Ram B. Gupta, Ph.D. profile photo

Ram B. Gupta, Ph.D.

Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

  • Engineering West Hall, Room 414, Richmond VA UNITED STATES

Research interest: batteries, electrochemistry, sustainable energy, biofuel, biomaterials, supercritical extraction, manufacturing, lithium

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Biography

Dr. Ram B. Gupta is a Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading researchers in sustainable energy, batteries, critical materials, and manufacturing technologies, Dr. Gupta is a frequent keynote speaker and author on cutting-edge innovations. His research has been featured globally by media outlets such as Reuters, the London Daily Mail, Japan News, Science Newsline, Chemistry News, and Agriculture Markets. He is the author or editor of several widely used textbooks, including Nanoparticle Technology for Drug Delivery (2006), Solubility in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (2007), Hydrogen Fuel (2008), Gasoline, Diesel and Ethanol Biofuels from Grasses and Plants (2010), and the Compendium of Hydrogen Energy (2015).

From 2014 to 2025, Dr. Gupta served as the Associate Dean for Research at the VCU College of Engineering. In this role, he championed student, staff, and faculty success while elevating the college's national reputation as a premier hub for education and research. Driven by a passion for fostering innovative, healthy, and excellent academic environments, he successfully grew the college's sponsored research ten-fold.

Dr. Gupta served U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), where he directed the Energy for Sustainability program (2011–2014) and supported the Engineering Research Centers program (2015–2025), an initiative designed to bridge academia and technology-based industries to strengthen American competitiveness in the global marketplace.

He began his academic career in 1995 as a faculty member in chemical engineering at Auburn University, where he rose through the ranks and served as the Chair of the Graduate Program. Throughout his career, his academic excellence has been recognized with numerous notable awards, endowed professorships, and 57 major research grants.

Dr. Gupta is a Fellow of both the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and the Alabama Academy of Science. He earned his B.E. from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee, his M.S. from the University of Calgary, and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, all in chemical engineering, followed by postdoctoral work at the University of California, Berkeley. Additionally, he completed the Management Development Program at Harvard University and was honored with the Distinguished Alumnus Award from IIT Roorkee in 2025.

Industry Expertise

Manufacturing
Renewables and Environmental
Energy
Pharmaceuticals
Cleantech
Nanotechnology
Chemicals
Research
Education/Learning

Areas of Expertise

Batteries
Electrochemical engineering
Bio-carbon
Supercritical carbon dioxide technology
Nanotechnology
Nanoparticles
Nanomedicine
Controlled release
Supercritical water technology
Hydrogen fuel
Renewable fuels
Bio-energy
Liquid fuels from methane and biomass
CO2 sequestration
Oil spill remediation using benign dispersants
Renewable materials
Nickel-cobalt-Manganese cathode

Accomplishments

Distinguished Alumnus Award

Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, 2025

Education

Harvard University

Management Development Program

2018

Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee

B.E.

Chemical Engineering

1987

University of Calgary

M.S.

Chemical Engineering

1989

Affiliations

  • Fellow, American Institute of Chemical Engineers
  • Fellow, Alabama Academy of Science

Media Appearances

VCU receives $2.5M grant to extend battery life development

Virginia Business  online

2020-02-13

VCU researchers believe they can significantly extend battery life, drive down costs and reduce safety risks by redesigning materials found in lithium-ion batteries, which are commonly used to power smartphones and other electronic devices. The project will be run by Ram B. Gupta, associate dean for faculty research development and a professor of chemical and life science engineering at VCU’s College of Engineering. Gupta and his team will test an approach for synthesizing material for the battery’s cathode.

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Research Focus

Sustainable fuel

Biofuel, hydrogen, CO2 utilization

Advanced manufacturing

Manufacturing of critical materials such as lithium and graphite.

Batteries and Supercapacitors

Use of novel electrochemical engineering and materials technology to improve batteries and supercapacitors for cell phones and cars.

Patents

Slug-flow manufacturing of uniform and controllable microparticles for battery cathodes

US12415169B2

2025-09-16

Slug flow manufacturing systems and methods for production of battery microparticle materials such as nickel-cobalt-manganese oxide (NCM) are disclosed. The slug flow reactor system is capable of producing microparticles reproducibly and continuously in desired scales. The system may be run with fast kinetics (e.g., complete reaction from nucleation to particle recovery completes within a few minutes) and near-ambient reaction temperature (e.g., allowing to use inexpensive plastic tubing). The system allows control of composition (overall, and radial profile) and size of microparticles without changing chemistry nor increasing temperature. The platforms offers the ability to conveniently generate uniform microparticles, of controllable size with an ease of scale up.

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Pure-Phase Cubic Ni1-xMox Alloy Nanoparticles as Low-Cost and Earth Abundant Electrocatalysts

US20260055524A1

2025-11-11

Low-cost and earth abundant, Ni1-xMox alloy nanocrystals, with sizes ranging from 18-43 nm and varying Mo composition (0.0-11.4%), were produced by a colloidal chemistry method for alkaline HER reactions. For a water splitting current density of −10 mA/cm2, these alloys demonstrate over-potentials of −62 to −177 mV, which are comparable to commercial Pt-based electrocatalysts (−68 to −129 mV). The cubic Ni0.934Mo0.066 alloy nanocrystals exhibit the highest activity as alkaline HER electrocatalysts, outperforming commercial Pt/C (20 wt %) catalyst.

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Particulate formulations for enhancing growth in animals

US 11,135,288

2021-10-05

Disclosed are compositions, kits, and methods for enhancing growth in an animal in need thereof. The methods typically comprise administering orally to the animal a composition comprising biodegradable particles, the biodegradable particles comprising a polymer or a co-polymer comprising polymerized lactic acid and having an effective average diameter of 0.5-5 micron. In the methods, the animal is administered a dose of the biodegradable particles that is effective for improving feed conversion rate in the animal in comparison to an animal that is not administered the composition.

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Selected Articles

Slug-flow-based continuous manufacturing of Fe-substituted Ni-rich NCM cathodes for lithium-ion batteries: synthesis and modeling

Energy Advances (2025), 4, 1267 - 1278, https://doi.org/10.1039/D5YA00032G

Patel, Arjun Patel; Michael L. Rasche, Sourav Mallick, Sunuk Kima, Mo Jiang, Mariappan Parans Paranthaman, Herman Lopez, and Ram B. Gupta

2025

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GLAD-Derived Silicon Nanoarrays on Electrochemically Polished Cu Foil: A Promising Anode for High-Performance Lithium-Ion Batteries

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2025 (17), 36661-36668, https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.5c05422

Mallick, Sourav, Xiaosong Huang, Ram B. Gupta, and Dexian Ye

2025

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Machine learning enabled catalytic wet peroxidation of levofloxacin bearing wastewater using Cu/MCM-41

Chemical Engineering Science (2025), 309, 121413, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2025.121413

Rajput, Gayatri; Vijayalakshmi Gosu, Vikas Kumar Sangal, Ram B. Gupta, Verraboina Subbaramaiah

2025

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