ChBE News—Spring 2005

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GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY • SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL & BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING • VOL. 13 NO. 1 • SPRING 2005

ChBE Undergrad Blends Academic Achievement with Sports Excellence At 19, Stephanie England has managed to accomplish what most people only dream of – not only is she a remarkable athlete, she is also an outstanding student. A 2004 graduate of Astronaut High School in Titusville, Stephanie is currently the only Florida native on the Georgia Tech swimming and diving squad.

Photo by Jamie Howell

Stephanie chose ChBE as her major because she enjoyed A.P. chemistry in high school and felt that chemical engineering would satisfy her interests and offer a wide variety of job opportunities after graduation.

Georgia Tech diver and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering student Stephanie England twisting out of a reverse pike off the 3-meter board in a competitive meet against the University of Virginia. Stephanie finished second in the 1-meter and 3-meter events.

Despite her rigorous course load and all of the other challenges of being a freshman, Stephanie landed on the dean’s list for both semesters of her first year at Georgia Tech. Her ChBE professors say that she is an “impressive student.”

In high school, Stephanie was a threeyear letterwinner in diving and was team captain her junior and senior seasons.

She qualified for the America Cup and participated in the platform diving event at the U.S. Junior Nationals. Additionally, she won district championships in three consecutive seasons.

In the meantime, she also excelled in the classroom, ranking third in her graduating class. She was a member of the National Honor Society, the Chemistry Honor Society, the German Honor Society, and Mu Alpha Theta.

Parents Gordon England and Susan Eggers are naturally extremely proud of their multitalented daughter. During what little free time she enjoys these days, Stephanie likes to rollerblade and go to the beach.

Keep up the good work, Stephanie!

GT Students Shine at AIChE Southern Regional Conference

Photo by Steve Marek

At this year’s AIChE Southern Regional Conference in New Orleans, four undergraduate students from Georgia Tech made presentations on research they conducted as members of faculty research groups: Veda Bartlow (Prof. Nair), Joshua Hutcheson (Prof. Prausnitz), David Meyer (Prof. Eckert), and Holly Paskow (Prof. Rousseau).

A panel of three chemical engineers judged the papers based on technical content and research quality, as well as on the student’s presentation of the paper and his or her ability to respond to questions about the material.

All four Georgia Tech students did an excellent job presenting their work, and Veda Bartlow won the first prize in her group as well as second place overall. She received a cash prize of $1,250 and was later recognized at the 2005 ChBE Student Honors Luncheon.

From left: Veda Bartlow and Holly Paskow enjoy dinner during the AIChE Southern Regional Conference.

Focus on the School Message from the Chair

By Ronald W. Rousseau School Chair

The School faculty, staff, and students have had a busy and eventful academic year 2004-2005.

In thinking about this communication, I am reflecting on what seems to have been an extraordinarily busy time. I want to tell you first of many of the highlights of the year: • Counting those expected to graduate at the end of the coming summer semester, we will award about 93 BS, 20 MS, and 25 PhD degrees. We anticipate the number of BS degrees to increase gradually over the next few years as our undergraduate enrollments are increasing. The number of PhDs will be the highest we have awarded, and this number is likely to be more typical of our future.

• The undergraduate student advisory board has matured into a thoughtful, constructive group that has played a positive role in improving many aspects of student-faculty relations.

• Employment of our undergraduates is strong and reported salary offers again place our graduates at the top of the salary scale.

• Research output, as measured by research publications and patents applied for or granted, was superb, and signs indicate continued growth.

• A number of our faculty received national or international awards in the past year, recognizing them for their unique strengths, including: Charles Eckert & Charles Liotta: Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award, given jointly by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and ACS Martha Gallivan: NSF CAREER Award Dennis Hess: Award in Solid State Science and Technology, given by the Electrochemical Society

an educator, including establishing an outstanding department at U.C. Santa Barbara and his dedicated support for Georgia Tech.

Chris Jones: Young Scientists Prize, given by the International Association of Catalysis Societies William Koros: Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Charles Liotta: Mac Pruitt Award, given by the Council for Chemical Research Athanasios Nenes: NASA New Investigator Award and NSF CAREER Award Mark Prausnitz: Curtis W. McGraw Research Award, given by the American Society of Engineering Education and the Young Investigator Award, given by the Controlled Release Society Arnold Stancell: Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Ajit Yoganathan: Theo C. Pilkington Outstanding Educator Award, given by the American Society of Engineering Education Bioengineering Division

Distinguished Engineering Alumni Ms. Decie B. Autin, BSChE ‘80, SURF Manager, Nigeria Deepwater ExxonMobil Development Co. ~ For leadership and innovative approaches to major upstream petroleum projects.

Mr. Raul Estripeaut, BSChE ‘64, MSIE ‘65, President & CEO Overseas Management Company ~ For creatively applying an engineering education to become an important force in the economy and government of his home country, Panama.

Council of Outstanding Young Alumni Dr. Paula Hammond, MSChE ‘88, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, MIT ~ For development of new materials and processes using molecular design and synthesis of self-assembling polymeric systems.

• Two new faculty members, Rachel Chen and Hang Lu (see related story page 8), joined our faculty and brought additional strength in biologically related programs to the School. They also provided our female students two more outstanding role models.

In the last newsletter, Dr. Sue Ann Bidstrup Allen was introduced as the new Associate Chair for Student Initiatives. Her work on several new programs has been outstanding. Therefore, it is with mixed feelings that I inform you that she has accepted President Clough’s offer to be the Executive Assistant to the President. We know she will do well with her new responsibilities, and we are happy for and proud of her for being selected (see related story page 8).

• Levi Thompson will join us in the fall as the Hercules, Inc./ Thomas L. Gossage Chair. He will add to our research capabilities in catalysis and fuel cells and will bring significant leadership experience to his new position.

