Georgia Tech's ChBE Magazine 2019

ChBE

2019

  School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Building a Bridge:: ChBE Chosen as Inaugural Site for ACS Inclusive Graduate Education Program

Contents 1

Strength and Breadth: ChBE by the Numbers

3

Research Features

6

ACS Inclusive Graduate Education Program

8

Faculty News

10

Alumni Awards/Features

12

Student Features/Honors

Giving Opportunities To inquire about making a gift in support of the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, contact: Donna Peyton Director of Development 404-894-0987 give@chbe.gatech.edu

Think Big. Solve Big.

A Message from DAVID SHOLL, John F. Brock III School Chair Welcome to the 2019 ChBE Magazine! The School continues to move from strength to strength in all areas. In the past academic year, we had 220 BS graduates, a historic high.

We have just welcomed an incoming class of 46 PhD students from around the U.S. and around the world.

Our undergraduate and graduate students bring wonderful intellectual and personal diversity to our community.

To give two examples, 40 percent of our incoming PhD students are women and for the second year in a row, a majority of our first-year undergraduate chemical engineering students are women. The School’s role in diversifying our profession is receiving national recognition.

In this issue you can learn

about the new ACS Bridge Program: ChBE is one of two chemical engineering departments in the U.S. selected by the American Chemical Society for a new program focused on providing opportunities for underrepresented minority students in graduate school.

ChBE’s faculty and students continue to perform research that is driving innovation in industry and health care and also revealing amazing things about the world we live in. You can meet two of the most recent additions to our faculty, Professors Yuhang Hu and Joseph Scott, in the pages that follow.

It is always a pleasure to hear from our alumni and friends. If you are visiting Atlanta please come and visit so you can learn more about ChBE. .

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 10 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 Communications Committee: Brad Dixon (editor), Michael Filler, Dennis Hess, Elsa Reichmanis, David Sholl, and Jacqueline Mohalley Snedeker

STRENGTH & BREADTH ChBE by the Numbers

7

faculty winners of major awards from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (2018/2019)

Professor Elsa Reichmanis, winner of the Margaret H. Rousseau Pioneer Award for Lifetime Achievement by a Woman Chemical Engineer

Professor Martha Grover, winner of the David Himmelblau Award for Innovations in Computer-Based Chemical Engineering Education

Professor Peter Ludovice, winner of the AIChE Education Division’s Award for Innovation in Chemical Engineering Education

#3

Best Undergraduate ChBE Program, U.S. News & World Report, 2020 Georgia Tech is the largest chemical engineering undergraduate program in the Top 10 of the U.S. News & World Report rankings

Professor David Sholl, winner of the the AIChE Institute Award for Excellence in Industrial Gases Technology

Professor of the Practice Ronald Chance, winner of the Lawrence B. Evans Award in Chemical Engineering Practice

Associate Professor Ryan Lively, winner of the AIChE Separations Division FRI/ John G. Kunesh Award

Associate Professor Victor Breedveld, winner of AIChE’s Outstanding Student Chapter Advisor Award

#7

Best Graduate ChBE Program, U.S. News & World Report, 2019

CHBE.GATECH.EDU

1

STRENGTH & BREADTH ChBE by the Numbers

#6

best chemical engineering department in the world, according to the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy’s Academic Ranking of World Universities

Students

23 #7

ChBE faculty members hold major editorial positions with top technical journals.

U.S. News & World Report, 2020

2

Faculty

#4 U.S. News & World Report, 2020

7

More than 75% of ChBE undergraduates receive industrial experience before graduation.

• 202 PhD and 15 MS

GT’s ranking in America’s Best Undergraduate Engineering Colleges

GT’s ranking in America’s Best Public Universities

Faculty members elected to the National Academy of Engineering

1000+ undergraduates 219 graduate students

18 10

National Science Foundation Career Award winners on the faculty

AIChE Fellows serving on the faculty More than 60% of ChBE undergraduates participate in research.

SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL AND BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING, GEORGIA TECH

40 core faculty members (12 women) 6 affiliated faculty 4 academic professionals

#4 R&D spending among chemical engineering programs (NSF data)

Long-Acting Contraceptive Designed to be Self-Administered Via Microneedle Patch A new long-acting contraceptive designed to be self-administered by women may provide a new family planning option, particularly in developing nations where access to health care can be limited, a recent study suggests. The contraceptive would be delivered using microneedle skin patch technology originally developed for the painless administration of vaccines.

