Nakho Sung Award Recipients Announced

Chemical engineering Ph.D. students Nafiseh Khoshnevisan and Nikan Mokarinezhad were selected as recipients of this year’s Nakho Sung Graduate Student Travel Award. For 35 years, Professor Nakho Sung was a prominent member of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Tufts University. As both a scholar and mentor, Professor Sung was beloved among members of the Tufts community and highly respected in the field of materials science. In honor of his contributions to the university, his family made a generous donation to establish the Nakho Sung Graduate Student Travel Award after his death in 2022.  

Both Khoshnevisan and Mokarinezhad are part of the Smart Polymer, Membranes, and Separations Laboratory led by Professor Ayse Asatekin, which focuses on developing novel materials and systems for clean water and efficient separations. 

Khoshnevisan’s research focuses on how zwitterions—neutral ions that carry both a positive and negative charge—can affect the efficiency of polymer membrane separation, which helps recover rare earth elements and critical minerals from brine, wastewater, industrial waste, and more. Her work investigates how zwitterion architecture (how far zwitterions are attached to the polymers, where the charges are, etc.) and specific ion–zwitterion interactions influence ion transport and selectivity in membranes. She aims to improve ion selectivity, membrane stability, and resistance to fouling—the buildup of filtered material that can clog membranes. 

Mokarinezhad develops polymer membranes for more selective and energy-efficient separation processes. Membranes, which operate as selective barriers that allow certain molecules to pass through while retaining others, are widely used for water treatment and desalination. However, separating molecules with similar sizes or properties remains challenging, limiting their use in many industrial applications. They also are susceptible to fouling, which occurs when undesired substances accumulate on a membrane and degrade its performance. 

More specifically, Mokarinezhad focuses on developing a novel class of membranes based on amphiphilic polyelectrolytes (APEs), which are random copolymers that combine hydrophobic and charged units. These membranes are fabricated by coating two layers of oppositely charged APEs onto a porous support. The interactions between these copolymers at the interface promote self-assembly into very small, selective channels that control the transport of water and dissolved molecules. Her research helps to inform how polymer chemistry, composition, and membrane fabrication parameters influence the resulting membrane structure and can improve its separation performance. The membranes she developed using the new design of APEs can selectively separate small molecules that are difficult to distinguish using conventional membranes while having high permeability and tunable fouling resistance.

Both Khoshnevisan and Mokarinezhad will use the award to support their participation in the 2026 Annual Meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where they will give oral presentations about their research. The award will allow them to receive feedback on their research, establish professional connections, and develop scientific and professional skills.  

During his lifetime, Professor Sung made countless contributions to materials science and to Tufts. He created several new materials science courses at Tufts, published over 100 technical papers and chapters, edited a book, and held multiple patents. He provided extensive service to various professional societies throughout his career and earned many honors and awards. His accolades include election to the prestigious Korean National Academy of Engineering and receiving the National Medal of Honor in Science and Technology with highest distinction, the highest national honor bestowed upon individual scientists and engineers in South Korea. 

In addition to his research accomplishments, Professor Sung supervised dozens of undergraduate research and M.S. and Ph.D. thesis projects at Tufts. His impact on students was made clear when he was selected for the Seymour Simches Award for Distinguished Teaching and Advising in 2013. The Nakho Sung Graduate Student Travel Award honors his passion for supporting students by helping Ph.D. students share their research with the wider materials science community.