Sribala Gorugantu
By Stephen Greenwell
If you’re asked to think about “plastics,” your mind might naturally go to items you’d find at your local grocery or clothing store. But for Sribala Gorugantu, an assistant professor in the William A. Brookshire Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and Presidential Frontier Faculty Fellow, plastics are everywhere.
“When I speak to people about plastics, I try to begin with giving them a context about what we think about the word,” she said. “We generally refer to water bottles, milk jugs or bags, things like that. But plastics have a much more significant influence in our lives, in clothing, automobiles, electronics and many other items.”
Nearly every U.S. household has a green or blue bin for recycling, often made of plastic itself. The ubiquity and flexibility of plastics, and the complexity of their makeup, lead to challenges when it comes to further recycling.
“Even the plastics that we want to recycle can be difficult, sometimes because of colorants and additives,” Gorugantu said. She leads the Reactor Engineering and Analytics for Complex Transformations (REACT) Lab, which integrates different approaches to study complex reactions in multiphase systems.
“We are researching different methods to chemically break down these materials into building blocks, which we can use to make new plastics and high-value chemicals. The goal is to do this in a way that uses fewer resources and makes less toxic waste, and supports a more circular use of plastics rather than a disposable one.”
“Besides plastics recycling, we're exploring solvent- and temperature-controlled chemical processes that break down persistent contaminants such as PFAS [per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances] into less harmful products, and converting organic feedstocks into high-value chemicals,” she added.
Cullen’s reputation for chemical and biomolecular research was an important draw for Gorugantu when considering UH. Megan Robertson, Neal R. Amundson Professor and Director of the Materials Engineering Program, leads a $4 million grant from the Welch Foundation with a team including Alamgir Karim, Ramanan Krishnamoorti and others to transform plastic waste into useful materials.
“The department’s strength in catalysis, reaction engineering and polymers was noticeable,” she said. “Having colleagues with such deep expertise meant I could have potential collaboration opportunities in the department, and I could contribute to the department’s growing capabilities as well … My colleagues at UH have been incredible in their support and mentorship. Starting a new lab and a teaching program is always challenging, and their support has been instrumental in helping me establish both in my first year.”
Gorugantu currently serves as Co-PI on a CO2-assisted PET hydrolysis project with Linda Broadbelt at Northwestern and Ana Morais at the University of Kansas. She received a $100,000 sub-award from the original $250,000 NSF grant to Northwestern to support this work. She worked as a postdoctoral researcher for Broadbelt, a significant influence on her academic and personal development.
“Beyond the technical mentorship, she has been a personal inspiration to me,” Gorugantu said. “I come from a family where women were traditionally not allowed to work or have careers, and to work alongside Linda and other accomplished women researchers showed me what was possible. That was very inspiring to me personally.”
As she started her own lab, Gorugantu reflected on past experiences, especially with one advisor.
“My master’s advisor in chemical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras was Vinu Ravikrishnan,” she said. “I was his first student when he started his tenure track career in India. I got to help set up the new lab and I learned a lot about research infrastructure, which was very valuable when I was setting up my own lab at UH.”
Going forward, Gorugantu is excited about expanding her research to consider broader impacts beyond just the chemistry.
“We are exploring collaborations to integrate lifecycle assessment along with our work on chemical process development and kinetics.” she said. “We’re not just asking, ‘Is this chemistry going to work and what are the mechanisms?’ But also, 'What are the environmental impacts? Does this make economic sense compared to existing methods?'”
Having three graduate students and a postdoc join her new lab has been both validating and motivating. These collaborations are part of what motivates her as a professor and a researcher.
“What keeps me going is the first set of students and postdocs who have trusted me in that process and signed up for a brand-new lab,” she said. “That gives me confidence and motivation to support their research and build strong research fundamentals together.”