ChBE News—Fall/Winter 2008

ChBE News FALL/WINTER

VOLUME 16

2008-2009

School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering @ Georgia Tech

ChBE Awarded Two Research Centers King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) funds new initiative to develop sustainable hydrocarbon utilization and The National Science Foundation (NSF) funds new center to create viable successor to silicon in semiconductors.

Photo by Gary Meek

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he School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech is one of the nationʼs leaders in chemical engineering re‑ search. Recently, the School welcomed two strategically posi‑ tioned initiatives to produce internationally recognized research that will transform (1) the technologies of gas separation for petrochemicals and natural gases and (2) the development of cutting‑ edge materials for the semiconductor industry.

The KAUST Investigator Award: Advanced Membranes and Sorbents for More Sustainable Hydrocarbon Uti‑ lization led by William J. Koros Dr. William J. Koros, Roberto C. Goizueta Chair and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Membranes in the School of Chemical & Bio‑ molecular Engineering, received one of twelve research grants awarded by the Global Research Partnership of the King Abdullah University of Sci‑ ence and Technology (KAUST). The grant is valued at $2 million per year for five years.

Dr. Korosʼ proposal, entitled “Advanced Membranes and Sorbents for More Sustainable Hydrocarbon Utilization,” is designed to develop better methods to purify oil and natural gas hydrocarbons. These improved methods will reduce cost, pollution, and energy consumption for all large‑ scale separation and purification processes, not just oil and gas. Improved biofuel processes are also expected to result from the work.

Under the terms of the grant, the research will be conducted on the Georgia Tech campus. Dr. Koros will spend three weeks each year at KAUST, where he will interact with students, faculty, and other researchers from around the world.

Dr. Korosʼ research will focus on separation processes that use pres‑ sure to force materials through a membrane that retains some substances on one side and allows others to pass to the other side. This process is best known as “reverse osmosis” (RO) for its use in desalination (removing salt from sea water to make fresh water), but it can be used for gases as well.

One of the objectives of Dr. Korosʼ research is to develop ad‑ vanced membranes and sorbents (designed to purify gases and to capture CO2 for sequestration) capable of 10 times finer filtering than conventional membranes.

Dr. William Koros and postdoctoral fellow Wulin Qiu.

The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) – The Georgia Tech Laboratory for New Elec‑ tronic Materials led by Dennis W. Hess Dr. Dennis W. Hess, Professor and Thomas C. DeLoach, Jr. Chair in the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, is director of the new Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) – The Georgia Tech Laboratory for New Electronic Materials.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded funding to Georgia Tech to create the new MRSEC center, which is one of only thirty‑one in the country.

The laboratory focuses its efforts on the development of new ma‑ terials to serve as the successors to silicon in the semiconductor in‑ dustry. Specifically, the development of graphene – which holds tremendous promise as an electronic material – will be the initial core of research and development at the Center.

Centers continued on page 16

EAB Profile Dedicated to the White and Gold Jim Harris has been a rising star from the moment he entered Georgia Tech.

Although his schedule at ExxonMobil is demanding, he always makes time to be a Yellow Jacket!

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“I stay involved because I love to in‑ teract with the students, faculty, and staff. It keeps me in touch with cutting‑edge research and the next generation of engineers.”

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ames “Jim” P. Harris, ChE ʻ70, is the senior vice president, Polymers, for ExxonMobil Chemi‑ cal and a Yellow Jacket through and through. “I like staying involved with Georgia Tech and the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering,” says Jim. “It keeps me in touch with the environment that gave me the confidence and assurance to succeed.” His commitment to ChBE and Georgia Tech is reflected in his service on its External Advisory Board, of which he has been a member since 2000, as well as, being a trustee of the Alumni Association from 2005‑2008.

Jimʼs path to Georgia Tech, and specifically to the field of chemical engineering, was not di‑ rect. Having been born and raised in southwestern Virginia, Jimʼs inclination was to enroll at Vir‑ ginia Tech or the University of Virginia after high school. However, he always had a dream of studying and playing football at Georgia Tech, where he had applied and been accepted as an in‑ dustrial engineering student.

During the spring, his father drove him to Atlanta for a tour of the Georgia Tech campus.

While on a tour with a friend from the Roanoke area, Jim asked about that bright new building in the distance. His friend said: “Oh thatʼs chemical engineering – itʼs the hardest major and their graduates make the most money.” With enough scholarship money to cover the out‑of‑state dif‑ ference, Jim accepted and changed his major that day!

Jim recalls that he always had a strong love of math and chemistry so chemical engineering was the perfect fit. He did “walk‑on” and played freshman football, but by spring practice it be‑ came clear that football and six‑hour chemistry labs did not mix. He told Coach Bud Carson that he would need Thursday afternoons off to attend chemistry lab, and that was the end of that – an easy decision in retrospect.

While on campus at Georgia Tech, Jim was active in his fraternity, Kappa Alpha, serving as its president during his senior year, and was a resident advisor in his dorms for two years.

After receiving his bachelorʼs degree from Georgia Tech (with highest honors, by the way), Jim enrolled at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and received his MBA in 1972. Jim then began his career with Exxon Chemical as a financial analyst at the Baytown Chemi‑ cal Plant. He has worked in the United States and Europe in a variety of supervisory and manage‑ rial positions in manufacturing, sales, and technology and has held his current position since 1997. Jim attributes a great deal of his success to his alma mater. “Georgia Tech is very important to me because it taught me how to solve problems, make strategic choices, and work with others.

I stay involved because I love to interact with the students, faculty, and staff. It keeps me in touch with cutting‑edge research and the next generation of engineers,” says Jim. Beyond Jimʼs generosity and involvement with ChBE, he also assists with the campus‑wide Roll Call initiative and encourages his fellow employees to use the ExxonMobil Matching Gifts Pro‑ gram as much as possible. This past year, ExxonMobil gifts from employees who are Georgia Tech alumni increased by over 40%. “The three‑to‑one match is unlike any other corporate program I am aware of,” says Jim. “We encourage ExxonMobil employees to give back to their institutions and communities, and the generous matching fund helps maximize their gift.” In 2008, ExxonMo‑ bil matching funds and employee gifts to colleges and universities totaled $36 million.

Jim is very involved internationally, serving on the Board and Executive Committee of Cefic, the European chemical industry association, as well as the Board of the Plastics Division of the American Chemistry Council. “Many people only think of ExxonMobil as an oil company but we are much more. In terms of size we are among the top three chemical companies in the world, but arguably the most profitable,” says Jim. In his spare time Jim concentrates on what he feels are his top three priorities: health, family, and career. He enjoys spending time outdoors; heʼs an avid golfer and hunter, and his other activi‑ ties include building model railroads.

There are few members of the alumni body who are more dedicated than Jim to the Insti‑ tuteʼs continued success. His generous contributions to Georgia Tech and to ChBE through both time and financial commitments have been invaluable.

News Briefs Professor & J. Erskine Love, Jr. Institute Chair in Engineering Charles Eckert has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advance‑ ment of Science (AAAS). Each year the Council elects members whose “ef‑ forts on behalf of the advancement of science or its applications are scientifically or socially distinguished.”

Undergraduate student Erika Gemzer was selected as a top‑five finalist in the 2008 Ms. Georgia Tech program, an event which recognizes the top ten senior women at Georgia Tech for academic and leadership accomplish‑ ments. She will graduate in May 2009 and join Shell Oil Company.

Assistant Professor Martha Grover gave an invited talk at the PASI2008 work‑ shop in Argentina. The workshop is aimed at advanced graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and young researchers in the area of process systems engineering under the Pan‑American Advanced Studies Institute (PASI) Pro‑ gram from the Americas. Funding for this PASI workshop is provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Energy (DoE) .

Professor Chris Jones was selected as one of eight recipients of a Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation fellowship in the Postdoctoral Program in Environmental Chemistry for 2009. The program is open to all academic and other not‑for‑profit organizations in the United States that have well‑estab‑ lished research efforts in environmental science or engineering. The award supports the development of scientific leadership in the field of environ‑ mental chemistry by awarding $120,000 to a principal investigator for the appointment of a postdoctoral fellow for two years.

Dr. Jonesʼ research developments on CO2 capture from smokestacks have received extensive media coverage. Articles have appeared in IEEE Spectrum, Scientific American, and Georgia Techʼs Research Horizons. Addi‑ tionally, 11Alive News produced a segment on his findings, which aired on local Atlanta television. Dr. Jonesʼ research may have solved a problem long plaguing researchers: creating an ideal substance that is both effective and cost‑efficient at absorbing CO2 emissions. His group has developed a material that contains nitrogen‑rich compounds called amines grown on porous silica.

The amines are bases that neutralize the acidic carbon dioxide gas. Heating the substance releases trapped CO2 for later storage. The low‑cost material has a hyperbranching structure, which helps it hold many amines, and the strong chemical bonds holding it together allow it to be reused often.

Additionally, Dr. Jones was selected as the 2008 Hesburgh Teaching Fellow at Georgia Tech, a program which is administered by the Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL).

Nanoscopic Objects via Controlled Creation and Rearrangement of Amor‑ phous Nanoparticles.”