• Alumni were cited for their contributions at the COE Awards Ceremony (see photo page 11):

Many in the field of chemical engineering have been wondering about the health of our discipline.

Some have worried that the changes in the names of academic units long known simply as Chemical Engineering to Chemical & Biomolecular (or Biological) Engineering reflected a departure from

Hall of Fame Dr. Thomas J. Malone, BSChE ‘63, PhDChE ‘66 ~ For a career of outstanding research, leadership in industry through his work at Milliken, and commitment to developing GT students.

Dr. Duncan A. Mellichamp, BSChE ‘59 ~ For achievements as 2

long-established traditions. It may not be possible to allay such concerns in the space available here, but I would like to state unequivocally that we do not believe that to be the case.

Moreover, I think the new name merely indicates that we chemical engineers are saying to the rest of the world that we intend to add some tools and applications to our portfolio. We will be even stronger in our use of molecular sciences because we’ve added biology to the blend. We will include new applications of our systems outlook; as we have done with non-biological chemicals, we will design, develop, and use processes that rely on living organisms to generate, modify, or otherwise influence products. We will continue to view our milieu as extending from angstrom-length entities to huge ecosystems. And most importantly, we will continue to address problems of great importance, including those dealing with energy, environment, food, health, poverty, and quality of life, using problemsolving skills developed in the study of our discipline.

Focus on Students Student News

A team of ChBE students was recently awarded first prize in the undergraduate student paper competition sponsored by the Georgia Chapter of the Product Development Management Association (PDMA). In their winning paper, the team of Robert Casey, ’05, George Parker, ’04, Nisha Shah, ’04, and Robyn Smith, ’04, described a new product that they developed in ChBE 4803: Chemical Product Design, Engineering, and Optimization.

Michael Lazzaroni received the Separations Division Graduate Student Research Award in Extraction from AIChE for 2004. The award recognizes outstanding graduate students in any of the Separations Division’s research areas. Prof.

Charles Eckert is Michael’s advisor.

For the class project, they chose lip balm as a benchmark product they wanted to improve. They applied a general product design algorithm that they learned in class to develop an improved product. Utilizing a “Stage/Gate Process” akin to those used in industry, the team carried out the design process in stages. Their final design consisted of a replacement cap for lip balm tubes that contains a dispenser for breath strips and is compatible with any tube of lip balm. The team describes it as “a complete mouth care product” that is small, lightweight, and eliminates the need to carry both products separately.

The 17th annual Graduate Student Symposium was a great success From left: Charles Eckert and under the leadership of Chairs Michael Lazzaroni at AIChE’s Elizabeth Giambra and James Separations Division Dinner.

Falabella and Vice Chairs Christopher Gill and Justin Johnson. The student-run event, which was held March 31-April 1, provides a forum for graduate students to interact with industry representatives. Graduate students presented research from their projects through both oral presentations and posters, and the industry representatives selected the winners in both categories. This year, the winners for the Oral Presentations were: 1st Place – Anshul Dubey, 2nd Place – James Russum, and 3rd Place – James Broering. For the Poster Presentations, the winners were: 1st Place – Laura Draucker, 2nd Place – Kim Nelson, and 3rd Place (tie) – Anna Fallon and Paul Jason Williams.

In addition to being recognized by the PDMA at a banquet on April 28, the team received a cash prize of $1,000. This is the second year in a row that a team from ChBE’s Chemical Product Design class has taken home the top prize. This elective class is a new offering in the School that was first taught in 2003 by Prof. Christopher Jones. In 2004, Profs. Carson Meredith and Matthew Realff became involved, and the three professors greatly expanded the scope of the course with the support of a curriculum development grant from the Procter & Gamble Fund. The course has received rave reviews from students who have taken it and will continue to be offered every fall semester.

The Georgia Tech AChEGS chapter sponsored a team for the second year during the Relay for Life event held on campus.

They boasted 13 enthusiastic members and raised about All members of the AChEGS Relay for Life team made $2,500 for the it through the entire event – from 6 p.m. until 7 a.m. the American Cancer next morning. Shown above are Paul Wissmann and Society, which Elizabeth Giambra (with Krista Pallay in background). placed them third for the highest fund-raising of all 87 participating teams. Four team members individually raised more than $300. Additionally, all members of the team (except Gracy, who was out of the state) made it through the entire event – from 6 p.m.-7 a.m. the next morning. This feat of endurance is especially impressive because the event was held March 31-April 1, the same days as the Symposium! Congratulations to this year’s team who gave so generously of their time: Elizabeth Giambra, Yeny Hudiono, Thomas Lesniak (undergrad), Malina Janakat (Team Captain) and her boyfriend, Krista Pallay, John Reye, John Richardson, Rebecca Shiels, Tracey Thaler, Gracy Wingkono, Paul Wissmann, and Courtney Wolfe (undergrad).

Photo by Malina Janakat

Six undergraduate students have been awarded merit scholarships to participate in the School’s Summer London Program. The scholarships were made possible through the generosity of Monsanto and Chevron Texaco.

Recipients of the scholarships are Stephen Baehl, Stephen Fisher, Megan Lane, Craig Simpson, Rebecca Ugalde, and Lisa Wills.

Eighteen students participated in last year’s London Program. They are shown here with Prof. Cliff Henderson in front of the Chepstow Castle in Wales.

ChBE students have been participating in the program for more than 25 years. During the five-week-long course, students from Georgia Tech along with students from other ChE departments in the U.S. study unit operations at the Department of Chemical Engineering at University College London. In addition to the technical component of the program, students attend lectures on the history, culture, and sociology of Great Britain and visit chemical facilities, Roman ruins, and Norman castles. A total of 15 chemical engineering students from Georgia Tech will participate this summer from June 19-July 22 under the supervision of Associate School Chair F. Joseph Schork.

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Focus onNews Students More Student Undergraduate student Justin Thomas Ford was selected to represent Georgia Tech this year in the General Assembly’s Academic Recognition Day.

