Faculty Positions at The Ohio State Unviersity, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department
The Ohio State University, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Department has tenure-track faculty positions created through the University's academic enrichment program. We are seeking highly qualified candidates with a Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering or allied field, a record of outstanding research accomplishments, and a strong commitment to teaching excellence. More...

The Ohio State University, College of Engineering invites applications for a tenure track faculty position in the area of Reaction Engineering with energy-related research interests in fuel cells catalysis, process control and design, particle technology, reactive system computation, and/or coal science and engineering. More...

Craig Buckley named 2008 Barry M. Goldwater Scholar
Four Ohio State students have been awarded the prestigious Barry M.
Goldwater Scholarship, considered the nation's top honor for undergraduate researchers in science, math and engineering.  Craig Buckley, a junior in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering is one of the awardees.  Each institution may only nominate four students for the award. Since the award's inception in 1986, Ohio State has never had all four nominees win. The scholars are among just 321 sophomores and juniors to win the award, which is based on academic merit. The one- and two-year scholarships will cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500 per year.

Craig is conducting research with Dr. Jessica Winter and plans to pursue a career in academia. Craig has worked as an engineering intern at Clippard Instrument Laboratory performing testing on and creating 3-D models (using SolidWorks) of a line of flow control valves and related pneumatic products. Craig is a recipient of OSU's Distinguished Merit Scholarship for National Merit Finalists.   He plans to perform research in expanding and finding new uses for nanotechnology for biochemistry and biomedical applications.   This year he also received a Sigma Xi undergraduate research fellowship.

Craig is currently working on an undergraduate research project to attach
various ligands to gold nanoparticles for insertion within the pores of agarose gel. The nanoparticles serve as anchors for the ligands, allowing them to essentially remain attached to the agarose gel without changing the structure of the gel itself. This technique has the potential to add a wide range of functionality without a need to chemically modify the backbone of the gel. A fluorescent indicator will be used as the first ligand to test and refine the procedure for inserting and maintaining the gold nanoparticles in the gels network of pores. After this procedure has been developed, the effects and uses of different functional groups inserted into the gels will be explored. Modifications of this general approach are also possible. For example, while permanently attached ligands are certainly useful, a controlled release of the nanoparticles and their attached ligands would allow for the possibility of a drug-delivery type system.

A complete list of Goldwater Scholars and Honorable Mentions, arranged by state of residence, can be found on the Goldwater website.

CBE Wins Departmental Award at Minority Engineering Banquet
In April 2008, the Minority Engineering Program (MEP) held its 29th annual awards banquet. The theme was "The Road to Eminence: Engineering Social REsponsibility and Community Service". The CBE Department won the Departmental Award. This is the second year in a row that the department has won this award. The departmental award is given annually to the engineering department that has been the most prolific and proficient in developing activities to imporove the academic performance, recruitment and retention of minority students.

CBE Students who won awards or who were involved in the banquet are listed below:

Lindsay Roberts (sophomore CBE): Banquet MC
Bryan Edwards (premajor): Keynote Speaker Introduction
 
Academic Status Award (Cum GPA 3.0 or higher)
Abdirazak Abdulahi (Sophomore)
Nathan Arroyo (Sophomore)
Frederick Crawford (Sophomore)
Adugna Demisse (Graduating Senior)
Ilse Fernandez (First Year, Premajor)
Ahmed Hassan (Junior)
Mohamed Keyse (Junior)
Crystal Martin (Senior)
Eric Neidig (Junior)
Japheth Pritchett (Premajor)
Lindsay Roberts (sophomore)
Carol Udoh (Senior)
Blake Washington (Senior)
 
Academic Year Award (3.0 or Higher For the Year)
Laura Acosta (First Year, Premajor)
Steven Adams (First Year, Premajor)
Sefanit Berihun (First Year, Premajor)
Kevin Kuhn (First Year, Premajor)
Kelly Ramos (First Year, Premajor)
Alexander Sarimento (First Year, Premajor)
 