Associate Professor Athanasios Nenes has been honored with the American Meteorological Societyʼs (AMS) highest award, the 2009 Henry G. Houghton Award. The Henry G. Houghton Award is given annually to young, promising atmospheric scientists who have shown outstanding ability in their fields.

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) presented its Founders Award to Professor Robert M. Nerem for his contributions to the field of bioengineering.

Fourth‑year undergraduate student Brendan O'Leary was voted as a Master Leader for FASET Freshman Orientation in Summer 2008. He also completed a co‑op appointment as a process engineer with Honeywell International in their Specialty Materials – Chemicals & Resins division.

Professor Mark Prausnitz was named one of the newest members of the College of Fellows by The American Institute for Medical and Biological En‑ gineering (AIMBE). The newly elected Fellows were nominated and ap‑ proved by current Fellows of the College, consisting of more than 900 engineers and scientists. Recipients of this honor are recognized for their outstanding achievements in medical and biological engineering.

Keith Reed, a PhD student in Associate Professor Carson Meredithʼs research group, was awarded an Applied Materials Graduate Fellowship for 2008‑09.

PhD student Anne Ruffing, who works in Professor Rachel Chenʼs research group, was selected to receive a 2008‑09 P.E.O. International Award. The Philanthropic Educational Organization International recognized Anneʼs outstanding academic and research achievements, as well as her extensive outreach activities.

Shu Shu, PhD ʻ07, who worked in Professor William Korosʼ research group, was selected as the winner of ChBEʼs 2007 Outstanding PhD Thesis Award.

Regentsʼ Professor and Associate Chair for Graduate Studies Amyn Teja presented an invited talk at a symposium celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the ACS journal Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research at the ACS National Meeting in Philadelphia in August 2008. Dr. Teja was also invited to present two talks at the International Conference on Hydrotheram and Solvothermal Methods at the University of Nottingham (UK) in September 2008.

Jeong‑Woo Lee, a PhD student in Professor Mark Prausnitzʼs research group, won the AIChE Food, Pharmaceuticals and Bioengineering Division Poster Award for his work on “Micro Thermal Ablation for Transdermal Drug Deliv‑ ery.” Co‑recipients include Priya Gadiraju, Jung‑Hwan Park, Dr. Mark Allen, and Dr. Prausnitz. The award, along with a cash prize, was given at the 2008 AIChE meeting in Philadelphia.

After nine years as vice provost for research and dean of graduate studies, Regentsʼ Professor Charles Liotta has stepped away from his administrative duties to devote his full attention to teaching and research. In addition to fo‑ cusing on his research collaboration with Dr. Charles Eckert, Dr. Liotta is cur‑ rently serving as interim chair of the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

ChBE Alumnus and External Advisory Board member Ray W. Miller, ʻ72, along with his research team, received the 2008 Bolton/Carothers Innovative Science Award for developing a solid technology and business foundation for the Sorona® polymer business. This special award is given by DuPont to recognize R&D employees who deliver high‑value solutions to meet vital business objec‑ tives and critical customer needs through innovation.

Assistant Professor Sankar Nair has been selected to receive a National Sci‑ ence Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award for his work entitled “Engineered

The LaRoche family gathered in 2008 to dedicate the ChBE unit operations laboratory in memory of family patriarch William W. LaRoche Jr., ʻ49. Pictured from left: Glen Knight, Louanne LaRoche‑Knight, Ruby Eloise Brown, Cash Knight, Anna Klompen, Vicki LaRoche‑Klompen, W. Walter LaRoche III, Lealan LaRoche, and Lea LaRoche.

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ChBE Class News 1950 Clinton Bastin, a retired chemical engineer and nuclear scientist, is listed in the 2008 “Whoʼs Who in the World” at the age of 80. Clinton, who is working to resolve Americaʼs energy challenges, recently taught a course, Energy, the Environment, and the World, at Emory Uni‑ versityʼs Lifelong Learning Center.

1955 Darryl C. Aubrey, who retired as vice president of Chem Systems in 2002, was re‑elected to the Village Council of North Palm Beach, Fla., in March and subsequently elected president pro tem by his fellow council members. He first was elected to the council in 2006.

1962 Stephen David Clements received the Lifetime Achievement Award for meritorious service to the field of cardiology from the Georgia chapter of the American College of Cardiology in No‑ vember 2007. Stephen, who received his M.D. from the Medical College of Georgia in 1966, is a cardiology professor at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.

1971 Sherman J. Glass, Jr., ChE ʻ71, MS ChE ʻ72, has been appointed president of ExxonMobil Refining & Supply Co. and elected vice presi‑ dent of the corporation. Sherman previously served as senior vice president of ExxonMobil Chemical Co. 1975 Charles E. Hodges has been selected as a Tech‑ nical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI) Fellow. In March, he completed three years on the TAPPI board of directors. President and CEO of the Port Townsend Paper Corp., he and his wife, Kathi, live in Port Townsend, Wash.

1980 Lisa Gareis Korslund is transferring from the United Kingdom to Lausanne, Switzerland, in her role as packaging R&D manager for Cereal Partners Worldwide (CPW), a joint venture be‑ tween General Mills and Nestlé. She and her husband, Jim, are both employed by CPW. The couple is looking forward to learning the French language and taking up snow skiing with their children, Hannah, 10, Kate, 10, and Ryan, 16.

1984 Tom Hendricks is living in Singapore with his wife, Barbara, and son, Brent. Tom has been with Fluor, the worldʼs largest publicly traded engineering, construction, and maintenance corporation, for 20 years. He is the project direc‑

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tor leading engineering and construction on a $2 billion solar energy plant for Renewable En‑ ergy Corp. He also is the Fluor executive liaison with Georgia Tech.

1985 Thomas Rollbuhler, a senior engineering spe‑ cialist, was awarded Patent Project of the Year

by AKZO Nobel in November 2007. Thomas lives in Woodstock, Ga. 1994 David Matos and Catherine Moseley Matos, AE ʻ94, MS AE ʻ95, PhD AE ʻ01, announce the birth of a son, Sean Christopher, on July 11, 2008.

Sean joins brother Marc, 4, at the familyʼs home in Lake Spivey, Ga. David is an environmental permitting manager for the Georgia Environ‑ mental Protection Division, and Catherine is an assistant professor of mathematics at Clayton State University.

1995 Chris Nichols and Ginger Wilde Nichols, ChE ʻ00, of Thomasville, Ga., announce the birth of a son, Eli, on Nov. 9, 2007. Ginger is a full‑time mother and Chris is the area director for Young Life Thomas County.

1996 Jun Kamata has joined the Seattle office of McKinsey & Company as an associate. Jun grad‑ uated from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University with an MBA in June 2008. He completed a summer internship at McKinseyʼs Seattle office in 2007.

Tawnya Plummer Laughinghouse received a 2007 Rising Star award at the National Women of Colorʼs Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Conference in Atlanta. The award is given annually to young women who have ex‑ celled quickly in the technology field and have demonstrated exceptional achievement in their workplaces and communities. She works at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, where she is the lead materials engineer for the booster separation motor aft closure assembly.

She and her husband, Scott, have a 1‑year‑old child, Tai Senait.

1997 Andrea Hill and Jason Hill, Mgt ʻ94, announce the birth of a daughter, Ashley Drew, on May 8, 2007. Ashley joins brother Graham at their home in Conyers, Ga. Andrea is the director of product availability with Coca‑Cola Enterprises.

Jason manages his family business, Still Lumber Co., and serves on the Rockdale County board of commissioners.

1998 Angie Abraira, of The Woodlands, Tex., an‑ nounces the birth of a son, Alan Wyn Miller, on Dec. 26, 2007. Angie is a process develop‑ ment engineer.

Diana Rochester McCray and her husband, Jim, announce the birth of a son, Jacob Worth, on Dec. 11, 2007. The family lives in Holly Springs, N.C. Dan Alexander and Heather Greenlee Alexan‑ der, IE ʻ00, announce the birth of a daughter, Haylee Elizabeth, on April 7, 2008. She joins brothers Braden, 3, and Ryan, 5, at the familyʼs home in Florence, Ky. Dan is a senior engineer at Procter & Gamble, and Heather is a full‑ time mother.

Courtney Huskamp Huggins and R. Brian Hug‑ gins, ChE ʻ98, announce the birth of a daugh‑ ter, Meredith Erin, on Sept. 28, 2008. Courtney is a senior technical analyst at NuVox Commu‑ nications, and Brian is a production engineer at Cytec Industries Inc. The family lives in An‑ derson, S.C. Emily Leichliter Berner and Brian Berner, ME ʻ96, announce the birth of a daughter, Bethany Joyce, on May 16, 2008. A full‑time mother, Emily stays at the familyʼs Zebulon, Ga., home with Bethany and their dogs, Jake and Rodney.

Brian is general manager of the Southern States Service Division in Hampton, Ga. 1999 Jonathan Cole and his wife, Judy, announce the birth of a daughter, Caroline Elise, on December 4, 2007. Jonathan is a nephrologist with the University of Virginia Health System. The family lives in Charlottesville, Va. David Weber married Shannon Bates in October 2007. David, who received his MBA from the University of Tennessee in December 2006, is a supply chain manager for INVISTA. The couple live in Chattanooga, Tenn.