Justin Thomas Ford

This spring, Shell Oil Company sponsored a design competition as part of ChBE 4505: Process Design and Economics. Rich Higgins, a representative from Shell, judged the finalists and selected the following students for the top prizes: first place: Sahil Kochhar, Rob Casey, Robert Eads, and Griffin Fulmer; second place: David Bryson, Haley Hudson, Craig Rowe, and Brandon Friloux; and third place: Sean Holton, Nina Paolella, and Clay Plavcan. Congratulations to all of these students for their outstanding analysis of a complex, real-life industry problem.

One undergraduate student (who is a Georgia resident) from each of the 34 institutions in the University System of Georgia is recognized for academic excellence through resolutions passed by the House and Senate. Justin received certificates from both the House and Senate.

Prof. Chris Jones’ Ph.D. student John Richardson, a former NSF fellow, was awarded an NSF IGERT fellowship to participate in the crossuniversity, multidisciplinary program between Emory and GT from 20052007. John was chosen based on a competitive review process, including a written application followed by interviews with the program organizers.

About 21 individuals applied and John was one of only five that were accepted. John also was the recipient of the 2004 AIChE Student Chapter Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award.

John Richardson

By Alexis Hillock Ph.D. Candidate

From left: Aaron Bedy (AT&T and Competition Judge), Sudeep Vaswani, Akanksha Nagpal, and David Steinberg (College of Management)

In addition to making important contributions to Prof. William Koros’ research group and achieving academic excellence, graduate student Hensley Sejour has another talent that he likes to hone in his spare time: he’s the Georgia Tech Men’s Ultimate (Frisbee) defensive captain and specialist. As a crucial part of his team, Hensley calls starting lines for defense as well as helping with overall team management. He received his Hensley Sejour (right) in the middle of B.S. degree from Lafayette one of his famous dives for the frisbee College in Spring 2001, where he during a game of Ultimate. ran track as an undergraduate Chemical Engineering major. Using his quick acceleration and overall speed, Hensley amazes onlookers with his layout defensive style and hard cuts on the offensive side of the disc. After watching him play, it’s surprising to find out he only began playing Ultimate three years ago. Now, he also plays on Atlanta’s Chain Lightning, a club team that consistently participates in Ultimate Club Nationals, the highest play level the sport has to offer. Under the leadership of Hensley, GT Men’s Ultimate hopes to have one of its most successful seasons ever.

For the second year in a row, a graduate student in both ChBE and the College of Management has placed in the top three in the Georgia Tech Business Plan Competition organized by the College of Management. Last year, Chris Power, ChE ‘03, MGMT ‘03, received the honor; this year the prize goes to Prof. Dennis Hess’ student Sudeep Vaswani.

Sudeep graduated in May with a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering and received an MBA in December 2004 from the College of Management. He and his wife, Akanksha Nagpal, a Ph.D. student in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, co-founded a company named ProFold.

ProFold took first place for being the most fundable venture team, winning $32,500 in services. ProFold also took third place in writing, presenting, and defending the business plan category, winning a $2,500 cash prize. Additionally, they won the $500 first prize in the “Elevator Pitch” competition for presenting the best 60-second pitch.

ProFold is a very early-stage venture with a key idea to design molecules and surfaces for correctly folding protein molecules, thereby improving the yield of protein-based drugs in the biopharmaceutical industry. Their offering would enable protein drug manufacturers to increase their drug yield, reduce waste of expensive proteins, and reduce the time to market.

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ChBE Honors Its Most Outstanding Students The annual Student Honors Luncheon, which was sponsored this year by Fluor and AIChE, was held April 5 in the Gossage Atrium of the Ford ES&T Building. Several special guests, most of whom were sponsors of special awards, attended the event: Harold Boman, ME ‘75, Vice President of Life Sciences, Fluor Corporation; Cherry L. Emerson, Jr., Friend of Georgia Tech; Kathryn Goins, PSY, ‘08; Sylvia Little, ChE ’88, Senior Research Scientist, Kimberly-Clark; Joy Jordan, ChE ’92, Senior Research Scientist, Kimberly-Clark; and John A. Ziegler, Phys ’61, ’65.

UNDERGRADUATE Leadership AIChE Student Chapter President – Kyle Ross AIChE Student Chapter Vice President – Jovy Roach AIChE Southern Regional Conference Paper Competition – Veda Bartlow Omega Chi Epsilon Student Chapter President – Ross Perchuk Omega Chi Epsilon Student Chapter Vice President – Gretell Otano Omega Chi Epsilon Excellence Award – Victoria Balcer

2005 Ziegler Award for Best Proposal – Anshul Dubey

Eastman Engineering Merit Scholarship – Ryan Lewis Rohm and Haas Sophomore Scholar Award – Thomas Brown

Teaching 2005 Outstanding Teaching Assistant – Ying Wang 2005 Ziegler Outstanding Faculty – Pradeep Agrawal

Exemplary Academic Achievement Seniors – Stephen Baehl, Marc Baumgardner, Shane Bechler, Nathan Bower, Kamber Christensen, Adam Dean, Justin Ford, Osama Kashlan, Tien Nhu Le, Kevin Nagy, Abigail Pynn, Joshua Quarterman, Steven Schneider, Steven Slack, Matthew Swisher, Kathryn Ussery, and Dung Huu Vuong

Exemplary Academic Achievement Wu Bi, Cheng Chen, Megan Donaldson, Christopher Gill, Jyoti Gupta, Madhava Kosuri, John Reye, and Anne Ruffing Additionally, ChBE students recently received the following awards for the 04-05 academic year:

Juniors – Julie Hietpas, Jeffrey Hull, Jason Moore, Nimish Pandya, Alicia Powers, Graham Thorsteinson, and Ryan West

2004 AIChE Member of the Year Award for the Atlanta Professional Chapter – Rebecca Shiels

Sophomores – Sohail Ali, Joseph Holt, Jared Schaeffer, Frederick Stokes, Jessica Swearengen, Stuart Terrett, Jelle Van de Vall, and Emily Yandle

The R.E.B. Fellowship – Jonathan Rawlston, Megan Donaldson, and George Dumont The Holloway Fellowship – Michael Beck The James Harris Fellowship – Christine Ford

focused his research on the intimate relationship that exists between polymer structure, processing, and properties.

