CV

Last updated: February 7, 2025

Employment

• Postdoc in Chemical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2024-present

Education

• Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, 2024
• M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, 2023
• M.A.Sc. in Materials Science & Engineering, University of Toronto, 2019
• H.B.Sc. in Physics & Math, University of Toronto, 2017

Publications

N.B. † indicates equal author contribution

1. Proton Donors Influence Nitrogen Adsorption in Lithium-Mediated Electrochemical Ammonia Synthesis

   V. Azumah, L. Kavalsky, V. Viswanathan. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2025, 129, 5, 2488-2501 [link][arXiv]

2. Electrowinning for Room-Temperature Ironmaking: Mapping the Electrochemical Aqueous Iron Interface

   L. Kavalsky, V. Viswanathan. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2024, 128, 35, 14611-14620 (part of Jens K. Nørskov Festschrift virtual special issue) [link][arXiv]

3. A multiobjective closed-loop approach towards autonomous discovery of electrocatalysts for nitrogen reduction

   L. Kavalsky, V.I. Hegde, B. Meredig, V. Viswanathan. Digital Discovery, 2024, 3, 999-1010 [link][arXiv]

4. By how much can closed loop frameworks accelerate computational materials discovery?

   L. Kavalsky†, V.I. Hegde†, E. Muckley, M.S. Johnson, B. Meredig, V. Viswanathan. Digital Discovery, 2023, 2, 1112-1125 [link][arXiv]

5. Reversible Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution and Oxidation Reactions Using Ni–Mo Catalysts Supported on Carbon

   R.B. Patil, M. Kaur, S.D. House, L. Kavalsky, K. Hu, S. Zhong, D. Krishnamurthy, V. Viswanathan, J. Yang, Y. Yan, J. Lattimer, J.R. McKone. Energy Advances, 2023, 2 (9), 1500-1511 [link][arXiv]

6. AutoMat: Automated materials discovery for electrochemical systems

   E. Annevelink, R.C. Kurchin, E. Muckley, L. Kavalsky, V.I. Hegde, V. Sulzer, S. Zhu, J. Pu, D. Farina, M.S. Johnson, D. Gandhi, A. Dave, H. Lin, A. Edelman, B. Ramsundar, J. Saal, C. Rackauckas, V. Shah, B. Meredig, V. Viswanathan. MRS Bulletin, 2022, 47 (10), 1036-1044 [link][arXiv]

7. Robust Analysis of 4e– Versus 6e– Reduction of Nitrogen on Metal Surfaces and Single-Atom Alloys

   L.M. Tsiverioti, L. Kavalsky, V. Viswanathan. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2022, 126 (31), 12994-13003 [link][arXiv]

8. Robust Active Site Design of Single-Atom Catalysts for Electrochemical Ammonia Synthesis

   L. Kavalsky, V. Viswanathan. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2020, 124 (42), 23164-23176 [link][arXiv]

9. Dramatic improvement in the performance of graphene as Li/Na battery anodes with suitable electrolytic solvents

   S. Mukherjee, L. Kavalsky, K. Chattopadhyay, C.V. Singh. Carbon 2020, 161, 570-576 [link]

10. Compression induced resistance of singlet oxygen dissociation on phosphorene

    L. Kavalsky, S. Mukherjee, C.V. Singh. Physical Review Materials, 2020, 4, 021001 (Editor’s Suggestion) [link]

11. Phosphorene as a Catalyst for Highly Efficient Nonaqueous Li–Air Batteries

    L. Kavalsky, S. Mukherjee, C.V. Singh. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2019, 11 (1), 499-510 [link]

12. Adsorption and diffusion of lithium polysulfides over blue phosphorene for Li–S batteries

    S. Mukherjee, L. Kavalsky, C.V. Singh. Nanoscale, 2018 10 (45), 21335-21352 [link]

13. Ultrahigh Storage and Fast Diffusion of Na and K in Blue Phosphorene Anodes

    S. Mukherjee†, L. Kavalsky†, C.V. Singh. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2018, 10 (10), 8630-8639 [link]

Awards

1. NAM28 Kokes Award (2023)
2. NAM27 Kokes Award (2022)
3. NSERC Alexander Graham Bell CGS-D3 Scholarship (2020)
4. Haultain Fellowship (2018)
5. Graduate Student Endowment Fund Award (2017)
6. New College In-Course Scholarship (2014)
7. James A Priestly Admission Scholarship (2013)
8. New College Open Admission Scholarship (2013)

Oral Presentations

1. Autonomous Multiobjective Computational Discovery of NRR Electrocatalysts

   L. Kavalsky, V.I Hegde, V. Viswanathan. The 28th North American Catalysis Society Meeting, Providence, RI (June 2023) [link]

2. A Generalizable Closed-Loop Framework for Accelerated Discovery of Electrochemical Nitrogen Reduction Catalysts

   L. Kavalsky, V.I Hegde, E. Muckley, L.M. Tsiverioti, V. Viswanathan. The 27th North American Catalysis Society Meeting, New York City, NY (May 2022) [link]

Poster Presentations

1. Accelerated Computational Discovery of Electrocatalysts via an Autonomous Multiobjective Workflow

   L. Kavalsky, V.I. Hegde, V. Viswanathan. Accelerate Conference, Toronto, ON (August 2023) [link]

2. Unraveling the Iron-Water Interface for Electrochemical Steel Production

   L. Kavalsky and V. Viswanathan. The 28th North American Catalysis Society Meeting, Providence, RI (June 2023) [link]

Teaching

1. TA: 24-703/12-703 Numerical Methods in Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. (2023)

2. TA: 24-643 Energy Storage Materials & Systems, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. (2021)

3. TA: MSE 1038H/438H Computational Materials Design, University of Toronto, Toronto ON (2018)

4. Counsellor: Da Vinci Engineering Ennrichment Program Summer Academy, University of Toronto, Toronto ON (2017)

Academic Service

Reviewing

• ACS Applied Energy Materials, Journal of Open Source Software

Open-Source Software Contributions

• Autocat: A python package for both electrocatalyst discovery via sequential learning and automated catalyst structure generation for DFT. I have been leading the development of this code
• dftinputgen: Tools for automated DFT input script generation. I contributed GPAW support
• dfttopif: A package with tools for parsing DFT output and extracting relevant data into the PIF format. I contributed GPAW support