Kevin Pataroque

Kevin Pataroque's picture

Ph.D. Student, Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Yale University

B.A. English, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, 2021

B.S. Chemical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, 2021


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Kevin Pataroque is a first-year Ph.D. student working in the Elimelech lab. Currently, he is working on understanding the fundamental transport phenomena surrounding High Pressure Reverse Osmosis, a novel technology that offsets freshwater demand in wastewater treatment plants by minimizing retentate volumes. Originally from Portland, OR, he attributes his early interest in the energy-water nexus to the overcast environment of the Pacific Northwest.

In his undergraduate career at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), Kevin was co-advised by Dr. Mohan Sankaran and Dr. Christine Duval, where he led a project to develop plasma technology for the degradation of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a contaminant on the EPA’s Emerging Contaminants list. Throughout the project, Kevin assessed the feasibility of microplasma treatment on PFOA and elucidated the underlying water-based radical mechanisms using chemical characterization techniques. In 2019, for his research efforts, he was selected as one of two Beckman Scholars by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, a 15-month national research program for undergraduates involved in chemical or biological research. In his senior year, when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted his research efforts, Kevin worked with graduate researchers in Dr. Duval’s lab to functionalize membranes used in radionuclide separations. His research with the Duval Lab catalyzed an interest in membrane science with applications in resource recovery and water purification.

After working as a science writer and editor with CWRU-affiliated publications, Kevin hopes to continue disseminating scientific research to the general public as a researcher and science writer. If he’s not in the lab, you can find him performing as a vocal percussionist with the Yale Citations, running around Yale’s campus, or writing poetry at one of the coffee shops in New Haven.