Freshmen – Blair Cox, Daniel Griffin, Robert Griffin, Cintia Nojima, Jin Sol Oh, Erin Rives, and Merin Zachariah

Dr. Samuels is a Fellow of the Society of Plastics Engineers, the 1999 recipient of the Society of Plastics Engineers International Research Award, and the 2002 recipient of the Department of Commerce National Textile Center Professor Robert Samuels and his wife, Scientific Excellence Pat, at the party held in his honor.

Award. He is also the author of the book, Structured Robert Samuels retired last Polymer Properties: The Identificafall after serving on the tion, Interpretation, and Application School’s faculty since 1979. of Crystalline Polymer Structure.

He received his Ph.D. from the University of Akron and

GRADUATE

Overall Accomplishments Leadership Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. Freshman Awards 20032004 – Michael Mayo and Alicia Powers Albemarle Corporation/Dixie Goins Outstanding Sophomore – Andria Davis AIChE/Kimberly-Clark Outstanding Senior – Stephen Marek Eastman Award for Excellence in Chemical Engineering – Osama Kashlan

Harold Boman, ME ‘75, Vice President of Life Sciences, Fluor Corporation, addressed students during the Honors Luncheon, which Fluor co-sponsored.

2005 Symposium Chairs – James Falabella and Elizabeth Giambra 2005 Teamwork Awards – Jyoti Gupta, Justin Johnson, Gelareh Shakourian, and Paul Wissmann Research Accomplishments 2005 Ziegler Award for Best Paper – Jeessy Medina 5

Nanotechnology Focus on Research William J. Koros

J. Carson Meredith

Sankar Nair

Amyn S.Teja

Professor Koros works at the interface of membrane engineering and nanotechnology, developing advanced membranes to achieve more energyefficient separation of gas mixtures. Membranes selectively pass one of the components in a feed stream while keeping other components from passing across the membrane.

The Koros group produces polymeric and carbon-based materials, as well as hybrid nanomaterials composed of polymers containing nanoscopic molecular sieve domains. The separation properties of ultra-thin (100 nanometer) selective layers of these materials, supported on porous fiber cores, are carefully engineered by adjusting the composition of these layers, creating many new opportunities for performing difficult separations. Large-scale membrane modules are then created by an integrated strategy spanning the nanoscale through to the macro-scale. Applications of the technology include purification of natural gas and production of nitrogen-enriched air for inert blanketing of fuel tanks or for pesticide-free storage of foods.

Professor Nair’s work focuses on developing new nanometerscale materials with novel properties, and then creating processing strategies to assemble them into functioning devices and systems. These capabilities are vital in the emerging field of nanotechnology, wherein functional devices can be created by precise chemical and physical manipulation of molecular “building blocks.”

These devices will ultimately overcome the intrinsic limits of the currently available device fabrication and manufacturing technologies. For example, Dr. Nair’s group is currently synthesizing nanotubes and other similar “nanocomponents,” which are then assembled into arrays in which the operation of each component can be controlled separately.

These arrays are being interfaced with existing integrated circuit technology to create new sensors that can identify and classify biomolecules like DNA and proteins many times faster, and in much smaller quantities, than current technology. An important component in this multidisciplinary program is to quantitatively explain the function of these nanometer-scale materials in terms of their molecular structure through combined experimentation, simulation, and theory.

Professor Meredith’s research aims to discover fundamental “rules” for stabilizing nanoscale films and particles. The applications of nanotechnology in electronics, biomedicine, and sensors depend on controlling the stability of nanoscale thin films and particles. Molecular electronics is an emerging field in which thin organic films are used as semiconductors. Benefits of this technology are mechanical flexibility, lower costs, and versatility in electronic sensors and communications. Achieving stable semiconducting organic nanoscale films is a significant problem. Dr. Meredith’s students recently discovered a method for creating stable semiconducting interfaces down to a thickness of 20 nm, and an unexpected instability between 100 and 200 nm.

These discoveries define important boundary conditions and illuminate problems to solve in patterning nanoscale organic semiconductors. The design of nanomanufacturing processes is also limited by a lack of reliable models for designing stabilized nanoparticles. Using an innovative molecular simulation model, Dr. Meredith’s group has presented the first calculations of nanoparticle chemical potentials, e.g., the energy required to disperse particles, and has validated them by comparison to experiments using novel techniques developed in their lab.

Professor Teja’s research focuses on developing near-critical and supercritical processes for synthesizing nanoparticles and nanocomposites, which can then be used for a wide range of technological applications. Solvents near their critical points offer many advantages in nanoparticle syntheses because of the tunability of their properties by very small changes in pressure and temperature. In addition, continuous processing using near-critical solvents offers ease of scale-up for nanoparticle manufacture, as well as better control of the factors that affect size, size distribution, and morphology of nanoparticles. Specific nanomaterials that are being synthesized via continuous near-critical processes include magnetic oxides for information storage applications, lithium iron phosphate as a cathode material for lithium-ion batteries, and metal oxide-carbon nanocomposites for catalytic applications. The transport properties of nanofluids (fluids containing dispersed nanoparticles) are also being studied to identify new high-performance heat transfer fluids for both large-scale cooling as well as for heat transfer in microfluidic devices.

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The background image depicts a nanotube – a tubular material about a billionth of a meter across – which is one type of “building block” that nanotechnologists and nanoscientists are using to fabricate devices with entirely new capabilities.