James C. Fill and his wife, Amanda McFarlin Fill, Mgt ʻ99, announce the birth of a son, Andrew James, on Sept. 22, 2008. Andrew joins sister Elizabeth, 2, at the familyʼs home in Leesburg, Ga. James is employed as a manager at Procter & Gamble, and Amanda is a full‑time mother.

Ingrid Beatriz Jimenez Redmon and Todd Red‑ mon, PTCh ʻ97, both work at Shaw Industries, where Todd has been promoted to materials re‑ sources manager. The MRM group supports Shawʼs green edge sustainability commitment

through development and management of col‑ lection, sale, and disposal of all post‑industrial and post‑consumer waste streams generated in‑ ternally. Ingrid was named a 2008 Hispanic Engi‑ neer National Achievement Awards Conference Luminary honoree for her contributions to the Hispanic technical community. The Redmons live in Atlanta.

2001 Josh Hernstrom and his wife, Stacia, announce the birth of a son, Samuel Quinn, on Dec. 18, 2007. Josh is a software engineer for National In‑ struments of Austin.

Robbie Richter married Laci Bellot on April 11, 2008. Robbie is a process engineer with Chevron. The couple lives in San Francisco.

Chrissy Pruess Stovall and James F. Stovall IV, CS ʻ01, announce the birth of a son, James “Jay” Frank Stovall V, on Sept. 30, 2008. The family lives in the Atlanta area, where Chrissy is a phar‑ macist with Piedmont Hospital and James is a manager with Deloitte Consulting.

2002 Asha A. Macon Hope and her husband, Silas, an‑ nounce the birth of a daughter, Sydni Tatumn, on Aug. 7, 2008. Hope is a supplier quality engi‑ neer for the Simmons Bedding Co. The family lives in the Atlanta area.

Mercedes Harris announces the birth of son, Harlem Jelani Stern, in March. Mercedes, a busi‑ ness support and planning manager, received an MBA from Carnegie Mellonʼs Tepper School of Business in May. The family lives in South Windsor, Conn.

1937 Sol Tobias Lipsius, of Atlanta, on Dec. 14, 2007.

Sol was the president of Empire Laboratories.

1940 James Hughlett LaRoche, of Baton Rouge, La., on Jan. 28, 2008. James worked for Exxon Chem‑ ical Co. in Baton Rouge for 42 years. He was a trustee of the Womenʼs Health Foundation, for which he served as president of the board in 1978. He served four years in the Air Force dur‑ ing World War II and retired as a captain.

1941 Frank Parker Hudson, of Atlanta, on January 8, 2007. After serving as an ordnance officer dur‑ ing World War II, Frank led Spotswood Parker & Company and its subsidiaries until he retired in 1987. In 1958, he developed and held a patent for a burner fire safety control system. In retire‑ ment, he devoted his time to genealogical re‑ search and published several books and received awards and honors for his work. Frank served in ROTC at Georgia Tech and entered the Army Air Corps in June 1941. He retired from the Army Reserve in 1978 with the rank of colonel.

Memorials in his name may be made to the Georgia Tech Foundation.

1943 Reuben Thornton Savage, of Lufkin, Texas, on January 14, 2007. Reuben retired as the corpo‑ rate vice president of Chevron‑Texaco Corp. At Georgia Tech, he was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.

George T. Stribling, of Aiken, S.C., on December 14, 2007. George retired from Honeywell Inter‑ national, Inc.

Jenny Schwerman Molaison, ChE ʻ02, MS ME ʻ04, and her husband, Chris, announce the birth of a son, Jack Reynold, on April 7, 2008.

Jenny is an engineer at GE Energy. The family lives in Atlanta.

Daniel C. Bell, of Portland, Ore., on April 22, 2008. Daniel completed two tours of duty as a Marine in the Korean War. In his Palm Springs, Calif. community, he served as president of the Braille Institute.

2004 Katelyn Swindle received a PhD in energy, envi‑ ronmental, and chemical engineering from Washington University in St. Louis in August 2008. She now works in the department of bio‑ medical engineering at Saint Louis University.

L. Blain Whitehead, Jr., of Tyler, Texas, on March 13, 2008. Blain worked at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. for 43 years. A co‑op student at Georgia Tech, he served in the Navy in the Pa‑ cific theater during World War II.

OBITUARIES 1938 James Corbett Barber, of Florence, Ala., on Nov. 3, 2007. Following retirement from the Ten‑ nessee Valley Authority (TVA) as a chemical en‑ gineer after a 40‑year career, he founded James C. Barber and Associates, a consulting firm spe‑ cializing in the field of phosphorous technology.

He began working for the TVA as a co‑op stu‑ dent at Georgia Tech.

1948 Jack Willbanks, of Allendale, Mass., on June 15, 2008.

1949 John B. Rhyne, of Panama City, Fla., on January 4, 2008. John was a chemical engineer with Seminole Kraft Corp.

1951 Joe Wilbur Lynch Jr., MS ChE ʻ51, of Inman, S.C., on Feb. 24, 2008. Following WW II, Joe became a

civilian senior chemical process design engineer for the Department of the Army at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md. He retired in 1981. He served in the Navy in the Pacific theater from 1943 to 1946 and attained the rank of lieutenant commander.

He was a former member of the American Chemical Society, the National Society of Profes‑ sional Engineers, the Francis Scott Key post of the American Legion in Frederick, and the Na‑ tional Association of Retired Federal Employees.

1952 Claude William Jenkins, Jr., of Crosby, Texas, on Oct. 26, 2007. He retired as a consultant with Exxon Chemical Co. in 1994. After serving in the Navy, Claude worked for 10 years with Shell Oil before joining Exxon.

Archibald James “Arch” McNeill Jr., ChE ʻ52, MS ChE ʻ56, of Houston, on April 17, 2008.

Arch, who served as a commissioned officer in the Navy, worked as a project manager for large engineering and construction projects around the world. Memorials in his name may be made to the Georgia Tech Foundation for the Arch McNeill Fellowship in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering.

1955 George W. Bernard, of Phoenix, on Dec. 10, 2007. He was a project manager with Envi‑ roneering Inc. 1956 James B. Scoggins, MS ChE ʻ56, of Columbia, S.C., on Dec. 27, 2007. An Army veteran, he retired from Hahn Laboratories after 40 years of service.

1957 William Warren Seaton Jr., of Suwanee, Ga., on Nov.18, 2007. He served in the Navy, retiring as a captain. A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‑Day Saints, he served as the Sugar Hill stake patriarch and sealer in the Atlanta temple.

T. Lewis Thompson, of Tucson, Ariz., on Novem‑ ber 28, 2007. Lewis was a senior research engi‑ neer with the Environmental Research Laboratory at the University of Arizona, for which he had worked since 1973. He previously was chief of research for Life Support Inc. Re‑ search Laboratory in Melbourne, Fla. Lewis was awarded 26 patents and was the author or co‑ author if 54 scientific papers and reports. Sur‑ vivors include his brother, Robert Lee Thompson, IM ʻ57.

1963 Ralph H. Cooper, Jr., of Atlanta, on April 2, 2008.

Ralph worked for the Coca‑Cola Company for 35 years. A co‑op student at Georgia Tech, he was a member of Delta Sigma Phi fraternity. >>>

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Edward Hays Zeigler, Jr., of Radford, Va., on May 23, 2007. Hays took great joy in imparting/ receiving knowledge and was considered a men‑ tor by family members, friends, and co‑workers.

He was renowned in the field of propellants, par‑ ticularly for working with NASA on the develop‑ ment of the propellant that allows space shuttles to land safely. He began working for Hercules, Inc. in 1971, and worked for Alliant Techsystems until his passing. He had a passion for motorcy‑ cles and was a professional motorcycle racer for five years, racing a vintage Manx Norton.

1964 Julio Luis Fuentes, of Richmond, Texas, on May 12, 2008. A senior process engineer for many oil companies, including Mobil, Bechtel, CE Lum‑ mus, Brown & Root, S&B Engineers, Fluor Daniel,

and Mustang Engineering, Julio designed refin‑ ery plants across Texas and South America.

Friends Ronnie Spencer Roberts, of Ocean Springs, Miss., on June 22, 2008. Ronnie retired from Georgia Tech as an emeritus professor of chemical engi‑ neering in 2002.

Rashad R. Qazi, a senior ChBE student from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Rashad was an excellent student, and a bright, interesting person who was only one semester away from graduating and received his BS posthumously. He was thought highly of by all of his professors.

chemical engineering from MIT. He won two prestigious fellowships at Georgia Tech – the FACES Fellowship and the IBM Focus Fellow‑ ship. He made commendable progress in his re‑ search project and was preparing to present his latest results at the AIChE Annual Meeting in November 2008. He was selected for the 2008 Dow Chemical Company BEST Symposium, which brings together outstanding doctoral students from all over the country to discuss ca‑ reer opportunities at Dow.

Christopher J. Russell, PhD candidate in ChBE, on Oct.10, 2008. Christopher received his BS in

Shell Sponsors Campus Pit Stop Challenge

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he Shell Campus Pit Stop Challenge puts a new spin on campus recruiting. Last fall, students from across the Georgia Tech cam‑ pus had the opportunity to participate in the fast‑paced event.