Long-acting contraceptives now available provide the highest level of effectiveness, but usually require a health care professional to inject a drug or implant a device. Short-acting techniques, on the other hand, require frequent compliance by users and therefore are often not as effective. In animal testing, an experimental microneedle contraceptive patch provided a therapeutic level of contraceptive hormone for more than a month with a single application to the skin.

When the patch is applied for several seconds, the microscopic needles break off and remain under the surface of the skin, where biodegradable polymers slowly release the contraceptive drug levonorgestrel over time. Originally designed for use in areas of the world with limited access to health care, the microneedle contraceptive could potentially provide a new family planning alternative to a broader population.

The research, published by Regents’ Professor Mark Prausnitz in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering, was supported by Family Health International (FHI 360), funded under a contract with the U.S. Agency for International

uously, intrauterine devices (IUDs) that must be placed by trained health care professionals, and drugs injected with hypodermic needles. If the microneedle contraceptive patch is ultimately approved for use, it could become the first selfadministered, long-acting contraceptive that does not involve a conventional needle injection.

“Our goal is for women to be able In developing the experimental to self-administer long-acting contraceptive microneedle patch, contraceptives with the microneethe researchers leveraged earlier dle patch that would be applied to work on dissolving microneedle the skin for five seconds just once patches designed to carry vaccines a month.” - Mark Prausnitz. into the body. A Phase I clinical trial of influenza vaccination using Development (USAID). rapidly dissolving microneedles Long-acting contraceptives are has been conducted in collaboranow available in formats such as tion with Emory University. patches that must be worn contin-

Contraceptive Jewelry Could Offer a New Family Planning Approach Family planning for women might one day be as simple as putting on an earring.

A report published recently in the Journal of Controlled Release describes a technique for administering contraceptive hormones through special backings on jewelry such as earrings, wristwatches, rings, or necklaces. The contraceptive hormones are contained in patches applied to portions of the jewelry in contact with the skin, allowing the drugs to be absorbed into the body.

Initial testing suggests the

contraceptive jewelry may deliver sufficient amounts of hormone to provide contraception. A goal for the new technique is to improve user compliance with drug regimens that require regular dosages. The jewelrybased technique might also be used for delivering other drugs through the skin.

“The more contraceptive options that are available, the more likely it is that the needs of individual women can be met,” says Regent’ Professor Mark Prausnitz.

CHBE.GATECH.EDU

3

RESEARCH @ChBE Glassy Polymer Membranes Improve Energy Efficiency of Natural Gas Separations Currently natural gas wells with high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) can’t be easily accessed because H₂S is highly toxic and flammable. But a Georgia Tech researcher has found that a type of glassy polymer membrane to remove H₂S could enable increased development of these “sour” natural gas streams while improving the overall energy efficiency of the separation process.

Conducted by a team led by Professor William Koros, the study appeared in Science Advances.

Raw natural gas contains many impurities, the researchers note, but H₂S and carbon dioxide (CO₂) are arguably the two most important to remove.

H₂S can cause eye, nose, and throat irritation in amounts as low as five parts per million (ppm) and instant death when its

concentrations exceed 1000 ppm.

Presently an amine absorption-based process dominates most “sour” gas treatment operations, but it requires huge towers and an enormous amount of energy and expense as well as having environmental concerns.

To find solutions, Koros’ research team studied a specific type of glassy-ladder polymer of intrinsic microporosity (PIM).

PIMs have a highly rigid and contorted backbone structure that doesn’t get compacted so that gas molecules have room to move through the membrane. However, the researchers knew that the conventional PIM wouldn’t be selective enough to filter out H₂S and CO₂.

They found that the key was using a PIM that had been

“Large reserves of natural gas globally remain untapped because of the difficulties involved in processing such low-quality gas” - William Koros

functionalized with amidoxime, which doesn’t hold onto the CO₂ or H₂S as tightly as an amine would, allowing the membrane to both catch and release the impurities.

These membranes could ultimately eliminate the need for thermal energy in the sour gas separation process.

Solving an Old Mystery Might Provide New Source of Fertilizer The solution to a 75-year-old materials mystery might one day allow farmers in developing nations to produce their own fertilizer on demand, using sunlight and nitrogen from the air.

