Akash Ball

Akash Ball is a PhD candidate in chemical engineering whose research aims to use machine learning and computational chemistry to discover novel materials for applications in water desalination, industrial water treatment, and rare earth element recovery. Specifically, he is working to identify materials with unprecedented water permeation and ion-separation performance and creating models to explain how to optimize the transport properties of porous metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). MOFs are comprised of linkers and inorganic metal nodes; by combining them in novel ways or functionalizing linkers, it is possible to design vast numbers of novel materials. Akash’s current objectives are to uncover the chemical and geometric features governing water and ion transport in MOFs and to create machine-learning models that advance MOF design. MATLAB is a critical tool for his model design and results analysis. Ultimately, Akash hopes to develop predictive structure-property relationships for ion selectivity, enabling the design of MOFs for rare earth ion recovery and desalination/water purification. His research has the potential to help address the global shortage of freshwater reserves, impacting some four billion people.