Hemant Choudhary

Biography

Hemant Choudhary is currently a Senior Member of the Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories. He is also serving as the Director of the Catalytic Lignin Depolymerization team within the Department of Energy-funded Joint BioEnergy Institute. His research primarily aims at enabling cost-efficient biomanufacturing by relying on green chemistry tools such as catalysis, abundant feedstocks, safer solvents, energy-efficient processes, and eliminating the need for separation. He obtained his Ph.D. in Materials Science from the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

Education

Bachelor’s Degree: Chemistry (Honors), University of Calcutta, India (2006-2009)

Master’s Degree:

• Chemical Synthesis and Process Technologies, University of Delhi-India (2009-2012)
• Materials Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (2011-2012); Advisor: Professor Kohki Ebitani

Doctoral Degree: Materials Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (2012-2015); Advisor: Professor Kohki Ebitani

Postdoctoral Fellowships:

• JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (2015-2016)
• Postdoctoral Fellow, McGill University-Canada (2016-2017); Advisor: Professor Robin D. Rogers
• Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Alabama (2017-2018); Advisor: Professor Robin D. Rogers
• Sandia National Laboratories (2019-2021)

Research Interests

• Design of catalyst surfaces and to explore their activity for organic reactions
• Development of cost-effective biomass manipulation methodologies
• Development of multi-functional catalysts for chemical upcycling of natural and synthetic polymers
• Design, synthesis, characterization of organic-inorganic hybrid materials or carbon-based advanced materials
• Elucidation of catalytic potentials of metal nanoparticles based on structure-activity relationships
• Study of surface properties of materials to explain and thereby design/fabricate materials
• Studies on physicochemical properties of task-specific ionic liquids
• Synthesis of energetic materials for use in and as fuel and propellants

