Nitesh Kumar
Postdoctoral Research Associate - Computational Chemist
Bio
Nitesh Kumar received his B.Sc. in Chemistry (Honours) from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi in 2015 and his M.Sc. in Physical Chemistry with a focus on Statistical Mechanics from the Department of Chemistry, Delhi University in 2017. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Washington State University under the WSU-PNNL Distinguished Graduate Research program, researching in Professor Aurora E Clark's laboratory. His primary areas of study included solutions and interfacial chemistry, as well as methodological advancements in graph theory, algebraic topology, and machine learning. At PNNL, he studied the aggregation behavior of organic flow battery electrolytes within the Physical Biosciences group. Currently, Dr. Kumar is affiliated with the Chemical Sciences Division at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, specializing in fundamental chemistry at interfaces and supramolecular systems.
Professional Experience
- Postdoctoral Research Associate - Computational Chemist, ORNL, TN (2023-present)
- Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Utah, UT (2023-2023)
- PNNL-WSU DGRP Fellow, PNNL, WA (2018-2023)
Awards
- PNNL-WSU Distinguished Graduate Research (DGRP) Fellowship.
- Crosby, Glenn A., and Jane L. Graduate Scholars Endowment fellowship 2022-2023 in Chemical Physics by Department of Chemistry, Washington State University.
- J. Ivan Legg Fellowship 2021-2022 in Chemistry by College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), Washington State University, Pullman.
- James C. Sullivan Memorial Fellowship 2019-2020 for graduate students working in Actinide Chemistry.
- Harold W. Dodgen Outstanding Graduate Seminar Award 2019.
Education
- Ph.D. Physical Chemistry, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA (2023)
- M.Sc. Physical Chemistry, University of Delhi, India (2017)
- B.Sc. (Honours) Chemistry, St. Stephens College, Delhi, India (2015)
Specialized Equipment
- Statistical Mechanics
- Interfacial Chemistry
- Computational Supramolecular Chemistry
- Machine Learning and Method Development
Other Publications
- Kumar, N., Clark, A. E. Unexpected Inverse Correlations and Cooperativity in Ion-pair Phase Transfer, Chemical Science, 2021. https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2021/sc/d1sc04004a
- Kumar, N., Rishko, W., Fiedler, K.R., Hollas, A., Chun, J. and Johnson, S.I. Correlations between Molecular Structure, Solvation Topology, and Transport Properties of Aqueous Organic Flow Battery Electrolyte Solutions. ACS Materials Letters, 2023. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsmaterialslett.3c00838
- Kumar, N., and Aurora E. Clark. Adsorbate Organization Characterized by Sublevelset Persistent Homology. Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, 2023. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.jctc.3c00090
- Kumar, N., Sadhu, B.; Clark, A. E. Essential Aspects of Solvent Effects and Solution Conditions Upon the Modeling and Simulation of Lanthanide and Actinide Complexes, in Computational Actinide and Lanthanide Chemistry, ed. Windus, T.; Pederson, C.; Penchoff, D. ACS Books, 2021. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/bk-2021-1388.ch012
- Kumar, N., Servis, M.J., Liu, Z. and Clark, A.E., Competitive interactions at electrolyte/octanol interfaces: A molecular perspective. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2020. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.jpcc.0c00302
- Kumar, N., Servis, M.J. and Clark, A.E., Uranyl speciation in the presence of specific ion gradients at the electrolyte/organic interface. Solvent Extraction and Ion Exchange, 2022. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07366299.2021.1954323
- Kumar, N., Exclusive ion recognition using host–guest sandwich complexes. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2024. https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2024/cp/d3cp05070j
- Hwang, I., Huang, S.Y., Smith, S., Lynch, V., Custelcean, R., Moyer, B.A., Kumar, N., Bryantsev, V.S. and Sessler, J.L. Direct Extraction of Sodium Hydroxide by Calix [4] pyrrole-Based Ion-Pair Receptors. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2023. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/jacs.3c03547
- For a full list of publications, visit: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nitesh-Kumar-4