ChBE
2020
 School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Also Inside:
Four ChBE Professors Win Prestigious NSF CAREER Awards ChBE Undergrad Ranking Rises to #2, Grad Ranking to #5
Contents 2
Strength and Breadth: ChBE by the Numbers
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Data Science Certificate
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Research Features
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Student Feature: GTEqual Bridge Fellows
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COVID-Related Efforts
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Faculty News
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Alumni Features
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Student News
Giving Opportunities To inquire about making a gift in support of ChBE, contact: Lauren M. Kennedy (Individuals & Foundations) lauren.kennedy@mse.gatech.edu Donna Peyton (Corporate Development) donna.peyton@chbe.gatech.edu
Think Big. Solve Big.
A Message from DAVID SHOLL, John F. Brock III School Chair 2020 has been a year that we will all remember for a long time. During Spring Break, Georgia Tech made a leap to finish our semester in a virtual format, and this format continued for all of our summer classes. As I write, our students and researchers are back on campus in socially distanced settings and we have all adapted to connecting virtually. I have been humbled and proud of the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering’s response to these events. Our faculty have gone to extraordinary lengths to teach effectively in this new environment, our students have been resilient, adaptable, and understanding, and our staff have been nothing less than amazing in keeping ChBE working smoothly.
Amidst all of this COVIDrelated uncertainty, ChBE continues to move from strength to strength. In this issue of our annual magazine, you can read about faculty and graduate students being recognized with national honors, as well as inspiring stories from our alumni. You can also learn about ChBE’s latest educational innovation, an online Graduate Certificate in Data Science for the Chemical Industry. This firstof-its-kind program, developed after careful consultation with many of our industry partners, is providing students with expertise in a rapidly growing technical area with a specific focus on chemical manufacturing. I hope you enjoy this year’s issue of the ChBE Magazine.
About ChBE Established in 1901, the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE) is one of eight schools in the College of Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Ranked among the top 5 engineering programs in the nation for both its graduate and undergraduate programs by U.S. News & World Report, the School is one of the oldest and most diverse programs in the country.
CONTACTS: Main Office: (404) 894-1838 Chair’s Office: (404) 894-2867 Undergraduate Program: (404) 894-2865 ugrad.info@chbe.gatech.edu Graduate Program: (404) 894-2877 grad.info@chbe.gatech.edu Magazine Editor: Brad Dixon Send news to news@chbe.gatech.edu
Four ChBE Professors Win Prestigious NSF CAREER Awards Four assistant professors in ChBE have won 2020 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF): Saad Bhamla, Fani Boukouvala, Lily Cheung, and Andrew J. Medford. The CAREER Award is the NSF’s most prestigious award in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, education, and their integration within the context of the mission of their organizations.” “Having four of our faculty win these awards in a single year is truly remarkable.” - Professor David Sholl, the John F. Brock III School Chair of ChBE
Saad Bhamla Bhamla will receive $994,387 over five years to study “Fast, Furious and Fantastic Beasts: Integrative principles, biomechanics and physical limits of impulsive motion in ultrafast organisms.” This research will focus on understanding ultrafast motion of slingshot spiders native to the Amazon
neering principles to achieve “Hybridization.” Funded by the Division of Process Systems, Reaction Engineering, and Molecular Thermodynamics at NSF under the Directorate of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental & Transport Systems.
Lily Cheung Cheung will receive $992,174 over five years to study “Understanding the role of sugar transporters in plant growth.” This research will focus on identifying the molecules recognized by plant sugar transporters of the SWEET family. Sugar transporters—the proteins embedded in membranes that enable the uptake and release of sugar from cells or subcellular compartments—are critical determinants of plant yield, and understanding their function will guide future efforts to use these proteins to engineer better crops. Funded by the Division of Molecular and Cellular Bioscience under the Directorate of Biological Sciences.
Andrew J. Medford
Rainforest. Funded by the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems (iOS) at NSF under the Directorate of Biological Sciences.
