Professor Of Chemical Engineering Research Articles

Julie Zimmerman to lead ES&T

Julie B. Zimmerman, a professor of chemical and environmental engineering at Yale University, was named editor in chief of the American Chemical Society journal Environmental Science and Technology (ES&T). She succeeds David L. Sedlak, who was editor in chief of the journal since 2015. “I’m excited about ES&T for the same reason that generations of scientists and engineers have been excited about it for over 50 years; it is the place you turn to if you are interested in the nexus of great science and positive environmental impact,” Zimmerman says. “The same dedicated insights that ES&T has supplied since its founding will be even more necessary today and into the future if we are to deal with emerging environmental concerns.” One of her goals for the journal is to have it become a genuine catalyst for integrated systems thinking. “We are not going to save the world with the same

A ChemE Grows in Brooklyn.

I profile my personal and professional journey from being a girl of the 1950s, with expectations typical for the times, to a chemical engineering professor and still-enthusiastic researcher. I describe my family, my early education, my college and graduate school training in physics, my postdoc years in chemistry, and my subsequent transformation into a chemical engineering faculty member-one of the first women to be appointed to a chemical engineering faculty in the United States. I focus on the events that shaped me, the people who noticed and supported me, and the environment for women scientists and engineers in what some would call the "early days." My initial research activities centered on applications of statistical mechanics to predict phase equilibria in simple systems. Over time, my interests evolved to focus on applying molecule-level computer simulations to systems of interest to chemical engineers, e.g., hydrocarbons and polymers. Eventually, spurred on by my personal interest in amyloid diseases and my wish to make a contribution to human health, I turned to more biologically oriented problems having to do with protein aggregation and protein design. I give a candid assessment of my strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures. Finally, I share the most valuable lessons that I have learned over a lifetime of professional and personal experience.

Kenneth E. Starling

Kenneth E. Starling, 84, died on Nov. 26, 2019, in Norman, Oklahoma. “Ken joined the University of Oklahoma in 1966 and taught there for nearly 3 decades. He was well known in the natural gas industry, and his papers have been cited more than 8,000 times. He is perhaps best known for two equations of state: the Benedict-Webb-Rubin-Starling equation and the Carnahan-Starling equation. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame in 2012.”—Brian Grady, friend and colleague Most recent title: Professor of chemical engineering, University of Oklahoma Education: BS, chemistry and chemical engineering, Texas A&I University (now Texas A&M University–Kingsville), 1957; PhD, chemical engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology, 1962 Survivors: Wife, Barbara; daughters, Stephani and Suzanne; son, Scott; nine grandchildren; six great-grandchildren To recognize your late loved one or colleague, submit obituary information at cenm.ag/obits.

Hongwei Wu named editor in chief of Energy and Fuels

Hongwei Wu, professor of chemical engineering at Curtin University, was named editor in chief of the American Chemical Society journal Energy and Fuels, which highlights new research on fossil fuels. In January, Wu took the helm from Michael T. Klein of the University of Delaware, who led the journal since 2002. “I’m very excited and honored to have the privilege to serve as the new editor in chief of Energy and Fuels,” Wu says, adding that his vision is “to capture the emerging research trend towards alternative fuels and energy while continuing to serve as a major publication outlet for the fossil fuel research community.” Wu served as an associate editor for the journal since 2008. Wu’s research focuses on solutions for meeting the world’s demand for energy, such as the production of green chemicals from biomass and thermochemical processing of solid fuels, and the transformation of impurities in fuels.

BIOT presents 2020 awards

The American Chemical Society Division of Biochemical Technology (BIOT) will present its 2020 awards during the ACS spring national meeting in Philadelphia, where the winners will present their research. Lydia Contreras, associate professor of chemical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, will receive the BIOT Young Investigator Award, sponsored by Genentech. Contreras is being honored for her work to unravel complex regulatory RNA networks and to develop new approaches for monitoring in vivo RNA dynamics and interactions. Alan Hunter, a director in the purification process sciences group at AstraZeneca, will receive the Industrial Biotechnology Award on behalf of AstraZeneca. The award honors AstraZeneca’s Lumoxiti chemistry, manufacturing, and controls team for its development and scale-up of the fed-batch refolding process for Lumoxiti. David R. Liu, the Richard Merkin Professor, director of the Merkin Institute for Transformative Technologies in Healthcare, and vice-chair of the faculty a...

