BENJAMIN S. HSIAO
RESEARCH GROUP
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Bella Filagrossi
Undergraduate student
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Email: isabella.filagrossi@stonybrook.edu
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Bella is an undergraduate student at Stony Brook University double majoring in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Environmental Law, Public Policy, and Waste Management; Environmental Design, Policy, and Planning, and minoring in Chemistry. Their future plans include pursuing a PhD in Environmental Chemistry with a focus in water quality and wastewater management/purification.
Yutian Ding
Undergraduate student
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Email: yutian.ding@stonybrook.edu
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Yutian Ding is a senior chemistry major with a concentration in Biochemistry, currently conducting research with Dr. Yasmeen Abdelaziz. Yutian’s work focuses on synthesizing hydrogels from effluent collected by NOP and investigating their stability across varying pH levels and concentrations. She is analyzing the hydrogels' water retention properties in soil, with the goal of exploring their potential applications in environmental sustainability.
Luke Beauman
Undergraduate student
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Email: luke.beauman@stonybrook.edu
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Luke Beauman is a junior chemistry major concentrating in chemical sciences. His research in the Hsiao Group involves analyzing the swelling ratio of cellulose nanofiber (CNF) hydrogel that incorporates gamma-alumina nanoparticles. His goal is to determine how swelling ratio behavior is related to CNF source materials, the concentration of nanoparticles, and differing employed gelling agents.
Troy Fiorillo
Undergraduate student
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Email:
troy.fiorillo@stonybrook.edu
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Troy is a senior majoring in biology (B.S.) and plans to attend medical school starting in Summer '26. He is working with Noel and plans to optimize NOP conditions for increasing concentrations of phosphate as a way of using less nitric acid in the NOP process and making recycled effluent a viable option as N:P ratio approaches 2:1 and eventually 1:1. Some of his hobbies include roller coaster design, Rubik's cubes, and board games.
Jenny Chen
Undergraduate student
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Email: xin.chen.7@stonybrook.edu
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Jenny Chen is a junior biology major with a concentration in neuroscience on the
pre-med track and a minor in chemistry. She is engaged in Hsiao’s lab research with
aims to determine how nanocellulose can enhance soil quality and other growing
media while monitoring plant health by breaking down cellulose and turning it into
a gel form, then adding it to soil containing invertebrates and observing the
reaction outcome of whether the nanocellulose will positively impact the growing
media.