Medford will receive $565,691 over five years to study “Computational discovery of oxide-based photocatalysts to create fertilizer from air.” Fani Boukouvala This research will utiBoukouvala will relize computational screenceive $546,789 over five ing approaches to identify years to study “Machinenew transition-metal comLearning Assisted Process pounds that are promising Systems Engineering: Hyfor synthesis of ammonia brid modeling for process from nitrogen in air. His team will combine quantumoptimization, design and mechanical simulations, high-throughput screening synthesis.” accelerated by machine learning, and simple process This research will focus models to discover new materials and establish target on “opening up the blackmetrics for producing fertilizer from air. boxes” of modern Machine Funded by the Catalysis program under the DiviLearning (ML) methods sion of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and and integrating their training with core chemical engi- Transport Systems. CHBE.GATECH.EDU
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STRENGTH & BREADTH ChBE by the Numbers
#2 #5
Best Undergraduate Chemical Engineering Program in the Nation Best Graduate Chemical Engineering Program in the Nation - U.S. News & World Report, 2021
#6 #7
Best Chemical Engineering Department in the World - Shanghai Ranking Consultancy, 2021
GT’s ranking in America’s Best Public Universities
#4 America’s Best Undergraduate Engineering Colleges
- U.S. News & World Report, 2021
- U.S. News & World Report, 2021
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Faculty members elected to the National Academy of Engineering
AIChE Fellows serving on the faculty
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800+ undergraduates 230 graduate students - 209 PhD & 21 MS
Faculty Statistics 38 faculty members (11 women) 6 affiliated faculty 4 academic professionals
#4
23 ChBE faculty members hold major editiorial positions with top technical journals
Student
SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL AND BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING, GEORGIA TECH
R&D spending among chemical engineering programs (NSF data)
18 National Science Foundation CAREER Award winners on the faculty
ChBE Offers First Online Graduate Certificate in Data Science for the Chemical Industry
Chemicals, energy and manufacturing companies around the globe are racing to take advantage of the big data trends in what has become known as Industry 4.0. A key need in this sector is professionals with strong domain knowledge in chemical engineering who are skilled in the tools of data science and can lead data-driven efforts in their companies. In 2019, ChBE launched a fully online Graduate Certificate to equip professional chemical engineers for this critical field. This program, the first credential of its kind, is available to non-degree students, and core courses are taught by ChBE’s worldrenowned faculty. What is a graduate certificate? A graduate certificate requires 12 credit hours of coursework, typically four 3-credit hour courses. For comparison, a Master’s degree requires 36 credit hours of coursework. Credit from a graduate certificate can be used towards a future Master’s degree at Georgia Tech.
What courses are offered in this program? All students will complete two core courses that will focus on foundational data science methods with a strong emphasis on applications in the chemical process industry. Students will then select two elective courses from a wide variety of courses that are already available within Georgia Tech’s highly successful online Master’s degrees in Data Analytics and Cybersecurity. How long will the graduate certificate take to complete? Most students will complete one course per semester, so the certificate will take four semesters to complete. Core courses will be offered in the fall and spring semesters, but elective courses may also be available in Georgia Tech’s summer semester. Are these courses suitable for people who are working full time? Yes. The course delivery and structure will be similar to Georgia
Tech’s existing online MS programs, which currently serve thousands of working professionals. Are the courses easier than regular college-level classes? No. Each course is also part of Georgia Tech’s graduate curriculum and will require serious effort by students. But careful attention has been paid in developing the core courses to ensure that they are accessible to students who have an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering or a related discipline. What will tuition be for this certificate? Tuition and fees will be charged using Georgia Tech’s standard rate for Professional Education courses. Although we note that these tuition rates are adjusted incrementally each year, with this cost the complete 12-unit graduate certificate can be completed for about $15,000. Current ChBE graduate students can earn the degree at no additional cost.
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RESEARCH @ChBE Membrane Technology Could Cut Emissions, Energy Use in Oil Refining New membrane technology developed by a team of researchers from Georgia Tech, Imperial College London, and ExxonMobil could help reduce carbon emissions and energy intensity associated with refining crude oil. Laboratory testing suggests that this polymer membrane technology could replace some conventional heatbased distillation processes in the future. Fractionation of crude oil mixtures using heat-based distillation is a large-scale, energyintensive process that accounts for nearly 1% of the world’s energy use: 1,100 terawatt-hours per year (TWh/yr), which is equivalent to the total energy consumed by the state of New York in a year. By substituting the lowenergy membranes for certain steps in the distillation process,
the new technology might one day allow implementation of a hybrid refining system that could help reduce carbon emissions and energy consumption significantly compared to traditional refining processes. Published in the journal Science, the paper is believed to be the first report of a synthetic membrane specifically designed for the separation of crude oil and crude-oil fractions. Additional research and development will be needed to advance this technology to industrial scale. The research team created an innovation pipeline that extends from basic research all the way to technology that can be tested in real-world conditions.