Professional Organizations and Leadership

American Chemical Society, Member

Royal Society of Chemistry, Member

Editorial Board

• Journal of Ionic Liquids, Elsevier

• Energy Nexus, Elsevier

Topical Advisory Panel

• Molecules, mdpi

• Catalysts, mdpi

• Clean Technologies, mdpi

Review Editor in Physical Chemistry and Chemical Physics, Frontiers

• Frontiers in Physics

• Frontiers in Chemistry

Selected Publications

1. Pedro Verdía Barbará,^# Hemant Choudhary,^# Pedro S Nakasu, Amir Al-Ghatta, Yinglei Han, Cynthia Hopson, Raul I Aravena, Dhirendra Kumar Mishra, Antonio Ovejero-Pérez, Blake A Simmons,* and Jason P Hallet,* “Recent advances in the use of Ionic Liquids and Deep Eutectic Solvents for lignocellulosic biorefineries and biobased chemical and material production,” Chemical Reviews, 2025, accepted for publication. DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.4c00754.
2. Nikhil Kumar, Brian R Taylor, Vallari Chourasia, Alberto Rodriguez, John M Gladden, Blake A Simmons, Hemant Choudhary, and Kenneth L Sale,* “Multi-scale Computational screening and mechanistic insights of cyclic amines as solvents for improved lignocellulosic biomass processing,” Green Chemistry, 2025, accepted for publication. DOI: 10.1039/D4GC05891G. [Outside Back Cover Article]
3. Daniella V Martinez,^# Alberto Rodriguez,^# Hemant Choudhary, Jay Salinas, Estevan J. Martinez, Oleg Davydovich, Gina M Geiselman, John M Gladden, Blake A Simmons, and Michael S Kent,* “Deconstructing poplar lignin from ionic liquid pretreatment for biological conversion through sulfonation and Fenton chemistry,” RSC Sustainability, 2025, 3, 1721. DOI: 10.1039/D5SU00039D.
4. Amit Kumar Jha, Daniella Martinez, Jay Salinas, Estevan Martinez, Ryan D Davis, Alberto Rodriguez, Hemant Choudhary, Michael S Kent, and Oleg Davydovich,* “Deconstruction of carbon-carbon bonded polymers for biological conversion through COOH-functionalization and Fenton chemistry,” Polymer Degradation and Stability, 2025, 231, 111081. DOI: 10.1016/j.polymdegradstab.2024.111081.
5. Oleg Davydovich, Hemant Choudhary, Daniella V Martinez, Jay E Salinas, Estevan J Martinez, Ryan D Davis, Nathan R Bays, David P Schafer, and Michael S Kent,* “Mild aqueous metal catalyzed oxidative conversion of low-density polyethylene to low molecular weight aliphatic carboxylic acids,” Green Chemistry, 2024, 26, 10390. DOI: 10.1039/D4GC02187H.
6. Shilva Shrestha, Shubhasish Goswami, Deepanwita Banerjee, Valentina Garcia, Elizabeth Zhou, Charles N Olmsted, Erica L‐W Majumder, Deepak Kumar, Deepika Awasthi, Aindrila Mukhopadhyay, Steven W Singer, John M Gladden, Blake A Simmons, and Hemant Choudhary,* “Perspective on lignin conversion strategies that enable next generation biorefineries,” ChemSusChem, 2024, 17, e202301460. DOI: 10.1002/cssc.202301460.
7. Ezinne C Achinivu, Brian W Blankenship, Nawa R Baral, Hemant Choudhary, Ramu Kakumanu, Mood Mohan, Edward E K Baidoo, Corinne D Scown, Anthe George, Blake A Simmons, and John M Gladden,* “Biomass pretreatment with distillable ionic liquids for an effective recycling and recovery approach,” Chemical Engineering Journal, 2024, 479, 147824. DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2023.147824.
8. Chang Dou, Hemant Choudhary,* Zilong Wang, Nawa R Baral, Mood Mohan, Rolin A Aguilar, Shenyue Huang, Alexander Holiday, D Rey Banatao, Seema Singh, Corinne D Scown, Jay D Keasling, Blake A Simmons, and Ning Sun,* “A hybrid chemical-biological approach can upcycle mixed plastic waste with reduced cost and carbon footprint,” One Earth, 2023, 6, 1576. DOI: 10.1016/j.oneear.2023.10.015. [Highlighted in Waste Dive, Earth Wise, and Bioplastics News]
9. Thomas Eng, Deepanwita Banerjee, Javier Menasalvas, Yan Chen, Jennifer Gin, Hemant Choudhary, Edward Baidoo, Jian Hua Chen, Axel Ekman, Ramu Kakumanu, Yuzhong Liu Diercks, Alex Codik, Carolyn Larabell, John Gladden, Blake A Simmons, Jay D Keasling, Christopher J Petzold, and Aindrila Mukhopadhyay,* “Maximizing microbial bioproduction from sustainable carbon sources using iterative systems engineering,” Cell Reports, 2023, 42, 113087. DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.113087.
10. Valentina E Garcia, Venkataramana Pidatala, Carolina A Barcelos, Dupeng Liu, Peter Otoupal, Oliver Wendt, Hemant Choudhary, Ning Sun, Aymerick Eudes, Eric Sundstrom, Henrik V Scheller, Daniel H Putnam, Aindrila Mukhopadhyay, John M Gladden, Blake A Simmons, and Alberto Rodriguez,* “Enhanced microbial production of protocatechuate from engineered sorghum using an integrated feedstock-to-product conversion technology,” Green Chemistry, 2023, 25, 6797. DOI: 10.1039/D3GC01481A.
11. Thomas S Lankiewicz, Hemant Choudhary, Yu Gao, Bashar Amer, Stephen P Lillington, Patrick A Leggieri, Jennifer L Brown, Candice L Swift, Anna Lipzen, Hyunsoo Na, Mojgan Amirebrahimi, Michael K Theodorou, Edward E K Baidoo, Kerrie Barry, Igor V Grigoriev, Vitaliy I Timokhin, Jefferey G Pelton, John M Gladden, Seema Singh, Jenny C Mortimer, John Ralph, Blake A Simmons, Steven W Singer, and Michelle A O’Malley,* “Lignin deconstruction by anaerobic fungi,” Nature Microbiology, 2023, 8, 596. DOI: 10.1038/s41564-023-01336-8. [Cover Article]
12. Hemant Choudhary,* Lalitendu Das, Jefferey G Pelton, Leonid Sheps, Blake A Simmons, John M Gladden, and Seema Singh,* “Funneled depolymerization of ionic liquid-based biorefinery “heterogeneous” lignin into guaiacols over reusable palladium catalyst,” Chemistry – A European Journal, 2023, 29, e202300330. DOI: 10.1002/chem.202300330

(# – equal contribution; * – corresponding author)