Affiliations
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering
Assistant Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering (courtesy)
Faculty, Institute of Energy and the Environment (IEE)
Graduate Faculty, Advanced Manufacturing and Design (AMD)
Contact
Phone : 814-863-9085
Email: hjoh at psu dot edu
Address: 213 Chemical & Biomedical Engineering Building, University Park, PA 16802
Faculty directory at MatSE at Penn State: https://www.matse.psu.edu/directory/hee-jeung-oh
Faculty directory at IEE at Penn State: https://iee.psu.edu/people/hee-jeung-oh
Research Areas
Energy and Environment, Materials and Nanotechnology, Separations and Transport, Biomedical separation
Interest Areas
Polymers, membranes, transport, energy-efficient separations, biomedical membranes, energy-storage
Education
BS, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, KAIST, 2008
MS, Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, 2011
PhD, Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, 2015
Postdoc., Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 2015-2019
Biosketch
Hee Jeung Oh is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at Pennsylvania State University. She earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). She completed her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, working under the supervision of Prof. Benny Freeman and Prof. Donald Paul. Before joining Penn State, her postdoctoral training was in Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, under the guidance of Prof. Nitash Balsara.
Prof. Oh’s research focuses on the molecular through macroscopic design and characterization of polymers in order to advance the world’s important but challenging separations for environment, energy and health. In particular, her group designs highly selective functional polymers, develops processing methods for new structures, and explores the effect of polymer’s chemical and physical structures on transport in polymers. These fundamental studies are critical for designing membranes for liquid, gas and vapor separations, resource recovery and recycling, chemical and biochemical manufacturing, environmental remediation, energy storage and health-related devices. Prof. Oh is the elected co-chair of the Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Membranes: Materials and Processes (2024 – 2026) and the GRC on Chemical Separations (2026 – 2028). She serves on the Board of Directors for the North American Membrane Society (NAMS) (2024 –) and is the co-editor of the ACS Macromolecules and Macro Letters’ Virtual Issue on “Polymer Physics of Separation Membranes.”
Prof. Oh has been recognized in honors and awards including the FRI/John G. Kunesh Award from AIChE’s Separations Division, 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award, North American Membrane Society (NAMS) Young Membrane Scientist Award, Hanwha Non-Tenured Faculty Award, and the University of Texas Professional Development Award. She was selected as one of the two recipients of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE)’s Frontiers of Engineering (FOE) grants in 2023 and received the National Academy of Science (NAS)’s Frontiers Fellowship in 2024.