“We brought together basic science and chemistry, applied membrane fabrication fundamentals, and engineering analysis of how membranes work.” - ChBE Associate Professor Ryan Lively
“We were able to go from milligram-scale powders all the way to prototype membrane modules in commercial form factors that were challenged with real crude oil – it was fantastic to see this innovation pipeline in action,” Lively says.
Test for Life-Threatening Nutrient Deficit Made From Bacteria Entrails In a remote village, an aid worker pricks a sickly toddler’s fingertip, and like most of the other children’s blood samples, this one turns a test strip yellow. That’s how an experimental malnutrition test made with bacterial innards could work one day in the field to expose widespread zinc deficiencies that kill thousands every year. These innards include plasmids, which are loops of DNA. They are not the same DNA strands behind reproduction and cell construction, but function instead like nano-organs with genetic programs that normally guide bacterial cell processes. In a study led by Georgia Tech, researchers engineered plas4
mids to direct other parts extracted from bacteria to make the blood test work. The new technology showed high potential as a basis for an inexpensive, easy malnutrition test that could be expanded to include many vital nutrients and other health indicators.
The new, experimental test is freeze-dried to a powder that is kept at everyday temperatures and could be read in the field. It could overcome the clinical and logistical travails of other tests, including refrigerated transport to the field or back to a lab, as well as lost time. “In the developing world today, many people may get enough calories but miss out on a lot of nutrients. You can look at someone and tell if they’re getting enough calories but not if they’re getting sufficient amounts of developmentally important nutrients,” says ChBE Associate Professor Mark Styczynski.
SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL AND BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING, GEORGIA TECH
Microscopic STAR Particles Offer Potential Treatment for Skin Diseases Skin diseases affect half of the world’s population, but many treatments are not effective, require frequent injections, or cause significant side effects. But what if there was a treatment that eliminated injections, reduced side effects, and increased drug effectiveness? A skin therapy with these properties may be on the horizon from Professor Mark Prausnitz’s Drug Delivery Lab. In a study published in Nature Medicine, Prausnitz and his team reported on research using a skin cream infused with microscopic STAR particles. To the naked eye, these look like a powder, but closer inspection reveals tiny microneedle
projections sticking out from the particles like a microscopic star. A particle-containing cream could potentially facilitate better treatment of skin diseases including psoriasis, warts, and certain types of skin cancer. Following the successful study of his microneedle patches for vac-
Ultra-Low-Cost Hearing Aid Could Address Age-Related Hearing Loss Worldwide Using a device that could be built with a dollar’s worth of open-source parts and a 3D-printed case, researchers want to help the hundreds of millions of older people worldwide who can’t afford existing hearing aids to address their age-related hearing loss. The ultra-low-cost, proof-of-concept device known as LoCHAid is designed to be easily manufactured and repaired in locations where conventional hearing aids are priced beyond the reach of most citizens. The minimalist device is expected to meet most of the World Health Organization’s targets for hearing aids aimed at mild to moderate age-related hearing loss. The prototypes built so far look like wearable music players instead of a traditional behind-the-ear hearing aids. “The challenge we set for ourselves was to build a minimalist hearing aid, determine how good it would be, and ask how useful it would be to the millions of people who could use it,” says ChBE Assistant Professor Saad Bhamla. Details of the project are described in the journal PLOS ONE.
cination, Prausnitz and postdoctoral scholar Andrew Tadros have advanced the technology with the objective of treating skin conditions by simply rubbing STAR particles on the skin. “Microneedle patches are good at administering drugs or vaccines to a small area of skin, but many dermatological conditions are spread over larger areas,” Prausnitz says. “Rather than trying to make really big patches, which would be difficult to use, we ultimately arrived at STAR particles that can be rubbed on the skin – just like any skin lotion – and poke tiny holes in the skin to better deliver drugs.”