Thanks to a specialized Xray source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, researchers at Georgia Tech confirmed the existence of a long-hypothesized interaction between nitrogen and titanium dioxide (TiO₂) – a common photoactive material also known as titania – in the presence of light. The catalytic reaction is believed to use carbon atoms found as contaminants on the titania.

4

If the nitrogen-fixing reaction can be scaled up, it might one day help power clean farm-scale fertilizer production that could reduce dependence on capital-intensive centralized production facilities

and costly distribution systems that drive up costs for farmers in isolated areas of the world. Most of the world’s fertilizer is now made using ammonia produced by the HaberBosch process, which requires large amounts of natural gas.

“Ultimately, this might be a low-cost process that could make fertilizer-based nutrients available to a broader array of farmers,” says Marta Hatzell, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, who collaborated with ChBE’s Andrew J. Medford, an assistant professor, on research published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL AND BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING, GEORGIA TECH

Metal Oxide-infused Membranes Could Offer Low-Energy Alternative For Chemical Separations Chemical manufacturers consume a massive amount of energy each year separating and refining feedstocks to make a wide variety of products including gasoline, plastics, and food.

In a bid to reduce the amount of energy used in chemical separations, ChBE researchers are working on membranes that could separate chemicals without using energy-intensive distillation processes.

In a study published in Chemistry of Materials, the researchers outline a process for taking a polymer-based membrane and infusing it with a metal oxide network. The

resulting membrane is far more effective at standing up to harsh chemicals without degrading.

“The vast majority of separations out in the field in a variety of industries are thermally driven systems such as distillation, and because of that we spend an inor-

Adhesive Formed from Bee Spit and Flower Oil Could Form Basis of New Glues Honey bees spend hours each day collecting pollen and packing it into tidy bundles attached to their hind legs. But all of that hard work could instantly be undone during a sudden rainstorm were it not for two substances the insect uses to keep the pollen firmly stuck in place: bee spit and flower oil.

Now Georgia Tech researchers are looking at that mixture of ingredients as a model for a bioinspired glue because of its unique adhesive properties and ability to remain sticky through a range of conditions.

“A bee encounters not just wet and humid environments but windy and dry surroundings as well, so its pollen pellet must counteract those variations in humidity while remaining adhered,” says Professor J. Carson Meredith. “Being able to withstand those kinds of changes in humidity is still a challenge for synthetic adhesives.”

In a study published in Nature Communications, the researchers described how those two natural liquids work together to protect the bee’s bounty as it travels back to its hive.

dinate amount of energy on these separation processes,” says Associate Professor Ryan Lively.

“Separations that avoid the use of heat and a chemical phasechange are much less energy intense. In practice, using them could produce a 90 percent reduction in energy cost.”

Plastic membranes are already able to separate certain molecules based on size and other differences, such as in seawater desalination.

But until now, most membranes have been unable to withstand harsh solvent-rich chemical streams while also performing challenging separation tasks.

FDA Taps Tech to Help Reduce Cost of Making Antibiotics Professors Andreas Bommarius, Martha Grover, and Ronald Rousseau have started a three-year federally funded project to harness new manufacturing technologies and methods in an effort to improve the availability of certain antibiotics.

They won a $2 million award from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to find ways to apply continuous manufacturing methods to widely used beta-lactam antibiotics.

“These infection-fighting antibiotics are critically important for the healthcare system, and our goal is to make these medications easier and more cost-effective to produce.”

- Andreas Bommarius

Instead of the traditional reliance on batch manufacturing for medicine production, they will develop a process to continuously synthesize, crystalize, and isolate the antibiotics cephalexin and amoxicillin, eliminating uncertainty and variation from batch to batch.

The researchers will focus on the early stages of drug synthesis, while Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Rutgers University will address later stages of the manufacturing process.

CHBE.GATECH.EDU

5

Building a Bridge: ChBE Chosen as Inaugural Site for ACS Inclusive Graduate Education Program Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE) is one of two institutions nationwide selected to be inaugural sites for the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Bridge Program, which aims to increase the number of underrepresented minority students who receive doctoral degrees in chemical sciences.

The other institution chosen as an initial Bridge site is the University of WisconsinMadison’s Department of Chemistry, while ACS has named four other schools as partners.