Commemorating Frances Arnold

Frances H. Arnold is the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, and Biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology, and Director of Caltech’s Rosen Bioengineering Center. Anyone reading this Retrospective probably knows that Frances was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2018 for the directed evolution of enzymes. She is also only the fifth woman to ever win this prize, and the First American woman to win it. The list of Frances’ prior honors and awards is extensive and astounding, and includes elections to the National Academy of Engineering (2000), the National Academy of Medicine (2004), and the National Academy of Sciences (2008) (the first woman to be elected to all three), the 2011 NAE Draper Prize (the first woman to receive it), and the 2016 Millennium Technology Prize (first woman to win). At the time of this writing, Google Scholar reports her co-authored publications receiving over 50,000 citations, with an h-index of 122. She is co-founder of Gevo, Inc. (producing carbon-neutral biofuels) and Provivi (producing environmentally safe biopesticides), and was recently appointed to the board of directors for Alphabet, Inc. (the parent company of Google).

Young scientist award to Giannis Mpourmpakis

Giannis “Yanni” Mpourmpakis, an assistant professor of chemical and petroleum engineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, is the recipient of the Bodossaki Foundation Scientific Prize in the chemistry category. The award, which honors outstanding scientists of Greek descent under the age of 40, includes a prize of €20,000 ($22,014). Mpourmpakis uses theory and computation to investigate the physiochemical properties of nanomaterials with potential applications in diverse nanotechnology areas, including green energy generation and storage, materials engineering, and catalysis. Please send announcements of awards to l_wang@acs.org.

Frances Arnold receives award from Iota Sigma Pi

Frances H. Arnold is the recipient of the Invited National Honorary Member Award from Iota Sigma Pi, the US national honor society for women in chemistry. The award honors exceptional achievement in chemistry or an allied field that merits international recognition. Arnold is the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, and Biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology. She won half the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work on the directed evolution of enzymes, which has yielded the enzymatic synthesis of molecules such as the biofuel isobutyl alcohol and the diabetes drug sitagliptin. Please send announcements of awards to l_wang@acs.org.

Electrochemical Direct Partial Oxidation of Methane to Methanol

Joonbaek Jang received his B.S. from Korea University in 2016. He then moved to the University of Pennsylvania where he obtained his M.S. working with Prof. Raymond J. Gorte. During his master’s degree, Joonbaek used atomic layer deposition to modify metal oxide catalysts for the improvement of industrial catalytic processes. In 2018, he joined the Morales-Guio Lab in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UCLA. Joonbaek is currently working toward the understanding of electrode/electrolyte interfaces and mass transport effects in electrocatalytic processes for sustainable energy applications. Kangze Shen received his B.S. in Materials Chemistry from University of Science and Technology of China in 2018. His undergraduate research with Prof. Yitai Qian focused on the development of high-performance electrode materials for rechargeable Li-ion and Na-ion batteries. He then joined the Morales-Guio Lab in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UCLA where he is working toward the understanding of electrocatalytic processes and electrochemical systems engineering in sustainable energy applications. Carlos G. Morales-Guio is an Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UCLA. The Morales-Guio Lab is interested in electrochemical catalysis, particularly with respect to energy and chemical transformations for sustainable energy applications. The lab is currently focused on understanding fundamentals of mass and charge transport coupled to electrochemical transformations that will guide the scale up of electrocatalytic reactors. Carlos received his B. Eng. degree from Osaka University in 2011 and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from EPFL in 2013 and 2016, respectively. Most recently, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at Stanford University before joining UCLA in 2018.

Demetrix pursues THC, CBD from yeast

Demetrix has raised $50 million in a first round of venture funding to establish high-volume fermentation production of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabidiol (CBD), and other cannabinoids. Backers include Tuatara Capital and Horizons Ventures. The California-based start-up was cofounded in 2015 by University of California, Berkeley, chemical engineering professor Jay Keasling. Demetrix says it will use a modified strain of baker’s yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, to produce the cannabinoids. The firm is targeting drug, supplement, and consumer product markets.

Catalysis Division presents 2019 awards

The American Chemical Society Catalysis Science and Technology Division has announced the winners of its 2019 awards. The 2019 Early Career in Catalysis Award will go to Yuriy Román-Leshkov, an associate professor of chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The award recognizes and encourages accomplishments and innovation of unusual merit by individuals in early stages of their careers, emphasizing independence and creativity. The 2019 Exceptional Achievements in Catalysis award will go to Francisco Zaera, a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Riverside. The award recognizes excellence and scientific leadership in catalysis science and technology by an individual. The 2019 ACS Catalysis Lectureship for the Advancement of Catalytic Science will be awarded jointly to Tufts University chemical engineering professor Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos and Tufts chemistry professor Charlie Sykes for their work on single-atom alloy materials as catalysts.

