Mahsa Salehi
Ph.D. student
| Degrees: | M.Sc. (Isfahan University) |
| Email: | mahsasalehimobarakeh@cmail.carleton.ca |
I am truly passionate about the idea of sustainable development and zero-carbon economy; therefore, I have always based my research and studies on developing environmentally-friendly alternatives to the current fuel-based processes. I received my BSc in Chemical Engineering- Petroleum Industry Process Design from the University of Isfahan (Iran, 2012), focusing on wastewater treatment in the food industry. As I was keen on environmental engineering and biotechnology, I majored in Chemical Engineering- Biotechnology and received my MSc from the University of Isfahan (Iran, 2016). For my thesis, I designed a novel wastewater treatment system that simultaneously benefited from a biological agent (microalgae) and a chemical agent (photocatalytic nanoparticles) and evaluated its application in the treatment of oil-contaminated waters. I also have conducted research on bioleaching of metal species from different metallic wastes such as spent refinery catalysts. From 2017 to 2019, I worked as the research and production assistant at Aris Farayand Aria, a company settled at the Isfahan Science and Technology Town, where, as the research and production assistant, I worked on the production of biofertilizers using food industry waste materials. Right now I am a Ph.D. candidate at EPTL at Carleton University and I am working on metal fuels.
Studying in a multidisciplinary environment has provided me with a strong background in various areas, including process design and simulation, wastewater treatment, waste management, biology, chemistry and nanotechnology. I am fully accomplished in designing, modeling, and simulation of different chemical and biological processes (using HYSYS, SuperPro Designer, and Matlab), running and monitoring laboratory-scale fermenters and reactors, and scale-up of chemical and biological processes. I am experienced at isolation and culture of different microorganisms, extraction and measurement of cellular metabolites, biochemical characterization of bacterial cells, cellular viability estimation, performing PCR, RT-PCR, qRT-PCR tests, and electrophoresis. I am also familiar with the principles of nanoparticle synthesis and characterization techniques.