Richard Canty
Postdoc
I grew up in Georgia before moving northward to study chemical engineering at the University of Virginia. During my undergrad, I worked with Dr. Robin Felder on building components for an automated cell-culture machine and had the pleasure of participating in the Summer Scholars REU program at MIT working with Dr. Yuriy Román on the catalytic upgrading of lignin. I then continued north, attending the graduate program at MIT for chemical engineering. While at MIT, I worked with Prof. Klavs Jensen on automating and controlling a closed-loop, self-driving laboratory for small molecule discovery. My thesis work concerned control architectures, scheduling, and addressing how a machine can respond to new observations and make corrections without human involvement.
Continuing my engagement with automation, orchestration, and autonomy, I have returned from my trek north and landed at NCSU. In my current position in the Abolhasani lab, I am working on the integration and controls of a flow chemistry platform for catalyst-ligand characterization and design. In addition, I look forward to incorporating ideas of autonomy into the various automated platforms around the lab. Ever the tinkerer, I enjoy cooking and baking without a recipe-book; and in my spare time, I enjoy composing, listening to, and performing music.