Process Boosts Lignin Bio-oil as a Next-Generation Fuel A new low-temperature, multi-phase process (reported in Nature Energy) for upgrading lignin bio-oil to hydrocarbons could help expand use of the lignin, which is now largely a waste product left over from the production of cellulose and bioethanol from trees and other woody plants. Using a dual catalyst system of superacid and platinum particles, Georgia Tech researchers have shown they can add hydrogen and remove oxygen from lignin bio-oil, making the oil more useful as a fuel and source of chemical feedstocks. The process, based on an unusual hydrogen cycle, can be done at low temperature and ambient pressure, improving the practicality of the upgrade and reducing the energy input needed. “From an environmental and sustainability standpoint, people want to use oil produced from biomass” - Professor Yulin Deng
“The worldwide lignin production from paper and bioethanol manufacturing is 50 million tons annually, and more than 95% of that is simply burned to generate heat,” Deng says. “My lab is looking for practical methods to upgrade low molecular weight lignin compounds to make them commercially viable.” CHBE.GATECH.EDU
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Student Feature: GT-EQUAL Providing Bridge for Underrepresented Students to Pursue Graduate Studies When Alexa Dobbs faced periodic challenges during her first year of graduate studies at ChBE, she was grateful for plenty of support from faculty and fellow students through the GT EQUAL (Graduate Training for Equality in Underrepresented Academic Leadership) program.
apply to Chicago State University, along with Thomas which his brother had attended as Pho. She first heard a veteran. With scholarship supabout the Bridge port, Amezcua completed his BS in Program through a chemistry there in 2018. professor who menHe came to Atlanta in fall 2019 tored her during her to work as an engineering laboundergraduate studratory technician for KEMRON ies as a chemistry Environmental Services. The move major at Fort Lewis here was partly motivated by his College in Colorado. desire to be close to Georgia Tech “She knew I was and other universities where he Native American. Alexa Dobbs could potentially We’re from pursue graduate the same studies in order to tribe and had been in advance his career touch throughout the “I’ve really appreciated the support in industry. years. In my senior system,” says Alexa Dobbs, now a second-year grad student. She When he year, she urged me to received tutoring when she needed learned about the explore Bridge proit as well as professional developBridge Program grams as she believed ment support from professors and through an ACS it would be a good fit the mentorship of another gradue-mail he received for me.” ate student who was paired with as a society memher. “They’ve been really helpful in ber, he knew there Second Cohort navigating issues.” was a possibility he Fidel Thomas Pho could join Tech. Amezcua, GT-EQUAL is one Students like who started of two sites at Georgia Amezcua and other Bridge felas a Bridge Fellow in Tech for the American fall 2020 (along with low need to be better represented Chemical Society’s in graduate programs across the Sydney Wimberly), (ACS) Bridge Procountry, according to Bridge Prosays he is grateful gram, which aims to gram leaders. that GT-EQUAL adincrease the number In 2016, about 12 percent of mitted him as a nonof PhDs in the chemi10,000 BS degrees in chemical traditional student. cal sciences that are engineering went to students from Now 35 years old, awarded to Black, underrepresented groups. Only a Amezcua dropped Hispanic, and Native fraction of these students entered a out of high school American students. PhD program in the Sydney Wimberly and GT-EQUAL enrolls chemical sciences. obtained two Bridge Fellows annually who will his GED four years According to earn a thesis MS in chemical engistatistics from the later. He attended neering while receiving full funding, National Science Cuyumaca College in extensive support, mentoring, and Foundation, 5 San Diego, California, training to prepare for success in a percent of doctoral on and off for years PhD program. degrees in chemical while working jobs in engineering awardconstruction, mainteFirst Cohort ed in 2018 (44 nance, fast food, and out of 981) went Dobbs, who aims to go into inretail. to students from dustry after completing her PhD, was Looking to start underrepresented one of the two Fellows in the inaugu- over, he moved to Fidel Amezcua groups. ral year (2019-2020) of GT-EQUAL, Chicago and decided to 6
SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL AND BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING, GEORGIA
ChBE Researchers Involved with COVID-Related Efforts Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, ChBE researchers have stepped up to employ their expertise in efforts to enhance safety, testing, and vaccination. Here is a sampling of related projects: Solving Sanitizer Shortage A team of Georgia Tech researchers, including ChBE Professor of the Practice Chris Luettgen, began in March 2020 to address a national shortage of hand sanitizer. By June, the team had replaced a key component of sanitizer, created a new supply chain, and initiated their own donation of 7,000 gallons of a newly designed
sanitizer to medical facilities. It’s called Han-I-Size White & Gold for the colors of Georgia Tech. The new supply chain also may ensure that hand sanitizer producers across the country do not run out of the main active ingredient, alcohol. It was not easy overcoming supply chain barriers and bureaucracy, says Luettgen, who knew how to take products to market from his 25 years at KimberlyClark Corporation. Neither the supply chain nor the business relationships had existed before. The new supply chain, the first of its kind, of “waiver-grade” ethanol, has given hand sanitizer producers across the country a new opportunity to re-supply America. “Hopefully, we helped solved a national need,” Luettgen says.