Working individually and in teams, students raced against the clock for the fastest time as they changed a NASCAR tire. Winners received a $100 Shell gift card.

Corporate recruiters manned the Pit Stop Challenge and spoke with students about the numerous employment opportunities available at Shell. This event is just one of the many ways the company reaches out to college students across the United States.

Additionally, Shell supports ChBE students by providing scholarships for international study at Georgia Tech Lorraine in Metz, France.

For more information about career opportunities at Shell, go to: www.shell.com/us/careers.

A Shell recruiter demonstrates how to change a tire like a NASCAR pit crew member during the Shell Campus Pit Stop Challenge.

Pradeep Agrawal Named ConocoPhillips Faculty Fellow

P From left: Kevin Morris, Director, RM&T Engineering Recruiting, Human Resources, ConocoPhillips, Pradeep Agrawal, and Tim Langlais, ʻ05, Di‑ rector, Industrial Products, ConocoPhillips Lubricants.

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radeep Agrawal, ChBE Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies, now has an additional title: ConocoPhillips Faculty Fellow. Thanks to the generosity and vision of the company, the School received $50,000 through the ConocoPhillips Faculty Sponsorship Program to be used for undergraduate activities.

In addition to funding, the program provides opportunities for Dr. Agrawal and ChBE students to learn more about ConocoPhillips and the companyʼs values. By building long‑term, strategic relationships, Cono‑ coPhillips can identify top students for potential future employment.

Only sixteen awards were made nationally in all fields supported by ConocoPhillips for the 2008‑2009 academic year. Dr. Agrawal will join the other recipients at the companyʼs corporate headquarters in Houston this spring for a site visit and meeting with corporate representatives.

This gift is in addition to ConocoPhillipsʼ annual contribution to Geor‑ gia Tech, which supports a variety of programs and activities that stimulate interest and professional development among students and faculty in their chosen disciplines.

Student Advisory Board Makes a Difference for Undergrads SAB Chair Cintia Nojima enjoys dedicating her time to improving the undergraduate experience for all ChBE students.

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intia Nojima, a fifth‑year student and current chair of the ChBE Student Advi‑ sory Board (SAB), is focused on making a difference for ChBE undergraduate students. She, along with her fellow members of the SAB, works diligently to ensure the student voice is heard.

“The SAB provides critical information to undergrads and also provides a channel for students to communicate with faculty and administration on how to improve the undergraduate experience,” says Cintia.

The SAB was established six years ago in an effort to promote communication be‑ tween the administration and ChBE students. The board consists of seven to ten stu‑ dents who represent the entire ChBE student body by identifying areas in the ChBE program that need improvement and then implementing solutions that enhance the quality of the School.

Based on the feedback provided by students at weekly meetings and town hall dis‑ cussions, the SAB has impacted areas such as course schedules, faculty/student mentor‑ ing programs, and advising. The SAB also assists undergraduates by providing comprehensive information about ChBE activities and opportunities.

The board members compile a weekly newsletter that provides a one‑stop source of information for students to easily find resources on the is‑ sues that pertain to them. They also maintain a website where the SAB newsletter and additional information are posted. One of the groupʼs most important accomplishments is the development of an online course scheduler tool that allows students to enter their completed course informa‑ tion to quickly determine if pre‑requisites have been met for higher‑level courses.

“The online course scheduler has made a significant impact upon the ease with which our undergraduates can plan their individual programs,” says Dr. Pradeep Agrawal, Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies. “Each student can now accomplish on a computer in a matter of moments what previously took a considerable amount of time by hand with pencil and paper,” he says.

Cintia, who is pursuing a minor in international affairs, is an excellent example of the wonderful student leaders found in the School. In addition to her role as chair of the SAB, she also serves as the 2009 Regional Conference Chair for the Society of Women Engineers and vice president of the American Red Cross Club. Cintia conducted research in inorganic nanotubes in Dr. Sankar Nairʼs research group, completed two co‑op terms with the Kimberly‑Clark Corporation, and completed internships with Clorox and Kurt Salmon Associates. In her spare time she enjoys traveling, playing the violin with the GT Symphony Orchestra, cooking/baking, horseback riding, and indoor rock‑climbing.

ChBE Holds 23rd Annual Ashton Cary Lecture

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The Cary Family, from left: (sitting) Katherine Cary, Jeanne Cary, Sara Cary, Bradley Cary, (standing) Clay Cary, Chip Cary, John Cary, Stephen Cary, Ashton Cary III, Dr. Freeman Cary, Tom Coleman, Edna Coleman, and Robin Cary.

or 23 years, the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engi‑ neering has celebrated the memory of Ashton Hall Cary, ʻ43, through an annual lecture series established by his brother, Dr. Freeman Cary, who also studied chemical engineering at Georgia Tech. The lecture series brings a distin‑ guished scholar in fields of significance to chemical engineer‑ ing to present lectures and participate in informal discussions with ChBE faculty and students.

The 2008 event featured Dr. Bruce C. Gates, a professor of chemical engineering at the University of California, Davis, who presented “Hurry Up!: Accelerating Chemical Transformations with Catalysts” and “Molecular Catalysis on Surfaces.” Dr. Gates focused on examining different catalysts, what they do, how they work, and how scientists and engineers discover, under‑ stand, and apply them. He explored in depth the supported metal molecular catalysts that are an emerging class of materi‑ als offering new reactivities and catalytic properties.

The attendance of members of Ashton Caryʼs family made the 2008 lecture especially memorable.

The 24th Annual Ashton Cary Lecture will be held on Wednesday, April 1, 2009, featuring Dr. David A. Tirrell, Ross McCollum‑William H. Corcoran Professor and Chair, Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Caltech.

7

Feature

Sharing the Perfect Gift Four ChBE professors recently participated in a unique program that allowed them to use their research to improve academic programs in Georgia public schools. In the process, they shared their love of learning.

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ow well do you remember fourth grade? It is unlikely that you recollect specific classroom lessons. For most of us, memories of elementary school are of friends and the playground, not les‑ sons in science or math. Bringing the excitement of recess into the classroom is one of the challenges with which teachers struggle most. If memories of classroom lessons become as powerful as other childhood memories, then more students may be inclined to pursue higher education.

Founded in 1991 as a program of Georgia Techʼs Center for Educa‑ tion Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing (CEISMC), the Georgia Intern‑Fellowships for Teachers (GIFT) program helps educators teach students how math and science apply to the real world. The pro‑ gram brings a level of excitement into the classroom that leads to higher test scores, graduation rates, and an increase in qualified applicants for technology positions in the workforce.

GIFT has placed elementary and secondary teachers in more than 1,300 positions statewide. Over the last two years, ChBE faculty members Victor Breedveld, Martha Grover, Sankar Nair, and Hang Lu welcomed teachers into their labs for six to eight weeks during the summer semes‑ ter. After working closely with the teachers to develop instructional units, the professors assisted with classroom implementation.

“The opportunity to help create unique and challenging, yet fun materials for young students was very rewarding,” says Dr. Breedveld. “It

“It gave me an opportu‑ nity to identify complex chemical engineering principles occurring in everyday objects and to consider the work that I do through the perspec‑ tive of a child.”

– Dr. Victor Breedveld

8

gave me an opportunity to identify complex chemical engineering prin‑ ciples occurring in everyday objects and to consider the work that I do through the perspective of a child.”

Dr. Breedveld partnered with Lindsay Phillips, who teaches fourth and fifth grades at Sagamore Hills Elementary School in Atlanta. In sum‑ mer 2007, Ms. Phillips worked in the laboratory with Dr. Breedveld and members of his research team to develop a science unit called Super‑ market Science: Complex Fluids in Everyday Life. The objective of the unit is to teach students fundamental concepts of materials science by using examples from everyday life and hands‑on experiments with complex fluids.

The topic of complex fluids is typically not introduced into the cur‑ riculum until high school chemistry. Yet teachers are exploring novel ap‑ proaches designed to increase graduation rates. Ms. Phillips believes that the early introduction of advanced‑level topics is one of the best meth‑ ods to ensure that students advance through the educational system.

“I now have a unique opportunity to present material to my stu‑ dents by using items with which they are familiar. If I can help them un‑ derstand advanced concepts like homogenous and heterogeneous fluids by making Jell‑O, I believe they will be excited about the learning process and more likely to maintain that interest into high school,” she says.

Throughout the 2008 class year, the students learned about the un‑ derlying science of everyday objects. By examining Silly Putty, tooth‑

paste, shampoo, shaving cream, and mayonnaise, they mastered the con‑ cepts of viscosity and elasticity and discovered the meaning of key words like surfactant, suspension, and emulsion. By making their own gummy worms, they learned that polymers are long, flexible chains of molecules that are bonded together, and they discovered the different effects of salt and calcium on a polymer bond.

The Supermarket Science unit has been well received by students, parents, and administrators. In response to its success, Dr. Breedveld pre‑ sented the unit at the Georgia Science Teachers Association meeting in Athens in February 2008, and is working towards implementing the mod‑ ule as standard curriculum statewide.

