Kimaya Mehrotra
Hometown: India
Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimayameh/
Biography
Kimaya is a rising junior at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, majoring in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Computer Science. Her research interests involve computational chemistry, catalysis and process intensification. She aims to pursue academic or industrial research focusing on multiscale modelling for understanding catalyst performance and designing systems to sustainably meet growing global energy demand.
At her home university, Kimaya conducts research in the Peters Lab. She has contributed to the development of the group’s Master Equation microkinetic modelling technique, designing kinetic Monte Carlo simulations to characterize the model system of CO oxidation on heterogeneous catalysts. She also has experience in bioprocess design in the UIUC Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, evaluating bench-scale process flows to optimize the downstream production of succinic acid.
Kimaya is passionate about pedagogy and scientific communication, especially at the introductory level. She has been a Course Tutor for the introductory computer science course at UIUC, using her experience learning and helping students with Java throughout high school to guide first-year undergraduates in understanding the fundamentals of object-oriented programming. As a CARE Tutor, she helps engineering students navigate first- and second- year STEM coursework. She frequently volunteers with AIChE and REACT to host interactive chemistry demonstrations for elementary and middle school students.
In her free time, Kimaya enjoys reading, creative writing, baking, and learning about the history of science and its cultural impact.