Air Quality in Classrooms As Georgia Tech has resumed limited in-person instruction during the coronavirus pandemic, Professor Nga Lee “Sally” Ng has been monitoring the air quality of select classrooms on campus. “Indoor air quality is an important topic, and a pandemic makes it even more so,” Ng says. To date, Ng’s lab has installed 13 low-cost sensors in various classrooms across campus (30 is the ultimate goal). These sensors are providing real-time air quality data that will help guide future air-quality measures. The sensors monitor particulate matter (PM) of various sizes as well as other gas pollutants, including ozone, nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide, along with temperature and humidity and other meteorological parameters.
a patient by taking that RNA and converting it to DNA. The DNA is then amplified by the chain reaction and tagged with fluorescent probes, making it easy to spot. Now done with her role in that project, Obianyor continues to work with the Georgia Tech Research Institute on developing a different type of point-of-care kit that could deliver results in less than 30 minutes using Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) assays.
Improving Testing Technology Graduate student Chiamaka Obianyor has lent her skills to improving COVID-19 testing technology as part of two teams at Patches for Vaccine Delivery Georgia Tech. Professor Mark Prausnitz’s “It’s great to be able to help,” laboratory is carrying says Obianyor. “My out two small projects expertise in moin support of the fight lecular biology and against COVID-19. nucleic acids has Through a recent seed proven useful.” grant from NIH, lab As part of the members are developing interdisciplinary a microneedle patch to GT Test Kit Supadminister a skin-tarport Group, Obigeted COVID-19 vaccine anyor helped develop under development by components for test collaborators at Harvard kits that use a reacMedical School. tion called the reverse Chiamaka Obianyor And with funding transcription quanredirected from an existtitative-polymerase ing Gates Foundation grant, they are chain reaction (RT-qPCR). This reaction is used to identi- developing a low-cost, self-administered test of COVID-19 exposure fy the presence of small amounts using a skin patch. of viral RNA in samples from CHBE.GATECH.EDU
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faculty news Mark Prausnitz Received a grant for almost $1 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to continue his lab’s development of a microneedle patch for measles and rubella vaccination that will be studied in a human clinical trial in West Africa. Martha Grover General Chair for AbSciCon 2021 (May 9-14, 2021 in Atlanta), which is the biannual NASA conference on astrobiology. She also won the 2019 Faculty Mentor of the Year award for the Sloan Minority PhD Program. Krista Walton Appointed as the College of Engineering’s new Associate Dean for Research.
J. Carson Meredith Selected as executive director of Georgia Tech’s Renewable Bioproducts Institute. Joseph Scott Co-author of a paper that was recognized as Best Paper in IEEE Transactions on Power Systems 2017-2019.
Yuhang Hu Winner of the 2019 Extreme Mechanics Letters (EML) Young Investigator Award.
Ryan Lively Named an editor of the leading Journal of Membrane Science, effective 2020.
Johnny Blazeck One of ten researchers at U.S. colleges and universities selected to receive a Beckman Young Investigator Award in 2020.
Andrew J. Medford Won a 35 Under 35 Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Chris Jones Named inaugural editor-in-chief for the fully open access journal JACS Au.
Carsten Sievers, Fani Boukouvala, Sankar Nair, and Chris Jones Received a four-year, $2 million grant (effective October 1, 2020) from the National Science Foundation to help tackle the problem of accumulating plastic waste in landfills and the environment. David Sholl Member of the National Academies Study Committee for Chemical Engineering: Challenges and Opportunities for the 21st Century. Ajit Yoganathan
Blair Brettmann Selected to be one of the 2020 Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE) Young Investigators for the upcoming American Chemical Society National Meeting.
Retired from his joint appointments in ChBE and the Department of Biomedical Engineering in June 2020. He is renowned for his work with cardiovascular technologies.
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Lively Wins AIChE’s 2020 Colburn Prize Associate Professor Ryan P. Lively is the 2020 winner of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ (AIChE) Allan P. Colburn Award for Excellence in Publications by a Young Member of the Institute. Each year, the award recognizes outstanding progress in the field of chemical engineering by one researcher in any area of chemical engineering research who is within 12 years of completing their PhD. One of the most prestigious awards an early career chemical engineer can receive, the Colburn award recognizes significant advances and contributions to the field of chemical engineering.