Although Dr. Breedveld is the only ChBE professor who helped de‑ velop an elementary school curriculum, the other faculty members who participated in the program found the experience equally refreshing. “I had become so accustomed to interacting with others who already under‑ stand complex mathematical and scientific procedures that the material had become second nature to me,” says Dr. Grover. “Working with Ms. Jayosree Mukherjee revitalized my appreciation for the complexities of ad‑ vanced computations.”

Ms. Mukherjee, a math teacher at Cobb Countyʼs Campbell High School, worked with Dr. Groverʼs group during the summer of 2008 to de‑ velop class materials with real data sets to teach data analysis and statistics.

The collaboration received additional funding through the National Sci‑ ence Foundation Research Experience for Teachers (RET) Program.

PhD student Paul Wissmann, who graduated in fall 2008, assisted with the development of the modules based on a chemical vapor deposi‑ tion system. In one module, pressure in the chamber is measured as a function of time to compute the residence time of the deposition process.

In the class activity, students fit a straight line to the data and use the ideal gas law to compute the volume of the chamber. Because of the successful implementation in Ms. Mukherjeeʼs classroom, CEISMC is disseminating the materials to teachers throughout the state.

Dr. Sankar Nair also welcomed a high school teacher into his labora‑ tory this past summer. His research group worked with Dr. Chuck Lockert, an engineering instructor from the Gwinnett School of Science, Mathe‑ matics, and Technology (GSMST) in Duluth. They designed and built an ex‑ perimental module for demonstrating the use of nanoporous membranes for separation of biofuels, such as ethanol from water. The unit will be im‑ plemented this year, allowing students to synthesize a nanoporous mem‑ brane and investigate its separation characteristics. Kate McFadden, a graduate student in Dr. Nairʼs group, collaborated on the project.

Dr. Nair says, “Complementary classroom materials will introduce stu‑ dents to the role of chemical engineering and materials science in solving broader energy and sustainability problems.” The module will be part of GSMSTʼs Alternative Energy Course, one of the first introduced in a Georgia high school. Like the math module created in Dr. Groverʼs laboratory, the NSF‑RET program provided funding for this project.

Dr. Hang Lu offered her expertise in the field of biotechnology to create an advanced‑level unit for students enrolled in Lakeside High School in DeKalb County. Working with teacher Dr. Annette Parrott, Dr. Lu drew from her specialized research involving C. elegans, the tiny nematode that serves as a model organism, to develop a module for biology classes.

Dr. Parrott used C. elegans to demonstrate basic biological phenom‑ ena, including cell biology, developmental biology, evolutionary biology, and genetics in her classroom. Dr. Lu anticipates welcoming Dr. Parrott back to explore other microfluidic systems.

Introducing students to nontraditional curriculum topics is one of the important steps to cultivating a life‑long interest in learning. The GIFT pro‑ gram is instrumental in helping educators design meaningful classroom content by giving them the conceptual framework to inspire the next gen‑ eration of scientists and engineers.

Professor Henderson Ward, 1922-2008

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aying farewell to a member of the ChBE family is never easy, especially when the family member is someone who has made a tremendous impact on not only the School but also on the entire Institute. Henderson Crawford Ward, professor emeri‑ tus of chemical engineering, died October 4, 2008, in Atlanta, after a long illness.

After receiving his BS degree in chemical engineering in 1948, from Georgia Tech, he worked as a chemical engineer for Carbide and Carbide Chemicals Corporation in Oak Ridge, Ten‑ nessee. He returned to Georgia Tech, receiving a master's degree in applied mathematics in 1952 and a PhD in chemical engineering in 1953. He was employed as a chemical engineer for Ethyl Corporation in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, until 1954 when he returned to Georgia Tech as a professor.

Dr. Ward was named Teacher of the Year in chemical engineering on several occasions and Teacher of the Year Institute‑wide in 1983. He retired as professor emeritus from Georgia Tech in 1985. In September 1992, he was elected a fellow of the American Institute of Chemi‑ cal Engineers. In 2003, he was inducted into the Georgia Tech Engineering Hall of Fame.

Despite all of the accolades bestowed upon him, Dr. Ward considered co‑authoring A Century of Chemical Engineering at Georgia Tech, which was published in 2006, as one of his most outstanding accomplishments. As with all of his endeavors, Dr. Ward dedicated himself to the book project and worked tirelessly to ensure that it accurately reflected the birth and growth of the School. As a student, teacher, and alum‑ nus, he unfalteringly loved Georgia Tech and the process of learning. He will be missed by all who knew him.

In honor of Dr. Wardʼs countless contributions to the Georgia Tech community, the Ward family has established a scholarship endowment to perpetuate his legacy.

For more information on how you can contribute, please contact Melisa Baldwin at 404‑894‑0987 or Melisa.Baldwin@chbe.gatech.edu.

9

Biomaterials Research Victor Breedveld

Dr. Breedveldʼs complex fluids group studies the microstructure and mechanical properties of a range of biological materials. Examples include proteins in drug formulations, biopolymers as thickeners in food and cosmetic products, and hydrogel‑forming block copolypeptides for tissue engineering and drug delivery applications. For all these materials, it is very important to estab‑ lish the relation between the structure of individ‑ ual molecules, their assembly into larger structures and the macroscopic mechanical properties (viscosity and gel strength) of the resulting materials.

Novel microrheological techniques developed in the Breedveld group play a critical role in these studies. Microrheology can be applied to very small sample volumes (microliters), which makes the method feasible for high‑throughput screening of many different samples; for example, for the optimization of new protein‑based drug formulations. These solutions typically contain many addi‑ tives to stabilize the drug formulation during manufacturing and storage, but the impact of additives on protein structure and functionality is often unknown. Sys‑ tematic testing of the impact of each component is prohibitively expensive, and experimental proteins are often only available in very small quantities. Dr. Breed‑ veldʼs group is investigating the use of high‑throughput microrheology as a screening tool for these drug formulations.

In another project, his group has been studying the formation of hydro‑ gels from synthetic block copolypeptides. The inherent biocompatibility of polypeptides makes them excellent candidates for tissue engineering and drug delivery. In collaboration with Prof. Deming at UC, Los Angeles, systematic stud‑ ies have been performed to reveal the relation between molecular architecture and gel properties. A particular focus of the research in the Breedveld group has been to investigate the response of these materials to changes in pH and ionic strength, mimicking in vivo conditions during potential applications.

Mark Prausnitz

Dr. Prausnitz uses biomaterials science to develop novel drug delivery systems. Topics include self‑ administered microneedle patches for influenza vaccination, bioadhesive microdiscs for treatment of glaucoma, and laser‑activated carbon nanopar‑ ticles for improved gene therapy.

Flu vaccines are usually given by clinical person‑ nel using a hypodermic needle. The Prausnitz lab, in collaboration with Dr. Richard Compans at the Emory Vaccine Center, is working to develop patches containing dozens of micron‑scale nee‑ dles coated with vaccine that can be self‑applied to the skin. Challenges in bioma‑ terials include the design of microneedles with sufficient mechanical strength, low cost, and biocompatibility as well as the formulation of coatings that adhere strongly to microneedles, dissolve rapidly in skin, and provide stability to vaccines during storage.

Treatment of glaucoma is challenging because patients do not take their re‑ quired multiple daily eye drops. The Prausnitz lab is collaborating with Dr. Henry Edelhauser at Emoryʼs Department of Ophthalmology to develop drug‑loaded mi‑ croparticles with increased residence time on the eye to reduce the dosing fre‑ quency. Biomaterials challenges include design of polymer particles that encap‑ sulate and release drugs at controlled rates, adhere to the eyeʼs mucous surface, and have a disk shape that minimizes removal by convective flow of tear fluid.

Gene therapy has been plagued by the need for a safe and effective gene delivery method. In collaboration with Drs. Thom Orlando and Mostafa El‑Sayed in Georgia Techʼs School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, the Prausnitz lab has ob‑ served that exposure of carbon nanoparticles to near‑infrared laser light stimu‑ lates the carbon‑steam reaction of C(s) + H2O(l) → CO(g) + H2(g). The resulting large volume expansion generates a shock wave that temporarily permeabilizes cells to entry of DNA. Biomaterials challenges emphasize design of nanoparticles that op‑ timize gene delivery.

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Carson Meredith

Dr. Meredithʼs research in biomaterials involves two major thrusts: (1) using combinatorial and high‑throughput approaches to rapidly screen cell interactions with new polymers for biomedical de‑ vices and (2) developing novel polymer‑metal nanoparticle composites for imaging applications.

These two project areas fit nicely into his groupʼs overall research efforts in advanced interfacial ma‑ terials. The key to biomaterials development is en‑ gineering the interface between the material (often a polymer) and the biological system (cells & proteins). Dr. Meredith has pioneered techniques for rapid‑screening of these complex interactions. Using combinatorial methods, libraries containing thou‑ sands of distinct polymers can be cultured with cells in a single experiment. For example, this method enabled discovery of a novel way to blend existing FDA‑ap‑ proved polymers to create unique control over bone and cardiovascular smooth‑ muscle cells. The key is controlling the surface micro‑ and nanostructures, to which mammalian cells are very sensitive. Certain sizes and shapes of surface mi‑ crostructures interfere with the cellsʼ ability to communicate with one another.