In September 2018, ACS joined the Inclusive Graduate Education Network (IGEN), a coalition of five scientific societ-

ies formed to bolster the number of underrepresented students in the physical sciences. The ACS Bridge Program supports this national effort by assisting chemical science departments in creating a “bridge” for these students to earn their doctorates in chemistry or chemical engineering.

“ACS Bridge Sites and Partnership Departments will help amplify the call for action to diversify the chemical sciences,” says ACS Bridge Program Director Joerg Schlatterer. “Our Society is proud of its stellar cadre of participating institutions.”

GT-EQUAL Georgia Tech will receive funding from ACS to establish

Faculty Profile: New Associate Chair Martha Grover Focused on Enhancing Inclusive Graduate Community As ChBE’s new associate chair for graduate studies, Professor Martha Grover is focused on creating an even more inclusive community, exploring issues relevant to women, underrepresented minorities, and international students.

She now works with her predecessor as associate chair, Professor J. Carson Meredith, to co-lead the new GT-EQUAL (Graduate Training for Equality in Underrepresented Academic Leadership) Program.

Described in the article above, this Bridge Program aims to increase the number of underrepresented minority students who receive doctoral degrees in chemical sciences.

While more than a quarter of 6

ChBE grad students are women, conversations Grover had in spring 2019 led her to understand that creating more opportunities for interaction (e.g. networking and social events) could help alleviate any isolation female students might feel after completing their initial core courses and concentrating their focus within their research labs. The same could hold true for international students, Grover adds.

When she joined the faculty of ChBE in 2002 after earning her PhD at Caltech, there was one other woman professor in the School.

Now there are 12 women out of 40 core faculty members. “Reaching

that number really changes the social dynamics for the better,” she says. “It’s very clear that we’re all very different people. None of us has to feel like we have to represent all women in everything we do.”

Former School Chair Ronald Rousseau recruited Grover, and she credits his leadership in strengthening ChBE’s ongoing commitment to recruiting more women faculty members.

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH Controlling the crystallization process is one of Grover’s major research areas, and she has worked with Rousseau for a number of years to apply it to the treatment of nuclear waste stored at the decommissioned Hanford

SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL AND BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING, GEORGIA TECH

its Bridge Program (called GTProfessor Martha Grover who is gineering went to underrepresentEQUAL: Graduate Training for the Bridge project co-leader. ed minority (URM) students. Only Equality in Underrepresented “However, the best is still a fraction of these students entered Academic Leadership), which will a PhD program in the chemical sci- not very good. The numbers are annually enroll at least two Bridge too small, and we are commitences – far fewer than their reprefellows who will earn a thesis MS ted to doing more. The infrasentation relative to other groups. in chemical engineering while restructure and financial support Over the past five years, Georceiving extensive support, mentor- gia Tech’s ChBE PhD Program has provided by ACS Bridge will ing, and training to prepare for catalyze this new program.”

“We believe we must be intentional to success in a PhD program.

In addition to the two “Georgia Tech is excited to ensure that the next generation of PhDs in inaugural ACS Bridge Sites, the chemical sciences includes representa- partner institutions include partner with the ACS Bridge tion of the diverse population in the U.S.” Program,” says ChBE Profesthe chemical engineering - Professor J. Carson Meredith sor J. Carson Meredith, who is department at the University the Bridge project leader. of Arkansas as well as the “We believe we must be inchemistry departments at The enrolled about 10 percent URM tentional to ensure that the next Ohio State University, the students, more than the national generation of PhDs in the chemical average of 7 percent in science and University of Massachusetts sciences includes representation of at Amherst, and Indiana engineering. However, the rate at the diverse population in the U.S. University. These departments which URM students leave PhD The Bridge program structure will programs without earning a degree will also enroll students who be adaptable to the individual stuhave submitted their graduate is higher than that of the general dent’s needs and will involve menschool application to the Bridge population. toring by students and other faculty Program and will provide “As a public institution loengineered to ensure success.” a supportive, bridge-like cated in Atlanta, we are a leader In 2016, about 12 percent of environment for students from in educating students from under10,000 BS degrees in chemical enunderrepresented groups. represented groups,” says ChBE

In 2010, the team won funding from the National Science Foundation and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to create the Center for Chemical Evolution at Georgia Tech. Five years later, the center received another $20 million grant to fund its work through 2020.

Site in the state of Washington.

