Wayne Kipngeno Korir

Wayne Korir is a chemical engineer from Kenya and a PhD researcher in the iR group at KU Leuven, where he has been working on the ECOSPHERE project since October 2026. He completed his BEng in Chemical Engineering at the Technical University of Kenya before gaining industry experience as a technical support engineer in the plaster and coatings sector and later as a research engineer in process design and optimization. These experiences sparked his interest in research and motivated him to pursue further training.

He was awarded a fully funded Erasmus Mundus scholarship to pursue an International Master's in Technology and Management for Circular Economy (IMATEC), studying at the University of Chemistry and Technology Prague (Czech Republic), the University of Oviedo (Spain) and Åbo Akademi University (Finland), where he completed his master's thesis. The thesis explored the use of large language models (LLMs) to support the design of catalysts for the conversion of CO₂ to dimethyl ether (DME).

His PhD research now focuses on developing deep eutectic solvents for the single-step capture and mineralization of CO₂ into hollow calcium carbonate microspheres, which can be incorporated into gypsum plaster to produce lightweight, thermally insulating materials.

Wayne Kipngeno Korir at KU Leuven