Chemical Engineering and Materials Science News
Top Stories
- Matthew Klein wins Raleigh and Clara Miller Scholarship
- Electronic Waste Needs to Go Green
- Controlling Morphology in polymer-fullerene mixtures
- César Vigo awarded travel award
- Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Receives GAANN Fellowship Funding
Faculty
Electronic Waste Needs to Go Green
Electronic waste needs to go green, argue four University of California scientists in an article in the Oct. 30 issue of the journal Science. "The U.S. is way behind in this area compared to Europe and even parts of Asia," said Julie Schoenung, professor of chemical engineering and materials science at UC Davis.
Controlling Morphology in polymer-fullerene mixtures
Prof. Moule's work on Controlling Morphology in polymer-fullerene mixtures was recently recognized in a special "best of" issue of the journal Advanced Materials. Moule's article was the most cited paper from 2008 in this journal and is now featured on the cover art of the best of issue.
Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Receives GAANN Fellowship Funding
The Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science has received a U.S. Department of Education GAANN Award to enhance graduate education. The award provides fellowships totaling $174,208 a year for 3 years, with a match of an additional 25 percent of the total from UC Davis.
Research
Dynamic Changes In Iridium Catalysts
Identifying the molecular structure of the active phase of a solid catalyst — and the changes such catalysts undergo during reactions — is notoriously challenging. Yet that’s exactly what University of California, Davis, chemical engineers Alper Uzun and Bruce C. Gates have done in a study of iridium complexes that catalyze ethene hydrogenation.
$2M in Grants for Bullet, Duct Tape Forensic Science
Putting forensic science on a sound statistical footing is the aim behind three grants totaling over $2.2 million awarded to the UC Davis program in forensic science by the U.S. Department of Justice. The broad aim of all three grants is to develop methods to associate probabilities with forensic evidence, said David Howitt, professor of chemical engineering and materials science at UC Davis.
Grant to Elucidate Dynamic Biological Processes
James Evans is the principal investigator on a $500,000 per year grant that will cover tests to prove the capabilities of the world’s first electron microscope capable of filming live biological processes. Nigel Browning is building the new Bio-DTEM (dynamic Transmission Electron Microscope) with another $2 million NIH grant.
Awards
Matthew Klein wins Raleigh and Clara Miller Scholarship
Matthew Klein, an undergraduate student from Mechanical Engineering working in Prof. Arslan’s 3-D Microscopy Group, won the Raleigh and Clara Miller Scholarship to attend the Microscopy and Microanalysis 2009 Meeting. This prestigious scholarship provided Matt complimentary registration to the meeting plus $1,000 to pay all his travel expenses. He presented his research entitled "The 3-D Pore Structure of Pd Nanoparticles as a Function of Temperature" for which he won the award.
César Vigo awarded travel award
César Vigo, an undergraduate researcher in the Ristenpart Research Group, has been awarded a $500 travel grant from the American Physical Society to attend the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Division of Fluid Dynamics. César, who is majoring in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Mathematics, will give a presentation on his research titled "Aggregation and Coalescence of Emulsion Droplets via Electrohydrodynamic Flows."
Bruce Gates Named 2009 Robert Burwell Lecturer
Bruce C. Gates, a distinguished professor of chemical engineering and materials science, has been awarded the 2009 Robert Burwell Lectureship in Catalysis from the North American Catalysis Society.
Alumni
Jeff and Dianne Child-Steve Whitaker Professorship
Professor Tonya Kuhl has been appointed to the Jeff and Dianne Child-Steve Whitaker Professorship in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. She is the first to hold this professorship, made possible by a gift from alumnus Jeff Child ’82 and his wife, Dianne, to honor Professor Emeritus Steve Whitaker.
Blacutt-Underwood Endowed Chair Named
Professor Subash Risbud has been named to the Blacutt-Underwood Endowed Chair in Materials Science, an honor created by alumnus Brian Underwood MS ’93. Risbud also was recently awarded a patent for a “Method to Improve Hydroxyapatite Implantation And Stimulate Bone Regeneration”.
Announcements
Top 20 most read/downloaded articles
An article co-authored by Professor Pieter Stroeve "Optimal Design and Characterization of Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Coated with Polyvinyl Alcohol for Targeted Delivery and Imaging" was one of the top 20 most read/downloaded articles from the Journal of Physical Chemistry website over the last 12 months.
Students
Chemical engineer graduate offers alternative energy future.
Steven Selverston talks about what he is doing after his Spring ‘09 graduation and job possibilities for future and current chemical engineers. “The geothermal power industry is rich with complexity and loaded with chemical engineering problems that have yet to be solved. From theoretical modeling of reactive, multi-component and multi-phase geothermal mixtures to specialized high-temperature instrumentation, there is plenty of work to be done.” says Steven.
Christa Rose's "Dream" Internship at Genentech
Christa Rose talks about her "dream" internship at Genentech in Vacaville over the summer. "I learned not only technical skills, but also much about the "real world" and my career goals." says Christa.