Students from the Johns Hopkins Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering demonstrated exceptional leadership at the 2025 AIChE Annual Student Conference, held from October 31 to November 3 in Boston.
To open the event, the Johns Hopkins AIChE student chapter hosted the featured student workshop, “Creating Connections: Building Chapter–Faculty Relationships.” The workshop equipped AIChE students from across the country with strategies to strengthen communication with faculty and build more meaningful, intentional relationships. It featured a presentation by chemical and biomolecular engineering junior Annabelle Wang, as well as interactive activities designed to help students practice skills that enhance collaboration with university mentors.
Building on this strong start, senior Adam Tobin-Williams led the Executive Student Committee Meeting and the Presidents Meeting in his role as ESC Chair, while senior Jackson Webster chaired the Mid-Atlantic Region portion during the Presidents Meeting.
Melina Mohammadi and her first-place poster.
The department was represented by 11 poster presentations, eight of which received awards during the conference. Senior Melina Mohammadi won first place in the Food, Pharmaceutical, and Biotechnology I category for her research, “A genetic screen in S. pyogenes reveals the interplay between DNA repair pathways and CRISPR-Cas9 memory formation.”
“My research looks at why only a small number of bacteria manage to use their native CRISPR defenses against new viruses, even though they all have the same system. The key seems to be how S. pyogenes repairs its DNA, and my work provides new evidence for a long-debated process called primed acquisition,” says Mohammadi. “I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to present and truly honored to have been awarded first place in my category.”
The department celebrated two additional first-place victories: senior Adam Tobin-Williams won in the Materials Engineering and Sciences II category for his work, “Colloidal Diffusion on Curvature Landscapes,” and senior Victor Wu won in the Computing, Simulation, and Process Control III category for his poster, “Tracing Cr Migration in Sb₂Te₃ with Computational Simulation: 2D van der Waals Materials Engineering for Next-Generation Thermoelectrics.” Wu also received the second-place CAST Division Overall Award.
Three students earned second-place finishes in the research presentations: junior Derrick Liu placed in the Food, Pharmaceutical, and Biotechnology I category, and seniors Jackson Webster and Giancarlo Zambrano placed in the Food, Pharmaceutical, and Biotechnology XIV and II categories, respectively. Two students earned third-place honors—senior Lavanya Gupta in the Catalysis and Reaction Engineering I category and sophomore Kevin Zhang in the Materials Engineering and Sciences VIII category.
Zhang and Liu were also recognized nationally for their academic achievements. Zhang received the First Year Student Recognition Award, which honors exceptional first-year chemical engineering students who demonstrate strong academic performance, enthusiasm for the field, and active involvement in their AIChE chapter. Liu received the Donald F. Othmer Second Year Student Academic Excellence Award, presented to one student in each chapter with the highest GPA during their first two years of undergraduate study, based on the recommendation of the chapter advisor.
ChemBE students also excelled in competitive events. The Johns Hopkins ChemE Jeopardy team achieved a historic victory, earning first place nationally for the first time. Team members Derrick Liu, Victor Wu, and Kevin Zhang scored 13,500 points in the final round, surpassing Georgia Tech’s 8,700 and the University of Notre Dame’s 1,300.
“I am very proud of our team for the victory in the ChemE Jeopardy national competition this year, which was a testament to the preparation, teamwork, and attention to detail that everyone put in,” says Wu. “It is an incredible accomplishment to secure Hopkins’ first-ever victory against a very competitive set of opponents, considering our team was started only a few years ago. I am looking forward to seeing what the team will accomplish in the future.”
In the ChemE Car competition, the Hopkins team “Pressure Drop” delivered its strongest performance to date, placing seventh nationally and twelfth internationally.
“Our team has once again shattered our previous record, pushing our highest historical ranking even higher despite this year’s exceptionally competitive field,” says team member Jackson Webster. “Our car stopped within one meter of the target endpoint, a key benchmark that highlights the precision and power we’re bringing to the national competition. We’re excited to build on this momentum and continue improving as we look ahead to next year’s challenge.”
In addition to Webster, the ChemE Car team includes master’s students Daniel Naiman, Timothy Kwok, and Aidan Gee; seniors Arman Flores, Smriti Gounder, Kayla Le, and Victor Wu; and junior Sophia Goreen.
The AIChE Annual Student Conference spans four days of career programming, social events, competitions, and networking opportunities. Student engineers from more than 200 schools join young professionals, AIChE leaders, and industry representatives in celebrating the chemical engineering profession.