This interference is used constructively by Dr. Meredith to adjust growth rate and other cell functions. This control “knob” is important in developing regenerative medical devices, such as those that could be used to treat arteries damaged by cardiovascular disease. Graduate students Pedro Zapata, Jing Su (BME), Gracy Wingkono, and Charlene Rincon contributed to these advances.

The Meredith group has also developed new ways to package and deliver imaging contrast agents – used to enhance or enable images of tissues in MRIs, X‑ rays, and optical cameras. Working with collaborators Jeff and Valerie Sitterle of GTRI, ChBE undergrad Lance Rodeman, and ChBE graduate student Jung Hyun Lee, the team recently filed an invention disclosure on a new process for embed‑ ding highly light‑scattering nanoparticles into polymer microbeads that can be safely used in diagnostic procedures.

Lakeshia Taite

Dr. Taiteʼs research interests focus on the devel‑ opment of bioactive materials that can be used to guide tissue growth and deliver drugs to spe‑ cific cells and tissues. From the initial characteri‑ zation of these materials and their encourage‑ ment of biological responses, she can assess the ability of these materials in building effective tools for biomedical applications and can ex‑ plore using more advanced techniques in chemical synthesis to tailor the activity of these biofunctional materials.

A major focus in Dr. Taiteʼs research group is the application of biological principles and engineering to develop substitutes that restore, maintain, or im‑ prove the function of human tissues or organs. Research projects use novel materials that mimic the natural cellular environment, and focus on promoting cell adhesion, controlling synthesis of matrix proteins, and regulating cell growth. Current projects are centered on materials that can serve as cardiovas‑ cular substitutes for patients in need of bypass grafts and matrices that support the growth of cancer cells for the study of tumor progression and metastasis.

Dr. Taiteʼs group is also involved in the development of novel drug deliv‑ ery systems for cardiovascular applications and cancer therapies. Nitric oxide (NO) has several biological functions that make it a therapeutic candidate for a wide range of disease states. Studies are currently underway to target novel NO donors to sites of disease as both a therapeutic and a tool to further study the effects of NO on cells and tissues.

Research in the Taite lab spans several fields with the common goal of producing biocompatible materials having broad clinical relevance. As such, the laboratory is interdisciplinary, with interests in chemical and biological en‑ gineering, cell and molecular biology, and polymer chemistry.

Spotlight

Understanding the Clouds When Luz Padró arrived at Georgia Tech as a chemical engineering graduate student, she never imagined that her research would lead her to Mexico City to study one of the worldʼs most populated and polluted cities.

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he scope of chemical engineering research continually expands, reaching beyond traditional core areas such as petroleum, plastics, and paper. Many of the emerging concentration areas are expected, including biomaterials and alternative fuel cells, while others are somewhat surprising.

Although environmental projects exploring carbon capture, water pu‑ rification, and biofuel alternatives are already hot topics in chemical engi‑ neering research, reducing air pollution and predicting climate change are areas that are somewhat nontraditional. Solving these environmental chal‑ lenges has been on the forefront of atmospheric science research for many years. Investigators have learned the benefit of applying models and process systems methods developed by chemical engineers to their work. The preci‑ sion of investigative equipment now allows researchers to examine the indi‑ vidual chemical components that make up atmospheric aerosols (i.e., suspended particulate matter) and improve air quality and climate models.

After arriving on the Georgia Tech campus as a 2004 graduate of Vir‑ ginia Techʼs chemical engineering program, PhD candidate Luz Padró was immediately intrigued by the cloud studies under investigation in Dr. Athanasios Nenesʼs lab. “I chose Georgia Tech because its program offered so many different professors conducting a variety of research,” Luz says. “I liked the fact that I had a lot of different opportunities.”

Although Luzʼs undergraduate research consisted of biomedical topics, including protein kinetic experiments with surface plasmon resonance (SPR) to investigate the kinetics of ligand binding reactions, the switch to environ‑ mental projects was an easy decision.

“I thought it would be interesting to learn how our practices affect the ecosystem and where we live so that we can all get a better understanding of what we need to do as a culture to make a significant change,” she says.

The recipient of several honors, including a NASA Earth System Science Fellowship, a Goizueta Foundation Fellowship, and an AIChE Womenʼs Initia‑ tives Committee grant, Luz is a native of Puerto Rico, where her parents and siblings currently reside. She will graduate in spring 2009, after completing two field campaigns, including working on the ongoing Megacities Impact on Regional and Global Environment (MIRAGE)‑Mex field campaign in March 2006 (mirage‑mex.acd.ucar.edu/index.shtml), a project that examines the chemical and physical transformations of atmospheric constituents (gases and aerosols) in the polluted Mexico City outflow.

The MIRAGE‑Mex project coordinates and integrates observations from ground stations, aircraft, and satellites, and provides a rich database for im‑ proving regional and global models of the transport and transformations of aging urban pollutants. Because the atmosphere is a complex, dynamic, and fragile system, it is essential for scientists to accurately understand and pre‑ dict the global effects of air pollution, especially on climate change and stratospheric ozone depletion. Organized by The National Center for Atmos‑ pheric Research‑Atmospheric Chemistry Division (NCAR‑ACD), MIRAGE‑Mex is part of the Megacity Initiative: Local and Global Research Observations continued on page 13

“I chose Georgia Tech because its program offered so many different professors conduct‑ ing a variety of research. I liked the fact that I had a lot of different opportunities.”

11

Letter from the Chair

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lumni and Friends of the School: In determining how well our students are developing, it is instructive to participate in two initiatives that have become regular events in the School. One in‑ volves senior design and the other is for graduate students known as the Fourth‑Year Col‑ loquium. At the end of each se‑ mester in which process design is taught, student teams make presentations on their designs to several faculty members (usually somewhere between five and ten) and often to industrial sponsors of the design problem. You have no idea how terrific it is to see such hardworking, talented seniors addressing design criteria, process options, and overall economics associated with their work. It makes you proud of both the students and the faculty members who have taught them so well, and gives confidence in the future of the profession and the in‑ dustries into which these students will move. Such was the case at the end of the summer semester when students presented their reports on production of propylene from a wet gas stream leaving a fluidized catalytic cracker. The course was taught by Matthew Realff and Jim Frederick, and the presentations from the students were filled with economic analysis, equipment sizing, and recommenda‑ tions that reflected a remarkable level of maturity.

The Fourth‑Year Colloquium involves all students be‑ ginning the fourth year of their PhD program. It begins with presentations by winners of the Zeigler Awards, which were established by family and friends of the late Professor Waldemar T. Zeigler. The two awards are presented for best paper authored or co‑authored by a graduate student and for best PhD research proposal. Following presentations by the award winners the fourth‑year students present on their research. In 2008, 25 students participated in the Col‑ loquium, and almost all faculty members attended. The evening concluded with a celebratory dinner for graduate students and the faculty. We are grateful to the Dow Chem‑ ical Company for sponsorship of the event.

This is the 100th anniversary of our primary profes‑ sional society, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). The annual AIChE meeting was held in Philadel‑ phia and I found it noteworthy that 29 of the faculty mem‑ bers of the School accounted for 74 of the presentations and chaired five of the sessions. The School hosted a recep‑ tion at the Philadelphia Sheraton that welcomed alumni from the region and around the country, which gave us a chance to update them on activities in the School. The

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AIChE identified several groups who had made extraordi‑ nary contributions to society and the profession. Among a list of “25 Industrial Executives” who were cited for their outstanding careers were Ed L. Ekholm, ʻ46, and Cecil J. “Pete” Silas, ʻ53. I was fortunate to be selected for inclusion in the list of 30 “Authors and Their Groundbreaking Chemi‑ cal Engineering Books.” Among “Fifty Chemical Engineers of the ʻFoundation Ageʼ” was Warren K. Lewis, father of long‑time Georgia Tech faculty member Clay Lewis. “Chem‑ ical Engineers of the Modern Era” included for achievement James R. Fair, ʻ42; for leadership Ed Ekholm, ʻ45, Henry Lin‑ den, ʻ44, and James Wei, ʻ52; and for new frontiers, our col‑ league, Arnold Stancell.

This fall we welcomed three new faculty colleagues.

Yoshi Kawajiri obtained his PhD from Carnegie Mellon Uni‑ versity and spent a postdoctoral year at the Max Planck In‑ stitute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems in Magdeburg, Germany. We expect him to add to our core of instructors in design and to address research problems in separations, especially those important in pharmaceutical and specialty chemical manufacturing. Michelle Dawson re‑ ceived her PhD from Johns Hopkins and completed a post‑ doctoral appointment at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Her research experiences with bone marrow‑derived cells in tumor growth and metastasis is expected to contribute to a program that seeks to de‑ velop novel gene delivery methods and the behavior of mesenchymal stem cells in cancer. Michael Filler completed his PhD at Stanford and a postdoc at Caltech. His research has focused on materials related to the capture of solar en‑ ergy and will address development of efficient and scalable devices for that purpose. We think these are excellent addi‑ tions to our very strong faculty and look forward to person‑ ally introducing them to you.