They seek to improve nuclear waste separations with sensors to monitor the process of crystalizing non-nuclear salts so that they can be disposed of at lower-level safety sites.

After Grover attained tenure, her research moved in an unexpected direction when Nicholas Hud, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, contacted her to collaborate on a question fundamental to Earth: How did life begin here?

EDUCATIONAL INNOVATION Grover is as committed to innovation in the classroom as she is the research lab. In 2018, she won the David Himmelblau Award for Innovations in Computer-Based Chemical Engineering Education from the American Institute for Chemical Engineers (AIChE) for developing multiple online screencasts to help her students understand concepts in her Process Controls course.

In 2017, she published a paper

in the Journal of Chemical Education on the educational effectiveness of “Group Intelligence,” a collaboration with Out of Hand Theater that employed theatrical exercises and games to teach prebiotic chemistry concepts to high school students. In order to make abstract ideas in modern science accessible, Grover designed the series of increasingly complex interactive exercises to be analogous to molecular behaviors and interactions.

In her new role as associate chair of graduate studies, she plans to emphasize the importance of writing skills for graduate student success. “We’re making it clear how essential it is to be able to communicate effectively about research for it to become known.

Whatever the next step is in their careers, being a strong writer is very important.”

CHBE.GATECH.EDU

7

faculty news Tom Fuller Won a $224,597 NSF grant for “Collaborative Research: Mesoscale Analysis of Transport and Degradation in ElecNamed a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) for his work trochemical Systems.” to develop energy-efficient separations technology.

Hang Lu

William Koros

David Sholl Elected to serve on the Board of Directors of AIChE from 2019-2021.

Julie Champion Her team won the 2018 T.C. Graham Prize ($20,000) for the entry titled “Nano-Texturing to Make Bactericidal Stainless Steel for Food/Beverage, Healthcare, and Consumer Products Industries.”

Natalie Stingelin Elected to the class of 2019 Materials Research Society (MRS) Fellows for “pivotal contributions to the application of classical polymer science tools for the efficient design and processing of organic electronic and photonic materials and devices.”

Nga Lee “Sally” Ng Won a $379,013 NSF grant for “Collaborative Research: The Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation from the Oxidation of Furan-compounds to Understand the Atmospheric Impacts of Biomass Burning Smoke.”

Chris Jones Selected as one of the most valuable reviewers in 2018 for proposals in the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund.

Corey Wilson Received a NSF Grant (a three-year $652,000 single PI award) to examine and reconstruct alternate allosteric networks in engineered LacI/GalR transcription factors. In the last year, he has raised approximately $1 million in single PI research funds from the NSF. Fani Boukouvala Won a $300,284 NSF grant for “Globally convergent optimization for data-dependent systems enabled through a novel data-driven branch-and-bound framework.”

Won the 2019 “Pioneers of Miniaturization” Lectureship, sponsored

by Dolomite and Lab on a Chip. This honor recognizes early- to mid-career scientists who have made outstanding contributions to understanding miniaturized systems.

Nga Lee “Sally” Ng and Younan Xia Designated as "highly cited researchers" by Clarivate Analytics.

Mark Prausnitz Awarded a U.S. Patent on “Microneedle Patches, Systems, and Methods.”

Michael Filler PI on a newly funded $1 million grant from DOE Basic Energy Sciences.

The project is titled “Real-time Measurements of Complex Transition Metal Oxide Nanostructure Growth” and is a collaboration between Georgia Tech and MIT. Blair Brettmann Selected by the U.S. National Committee as a 2019 IUPAC Young Observer for the IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) General Assembly and Congress in Paris, France, in July.

Saad Bhamla Received a grant from The Open Philanthropy Project to pursue the discovery of unusual biology in nature.

Matthew Realff Named 2018 Person of the Year

by Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE), the non-profit organization charged with advancing market-based solutions for carpet recycling and landfill diversion of post-consumer carpet.

8 SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL AND BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING, GEORGIA TECH

Professors Win 2019 Tech Faculty Awards Professors Nga Lee “Sally” Ng, Mark Prausnitz, and Younan Xia of Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE) are winners of 2019 Georgia Tech Faculty Awards.

of fine particulate matter (PM) in the atmosphere and impact climate and human health.