Academic Excellence Award (3.0 or Higher, 75% of Quarters Enrolled)
Ibrahim Bamba (Junior)
Precious Okoh (Graduating Senior)
 
Academic Distinction Award (3.0 or Higher Every Quarter)
Stephen NeCamp (Sophomore)
Justin Mason (Sophomore)

Michael Vilt Wins the 2008 Elias Klein Founders' Travel Award
Michael Vilt, a Ph.D. student and IGERT (Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship) fellow in Winston Ho’s group, has been selected as a winner of the 2008 Elias Klein Founders’ Travel Award from the North American Membrane Society (NAMS). The selection of this award is based, in part, on academic achievements, and it will provide up to $500 for Mike to present a paper, entitled “Supported Liquid Membranes with Strip Dispersion for the Recovery of Cephalexin”, in an oral and a poster session at the 2008 International Congress on Membranes and Membrane Processes (ICOM) in Honolulu, Hawaii on July 12 - 18.

New AICHE Officers Chosen for 2008-2009
The Student Chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers at OSU held officer elections for the 2008-2009 school year. AICHE is the principal student organization in the department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering.  The students in the group provide social activities, organize company infomration sessions and offer networking opportunities for current students in the department.    The following students were elected as officers:

President:  Alex Aossey
Vice President:  Katie Vermeersch
Treasurer:  Eric Sacia
Secretary: Jean Wheasler
Membership Chair: Johnny Titone
Philanthropy Chair: Nariman Alkhatib
Social Chair: Lindsay Volpenhein

Congratulations to all new officers!  For those students interested in becoming members of the organization, please contact Johnny Titone at titone.2@osu.edu.  For those companies interested in presenting an information session to talk about their company, internship or co-op opportunities, full time employment or to sponsor a professional information session, please contact Alex Aossey at aossey.2@osu.edu.

Faculty advisors for the student chapter include Dr. Barbara Wyslouzil and Dr. Bhavik Bakshi.  You can read more about AICHE online at http://www.aiche.org/.  For more on AICHE for professionals in Central Ohio, please see: http://www.aiche.org/OHIO/.  For more information on Chem. E Car, a project team supported by AICHE, please see
http://www.chbmeng.ohio-state.edu/generalinfo/news.html#chem_E_car.

Jeff Ellis Places Third in the Hayes Graduate Research Forum
Jeff Ellis, a Graduate Research Associate in David Tomasko's research group, placed third in the Hayes Research Forum held on April 13, 2008. The Edward F. Hayes Graduate Research Forum is in its 22nd year and its purposes are to:

• Provide a significant professional development experience for OSU graduate students;
• Encourage graduate students to share their research with the academic community;
• Recognize outstanding graduate student scholarship within the University; and
• Facilitate exchange between students, faculty, administration, and the public.

For more information, please visit: http://cgs.osu.edu/funding/hayes.aspx

Doctoral Program Reviews
Twelve of Ohio State's doctoral programs are now recognized as the best at the university after the completion of the far-reaching Doctoral Program Assessment led by Pat Osmer, dean of the Graduate School. The doctoral programs were assigned one of six classifications. CBE's Ph.D. program was one of the 12 rated as "high quality" stand out in terms of planning, focus and potential to enhance the standing of the university. More...

LS Fan Wins Award for Distinguished University Service
The Faculty Award for Distinguished University Service honors faculty members whose contributions to the development and implementation of university policies and programs through non-administrative roles have been extensive and have made documentable impact on the quality of the university. The recipients also have continued to provide effective teaching and have maintained an active program of research, scholarship, or creative work. Recipients are nominated by members of the university community and selected by a committee of faculty, administrators, and previous recipients. They receive both a cash award of $3,000 and an increase of $1,200 to their base salaries from the Office of Academic Affairs. More...