The College of Engineering Awards ceremony in No‑ vember honored Allen C. Merritt, BS ʻ67, MS ʻ69, PhD ʻ76, and Philip W. Matos, ʻ58, with induction into the Hall of Fame; James Bayer, ʻ77, into the Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni; and Robert W. Glenn Jr., ʻ94, Charles “Brent” Hastie, ʻ95, and Douglas R. Pendergast, ʻ91, into the Council of Outstanding Young Alumni.

Visit the web site: chbe.gatech.edu/alumni/awards.php to see the names of all past award winners and criteria for nominations. You are encouraged to send to me names and brief biographical and professional information on those you consider appropriate nominees.

Finally, I conclude by reporting to you that the School is doing well, especially considering the uncertainties asso‑ ciated with difficult financial times. We are committed to producing outstanding graduates and research and wel‑ come your visits to see the work of the remarkable men and women in the School.

The ConocoPhillips/C. J. “Pete” Silas Program in Ethics and Leader‑ ship Lecture will be held on Wednesday, March 4, 2009, featuring James J. Mulva, Chairman and CEO, ConocoPhillips.

Clouds continued from page 11

(MILAGRO), a larger set of coordinated field campaigns that together en‑ able investigation of megacity outflow chemistry on a variety of scales (www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/milagro).

“Working on such an environmentally significant project was an in‑ credible experience,” says Luz. “I spent one month in Mexico City and I never saw the horizon because the scattering light around the mountains traps the pollution and makes it constantly hazy.” After experiencing the profound pollution firsthand, Luz felt a personal connection to her work.

“Living in that environment every day is not a pleasant experience,” she says. “It was exciting for me to know that my research may one day help provide solutions to the improvement of the air quality.”

While in Mexico City and the immediate surrounding area, Luz col‑ lected aerosol samples on filters using an instrument called a Hi Vol. The samples consisted of particulate matter that is less than 2.5 microns, small enough to breathe and potentially dangerous to human health. The filters were white when placed on the Hi Vol but after twelve hours of collection, the filters turned dark gray, clearly indicating the severity of polluted mat‑ ter. Luz stored the samples in a freezer and then brought them back to her Georgia Tech lab for analysis.

Luz analyzed samples from the communities immediately outside of Mexico City to determine how atmospheric conditions are impacting the spread of pollution. Luz says that “Air pollution doesnʼt stay in one place – winds and weather play an important part in the transport of pollution and it affects everything it comes in contact with.”

Unlike greenhouse gases, which warm the climate, clouds can have the opposite effect and cool the climate by reducing the amount of solar radiation that reaches the Earth. It is currently thought that aerosols cool through their interactions with clouds and are one of the largest sources of uncertainty in climate model predictions of anthropogenic climate change. Aerosols affect clouds by acting as the seed for droplet (or ice crystal) formation. Pollution tends to increase the number of seeds; hence, polluted clouds tend to have more droplets than their pristine counter‑ parts. As a result, there is more surface area for sunlight to reflect upon; the droplets also tend to be smaller and may lead to clouds that are less efficient in producing rain. To predict how many cloud droplets will form

in a polluted air mass, one needs to know the particle size distribution and chemical composition of the particles. The latter is quite a challenge for models, since a large fraction of particle mass (up to 70%) is composed of a “soup” of organic compounds. “We already know how inorganic matter affects cloud formation, but we need to develop a better understanding of the organics present in aerosols,” says Luz. Most of Luzʼs research fo‑ cuses on characterizing the organic‑water interactions important for for‑ mation of cloud droplets by analyzing the water uptake and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activity of atmospheric aerosols captured from densely polluted areas. By comparing these data against clean regions and laboratory‑generated particles, Luz is unraveling the properties of this mysterious mixture and their role in aerosol‑cloud interactions.

“We need to reduce the uncertainty of how much clouds cool the Earth so that we can make more accurate predictions of global change,” says Luz. “We still need to develop methods to better understand the ki‑ netics of droplet formation, especially the potential slowing of it from the presence of organic surfactants.”

Now that Luz has made her contribution to the problems facing the future of the global climate, she is considering taking her research on aerosols in a new direction while building on her undergraduate foun‑ dation in the area of biomedicine. “I am considering exploring the possi‑ bility of using aerosols as a method of drug delivery,” she says. “Also, I have a strong personal desire to investigate the effects of aerosols on health degradation.”

Regardless of where the future may lead, Luz knows that her long‑ term goals include obtaining an academic appointment at a teaching‑ oriented institution. Another element of her future has already been determined. On January 2, she married Roel Sigifredo Sanchez‑Carrera, who is a recent PhD graduate of Georgia Techʼs School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. The couple is searching for a location where they both can pursue their professional careers. In the meantime, Luz says that she is looking forward to completing her thesis and enjoying a little downtime. “I love watching CSI and Without a Trace and reading crime and suspense novels,” she says. The past five years of intense research and travel have left little opportunity for that luxury, and Luz plans to indulge herself a lit‑ tle before tackling her next research challenge.

Global Learning

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arry Betty, ʻ79, President and CEO of EarthLink, Inc. was one of ChBEʼs most accomplished alumni when he passed away in January 2007. His legacy in‑ spires others through the Garry Betty Scholarship for International Studies.

ChBE established the scholarship after Garryʼs death to commemorate his passion for adventure and to encourage others to pursue study abroad opportunities.

Jessica Swearengen, a ChBE senior, is the 2008 recipient of the scholarship.

“When applying for the award, I had the opportunity to learn about Mr. Betty and the tremendous impact he had on this world. It is an honor to be a Garry Betty Scholar,” says Jessica.

The scholarship supported Jessicaʼs studies at the Imperial College of London this past summer. ChBE has participated in a summer program in London for more than 30 years. Participation is limited to a total of 25 students who have completed prerequisites for the unit operations laboratory course. In addition to receiving six credit hours, the four‑week program includes opportunities for students to partici‑ pate in cultural events and sightseeing.

“The program really changed my career outlook. I had never been outside of the U.S. before this trip. Going to Europe changed my perspective. I am now considering positions in and out of the country,” shares Jessica. “I would encourage other students to seek out international learning opportunities, and I am grateful for the scholarship support I received to make this trip a reality for me.”

To learn more about supporting ChBE students through scholarships, please contact Melisa Baldwin at 404.894.0987 or melisa.baldwin@chbe.gatech.edu.

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“Science of the Small” Promises Big Things ChBE Assistant Professor Sankar Nair leads the development of new certificate program in nanotechnology, a revolutionary area of technology‑based research.

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ankar Nair is leading a team of Georgia Tech faculty and academic professionals who has received a two‑year grant from the Na‑ tional Science Foundation to establish a Nanotechnology Certifi‑ cate Program for undergraduate students at Georgia Tech.

The fifteen‑credit program of lecture, laboratory, and research courses brings together faculty working in different areas of nanoscience and nanotechnology to develop a comprehensive educa‑ tional package that prepares students for rewarding careers in nan‑ otechnology‑enabled industries. The program, to begin this year, will be open to College of Engineering and College of Sciences juniors and seniors. One unique feature of the program is the hands‑on Nanosys‑ tems Laboratory course, which will be held in the Ford Environmental Science and Technology Building.

In addition to Dr. Nair, Professors Ian Ferguson (ECE), Peter Hes‑ keth (ME), Elisa Riedo (Physics), Z.L. Wang (MSE), John Zhang (Chem‑ istry); and Drs. Leigh Bottomley (Chemistry) and Jon Gordon (Assessment), are developing the program.

“Nanoscience and nanotechnology are quickly emerging as two of the most in‑demand areas of research in the world, and undergradu‑ ates who receive a certificate in nanotechnology will have a cutting edge over their peers upon graduation,” says Dr. Nair.

Research in nanoscience and nanotechnology is revolutionary and has the ability to fundamentally change the way almost everything is designed and manufactured, from automobile tires and tennis racquets to air purifiers and life‑saving vaccines. Some of the most common vi‑ sions of a nanotechnology‑fueled future are tiny body‑examining cam‑ eras that can be swallowed like pills, supercomputers 500 times more powerful than those currently available, and chips the size of sugar cubes capable of storing the entire contents of the Library of Congress.

NANOChBE ̶ Nanotechnology in Chemical Engineering Currently, seventeen ChBE professors are conducting research in con‑ structing, manipulating, and understanding nanoscale and nanostruc‑ tured materials or devices. Many of these projects are collaborations with researchers in other science and engineering disciplines.

NANOTECH ̶ Nanoscience + Nanotechnology @ Georgia Tech Georgia Tech is one of the world leaders in nanoscience and nanotech‑ nology research and design. More than 100 faculty members at Georgia Tech are already involved in nanoscience and nanotechnology research projects, and participation is growing.

ChBE Welcomes David Sholl

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avid Sholl joined the faculty in 2008 as The Michael E. Tennen‑ baum Family Chair and GRA Eminent Scholar in Energy Sus‑ tainability. Previously, he was on the faculty of the Department of Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon Uni‑ versity for nine years. He grew up in Australia, receiving his undergradu‑ ate degree in physics from the Australian National University in Canberra. He received a PhD in applied mathematics at the University of Colorado in 1995. Before beginning his faculty position at Carnegie Mel‑ lon, Dr. Sholl completed postdoctoral positions at Penn State (in chemi‑ cal engineering) and Yale (in chemistry).

