Daniela S Mainardi

Daniela S Mainardi
Associate Professor
Louisiana Tech University, Chemical Engineering, USA

Biography

Daniela Mainardi is an Associate Professor and Program Chair of Chemical Engineering, and Associate Professor of Nanosystems Engineering at Louisiana Tech University; currently holding the Thomas C. & Nelda M. Jeffery Professorship in Chemical Engineering. Dr. Mainardi has received the NSF-CAREER award in 2005 on Modified-Methanol Dehydrogenase Enzymatic Catalysts For Fuel Cell Devices.

Mainardi has extensive experience in a large variety of molecular simulation tools and has conducted research on different and complementary nanotechnology-related topics with applications to catalysis and biocatalysis. Among those studies are the adsorption and reactions of small organic molecules and atoms on metal clusters using Density Functional Theory (DFT), the effects of surface segregation and ordering on bimetallic nanoclusters using a Monte Carlo program Mainardi developed for that purpose, the structure and dynamics of graphite-supported bimetallic nanoclusters using Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations, the oxygen electro-reduction on platinum surfaces using Dynamic Monte Carlo Methods, and the thermodynamics and kinetics of hydrogen storage materials using a combined DFT-MD approach. She has also extensive experience in the area of bio catalysis, particularly dealing with methanol oxidation by methanol dehydrogenase enzymes.