Manos Mavrikakis

ChemCatChemVolume 11, Issue 13 p. 2941-2941 InterviewFree Access Manos Mavrikakis First published: 05 June 2019 https://doi.org/10.1002/cctc.201900802AboutSectionsPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Abstract Professor Mavrikakis was interviewed in celebration of his ACS Gabor Somorjai Award 2019. Manos Mavrikakis Professor Mavrikakis was interviewed in celebration of his ACS Gabor Somorjai Award 2019. Position: Paul A. Elfers Professor of Chemical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA) E-mail: emavrikakis@wisc.edu Homepage: http://directory.engr.wisc.edu/che/Faculty/Mavrikakis_Manos/ ORCID: 0000-0002-5293-5356 Education: Diploma, Chemical Engineering; National Technical University of Athens (1988) MS Chemical Engineering; University of Michigan – Ann Arbor (1989) MS Applied Mathematics; University of Michigan – Ann Arbor (1993) PhD Chemical Engineering & Scientific Computing; University of Michigan – Ann Arbor (1994). Advisors: John L. Gland and Johannes W. Schwank. Postdoc – University of Delaware (1996-97). Advisor: Mark A. Barteau. Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow – Technical University of Denmark (1997-1999). Advisor: Jens K. Nørskov. Awards: 2019 ACS Gabor A. Somorjai Award for Creative Research in Catalysis; 2014 AIChE R. H. Wilhelm Award in Chemical Reaction Engineering; 2009 Paul H. Emmett Award in Fundamental Catalysis. Hobbies: Science fiction/biographies; hiking Figure 1Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Manos Mavrikakis The thing I like most about my work is the frequency at which new scientific questions pop up in research. Chemistry/science is fun because you can satisfy your personal curiosity about how nature works. Young people should study chemistry because it has a very wide range of applications affecting quality of life. The secrets of being a successful scientist are to be dedicated and committed to your goals. The most important lesson I have learnt is that hard work is essential to success. What is the secret of running a successful group? Lead by example – scientific integrity and hard work ethics are some of the core values a group leader should instill in their group members. Do you have any tips for fruitful collaborations? Define expectations from the very beginning in terms of deliverables and timeline. Respect the needs of all parties when gathering data and take time to think on how to rationalize them. Always engage in healthy scientific discussions, which should be approached with an open mind. It is okay to play devil's advocate with a constructive attitude. What do you consider the most exciting developments in your field? The development of new powerful materials characterization techniques that allow scientists to discover unexpected atomic-scale information about catalysts, under reaction conditions that are closer than ever to real operating conditions. This information enables the construction of more accurate models which, combined with powerful theoretical methods, allows a deeper understanding of how catalysts work. My 3 top papers: 1“Effect of Strain on the Reactivity of Metal Surfaces”: M. Mavrikakis, B. Hammer, J. K. Nørskov, Phys. Rev. Lett. 1998, 81, 2819. (Strain can be found everywhere and can be used to manipulate the reactivity of catalysts). CrossrefWeb of Science®Google Scholar 2“Alloy Catalysts Designed from First Principles”: J. Greeley, M. Mavrikakis, Nat. Mater. 2004, 3, 810. (Importance of adsorbate-induced segregation in bimetallic catalysts). CrossrefCASPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar 3“Mechanism of Methanol Synthesis on Copper through CO and CO2 hydrogenation”: L. C. Grabow, M. Mavrikakis, ACS Catal. 2011, 1, 365. (Methanol synthesis over copper catalysts is one of the most important large-scale industrial processes). CrossrefCASWeb of Science®Google Scholar Volume11, Issue13July 4, 2019Pages 2941-2941 This article also appears in:Catalysis Awards FiguresReferencesRelatedInformation

Mitsubishi opens center at Arizona State

A center focused on sustainability and funded by Japan’s Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings has opened at Arizona State University. Called the Global Kaiteki Center, it will be led by chemical engineering professor George Stephanopoulos and further the Kaiteki concept of “the sustainable well-being of people, society, and our planet Earth.” Stephanopoulos says the center will draw on academic resources at Arizona State to solve problems and promote Kaiteki.

Jerold M. Schultz

Jerold M. Schultz, 83, died on Oct. 20, 2018, in Newark, Delaware. “Jerry Schultz was a pioneer in the study of structure-property relationships in crystalline polymers. He coauthored six books, including an outstanding monograph on polymer materials science. He published more than 200 papers and served for many years as associate editor for Macromolecules. He advised 29 master’s and 29 doctoral students and directed the materials science and engineering program that has since become a full-fledged department at the University of Delaware. He was also an accomplished musician, with particular interest in bluegrass and expertise in the flute, bass, and banjo.”—David C. Martin, friend and colleague Most recent title: Emeritus professor of chemical engineering, University of Delaware Education: BS, metallurgical engineering, 1957, and MS, metallurgical engineering, 1958, University of California, Berkeley; PhD, metallurgical engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, 1965 Survivors: Wife, Peggy; daughters, Anna and Carrie; sons, Tim and Peter To