Focus on Faculty Faculty News Charles Eckert was the organizer and chair of the Minisymposium on Tunable Solvents for Sustainable Technology at Georgia Tech.

The event brought together an international group of leading chemists and chemical engineers in tunable solvents. The meeting was so successful that the group decided to make it an annual event.

Dr. Eckert also gave ten invited lectures and presented 17 others.

Pete Ludovice presented a comedy routine at the Spring 2005 AIChE National Meeting and the Carpet America Recycling Effort National Meeting. His routines blended traditional comedy subjects with technical-related topics.

Athanasios Nenes has been named an editor of the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. He also presented lectures at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco, the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Harvard, and the CDSNS Colloquium in the School of Mathematics at Georgia Tech. Additionally, research coauthored by Dr. Nenes was recently published in the Journal of Geophysical Research and has received a lot of media attention. The research focuses on the potential impact of air pollution on iron fertilization of the oceans, which if true, indicates that pollution can increase the amount of CO2 sequestered by the oceans, thus potentially having an impact on global warming.

Larry Forney presented an invited lecture entitled “UV Disinfection in Taylor-Couette Flow” to DuPont’s Clean and Disinfect Group.

James Frederick was an invited speaker at the S.C. Governor’s Forestry Summit and spoke immediately after the governor on the topic “Assessing The Pulp and Paper Industry Outlook.” In October, he visited five countries in Southeast Asia to promote membership in the IPST Center at Georgia Tech and presented seminars at the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute in Taipei and at the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok. While overseas, he visited the world’s largest pulp mill, which is on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia.

Mark Prausnitz has been awarded the 2005 Controlled Release Society Young Investigator Award for his outstanding contributions in the science of controlled release. It is an international award from the leading drug delivery society to individuals under the age of 40.

He was also appointed to the Advisory Board of the Center for Drug Delivery Research at the Southern School of Pharmacy at Mercer University. Additionally, Dr. Prausnitz gave invited lectures at Sandia National Laboratories, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Emory University, and Brooklyn Polytechnic University.

Dennis Hess served as a moderator at the Chemical Heritage Foundation “Moore’s Law at 40: Chemistry and the Electronics Revolution” symposium in Philadelphia in May. The event was co-sponsored by The Electrochemical Society and assessed both the impact of Moore’s law and the enabling role of chemical science and engineering in the development of the semiconductor industry.

Jeffery Hsieh presented “From Industry to Academia” as a keynote speech to the Chinese-American Chemical Society during the AIChE 2005 Spring National Meeting in Atlanta.

Ronald Rousseau gave the presentation, “Processing Solids: The Forgotten Phase,” in an invited keynote address at the VI Chemical Engineering International Congress in Monterrey, Mexico. The Congress was organized by the Chemical Engineering Student Association at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM), a prestigious Mexican University. He also was a Warren L. McCabe Lecturer at North Carolina State University where he presented the seminar “Crystallization from Solution and the Phenomena that Determine Crystal Form, Purity and Morphology.”

Chris Jones has been honored with three prestigious awards. He received the Sigma Xi Young Faculty Award for 2004, which recognizes the originality of his scientific contributions and potential impact of research described in his series of papers on the molecular design of novel polymerization catalysts. The second award was a “Young Scientists Prize” from the International Association of Catalysis Societies for his work on silica-immobilized polymerization catalysts. Lastly, he was awarded a DuPont Young Professor Award, one of only about 12 presented annually.

Amyn Teja was recognized at the Faculty/Staff Honors Luncheon for his 25 years of dedicated service as a ChBE faculty member.

(See page 6 for details about his current research activities in nanotechnology.)

William Koros was an invited lecturer at the first U.S./India Joint Meeting between AIChE and the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineering. He also presented at the National Research Council in Washington, D.C., and was the sixth annual Patten Distinguished Lecturer in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Agit Yoganathan has been awarded the 2005 Theo C. Pilkington Outstanding Educator Award from the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Bioengineering Division (BED). He was honored at the annual BED award ceremony at the ASEE Annual Conference in Portland, Oregon, on June 13. Additionally, he has been appointed as the new chairman of the International Organization for Standardization’s Technical Committee 150 Cardiovascular implants and extracorporeal systems. He will hold this prestigious chairmanship until 2010.

Charles Liotta was presented with the 2005 Malcolm E. Pruitt Award by The Council for Chemical Research (CCR). The prestigious award recognizes outstanding contributions to the progress of chemistry-related sciences and engineering. The selection committee commented that Dr. Liotta was selected “because he has exemplified the characteristics of a professional deeply committed to facilitating interactions among all three groups of CCR.” 7

Focus on Faculty Faculty News Adapted from an article by Matt Nagel, Institute Communications and Public Affairs

Sue Ann Bidstrup Allen, who has been a professor in the School for the past 17 years, accepted the position of Executive Assistant in the Office of the President. She began her new duties on June 1.

Georgia Tech President Wayne Clough says “I’m delighted to have Sue Ann Bidstrup Allen as my executive assistant. She has an outstanding record as a faculty member, and more recently as an academic administrator. Her experience, understanding of the Georgia Tech culture, and her excellent people skills make her an ideal choice for this position.”

In July of 2004, School Chair Ronald Rousseau appointed Dr.

Hang Lu joined the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering in the spring of 2005 as an assistant professor. Dr. Lu received her BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1998, her MS in Chemical Engineering Practice in 2000, and her PhD in Chemical Engineering in 2003, both from MIT. Her doctoral thesis under the direction of Klavs Jensen (ChE) and Marty Schmidt (EECS) focused on using micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) for rapid analysis of cells, subcellular organelles, and proteins. She took advantage of the micro-scale fluid, chemical, and electrical phenomena and the preciseness of fabrication techniques similar to those used in microelectronic fabrication. This class of biochips enables biologists to do automated, fast, and parallel experiments to generate large amounts of data compared to traditional techniques.