Chem-E Car Wins 2nd place at AIChE Regional Conference
On Saturday, March 29, 2008, the Chem-E Car competition in the Mid-West Region was held at the University of Akron. The competition was part of the AIChE Regional Conference. The shoe-box sized "car", powered by an on-board chemical reaction, designed, built, and run by a dedicated group of our UG Chem Eng students, placed second in the competition. CONGRATULATIONS!! goes to the "traveling team" of 13 members and the other team members that were not able to travel.

With that showing, the Chem-E Car team has been invited to compete at the National Chem-E Car competition during the Fall AIChE Annual Conference in Philadelphia. The National Student Conference runs from November 14-17, 2008. Special thanks goes to Dow Chemical for their baseline financial support of the team.

The "Traveling" Chem-E Car (dubbed "Joe's Jewel") TEAM

• Craig Buckley
• John Larison
• Lindsay Volpenhein
• Alexander Aossey
• Caroline Harwood
• Kimberly Hoang
• Jennifer Kovach
• Eric Sacia
• Justin Spitzer
• Katie Vermeersch
• Jean Wheasler
• Thomas Yeh
• Kevin Wilkens

Three Undergraduate Students win Awards
Craig Buckley and Jean Wheasler, both juniors majoring in Chemical Engineering, won Sigma Xi undergraduate research fellowships. Sigma Xi is an international, multidisciplinary research society that endeavors to encourage support of original work across the spectrum of science and technology. Successful applicants will receive a cash award of up to $150.

Katie Vermeersch, a junior majoring in Chemical Engineering, placed 3rd in the undergraduate paper competition at the North Central AIChE regional conference. The North Central conference was held March 28-29, 2008 at the University of Akron.

Craig, Jean and Katie are undergraduate members of Dr. Jessica Winter's research group.

L. James Lee wins Technology Award
Professor L. James Lee was named the recipient of the 2008 Society of Plastics Engineers Engineering/Technology Award. Professor Lee will be awarded a plaque and an honorarium during the Award Symposium. He will also give an invited talk during the Award Symposium on May 5, 2008. More...

L. James Lee Wins Malcolm E. Pruitt Award
Professor L. James Lee was selected as the 2008 recipient of the Malcolm E. Pruitt Award of the Council for Chemical Research. The Pruitt Award is given annually in recognition of outstanding contributions to the progress of research in chemistry and chemical engineering achieved through mutually beneficial interactions among universities, government laboratories, and the private sector. Since the Pruitt Award was first established in 1984 a total of twenty-two research leaders in chemistry and chemical engineering have previously become Pruitt Award Winners.

The Malcolm E. Pruitt Award consists of a special award and a check in the amount of $5,000 to be given to a chemistry-related department to support institutional and research activities. This award will be presented at the CCR Annual Meeting to be held April 27-29, 2008 in St. Louis.

Lingzhi Zhang and Elizabeth Biddinger Win Poster Awards
Lingzhi Zhang and Elizabeth Biddinger shared at the Annual Symposium of the Tri-State Catalysis Societ for Best Poster Award. Both students are members of Professor Umit Ozkan's research group.

Wu Ge Receives Sigma Xi Research Award
Wu (Bill) Ge won the 2008 Sigma Xi Research Award for his oustanding achievement for his grant in aid application entitled, "Studies of Novel GEmini Surfactant Systems as Drag Reducing Additives for District Heating/Cooling Systems". His application was selected amog the top reesarch proposals submitted to the chapter for 2008. Bill is a member of Professor Jack Zakin's research group.