C&EN talks with Frances Arnold, newly minted Nobel laureate

From all appearances, Frances H. Arnold has mastered the art of travel. Seemingly impervious to jet lag, she was a patient and polished subject when C&EN interviewed her in Boston on a Wednesday morning in October, precisely two weeks after the announcement that she won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The day before, she’d been in Albany, and the day before that she’d been on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. These were all trips she planned before learning she won the Nobel—an accolade that tends to boost its recipients’ opportunities to travel by an order of magnitude. “Life is a tornado, and I am a leaf,” Arnold says. As the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering & Biochemistry at California Institute of Technology, Arnold’s schedule was already packed. Now she’s trying to figure out how to juggle her teaching responsibilities and the lectures she promised to give with

Andrew Herring wins Storch Award

Andrew Herring, professor of chemical and biological engineering at Colorado School of Mines, will receive the 2018 Henry H. Storch Award in Fuel Science, sponsored by the ACS Energy & Fuels Division, during the ACS national meeting in Boston in August. Herring is an internationally recognized leader in polymer exchange membranes for electrochemical applications and fuel science. His research has led to pioneering advances in new fuel-cell electrocatalysts, photoelectrocatalysts, heteropoly acid-based catalysts, and membranes for electrochemical applications. He is also researching catalysts that will convert biomass into reformable hydrocarbon resources.

C&EN talks with Claire Komives, antivenom engineer

When Claire Komives, a chemical engineering professor at San Jose State University, began planning for a sabbatical in 2014, she had no clue what research project to pursue. But she knew she wanted to do it in India, a country that she fell in love with while completing a fellowship after earning her Ph.D. During her search for ideas, Komives stumbled on a news story about a protein in opossums that makes the animals immune to snakebites. A Texas-based researcher, Binie V. Lipps, had traced this immunity specifically to the protein’s first 10 or so amino acids, creating a peptide from that sequence and patenting her discovery in 1996. During her sabbatical at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, Komives picked up where Lipps left off. She developed a low-cost method for synthesizing the peptide. She engineered Escherichia coli to produce a long chain consisting of the first 11

Dissolving device could guide rehabilitation

Each year, doctors in the U.S. perform 14 million orthopedic surgeries. Once patients are sewn up, their recovering tissues can be monitored only via infrequent snapshots taken with ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging. A new, implantable sensor could provide real-time information about how repaired tissues are functioning post-surgery to guide rehabilitation. Because the sensor is made out of biodegradable components, the patient’s body will break it down over time, eliminating the need for another surgery to remove it. Zhenan Bao, a chemical engineering professor at Stanford University, and Paige Fox, a professor of surgery at Stanford University Medical Center, led the team that developed the sensor. It detects strain and pressure independently, which is important for understanding the healing process after a procedure, such as a tendon repair surgery, Bao notes. “Normally, pressure sensors are also sensitive to strain and vice versa. We had to invent a new device structure

The 2017 Chemical Sciences & Society Summit

This is a guest editorial by Suljo Linic, professor of chemical engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. It was my privilege to lead the American Chemical Society delegation at the 7th Chemical Sciences & Society Summit (CS3) held in Dalian, China, Sept. 5–8, 2017. The CS3 meeting series is hosted by the funding agencies and chemical societies of the U.S., Germany, China, Japan, and the U.K. CS3 brings together leading researchers from those countries to discuss how the chemical sciences can tackle some of the most daunting societal challenges and to inform agencies and policy stakeholders that could address those challenges about recent progress in emerging fields. The 2017 topic was “Solar Energy & Photonics for a Sustainable Future,” which focused on photocatalysis for water splitting, photovoltaic (PV) materials, artificial photosynthesis for CO2 reduction, photonic materials, and photon upconversion. Our goal was to assess the current state of

BIOT presents 2018 awards

The ACS Division of Biochemical Technology (BIOT) is presenting its 2018 awards on this week during the spring ACS national meeting in New Orleans. Chase Beisel, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at North Carolina State University, is the recipient of the Biotechnology & Bioengineering Daniel I. C. Wang Young Investigator Award, which honors young researchers who have shown commitment to publishing in the journal. Beisel is being recognized for his work with CRISPR-based tools in bacteria. Anne Kantardjieff, director of early-stage process development at Alexion Pharmaceuticals, is receiving the James M. Van Lanen Distinguished Service Award in recognition of her outstanding leadership within BIOT. She has served as secretary of the division as well as a conference cochair. Brian Pfleger, the Jay & Cynthia Ihlenfeld Professor of Chemical & Biological Engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, is the recipient of the BIOT Young Investigator Award, sponsored by