SIGMA XI SUSTAINED RESEARCH AWARD

RESEARCH AUTHOR AWARD

EARLY CAREER RESEARCH AWARD

Regents’ Professor Prausnitz, who holds the J. Erskine Love Jr. Chair in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, won this award for Associate Professor Sally Ng’s award goes to faculty members who contributing to highly impactful publications describing the results have made significant discoveries of research conducted at Georgia or advancements in their research Tech and published from the start within eight years of their initial of 2014 to the end of 2018. appointment.

Prausnitz’s research team Ng’s research program focuses conducts research on biophysical on the fundamental understandmethods of drug delivery, which ing of the formation mechanisms, employ microneedles, lasers, chemical composition, and health electric fields, and other physical effects of atmospheric aerosols. means to control drug transport in Secondary organic aerosols, the body. produced from atmospheric reactions, make up a dominant fraction

Professor Xia, who holds joint appointments in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, received this honor for his outstanding research at the intersection of biomedical research and nanotechnology and the original and important contributions he has made to advance these fields Among them are gold nanocages for medicine and molecular imaging and electrospun nanofibers for regenerative medicine.

ChBE Welcomes New Faculty Members JOSEPH SCOTT Associate Professor PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012 Previously an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at Clemson University before joining Tech in summer 2019, Scott focuses his research on optimization theory and algorithms (global, dynamic, stochastic, etc.), control theory and algorithms (MPC, set-based estimation, reachability analysis, fault detection), and process modeling and simulation. Current applications include pressure swing adsorption, membrane reactors, renewable energy systems, AC power flow, aircraft flight dynamics, and robot motion planning.

YUHANG HU Assistant Professor PhD, Harvard University, 2011 Hu was previously an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign before joining Tech in fall 2018. She focuses her research on soft active materials, especially those consisting of both solid and liquid. Her research is at the interface between mechanics and materials chemistry, with studies spanning from fundamental mechanics to novel applications, taking an approach of experimentation and theory. She holds a joint appointment in Georgia Tech’s Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering.

CHBE.GATECH.EDU

9

2019 CoE Alumni Awards Three graduates of the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering were honored with Georgia Tech College of Engineering Alumni Awards in April 2019. They are: • John H. Woody Jr. (Alumni Hall of Fame), BS ChE 1952, Director of Engineering, Steward Inc. (Retired) • David P. Carlton (Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni), BS ChE 1979, Marcus Professor of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine • Lucy Pettitt-Schieber (Council of Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni), BS ChBE 2012, Well Integrity Engineer, BP Oil Industry - see story below.

John H. Woody Jr. (center left) with College of Engineering Dean Steve McLaughlin (right) and Admiral James A. “Sandy” Winnefeld Jr. (AE 1978)

David Carlton (center right), with Winnefeld and McLaughlin

Winner Spotlight:

Pettitt-Schieber Ensures Integrity of BP’s Gulf Wellstock For the first few years of her career, Lucy PettittSchieber was one of only several women – and the sole female engineer – working and living on one of the oil rigs operated by BP in the Gulf of Mexico.

After earning her BS from ChBE in December 2012, she started as a well intervention engineer with BP the following year, executing operations on the rig to help fix issues with any of the wells in the Gulf of Mexico.

“I had a great experience.

Everyone looked out for me as a junior engineer. They knew I was there to learn. While I didn’t have a whole lot in common with the other rig crew, I grew up playing sports, so I could relate to people on that level.”

She adds: “Living on the rig 10

moved into a new role as a well integrity engineer in order to diversify her experience and gain a more holistic view of the business.

She is responsible for two of BP’s four main Gulf assets, which combined produce more than 250,000 barrels of oil a day.

Leading efforts to ensure that all equipment is operating reliably and following regulatory rules, she periodically visits the platforms via helicopter from Houston, two weeks on, two weeks off was important to understand all of the Texas, where she works and resides.

Eventually, she’d like to rise into equipment involved as well as the lifestyle and the vocabulary. Every- an engineering team lead role at the body has a different word for every company. “I find that I really enjoy when I have the opportunity to depiece of kit on the rig. By the time you get back in the office, you’re velop others, so I’d like to move into management at some point.” ready to write the procedures you learned to execute out there.”