Winston Ho Wins Clarence G. Gerhold Award
Professor Winston Ho won the 2007 Clarence G. Gerhold Award of the Separations Division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), one the highest honors bestowed to those working on separations.  This award is based on a sustained record of contributions of more than 15 years to separations technology and leadership in research, teaching or engineering.  Winston has been active in all these areas and is especially recognized for his recent accomplishments in developing new fuel processing membranes for fuel cells, the novel concept of incorporating hydrophilic groups into membrane structure to increase water flux for desalination, and novel supported liquid membranes with strip dispersion for removal and recovery of heavy metals, radionuclides and antibiotics from waste waters and process streams. Strip dispersion is a dispersion of an aqueous strip solution in a continuous phase of an organic membrane solution to provide a constant supply of the membrane solution for ensuring the stability of a supported liquid membrane.  This has solved the long-standing stability problem associated with the conventional supported liquid membrane. A plaque and an award of $3000 were presented to Dr. Ho at the AIChE Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, UT in November.

Dr. Andre Palmer selected as the 2008 Lloyd N. Ferguson Young Scientist Recipient
Dr. Andre Palmer has been selected as the 2008 National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE) recipient for The Lloyd N. Ferguson Young Scientist Award. This award recognizes his honors and scientific contributions and achievements in biomedical engineering. It also awards the dedication Dr. Palmer has shown in his research, commitment to the education and development of others, and the passion he has shown for the chemistry profession.

Dr. Palmer has been invited to give the invited lecture at the Lloyd N. Ferguson Young Scientist award symposium during the 35th Annual NOBCChE meeting that is being held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 16-21, 2008.

CBE Undergraduate Wins NSBE USTR Regional Competition
Frederick Crawford, a sophomore in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering program, won second place at the Undergraduate Students in Technical Research (USTR) competition at the fall regional National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) conference. Frederick was a member of the PREFACE bridge program the summer before his first year. He also worked with faculty at the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC), funded by the National Science Foundation, during the Research Experience for Undergraduates summer internship program in 2006. Frederick has been working with Dr. Andre Palmer’s group since Spring 2007.

Frederick describes his research as being about polymerizing hemoglobin blood oxygen carriers. In other words, their group is trying to find a new source for blood transfusions to reduce the current problems there are with getting enough people to donate blood; difficulties that may happen when blood is donated; and making it easier for people with different beliefs. Frederick plans to participate in the national competition with the same project and continue working with Dr. Palmer.

Professor Palmer is interested in the application of chemical and biomolecular engineering principles to address key issues in transfusion medicine, tissue engineering and therapeutic macromolecular delivery systems. In particular, Dr. Palmer’s research program focuses on three primary areas: 1) engineering novel artificial blood substitutes (oxygen carriers) for various transfusion applications; 2) utilizing oxygen carriers to improve oxygenation of mammalian cell cultures and 3) engineering mechanically strengthened and shape changing vesicles for specialized drug/protein/gene delivery applications.

The USTR competition, initiated through a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, allows students to gain experience delivering technical presentations. Participants were judged on the technical content of their displays, oral presentation skills, and a 10-minute question and answer session with judges. The top three winners from each region compete at the National Convention.

Sources:

NSBE USTR Competition Information: http://www.nsbe.org/programs/ustr.php
Palmer’s Research Page for UG Research: http://www.chbmeng.ohio-state.edu/undergrad/ur_palmer.html
Palmer’s Faculty Page: http://www.chbmeng.ohio-state.edu/people/palmer.html
OSU's Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center ( NSEC ) REU: http://www.nsec.ohio-state.edu/reu.html

Engineered Eggshells to Help Make Hydrogen Fuel
Engineers at Ohio State have found a way to turn discarded chicken eggshells into an alternative energy resource. The patented process uses eggshells to soak up carbon dioxide from a reaction that produces hydrogen fuel. It also includes a unique method for peeling the collagen-containing membrane from the inside of the shells, so that the collagen can be used commercially. The research was led by L.S. Fan, Distinguished University Professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering. Energy experts believe that hydrogen may become an important power source in the future, most notably in the form of fuel cells. Read More...