Lively was honored for his broad contributions to separations science. He has worked to improve adsorptionbased gas separations and has led the experimental and conceptual development of organic solvent reverse osmosis separations. “Ryan’s work is making a real difference to world-scale problems faced by the chemical process industry. This award is a wonderful recognition of his impressive achievements.” Professor David Sholl, the John F. Brock III School Chair of ChBE
Innovations in Lively’s work span discovery of new materials,
fundamental understanding of adsorption and mass-transfer mechanisms, and development of practical separation systems, including advances in materials manufacturing. He has also served the chemical engineering community through his service as a board member on the North American Membrane Society, and as an associate editor of Chemical Engineering Science and an editor at the Journal of Membrane Science. Lively joined the faculty at Georgia Tech in 2013. In the last seven years, his research team has produced over 90 papers that have been cited more than 5,000 times according to Google Scholar. Sholl notes that Lively is a “Georgia Tech triple threat,” holding undergraduate and PhD degrees from ChBE and now a faculty position here. He is the John H. Woody Faculty Fellow.
Grover Named ADVANCE Professor at Tech Martha Grover was recently named the ADVANCE professor for Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering – a role focused on supporting the advancement of women and underrepresented minorities in academia. Established with a 2001 NSF Institutional Transformation Grant, ADVANCE professors are nominated by their respective deans to serve as their college’s leading advocate for gender and race equality. There is an ADVANCE professor in each of Georgia Tech’s six colleges. Professor Grover, who is the associate chair of graduate studies for ChBE, says: “I began my faculty career at Georgia Tech in 2002, as the ADVANCE program was getting started. I was fresh out of my PhD, and excited to have the opportunity to start my career as an
assistant professor.” She adds, “Though not unaware of gender bias and dynamics, I had until that point tried to keep my blinders on and focus on my academic performance, building my research portfolio and credentials.” Out of f40 professors in ChBE at the time, there was only one other woman on the faculty (the total is now 11). “While I appreciated the support of my male colleagues, I enjoyed the networking and social opportunities with the women at the ADVANCE events, and I participated actively,” Grover says. Through ADVANCE program-
ming, she learned about scientific, quantitative data on unconscious bias. “Learning about this data was affirming and uplifting for me,” Grover says. As an ADVANCE professor, Grover aims to pay particular attention to the needs of Black women on campus (not only faculty, but also staff and students). Martha Grover quotes Martin Luther King Jr. in explaining her guiding principle with the ADVANCE program: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
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alumni spotlight Bud Moeller Fearless in Business, Race Car Driving Robert C. “Bud” Moeller has never let fear stop him from pursuing his dreams, from racing to the top in the consulting world to setting speed records in some of the fastest cars in existence. “I am fearless and relentless and go after what I want, despite the odds,” says Moeller, who earned his BS from ChBE in 1976 and went on to become a partner with both Booz Allen Hamilton and Accenture during his management consulting career. After earning his MBA at Harvard University immediately after his undergraduate studies, Moeller’s increasing success in consulting enabled him to buy his first Ferrari at age 26. Cars had grown into a passion for Moeller since he learned to drive the high-performance 1967 Mustang he convinced his father to buy as a family car. “I read everything I could get my hands on and became car crazy for life,” he says. By 32, he’d started racing semiprofessionally, first in Indy-type cars and then in Formula Ones. In his thirty-plus years racing cars, he’s broken the record at six different tracks in a Ferrari Formula One (five of which still hold). Built for Speed Moeller, who competes in about a dozen races annually, has survived several big crashes where he was “damaged pretty badly,” including shattering his neck, an injury that required the installation of plates and screws in 2015. “That can happen when you’re pushing the envelope of physics at every corner and every lap,” says Moeller, who is a brand ambassador for Ferrari. 10
Solving Management Challenges Moeller says his no-fear mentality has also applied to his career in business consulting. “Solving tough management problems for business is a rush and a great challenge,” he says. Moeller, who spent 20 years with Booz Allen Hamilton and five with Accenture, was inducted into the College of Engineering’s Academy of Outstanding Young Alumni in 2002 and Alumni Hall of Fame in 2018. “I appreciated the fact that Tech was willing to honor my career in business and all the things I’ve accomplished, even though I wasn’t practicing as an engineer,” Moeller says. Georgia Tech’s strong reputation and attractive package for National Merit Scholars attracted Moeller to study chemical engineering here.