Dr. Sholl has received a number of awards for his research, including an NSF CAREER award, a Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher‑Scholar Award, and an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship. In 2008, he re‑ ceived a DoE Hydrogen Program R&D Award for his work on the devel‑ opment of materials for hydrogen storage. He is currently on the editorial advisory board for the ACS journal Langmuir and the corporate advisory board for Elsevier.

Primarily, Dr. Shollʼs research interests involve using detailed mate‑ rials modeling to accelerate the development of new materials and processes for energy‑related technologies. He says, “The challenges fac‑ ing our global society in solving the complex supply, national security, and environmental aspects of energy use are stunning in scope.” Be‑ cause the scale of these issues means effective research must combine the highest levels of science with in‑depth knowledge of commercial and practical realities, most of Dr. Shollʼs projects involve close collabora‑ tion with academic and industrial teams.

Dr. Sholl and members of his research group have published more than 140 papers on topics including the development of microporous materials for gas separations and membrane‑based applications, the

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screening of metal hydride mix‑ tures as materials for reversible storage of hydrogen, the develop‑ ment of metal alloy films as mem‑ branes for large‑scale hydrogen purification, and heterogeneous catalysis on metal and metal oxide surfaces.

This year will see the publica‑ tion of a book co‑authored by Dr. Sholl and Jan Steckel (from the National Energy Technology Lab‑ oratory in Pittsburgh) entitled Density Functional Theory: A Prac‑ tical Introduction. In the last decade, Density Functional Theory calculations have revolutionized the areas of science and engineering that rely on detailed modeling of chemical bonding. To date, however, no book has been available to guide new researchers in learning how to use these calculations for the complex materials relevant in engineering applications. His book aims to fill this gap.

Dr. Sholl is married to Connie, whom he says he met in the “highly romantic setting of an undergraduate physics class at UCSD.” Their three children, Kevin, 11, Rachel, 9, and Martin, 7, are all greatly enjoying At‑ lanta and keeping the Sholl home lively. Dr. Sholl plays the piano and vi‑ olin and his children are learning both instruments, so there is plenty of music in the house. All of his children have dual US‑Australian citizen‑ ship, which he says “they use to baffle their neighbors with games of cricket on the driveway.”

ChBE Welcomes Elsa Reichmanis Women Engineers Achievement Award and in 1995 was named Bell Laboratories Fellow. She is the 1996 recipient of the ASM Engineering Materials Achievement Award; she was elected a Fellow of the Ameri‑ can Association for the Advance‑ ment of Science in 1998, and was awarded the ACS Award in Applied Polymer Science in 1999. In 2001, she was awarded the Society of Chemical Industryʼs Perkin Medal and was the recipient of the Arents Medal from Syracuse University. In 2002, she was elected Fellow of the Polymer Materials Division of the ACS, and in 2003 she was the recipient of the first Braude Award from the ACS Maryland local section. In 2004, she was elected as a Foreign Member of the Latvian Academy of Sci‑ ences, and in 2005 was named Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

She is also a member of the American Physical Society, the Materials Re‑ search Society, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and is associate editor of the ACS Journal, Chemistry of Materials.

Excited about her move to Georgia Tech, Dr. Reichmanis is enjoying her interactions with students, post‑docs, and faculty. Her research group is currently exploring process characteristics of polymer semicon‑ ductors and their impact on materials morphology and device perform‑ ance. She is looking forward to expanding her group into the broad areas of electronic and photonic materials.

Dr. Reichmanis and her family enjoy living in Atlanta and exploring what the city has to offer. She and her husband, Frank Purcell, have four children, Patrick, 22, Elizabeth, 21, and 17‑year‑old twins, Edward and Thomas. Her favorite pastimes include reading, listening to music, and needlepoint.

Solvay Dedicates Classroom

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Photo by Rob Felt

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lsa Reichmanis, who recently joined the ChBE faculty, was previ‑ ously a Bell Labs fellow and director of the materials research de‑ partment at Bell Labs, Alcatel‑Lucent. She received her PhD and BS in chemistry from Syracuse University. In 1984, she was pro‑ moted to supervisor of the Radiation Sensitive Materials and Application Group, followed by a promotion to head of the Polymer and Organic Materials Research Department in 1994. Her research interests include the chemistry, properties, and application of materials technologies for photonic and electronic applications, with particular focus on polymeric and nanostructured materials for advanced technologies.

Dr. Reichmanis has had an impact on the field of microlithography, which is central to the manufacture of electronic devices. Her work has contributed to the development of a molecular level understanding of how chemical structure affects materials function, leading to new fami‑ lies of lithographic materials and processes that may enable advanced VLSI manufacturing. Notably, she was responsible for the design of new imaging chemistries for 193 nm lithography that were the first readily accessible and manufacturable materials for this technology. In a related area, she was involved in the design and characterization of “closed‑ pore” nanoporous low‑dielectric constant (k > 1.4) materials exhibiting a high degree of mechanical and environmental stability. She is currently exploring imaging and hybrid organic/inorganic materials chemistries for photonic applications, in addition to materials and processes for plastic electronics.

Elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1995, Dr. Reich‑ manis has participated in several National Research Council (NRC) activi‑ ties. She recently served as co‑chair of the NRC Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology and is a member of the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology of the National Institute of Standards and Tech‑ nology (NIST). She is also a member of the Bureau of the International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). She has been active in the American Chemical Society (ACS) throughout her career and was president of the Society in 2003. In other technical activities, she served as a member of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board.

Dr. Reichmanis is the recipient of several awards, including named university lectureships. She was presented with the 1993 Society of

he story of the Solvay group began in Belgium on April 15, 1861, when Ernest Solvay patented a revolutionary ammonia‑soda process for produc‑ ing sodium carbonate – also known as soda ash – using common salt, am‑ monia, carbon dioxide (CO2) and lime. Together with his brother Alfred, he founded the company Solvay & Cie on December 24, 1863, to implement the new process for the industrial production of sodium carbonate. What began as a very spe‑ cialized company has grown to become a global chemical and pharmaceutical group active in three sectors: pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and plastics.

Solvay is dedicated to partnerships with higher education and through that commitment, recently funded the naming of one of ChBEʼs classrooms in the Ford Environmental Science and Technology Building. On November 10, 2008, ChBE hosted a dedication ceremony attended by many of Solvayʼs top‑level executives, in‑ cluding René Degrève, Region General Manager, Solvay North America. Also in atten‑ dance were George Corbin, President & CEO, Solvay Advanced Polymers; Dr. Stephen School Chair Ronald Rousseau and René Degrève, Region General Hill, M.D., President & CEO, Solvay Pharmaceuticals U.S.; and James Daly, Vice Presi‑ Manager, Solvay North America. dent, Peroxygens, Solvay Chemicals, Inc., and several other Solvay representatives.

In addition to a reception and remarks, the event included the unveiling of five posters that have been permanently installed in the class‑ room. One chronicles the history of Solvay, another recognizes GT ChBEʼs alumni who have gone on to work at Solvay, and the others represent each of Solvayʼs individual sectors.

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Centers continued from page 1 Photo by Eric Turner

To date, studies indicate that the speed of microelectronic devices and integrated circuits based on graphene is enhanced relative to that of silicon‑based components. The Georgia Tech team, in conjunction with external partners, has already pioneered the use of epitaxial graphene to achieve some of the desired goals. Specifically, Georgia Tech Physics Pro‑ fessors Walt de Heer, Phil First, and Ed Conrad are worldwide leaders in the growth and characterization of epitaxial graphene.

NSF funding provides $8.1 million for six years of research and devel‑ opment. The MRSEC office suite is housed in Georgia Techʼs new Marcus Nanotechnology Research Center Building.

The laboratory is a cross‑disciplinary effort utilizing the talent and re‑ sources of Georgia Tech and four additional institutions: University of California Berkeley, University of California Riverside, Alabama A&M, and the University of Michigan. Currently, Georgia Tech has thirteen faculty members involved in the laboratoryʼs efforts, with five additional members representing the partner schools. Collaborations are already in place with several companies and na‑ Dr. Dennis Hess in his laboratory. tional laboratories within the U.S. and abroad.

Graphene, a sheet of carbon only one atom thick, holds the potential to become the core material for microelectronic devices and in‑ tegrated circuits, which continue to become smaller in size. Silicon, comparatively, has fundamental limitations that inhibit operation in the ever‑shrinking devices used in microelectronics, optics, and sensors.

Georgia Tech will develop the fundamental science and technology to maximize grapheneʼs potential as a component in future elec‑ tronics technologies. In addition, the MRSEC Center will provide the core curriculum, train a diverse workforce, and develop the future aca‑ demic and industrial leaders needed for this new direction in the semiconductor industry.

We Welcome Your Questions, Comments, or News

ChBE News & Alumni News

ChBE Development

ChBE Program Information

Josie Giles (404) 385‑2299 Fax: (404) 385‑0185 josie@gatech.edu

Melisa Baldwin (404) 894‑0987 Fax: (404) 385‑0185 melisa.baldwin@chbe.gatech.edu

ChBE Main Office (404) 894‑1838 grad.info@chbe.gatech.edu ugrad.info@chbe.gatech.edu