People

Bjarne Kreitz

Assistant Professor

Education: B.Sc. (2015), M.Sc. (2016), Dr.-Ing. (2021), Clausthal University of Technology; Postdoctoral Fellow, Brown University (2021–2024)

Dr. Kreitz is an Assistant Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering since January 2025. He obtained a B. Sc. (2015), M. Sc. (2016) and Dr.-Ing. (2021) from Clausthal University of Technology (Germany) in Chemical Engineering. His postdoctoral research at Brown University (2021-2024) was funded by the Feodor Lynen Postdoctoral Scholarship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Recently, Dr. Kreitz received the Hanns Hofmann Award of the DECHEMA/VDI subject division Reaction Engineering. He is also a committee member of the NaWuReT, a German early career chemical engineer group that organizes events to foster a vibrant chemical engineering community. Outside of work, you will probably see him running through Piedmont Park, bouldering at a nearby climbing gym, sipping on a craft beer, or on a trail somewhere...

Graduate Students

Conor O'Brien

Ph.D. Student

Education: B.S. Chemical Engineering, North Carolina State University (2025)

Conor O’Brien earned his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University in 2025. During his undergraduate studies, he performed experimental heterogeneous catalysis research on the dry reforming of methane in Dr. Fanxing Li’s group, focusing on the porosity engineering of mesoporous silica supports. At Georgia Tech, his research focuses on a combination of computations and validating experiments in the theory-driven design of metal nanoparticles with enhanced regioselectivity for propylene hydroformylation. In his free time, he enjoys weightlifting, watching sports and movies, playing videogames, playing basketball, hiking, and cooking

Joined: 2025

Seth G. Porter

Ph.D. Student

Education: B.S. Chemical Engineering, Auburn University (2021)

Seth is a Ph.D. student in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech. He earned his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Auburn University in May 2021 and worked as a Process Engineer and Production Supervisor for WestRock for three years before enrolling at Georgia Tech. His research seeks to explore automated reaction mechanism generation for metal oxide catalysts to study oxidative dehydrogenation reactions of alkanes. During his free time, Seth enjoys staying active by running triathlons, rock climbing, and playing disc golf.

Joined: 2024

Undergraduate Researchers

Matthew Abernathy

Undergraduate Researcher

Education: B.S. Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering / Applied Languages, Georgia Tech (expected 2026)

Matthew is a fourth year double major in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and Applied Languages at Georgia Tech from Columbus Georgia. He joined the Kreitz Lab driven by an interest in Chemical Kinetics, Catalysis, and Reactor Design. Currently, he is working on developing a generative AI framework for screening of catalytic materials. In his free time he enjoys cooking, listening to classical music, and playing abstract strategy games, like Go and Chess.

Austin Saylor

Undergraduate Researcher

Austin is a third-year undergraduate majoring in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech. His research focuses on the microkinetic modeling of CO₂ methanation on nickel catalysts. He is currently working with experimental data from a profile reactor to evaluate microkinetic models. In his free time, Austin enjoys watching sports like football and Formula 1, playing video games, and baking.

Gabrielle (Gabby) Freund

Undergraduate Researcher