Bidstrup the first Associate Chair of Student Initiatives. In that capacity she has been involved with a number of special programs, including the five-year B.S./M.S. program, the dual degree program with the Atlanta University Center, international studies programs, and initiatives associated with student recruitment and retention.

number of ways. Fifteen Ph.D students and 13 M.S. students have received their degrees under her supervision. She has coauthored more than 130 journal and proceeding articles in her field. Dr. Bidstrup is the recipient of the NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, the Dupont Young Faculty Award, the Georgia Tech Award for Faculty Leadership in the Development of Graduate Research Assistants, and she is a Fellow of the Society of Plastic Engineers.

Dr. Bidstrup says that she has enjoyed the position of Associate Chair in ChBE and that she is “looking forward to becoming part of the Office of the President and having the experience of working with and learning from President Clough.”

Among Dr. Bidstrup’s new responsibilities will be working with the Executive Committee of the Georgia Tech Foundation, the Alumni Association, the Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Faculty Senate, President’s Cabinet, and the Georgia Tech Advisory Board.

Her experience has touched students and the research field of polymeric materials in microelectronics at Georgia Tech in a

After her doctoral study, Dr. Lu took a turn in her training and joined the lab of neuroscientist Dr. Cori Bargmann at the University of California, San Francisco and the Rockefeller University.

Dr. Lu designed new chips and assays and studied the genetic mechanisms, neural circuits and behavior output of oxygen sensation in the soil nematode C. elegans. The goal of this research is to understand the fundamental mechanisms of chemosensation and the neurocircuitry of simple organisms like the roundworm.

This knowledge will further the understanding of the human brain and how it works.

mammalian systems. Her group uses engineering principles to develop modeling tools and fabrication tools to design and manufacture BioMEMS devices.

Applied to the study of fundamental biological questions, these new techniques allow the researchers to gather quantitative data about complex neuronal systems. She plans to study signal transduction networks of the neurons (e.g., gene expression levels), activities of the neurons in the network (e.g., neuronal firing patterns), and the resulting complex behaviors of the animals (e.g., locomotion).

In the same way, Dr. Lu plans to use these techniques to aid the discovery of therapeutic molecules and the development of therapeutic strategies in neurodegenerative diseases.

Dr. Lu’s research at Georgia Tech lies at the interface of engineering and neuroscience. She is interested in how neurons behave and function, how genes and environment together determine diseased states, and how genetic, chemical, and physical interventions can possibly treat these diseases in both lower organisms and

Dr. Lu enjoys classical music and has sung with choirs in Boston and in the San Francisco area.

She is looking forward to the clas8

Professor Sue Ann Bidstrup Allen

“I am very excited about working with the university administration in my new role,” she said. “This position will provide me with the opportunity to have a positive impact on future directions for Georgia Tech.”

Professor Hang Lu

sical music scene in the Atlanta area, especially the renowned Atlanta Symphony Chorus.

(A profile on the School’s other new faculty member, Rachel Chen, appeared in the previous issue of ChBE News.)

Lynn Elsenhans Delivers the 2004 Silas Ethics & Leadership Program Symposium Natural Gas in U.S. E&P; Manager Lubricants in U.S. Oil Products; President and CEO Shell Deer Park Refining Company; Vice President Refining for Equilon Enterprises, LLC; President of Shell Oil Products East based in Singapore; and Director Strategic Planning, Sustainable Development, and External Affairs for Shell International Limited in London. She was named to her current positions in June of 2003.

Ms. Elsenhans is on the Board of Trustees for Rice University and on the Council of Overseers for the Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice. She is on the Boards of the Greater Houston Partnership, American Petroleum Institute, and National Urban League.

In recognition of the outstanding career achievements of Georgia Tech Chemical Engineering graduate C.J. “Pete” Silas,The Phillips Petroleum Foundation awarded a grant to the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering to develop the Phillips Petroleum/C.J. “Pete” Silas Program in Ethics and Leadership. Ethics, leadership, and quality, founded on the basics of strong communication skills and professionalism, are regarded as essential components of an engineering education. This program spotlights the importance of ethics and leadership by focusing on technical and business decisions that have ethical ramifications. These topics and related areas are integrated into the required chemical engineering courses and are addressed in an annual public symposium with prominent industrialists and ethicists leading discussions on current issues of technology and ethics.

Pete Silas, ChE ‘53

Dr. Timothy Wick (Director of the Program in Ethics & Leadership) with Lynn Elsenhans as she mingles with faculty members and students during the reception held in her honor.

Lynn Laverty Elsenhans, President and CEO of Shell Oil Products U.S., President, Shell Oil Company, and Country Chair for Shell U.S., delivered the 2004 Phillips Petroleum/“C. J.” Pete Silas Program in Ethics & Leadership Symposium last fall. The keynote address, entitled “Corporate Ethics: Straight Talk, Hard Truths,” was a lively and inspiring presentation filled with personal reflections and professional knowledge.

Ms. Elsenhans graduated from Rice University with a BA in Mathematical Science in 1978 and received an MBA from Harvard in 1980 before joining Shell Oil Company. She has had assignments in Oil Products and Chemical Products manufacturing, marketing, and planning. Her senior management assignments with Shell include Manager

ChBE Dedicates Portrait of Founder & Names First Emerson-Lewis Faculty Fellow In a special ceremony on April 21, the School unveiled a portrait of William Henry “Big Doc” Emerson (1860-1924), the legendary educator who founded the chemical engineering program in 1901. He literally opened the door on the first day of classes at Georgia Tech, and also served as Dean of Engineering.

School Chair Ronald Rousseau told the gathered faculty, staff, and students that displaying Dr. Emerson’s portrait in the main ChBE office was the perfect way to recognize the founder of the School. The portrait is a reproduction of an original 1920s oil painting by local artist Kate Edwards that hangs in a campus administration building.