In early 2018, Pettitt-Schieber

SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL AND BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING, GEORGIA TECH

alumni spotlight Ashley Hancock Develops Medical Device to Curb Opioid Abuse As the opioid addiction crisis grew to epidemic proportions, Georgia Tech alumnus and entrepreneur Ashley Hancock saw an opportunity to save lives while working with a physician and an addiction specialist. They have developed a medical device that can help patients adhere to prescribed dosages by controlling access to their medication and dispensing it properly.

In 2013, the team founded the Atlanta-based company Intent Solutions, whose iPhone-sized smart dispenser alerts users when it’s time to take their painkillers and only dispenses the amount prescribed via thumbprint sensor, never giving anyone access to the entire contents of the medication. The device collects and transmits adherence data via the cloud to monitoring organizations and caregivers. It can detect too frequent attempts to access pills or if anyone other than the patient is trying to reach the medication stored in the tamper-resistant device.

“Even though the opioid crisis may not have been as broadly known then as it is today, once we dug in and did the research, the problem was evident, with people dying every day and tremendous associated costs,” says Hancock, a strategic marketing professional who earned his BS from the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in 1990.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, more than 130 deaths a day in the United States are due to opioid overdoses from prescription pain relievers, heroin, and

to almost any medication, especially those where adherence is crucial, such as blood pressure, post-transplant, and cancer drugs.

After co-founding Intent Solutions, Hancock held roles including chief executive officer, chief operating officer, and chief financial officer. Last year the company completed its executive team, and he stepped away from dayto-day operations to focus on other promising medical device technologies.

He runs Innovetica, which Hancock with his wife, Elizabeth, CS 1996 he founded in 2009 as a synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. technology incubation firm, and from which Intent Solutions evolved.

Of patients prescribed opioids At Innovetica, he works closely for chronic pain, 21 to 29 percent misuse them, and between 8 and with physician and research inventors to develop products, managing 12 percent develop an opioid use the whole process from idea generadisorder. tion and market research to engineering and product development to intellectual property and regulatory issues.

Through his incubation firm, he’s co-founded another company, Park Surgical Innovations, which has developed a surgical assistive device for laparoscopic hernia repair that will soon be ready to submit to the Food and Drug MARKET MAKERS Administration for approval. Other While a device to control projects are in earlier developmental dispensing might sound like a “no stages in interventional cardiology brainer,” Hancock says, there was and the repurposing of existing theranothing like it on the market at peutic entities. the time. “We’re market makers,” Hancock, who was inducted into he says.

Georgia Tech College of Engineering’s Currently, Intent Solutions’ Academy of Distinguished Alumni in device is in pilot studies with pa2018, credits his chemical engineertients in hospice, in clinical trials, ing education for developing the critiand on workers' compensation. cal thinking skills he uses every day Ultimately, Hancock believes that in his current field. this device could be applicable CHBE.GATECH.EDU

11

Lee’s Goals for Fulbright Studies Involve Helping Disabled Georgia Tech alumna Savannah Lee, ChBE 2018, wanted to win a Fulbright scholarship so much that she sprinted 2,000 feet up a remote mountain in Montana in order to find a cell signal. She’d needed to reach those writing her recommendations.

A Stamps President’s Scholar at Tech, Lee was leading a two-week, team-building expedition of incoming scholarship recipients through the Montana wilderness in August 2018 that coincided with the application process.

By late March 2019, she learned that she’d won a Fulbright scholarship to cover her tuition and living expenses as she earns her MBA in international human resources at National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei from fall 2019-spring 2020. “I screamed when I saw the e-mail,” she says.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, the Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program, designed to increase mutual After her Fulbright studies, Lee might consider understanding between residents of the United States opportunities at biotech startup companies focused and people of other countries. on enhancing disability accessibility.

PASSION FOR HELPING DISABLED In applying for the Fulbright, Lee emphasized that the experience would merge her interest in Chinese language and foreign cultures with her passion for helping those with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD).

She says her end goal of learning how to better run businesses and organizations “would be to use these skills to work in the disability rights community to further opportunities for those with I/DD.” After graduating from ChBE in December 2018, Lee worked as an academic and mentorship coordinator in Georgia Tech’s Excel Program, a four-year certificate program for students with I/DD. Lee first began volunteering with the program during its inception in 2015, eventually serving in such roles as mentor, life coach, teacher’s assistant, friend, and president of the student advisory board.

Having had an uncle with Down’s syndrome, Lee was already aware of the limited opportunities and advocacy for people with disabilities before she started college.

