{"id":5331,"date":"2026-05-13T14:59:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/?post_type=profiles&#038;p=5331"},"modified":"2026-08-13T14:49:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T18:49:04","slug":"alberto-rivera","status":"publish","type":"profiles","link":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/profiles\/alberto-rivera\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberto Rivera"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"599\" src=\"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/05\/Rivera-Alberto.jpg\" alt=\"by Corban Swain\" class=\"wp-image-5626\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1;object-fit:cover;width:200px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/05\/Rivera-Alberto.jpg 400w, https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/05\/Rivera-Alberto-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>SUNY University at Stony Brook<\/strong><br>Faculty Advisor: Prof. Caroline Ross<br>Research Supervisors: Bob Zhang, Chuyi Pan<br>Department: Chemistry<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:0px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Biography<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alberto Rivera is a rising sophomore majoring in Chemical and Molecular Engineering<br>at Stony Brook University, where he is a Simons STEM Scholar. His love of nature drives his<br>commitment to sustainability; he wants to help build a future where clean energy protects the<br>world he loves exploring. This summer, he is researching block copolymers, studying how their<br>self-assembly can be used as a template for carbon capture catalysts. At his home institution, he<br>researches the electrical and thermal properties of ultra-high temperature ceramics (UHTCs),<br>radiation tolerant materials for extreme environment applications. He plans to pursue a PhD<br>in Chemical Engineering with a focus on discovering next-generation energy materials that<br>make advanced technology more sustainable. Beyond the lab, Alberto loves trying new foods,<br>listening to music, and going to the gym.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><br><strong>Self-Assembly of Nanoscale Porous Catalysts for Carbon Conversion<br>Alberto Rivera1, Chuyi Pan2, Baopu Zhang2, and Caroline Ross2<\/strong><br>1Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Stony Brook University<br>2Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><br>High performance carbon capture technology requires catalysts with large surface areas and<br>continuous diffusion pathways, yet scalable high throughput fabrication methods for highly<br>ordered three-dimensional nanostructured catalysts remain limited. Although block copolymer<br>gyroids have been widely studied as nanoporous materials, little is known about how<br>processing conditions govern their formation in polystyrene-block-poly(2-vinylpyridine)<br>(PS-b-P2VP) thin films or how these structures can be translated from metal oxide scaffolds<br>into catalyst with controllable feature size. Spin coated PS-b-P2VP thin films of various<br>thickness are solvent vapor annealed to induce self-assembly into gyroid morphologies.<br>Ordered films are then selectively infiltrated with a tin precursor to produce porous tin oxide<br>scaffolds. Samples are characterized using SEM and AFM to determine the processing<br>conditions that produce highly ordered gyroid networks and uniform porous tin oxide<br>structures. These results establish optimized experimental conditions for forming PS-b-P2VP<br>gyroids, serve as a basis for other polymers, and demonstrate the potential of self-assembled<br>gyroid templates for nanostructured catalyst supporting the future of carbon conversion<br>technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5626,"template":"","profile_category":[25],"class_list":["post-5331","profiles","type-profiles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","profile_category-2026-interns"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles\/5331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/profiles"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles\/5331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5835,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles\/5331\/revisions\/5835"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"profile_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_category?post=5331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}