News

Farewell, Dr. Oh & Dr. Pennel!

Recently, we said our goodbyes to our two newly minted Cargnello group Ph.D. graduates, Dr. Jinwon Oh and Dr. Makenna Pennel! Our group wishes them all the best for their next steps and we will share them once they are official!  

Sydney reports how the chemistry of mixed metal oxides renders Pt catalysts more active and stable

In ACS Catalysis, Sydney reports how tuning the chemical composition of an encapsulated metal oxide system where platinum nanoparticles are encapsulated in mixed alumina and manganese oxide layers can provide a synergistic effect in increasing both catalytic activity and stability for carbon monoxide (CO) oxidation. Read the full article here: Eliciting a Synergistic Effect between… Read more Sydney reports how the chemistry of mixed metal oxides renders Pt catalysts more active and stable

Jinwon wins MRS fall 2025 best oral presentation award!

At MRS fall 2025 in Boston, our recent Cargnello group Ph.D. graduate, Jinwon, presented his work and has been awarded the best oral presentation award for his symposium!!

Cargnello group year-end winter party

The Cargnello group celebrated a year of awesome science, good food, and great company with our annual year-end winter party!

Cargnello group @ MRS fall 2025

The Cargnello group will be attending and presenting at the 2025 MRS Fall Meeting in Boston!  Jinwon Oh (our recent PhD graduate): Synthesis of Colloidal High Entropy Alloy and Multimetallic Nanocrystals for Catalytic Applications; Session: SF03.09 Location: Sheraton, 3rd floor, Fairfax B Date/time: Thursday, December 4 2025, 3:00-3:15 pm

Presenting our newest PhD graduate: Dr. Makenna Pennel

The Cargnello group is beyond thrilled and proud to present our newest PhD graduate: Dr. Makenna Pennel! Makenna, a Stanford Chemistry PhD graduate, worked on plastics upcycling and recycling, an emerging yet (extremely) challenging research field. In her dissertation, she developed well-defined colloidal catalysts to probe fundamental plastics degradation processes while discovering new processes to… Read more Presenting our newest PhD graduate: Dr. Makenna Pennel

Jinwon & Pin-Hung win joint-1st place presentation prize @ CARA meeting

At the California research alliance (CARA, by BASF) meeting, Jinwon and Pin-Hung were named joint 1st place winners for best presentation. From co-authors to now co-winners!

Group potluck

We’re kicking off the new academic year with a group potluck party! We cook good science and good food!

Two new PhD candidates from our group

We are so incredibly proud of Daniel (left) and Juan (right), who have both passed their ChemE PhD qualifying exams and advanced to candidacy!

Cargnello group @ AiChE 2025, with two CRE travel award winners!

The Cargnello group will be attending and presenting at the 2025 AiChE Annual Meeting in Boston!  Jake Heinlein (postdoc): 459f Investigation into the Structural Sensitivity of the Deactivation Mechanism for Rhodium Nanoparticles on TiO2 for the Reverse Water-Gas Shift Reaction Kang Rui Garrick Lim (new postdoc, presenting his PhD work): 252e – Raspberry-Colloid-Templating As a Model Thermocatalytic Platform… Read more Cargnello group @ AiChE 2025, with two CRE travel award winners!