That family history contributed to her desire to get involved in helping build the Excel program, which addresses the scope of needs of the I/DD population from fundamental academics and social activities to vocational preparation and independent living.

“Finding innovative ways to serve this community was the most important thing I did during my un12

dergraduate career,” says Lee, who taught life skills related to independent living, among other duties.

AWARENESS OF DISABILITY ISSUES In her Fulbright application, Lee noted that she began thinking about disability representation in Asia during her ChBE study abroad experience at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in Seoul, where she attended a wheelchair rally.

“It was there, watching thousands of wheelchairs cobble over downtown Seoul, that I finally pieced together ways that I could serve as a leader in this field by applying my unique skill set,” wrote Lee, who later attended a subway sit-in protesting Korean government efforts to limit disability services.

Lee isn’t exactly sure where her MBA will lead but wants to continue exploring ways for people with disabilities to find meaningful employment (for example, moving beyond traditional storefront roles as greeters and baggers into greater representation in construction and manufacturing settings). She says she might consider opportunities at biotech startup companies focused on enhancing disability accessibility as well as eventually earning a PhD. While she might not be pursuing a typical career for a ChBE graduate, she says the major “instilled in me an appreciation for making processes efficient, obtaining data, and developing problem solving skills.”

SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL AND BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING, GEORGIA TECH

Select Graduate Honors ChBE recognized students for their achievements at the annual Student Honors Luncheon on April 9, 2019. Select graduate honors include: • Exemplary Academic Achievement - Sumner Dudick, Arvind Ganesan, Geetanjali Pendyala, Udita Ringania, and Sachin Shyam Shirpurkar • AIChE Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant - Stefani Kocevska • Outstanding Performance on the Qualifying Exam - Gabriel Gusmao • Outstanding PhD Thesis - Rui Chang • Outstanding MS Thesis - Chi-Ta Lee • Outstanding PhD Proposal - Anthony Engler​ • Teamwork Awards - Conrad Roos, Anshul Dhankher, Maggie Manspeaker, Taylor Hatridge, Aaron Liu, and Brianna Thornton • Shell Outstanding Teaching Assistants - Zachary Herde, Anshul Dhankher, Kelvin Smith, and Maxim Bukhovko (pictured below)

Select Undergraduate Honors For the 2018-2019 academic year, ChBE honored the following students: • AIChE Outstanding Senior Award - Trent Weiss • AIChE Outstanding Sophomore Award Katherine Mueller • AIChE Outstanding Undergraduate Course Assistant Award - Trent Weiss • Chair’s Award—Outstanding ChBE Junior Grant Larkin • Chair’s Award—Outstanding ChBE Senior - Jade Marcus • ChBE Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Soham Sinha

Tech Wins National AIChE Chem-E-Car Competition For the first time, Georgia Tech took home the $2,000 first prize in the finals of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ (AIChE) Chem-ECar Competition. Tech’s car was propelled down the track by a stepper motor fueled by a lead acid battery and came within one centimeter of the target distance.

The competition was held in conjunction with AIChE’s Annual Meeting in fall 2018.

The annual competition’s ultimate goal is to teach chemical engineering students to think creatively about alternative fuels, while also teaching important lessons in safe engineering.

One hour before the annual competition, the students are told the amount of weight (water) their cars must carry and the distance they must travel. The students must then calculate the appropriate chemical reaction to do the job. They are given two attempts to propel the cars as close as possible to the finish line. The cars had to carry 390 mL of water across the 25.3 meter track.

Tech’s team included students Noah Harris, Ryan Waldheim, Mason Pirkl, Reynold Kyaw, Wendy Yao, and Finn Ramos. Ben Galfond is the Chem-E-Car advisor.

Students design cars using a variety of materials and fueling methods, showcasing each team’s creativity and innovation. The build teams employ an array of techniques and technologies, including 3D printing for car parts, and previous fueling methods have used unique combinations such as beef liver and hydrogen peroxide to produce a chemical reaction.

CHBE.GATECH.EDU

13

Georgia Tech School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering 311 Ferst Drive NW Atlanta, GA 30332-0100 404-894-1328 (phone) 404-894-2866 (fax) chbe.gatech.edu

Think Big. Solve Big.

Visit us online at chbe.gatech.edu

Š2019 Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage PAID Georgia Tech Atlanta, GA Permit No. 3023