“I don’t have the mental makeup that contributes to fear. If you’re scared, you’ll go too slow.”
rate strategy for Mobius, Moeller has worked with companies around the world in almost every industry. After leaving Accenture in 2002, he decided to focus on pro bono consulting work for nonprofit organizations. He has served on 10 boards, including ChBE’s External Advisory Board, where he helped with the School’s latest strategic plan. Leading the Way “This is the most fabulous stage During his sophomore year at of life,” says Moeller, who divides Tech, Moeller’s uncle, a businessman, asked him what he’d like to do his time between Melbourne, for work, and Moeller realized he’d Florida, and McLean, Virginia, often “be more satisfied in the leadership flying himself and his wife Carol (who have two grown children) in ranks than designing piping and his own turboprop plane. pumping systems for refineries.” “I’m able to use my talents and Hired by Booz Allen Hamilton experience to help organizations right after Harvard, Moeller initially focused on corporate strategy that can’t afford outside consuland eventually evolved into organi- tants. All of these organizations are charged with reaching big objeczation, teamwork, and leadership tives, and if I can craft an approach to enable total corporate transforto help get there, I feel really satismation. fied.” Now vice president of corpo-
SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL AND BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING, GEORGIA TECH
Alexis McKittrick Named Emerging Leader by SWE ChBE alumna Alexis McKittrick (PhD 2005) recently won a Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Emerging Leader Award in recognition of her STEM achievements and community contributions. According to SWE, McKittrick is recognized “for demonstrating technical expertise and insight in shaping science policy; for consistent leadership and technical excellence across varied research environments and scientific topics; and for leadership in cultivating an inclusive environment.” Throughout her career, McKittrick has had success at diving into new research areas and conducting analysis across disciplines in a wide range of research environments -
three Federally Funded Research and Development centers operated by the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA). In March 2020, she became Program Manager, Geothermal Technologies Office at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). “I’m really proud of the range of research environments I’ve been able to thrive in. My time at Tech taught me how to digest new information quickly and learn on the fly effectively as well as communicate science and from industry to the Environmen- technology to a wide range of audiences.” tal Protection Agency (EPA) and then the Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI), one of
Three ChBE Grads Make Alumni Association’s “40 Under 40” In 2020, the GT Alumni Association published its inaugual“40 Under 40” List, including: Dhaval Bhandari, PhD 2010, Planning Advisor, ExxonMobil
Samirkumar Patel, PhD 2011, President & CEO, Moonlight Therapeutics
Patel is in awe of the science and technology that powers breakthrough advancements Bhandari in medicine. has contributed As a sciento significant tist, inventor, advancements and entrepreneur, Samirkumar in sustainability as well as in adis propelling the next wave of dressing the world’s dual energy unimaginable medical advancechallenge. His research has been ments of the future. While obtainat two of the nation’s top energyfocused industrial labs: ExxonMobil ing his PhD, he made a discovery Research and Engineering and Gen- in a GT lab that led him to invent a new way to deliver drug treateral Electric Global Research. ment into the eye to treat eye Dhaval has filed more than 20 U.S. patents and applications. And diseases. With this technology, at 26, he became a principal inves- he started Clearside Biomedical in 2011. Two years ago, he started tigators of a $3 million grant from the Department of Energy, leading his second venture, Moonlight Therapeutics, to develop a treata 15-member team. ment for food allergies.
Graham Thorsteinson, ChBE 2006, MS ChE 2007, Chief Technology Officer, Energy One Consulting
Graham Thorsteinson has devoted his career to one of the most pressing problems facing the world today: reducing energy use. After leading General Mills’ energy program for nearly 10 years, Thorsteinson co-founded Energy One Consulting. In 2018, The Association of Energy Engineers awarded Energy One with National Project of the Year for its work improving energy efficiency at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the world. Thorsteinson’s low capital approach focuses on optimizing existing systems without requiring significant capital upgrades. CHBE.GATECH.EDU
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Tech’s 100,000th Living Engineering Graduate from ChBE A stroke of luck changed Oluwaferanmi Adeyemo’s entire life trajectory. “My mother applied for the visa lottery system in Nigeria,” Adeyemo said. “She’d done it on a whim and ended up winning.” Known to friends and family as Feranmi, she says she was only 5 years old when her family packed up and moved to Illinois. As a student in Chicago, she excelled in math and science. When it came time to apply to colleges, a teacher suggested that Adeyemo check out chemical engineering programs. “These past four years have been phenomenal,” says Adeyemo, wh0 was recognized as Georgia Tech’s 100,000th living engineering graduate at the December 2019 ceremony. She undertook research as an undergraduate with Associate Professor Corey Wilson’s research lab that focuses on establishing a computational framework to translate understanding of the fundamental principles of biophysics and biochemistry. “It was so cool to see what we’ve worked on and how it could be applied to actual patients,” she said. Adeyemo will now move to Maryland and work in
the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab. She says Georgia Tech has more than prepared her for the road ahead. “When you see a challenge, you don’t get scared, you take it head on. I’ve learned at Georgia Tech that I’m capable — and can do that!”
