from McGill University in 2020 with a B.Eng. in Chemical Engineering. Her undergraduate capstone project focused on the development of an emission-free process for the production of green ammonia and hydrogen, fueling her interest in sustainable energy and power to gas technologies. Within the Bazylak Group, she is focused on developing numerical models for PEM water electrolyzer materials.
Hongxu Zhan
PhD Student
Email: hongxu (dot) zhan (at) mail (dot) utoronto (dot) ca
Hongxu Zhan graduated from Ningbo University in 2022 with a BEng in Engineering Mechanics (Innovative Class of Brilliant Talents). His undergraduate research focused on the surface wave instabilities of thermocapillary liquid layers using linear stability theory and long-wave analysis. In 2024, he earned an MPhil in Mechanical Engineering from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, where he investigated the kinetics of interfacial polymerization on a microfluidic platform. Hongxu joined the Bazylak Group in 2025 to study and model the compression and deformation of the gas diffusion layers in PEM fuel cells.
Lijun Zhu
PhD Candidate
Email: lijun (dot) zhu (at) mail (dot) utoronto (dot) ca
Lijun graduated from the Wuhan University of Technology with a Bachelor and a Masters in Mechanical Engineering in 2018 and 2021. He was also a visiting scholar of Cluster of Excellence SE2A at the TU Braunschweig (Germany) in 2020. His previous studies were focused on the structure and transport in porous media, which encouraged his further interests in porous transport and modeling for PEM fuel cells and water electrolyzers.
Undergraduate Students
Postdoctoral Alumni
Ali Kalantarian (2012)
Hanif Montazeri (2014)
Jon S. Ellis (2014)
Ronnie Yip (2014)
Prof. Mostafa Sharqawy (University of Guelph) (2015) (Former Research Associate)
James Hinebaugh (2016)
Prof. Stéphane Chevalier (Arts et Métiers) (2016)
Rupak Banerjee (2017)
David Ouellette (2018)
Prof. Benzhong (Robin) Zhao (McMaster University) (2018)
Prof. ChungHyuk Lee (Toronto Metropolitan University) (2020) (TMU FEEL Lab)
Kieran Fahy (2020)
Prof. Jason Keonhag Lee (University of Victoria) (2021) (EGGs Lab)
Ahmed Hasan (2022)
Pranay Shrestha (2023)
Alexandre Tugirumubano (2024)
Aida Farsi (2025)
Graduate Alumni
Zachary Fishman, M.A.Sc. (2010)
Meaghan Miller, M.A.Sc. (2010)
Jingwen Wang, M.A.Sc. (2011)
Jessica Yablecki, M.A.Sc. (2012)
Dillon Fuerth, M.A.Sc. (2012)
Pradyumna Challa, M.A.Sc. (2012)
Katie Pelletier, M.Eng. (2013)
Prof. Marina Freire-Gormaly (York University), M.A.Sc. (2013)
Steven Botelho, M.A.Sc. (2014)
Roshanak Banan, Ph.D. (2015)
James Hinebaugh, Ph.D. (2015)
Ali Ebrahimi, Ph.D. (2015)
Mohammadreza Fazeli, M.A.Sc. (2015)
Patrick Antonacci, M.A.Sc. (2015)
Nan Ge, M.A.Sc. (2015)
Michael G. George, M.A.Sc. (2016)
Nico Bevilacqua, M.A.Sc. (2017) University of Ulm
Daniel Muirhead, M.A.Sc. (2017)
Jongmin Lee, Ph.D. (2017)
Faraz Arbabi, Ph.D. (2017)
Pranay Shrestha, M.A.Sc. (2017)
Hang Liu, Ph.D. (2018)
Andrew Wong, M.A.Sc. (2018)
Nan Ge, Ph.D. (2019)
Prof. ChungHyuk Lee (Toronto Metropolitan University), Ph.D. (2019) (TMU FEEL Lab)
Eric Chadwick, M.A.Sc. (2019)
Manojkumar Balakrishnan, M.A.Sc. (2019)
Prof. Jason Keonhag Lee (University of Victoria), Ph.D. (2020) (EGGs Lab)
Pascal Kim, M.A.Sc. (2020)
Kevin Krause, M.A.Sc. (2020)
Hisan Shafaque, M.A.Sc. (2020)
Jason Chan, M.A.Sc. (2021)
Taylr Cawte, M.A.Sc. (2022)
Raymond Guan, M.A.Sc. (2022)
Joshua Paciocco, M.A.Sc. (2022)
Pranay Shrestha, Ph.D. (2023)
Vasant Batta, M.A.Sc. (2025)
Chaeyoung Ham, M.A.Sc. (2025)
Dhruvi Parekh, M.A.Sc. (2025)
Leya Kober, M.A.Sc. (2025)
Spencer Lytle, M.A.Sc. (2025)
Eric Chadwick, Ph.D. (2025)