Cherry L. Emerson & Mary Lewis Emerson are longtime supporters of the School.

They are shown here with the first Emerson-Lewis Faculty Fellow, Mark Prausnitz.

Cherry L. Emerson (William’s grandson) and his wife Mary Lewis Emerson attended the event, which also celebrated the introduction of the first Emerson-Lewis Faculty Fellow in ChBE, Prof.

Mark Prausnitz. A generous and unrestricted 9

gift from the couple to ChBE was used to establish the faculty award program this year. The award’s name recognizes the importance of both families in chemical engineering: Cherry built a successful career in chemical engineering after studying at M.I.T. with Mary’s father Dr. Warren K. Lewis; and Mary’s brother, Dr. H. Clay Lewis, taught chemical engineering at Georgia Tech for more than 30 years.

The Emerson-Lewis Faculty Fellow will be awarded annually for four years to recognize an outstanding faculty member who shows great promise early in his or her career. The fellowship will be $25,000 for the faculty member’s use in teaching and research activities.

The School extends sincere appreciation to Mr. and Mrs. Emerson for their continued support of the School and their commitment to chemical engineering education.

Focus on Alumni

Alumni Spotlight: J. D. Fleming, Jr., ChE, B.S.‘55, Ph.D.‘59

By Jenny Daley Director of Development

One very accomplished ChE alumnus calls J. D. Fleming “the brightest mind to go through Chemical Engineering at Georgia Tech.” But maybe Julian Denver Fleming, Jr.’s career practicing law was determined from the moment he was first called “J. D.” Chemical Engineering occupied important early steps along his path to being named one of “The Best Lawyers in America 2005-2006” based on a peer-review survey of 16,000 of the leading attorneys in the country.

Dr. Fleming was born in Rome, Georgia, and later his fascination with high school chemistry took him out of the state to study during his first two years of college. When tuition monies ran low, he transferred to Georgia Tech and into Chemical Engineering – a move he says he has never regretted.

“Georgia Tech was a place where hard work was expected. I liked that atmosphere,” Dr. Fleming says. He also recalls lighter times like the student prank of dynamiting the guard house on campus; no-one was ever hurt, but it was amusing to the students. He completed his BSChE with highest honors and decided to keep studying toward his Ph.D. At GT’s Engineering Experiment Station (the precursor to GTRI), he worked as a Research Engineer with high-temperature materials like fused silica, which is used for nosecones for missiles and rocket nozzles.

He was also a Staff Consultant with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Dr. Fleming earned his Ph.D. and taught ChE for twelve years at Georgia Tech, rising to the rank of Professor. He remembers enjoying how the professors worked as a group. He cites an informality in the program then, with the 15 graduate students calling younger faculty members by their first names. He says that teaching was “unregimented” in that there was room for imaginative approaches to the discipline.

While teaching and conducting research, Dr. Fleming supplemented his income by consulting for attorneys. His late wife, a psychiatrist, was then in her residency and working unusual hours. Dr. Fleming decided the time was right for additional education, although he did not plan to

pursue a degree. He began taking night classes at Emory Law School to learn the legal jargon he encountered in consulting – and discovered he enjoyed the coursework.

As he neared the completion of the required classes for a Juris Doctor, classmates began asking him with which firms he planned to interview. It was then that he finally seriously considered starting a career as a lawyer.

His stellar intellect and high marks J. D. Fleming, Jr. at Emory landed him a position with the respected firm Sutherland, Asbill, & Brennan. There was some skepticism in the legal field then of how a technical background would help an attorney. However, Dr. Fleming became invaluable to the firm, and over 30 years has built a practice in increasingly complex technology and intellectual property matters while developing well-recognized skills that address tax law issues and litigation for businesses. He practices primarily in the areas of civil and tax litigation and has substantial trial experience in controversies involving science and technology, including product liability, patent infringement, trade secrets, intellectual property, environmental matters, industrial technology, occupational health and safety, and federal taxation.

Dr. Fleming believes that Chemical Engineering is still a valuable course of study, even for someone considering becoming an attorney. “You will do best going into law with broad knowledge, as someone who dabbles in many interests,” he says.

Clearly, J. D. Fleming did more than dabble in Chemical Engineering.

He has passed on his intellectual curiosity and devotion to education to his daughter, Julie, who is also an attorney and has studied biology. Dr. Fleming’s former students and legal clients are among those grateful for his trail-blazing career path.

IN REMEMBRANCE ~ William H. Davis William H. Davis, ME ’56, who was the first president of the GT Pulp William Davis, ME ‘56 & Paper Foundation, passed away in December 2004, at the age of 71. As president of the Foundation, Mr. Davis established an annuity

worked with the Howard Gilman Foundation. At the time of his death, he was President, Chairman and CEO of Gilman Building Products, LLC. He was employed by the Gilman organization for more than 37 years.

fund to support the William H. Davis Pulp & Paper Scholarship Fund, which continues to this day. He was an outstanding leader and supporter of the program and is fondly remembered for his love of Tech.

A native of Dexter, Georgia, Mr. Davis was a nationally recognized business leader who was a former president of the Gilman Paper Co., served on its board of directors, and also

Although the Gilman Paper Co. became known as the DurangoGeorgia Paper Company in 2000, its notoriety as the largest and oldest privately owned 10

paper company in the U.S. remains. Founded in 1884 by Isaac Gilman, the company was originally a dealer in over-issue newspapers used as wrapping paper. Today, their offerings run the gammet from bleached board and bristols to specialty and printing papers.

Mr. Davis is survived by his wife, Ruth, three children, three grandchildren, and a sister.

Focus on Alumni Alumni News 1980

Michael Farber participated in a 400-kilometer bike ride through the Negev desert in southern Israel to Jerusalem in Oct. to raise money for the Alyn Hospital, one of the world’s leading facilities in the active and intensive rehabilitation of children with a broad range of physical disabilities, regardless of religion or ethnic origin. Michael, a computer networking consultant, lives with his wife and four children, in Givat Zeev, Israel.