Okonkwo Leads Community Development Efforts in Nigeria Claudia Okonkwo, ChBE PhD 2020, was featured in a Boston Herald highlighting her efforts as an ambassador of Umu Igbo Unite (UIU), a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that promotes cultural preservation, professional development, and civic engagement among the Igbo people of Nigeria. Born and raised in Nigeria, Okonkwo led UIU's community development efforts in Anambra State, Nigeria. “In Nigeria, there is a shortage of clean water, and a lot of underserved communities in Igboland are not provided with this fundamental necessity,” says Okonkwo, who served as the 2018 president of UIU's Atlanta chapter. “We raised $18,000 to build three boreholes (water wells), so families don’t have to walk miles to fetch water. We also will continue our yearly donations to orphanages in Igboland and provide food, medical supplies, and household supplies each year.” Okonkwo and other ambassadors worked with the region's underprivileged youth who spend much of 12
their time on the roadside selling bags of water and snacks to help provide for their families. Harsh conditions have led many people to leave the country, contributing to Nigeria's "brain drain," according to experts. Nigeria is the largest source of African immigration in the United States, notes the Boston Herald, which says “the Nigerian diaspora ranks among the most educated ethnic groups in the country, employed at higher rates than the general U.S. labor force in specialized fields facing unprecedented levels of demand — including health care, engineering, science and finance.” Okonkwo says she hopes UIU will inspire others among the African diaspora to invest in the continent. “The most important message that I want to tell people in the diaspora is to get out of your comfort zone. We cannot afford to take our talents for granted,” says Okonwko, who is now a consultant for Boston Consulting Group in Atlanta.
SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL AND BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING, GEORGIA TECH
Select Graduate Honors Students recognized for their achievements during the 2019-2020 Academic Year include: • Ziegler Award for Best Proposal Ezgi Dogan-Guner • Ziegler Award for Best Paper - Yutong Wu • Exemplary Academic Achievement - Pengfei Cheng, Brian Huang, Dowan Kim, Jaeyoung Park, Sushree Jagriti, Roshan Raghuram Shetty, Xiaohan Yu • AIChE Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant - Lukas Bingel
• Outstanding Performance on the Qualifying Exam - Hannah Holmes • Outstanding PhD Thesis - Monica McNerney • Outstanding MS Thesis - Adam Yonge • Outstanding PhD Proposal - Max Bukhovko (Pictured above, left to right)
Eight Students Win NSF Graduate Research Fellowships Eight PhD students won 2020 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships. Fellows benefit from a three-year annual stipend of $34,000 along with a $12,000 cost of education allowance for tuition and fees (paid to the institution) as well as opportunities for international research and professional development. ChBE’s newest NSF Graduate Research Fellows are: • • • • • • • •
Elizabeth “Hutson” Chilton Marlow Durbin Maria Rain Jennings Kathryn Loeffler Nikki McArthur Soham Sinha (BS 2020, who is attending Stanford University for his PhD) Rebecca Schneider Bryan Wang
Three-Minute Thesis Winner
• Teamwork Awards - Chiamaka Obianyor, Tania Evans, Andrew Kristof, Yifeng Shi (Pictured above, left to right) • Shell Outstanding Teaching Assistants - John Cox, Gabriel Gusmao, Stefani Kocevska, Fernanda Piorino, Udita Ringania
Select Undergraduate Honors • AIChE Outstanding Senior Award - Trent Weiss • AIChE Outstanding Sophomore Award Melina Le • AIChE Outstanding Undergraduate Course Assistant Award - Cameron Chong • Chair’s Award—Outstanding ChBE Junior Hannah Huang • Chair’s Award—Outstanding ChBE Senior Bradley Wolters • ChBE Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Cassidy Tobin
ChBE master’s student Po-Wei Huang won Georgia Tech’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition in the Master’s division. 3MT originated at The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia, and has spread to campuses around the world. Since 2015, Georgia Tech’s competition has helped graduate students hone their communication skills by challenging them to share their research in three minutes in a way anyone could understand. CHBE.GATECH.EDU
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