He Bai Wins the 2007 AIChE Separations Division Graduate Student Award
He Bai, a Ph.D. student in Winston Ho’s group, has been selected as a winner of the 2007 Graduate Student Award from the Separations Division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.  The selection was based, in part, on his research on new poly(ethylene oxide) soft segment-containing sulfonated polyimide copolymers for high temperature proton-exchange membrane fuel cells. This is a highly competitive award with a global request for nominations. The award is sponsored by the Praxair and AIChE Separations Division, and it comprises a $300 check and a plaque for the student as well as a recognition plaque for the student’s advisor. The awards will be presented at the Separations Division’s Dinner at the AIChE Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City in November.

The Graduate School Announces Winners of the Spring 2007 Presidential Fellowship
He Bai was awarded this Fellowship. He is a member of Professor Winston Ho's research group. These fellowships recognize the outstanding scholarly accomplishments and potential of graduate students entering the final phase of their dissertation research or terminal degree project. The fellowships provide financial support so that the student may devote one year of full-time study to the completion of the dissertation or degree project unimpeded by other duties. Recipients of this award embody the highest standards of scholarship in our graduate programs. This fellowship recognizes outstanding scholarship and research ability.

L.S. Fan Receives Fluidization Award
Professor L.S. Fan was presented with the International Fluidization Award of Achievement at the 12^th International Fluidization Conference in Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia, on May 17, 2007. Professor Fan was cited for his innovative research and development in various aspects of fluidization and fluid particle systems, including gas-liquid-solid fluidization, gas-solid circulating fluidized bed, computational fluid dynamics, electrical capacitance tomography, and other areas of fluidization research. This award is the highest given internationally in the field of fluidization. The field of fluidization has significant fundamental applications that impact academia and industry.  There are nine recipients of this award in the history of this field over the last 60 years.

Two Graduate Students Win Awards
Congratulations to Vikas Khanna and Lixin Lang for receiving the following honors and awards. Both students are advised by Bhavik Bakshi.

Vikas Khanna has received two honors.

1) First Place Award in the IEEE student technical paper contest
Paper Title: Life Cycle Energy Analysis and Environmental Life Cycle
Assessment of Carbon Nanofibers Production "IEEE International Symposium on Electronics and the Environment" held at Orlando, FL from May 7th-May 10th, 2007.

2) Christine Mirzayan Science & Technology Policy Graduate Fellowship at the National Academies for Summer 2007.

Lixin Lang, a graduate student in Statistics, is co-advised by Prof. Goel in Statistics.  His research involves the development and use of advanced statistical methods for solving problems related to chemical engineering.  He has won the Statistics Department's WHITNEY RESEARCH
AWARD for this year's best dissertation work on "Parameter Estimation
with Sequential Monte Carlo."

Three Top CBE Undergraduate Students Recognized by National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation has honored nine engineering students at Ohio State. Seven undergraduates were named Graduate Research Fellows, and two were given Honorable Mentions.

The Graduate Research Fellowship provides three years of support for students who are at the early stages of study in preparation for research-based master’s or doctoral degrees.

“NSF Graduate Research Fellows are recognized as a national barometer of student quality. Those students who win will be accepted into the top graduate programs in the country,” says David Tomasko, professor of chemical and bimolecular engineering and director of the Honors Collegium at Ohio State. “Producing such students reflects positively on Ohio State with our colleagues at those institutions, and those colleagues are partially responsible for the ranking and reputation of our college.”

The fellowship allows students the ultimate flexibility in choosing a graduate program, Tomasko adds.

“When a graduate student comes into a department with a Graduate Research Fellowship, faculty will actively recruit these students into their research groups because they represent the highest quality of student available,” he says. “These students become the equivalent of ‘blue chip’ recruits for graduate schools.”

The students and their awards:

• Celeste Chavis – Civil Engineering
• Laura Ensign – Chemical Engineering
• Bethany Frew – Food, Agricultural, & Biological Engineering
• Thomas Malott – Chemical Engineering
• Kevin Ponziani – Electrical Engineering
• Micah Springer – Aerospace Engineering
• Theresa Vonder Haar – Chemical Engineering

• James Cryan – Engineering Physics
• William Cash – Mechanical Engineering