1984

Charlie T. Dickson and his wife, Noreen, welcomed their daughter, Brianna, this spring.

Charlie leads ExxonMobil’s recruiting efforts at Tech.

David L. Wilkinson was hired as a technical operations manager for C&A Floorcoverings, a Tandus company, in Dalton, Ga., in Sept. C&A is a manufacturer of modular tile and structure-back carpet for the commercial marketplace, including corporate, education, healthcare, government and retail stores. He had been a technical service specialist with The Dow Chemical Co. He lives in Dalton, Ga.

1987

Michael E. Todd and his wife, Christy, recently restored and began operating The Fitzpatrick Hotel in downtown Washington, Ga. The hotel, which was built in 1898 and is on the National Register of Historic Places, opened last summer and features 17 rooms, a conference room, ballroom, catering kitchen, retail storefronts and a full-service, gourmet restaurant. The couple live in Winterville, Ga.

1993

Whitney Kirk McGuire has joined Downey Brand law firm in Sacramento, Calif., as an asso-

ciate attorney in the natural resources department. She and her husband, Brian McGuire, ChE ‘96, live in Vacaville, Calif.

Brian is area manager of the brewhouse and fermenting for Anheuser-Busch Companies in Fairfield, Calif.

1996

Beth Looney Turner and R. Stephen Turner, ME ‘96, announce the birth of a son, Alexander “Lex” Stephen, on Jan. 12, 2004. Stephen recently accepted a position as project engineer at Bosal Industries in Lavonia, Ga. Beth is with Tenneco Automotive in Hartwell, Ga. The family lives in Royston, Ga.

From left: Dr. Thomas J. Malone, Mrs. Pat Malone, School Chair Ronald Rousseau, Mrs. Lis Estripeaut, and Mr. Raul Estripeaut take a moment to view the Atlanta skyline from atop the Ford ES&T Bldg. before the College of Engineering Awards Ceremony. (See detailed information about all of the CoE Alumni Award Winners in the Message from the Chair on page 2.)

DEATHS 1934

1997

John Dinsmoor graduated with an MBA from Babson College in March. He has a master’s degree in chemical engineering from Cornell University. John and his wife, Michelle, live in Portland, Ore.

Dr. Paul Vasser Seydel of Roswell Ga., and Hope Town, Bahamas, on March 17.

1937 John R. Coley of Hinsdale, Ill., on Sept. 8, 2004.

2000

Allison Dickey and John Stalvey were married July 31, 2004, in Forsyth, Ga. Allison is a senior business analyst at Delta Technology in Atlanta.

They live in Hapeville, Ga.

1942 Charles H. Power of Georgetown, S.C., on Nov. 21, 2004. He was retired from International Paper Co.

2001

Upcoming ChBE Events September 28 Phillips Petroleum/“C.J.” Pete Silas Program in Ethics and Leadership Symposium Thomas Connelly Georgia Tech Campus

October 28–30 Homecoming Weekend Georgia Tech Campus

1948

Courtney Ratto and Mike Wright, ChE ‘00, were married Oct. 23 in Atlanta. The couple lives in Richmond, Va., where Courtney is a process engineer for DuPont Kevlar and Mike works for Infineon Technologies, a semiconductor manufacturer, also as a process engineer.

Henry G. Hase of Mobile, Ala., on Aug. 28, 2004.

1950 William Clark Warlick of Statesville, N.C., on Sept. 23, 2004. He was the CEO of Warlick Paint Company.

1955

2003

Daniel Euhus, and his wife, Kim, announce the birth of a son, Joshua, on June 3, 2004.

The family lives in Katy, Tex.

James F. Rutledge of Bastrop, Tex., on March 4, 2004. He was a retired technologist for Texaco Inc. 11

October 30–November 4 2005 AIChE Annual Meeting and ChBE Reception Cincinnati Convention Center Cincinnati, Ohio

January 18, 2006 21st Annual Ashton Cary Lecture Professor Julia Higgins Georgia Tech Campus

Ch B

We Welcome Your Questions, Comments, or News: ChBE Newsletter: Josie Giles (404) 385-2299 Email: josie.giles@chbe.gatech.edu

ChBE Development & Alumni News: Jenny Daley (404) 894-0987 Email: jenny.daley@chbe.gatech.edu

ChBE Program Information: ChBE Main Office (404) 894-1838 Email: grad.info@chbe.gatech.edu Email: ugrad.info@chbe.gatech.edu

Susan Hutcheson (404) 894-8475 Email: susan.hutcheson@chbe.gatech.edu

Correspondence May Be Mailed to this Address: School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA 30332-0100 www.chbe.gatech.edu

The final component of the Biotechnology Complex – the Molecular Science and Engineering Building – officially broke ground during an April 15 ceremony. It joins the ES&T, BME and IBB buildings where ChBE faculty members have offices and laboratories. The School expects to have a presence in the building as nanotechnology, a major initiative in which ChBE professors are actively involved, is the primary research activity planned for its laboratories.

The Molecular Science and Engineering Building will complete the Biotechnology Complex. This rendering shows the “M” Building’s location in relation to the Ford ES&T Building, home of ChBE.

ChB

S n o s u Fo c

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Georgia Tech President Wayne Clough says, “The Molecular Science and Engineering Build-

NEWS

! s s e c c u

ing will provide an interdisciplinary environment for faculty and students to examine and explore materials at the atomic and molecular level. It supports Georgia Tech’s role as a national leader in nanotechnology.”

The building will be a 200,000square-foot facility with an internal design that will maximize the interactions between faculty members and their students in both offices and laboratories.

The building will be connected to the Ford ES&T Building and the Petit IBB Building by pedestrian passageways.

Copyright 2005 School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology An equal education and employment opportunity institution.

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