Nakul Rampal
BIDMaP Fellow
Bakar Institute of Digital Materials for the Planet
University of California, Berkeley
Email: nakul.rampal [at] berkeley [dot] edu
Office: 373 Cory Hall Berkeley, CA 94720-1770
Current Research Interests:
My research applies generative AI to reticular chemistry, with a focus on creating synthetic datasets, developing evaluation frameworks and benchmarks, and integrating AI into computational and experimental pipelines. I am particularly interested in how these tools can accelerate the design and application of MOFs, COFs, and related materials for hydrogen storage, carbon capture, and water harvesting.
Here is a video explaining the background of our new paper on the reproducibility of surface areas calculated using the BET equation, published in Advanced Materials:
(Note: § denotes equal contribution, * denotes corresponding author)
(Note: § denotes equal contribution, * denotes corresponding author)
Talks
- Invited talk at Shanghai JiaoTong University, 22nd January 2026.
- Invited talk at IIT Bombay (Department of Chemical Engineering), 9th January 2026.
- Invited talk at Saudi Aramco R&DC, 6th November 2025.
- Invited talk at KAUST (Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center), 5th November 2025.
- Invited talk at the University of Milan (Department of Chemistry), 23rd June 2025.
- Invited talk at The Chemist’s Interactions – June Seminar at the University of Milan, 23rd June 2025.
- Invited talk (virtual/in-person) at the Nanyang Technological University (School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences), 21st January 2022.
- Presentation (virtual) at the 2nd International School on Porous Materials: MOFschool2021, Lake Como School of Advanced Studies, 21-25 June 2021.
- Presentation (virtual) at the bp-ICAM Annual Conference 2020, 20th-21st October 2020.
- Invited talk at Chalmers University of Techonology (Department of Physics), 4th February 2019.
- Invited talk at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Department of Theoretical Chemical Biology), 1st February 2019.
- Invited talk at the Theoretical Chemistry Seminar at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), 14th December 2018.
Awards
- Cambridge International Scholarship
- Trinity Henry-Barlow Scholarship
- Merit based Scholarship in Fall 2016 and Spring 2017 at UC, Berkeley
- Top 3 of the graduating class at MIT, Manipal
- School Topper Medal in the Unified Cyber Olympiad
- School Wiz Kid Medal in the 10th National Science Olympiad
- 1 of 3 winners of the Global Young Scientists Summit 2021 Video Competition
- Full bursary to attend MOFSchool2021 provided by the Italian Crystallographic Association
Teaching
- Graduate Student Instructor for Mathematical Methods in Geophysics, Spring 2017 at UC, Berkeley (Nominated for the Outstanding GSI Award)
- Supervisor for the module on ‘Adsorption and Advanced Nanoporous Materials’ as part of the Chemical Engineering Tripos, Michaelmas Term 2022, University of Cambridge
- Co-instructor for a 6-week summer course on ‘Adsorption and Nanoporous Materials’ run by Cambridge Enterprise, Summer 2021 (1 course), 2022 (2 courses), and 2023 (1 course)
- Guest instructor for the course PHYS H190 Physical Systems by and for Artificial Intelligence, Spring 2025, University of California, Berkeley
- Guest instructor for CHEM 96 - Introduction to Research and Study, College of Chemistry, Fall 2024, University of California, Berkeley
Mentoring
- Mythili Sutharson, MPhil. in Advanced Chemical Engineering, Oct’ 2019 to Aug’ 2020 – Currently an Associate Consultant at Bain
- Hiu Ki Wong, Part IIB in Chemical Engineering, Oct’ 2020 to April 2021 – Currently a Data Engineer at Pirical
- George Irving, Part IIB in Chemical Engineering, Oct’ 2021 to April 2022 – Awarded the 1st prize for the best poster presentation
- Khalid Al-Otaibi, MPhil. in Advanced Chemical Engineering, April 2022 to August 2022 (Saudi Aramco)
- Zhiling Zheng, PhD in Chemistry, June 2023 to December 2023 – Currently an Assistant Professor at Washington University in St. Louis
- Ali Al-Awadhi, PhD in Chemistry, September 2023 to Dec 2025 — Currently Assistant Professor at UAE University
- Kaiyu Wang, PhD in Chemistry, September 2023 to Ongoing
- Juri Al-Johani, BS in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, December 2023 to June 2024
- Joe Fu, BS/PhD in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, June 2024 to Ongoing
- Daniel Ahn, PhD in Chemistry, January 2025 to Ongoing
- Dongha Kim, B.S. in Chemical Engineering/Data Science, July 2025 to December 2025
- Om Kannan, B.S. in Applied Math/Data Science, July 2025 to December 2025
- Joe Zhou, B.S. in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Jan 2026 – Ongoing
- Ruikang Wang, B.S. in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Jan 2026 – Ongoing
Last update: 9th March, 2026. Template adapted (with permission) from Huacheng Yu's.