Yamil Colón

Yamil Colón is an Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, and the Director of Inclusive Excellence and Engagement in the department. His research focuses on computational design and experimental validation of porous materials for applications in gas adsorption, environmental remediation, and energy storage. He leads the Colón Group, which develops advanced molecular modeling tools to predict material properties and self-assembly pathways.

Education:

• B.S., University of Notre Dame, 2009
• Ph.D., Northwestern University, 2015

Research Interests: The group explores metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), soft porous coordination polymers, and hydrogels for targeted applications such as water farming, humidity control, and entangled photon generation. Techniques include machine learning-enhanced simulations, active learning strategies for data efficiency, and hybrid modeling paradigms.

Awards:

• NSF CAREER Award (2022) - Supports his work on gas adsorption thermodynamics and digital molecular discovery.

Advising & Grants: Colón has secured funding for projects like the NSF Engineering Research Center on refrigerant technology and the CDS&E grant for multi-component adsorption modeling. His lab collaborates on developing AI-driven workflows (e.g., DynaMate) and open-source tools for sigma profile generation.

Labs & Teams: The Colón Group operates at the intersection of computational chemistry and sustainable materials engineering, with ongoing projects in nanoporous materials synthesis, entangled photonics in MOFs, and bioinert hydrogel frameworks for drug screening platforms.