National Academy of Engineering Names University of Pittsburgh’s Anna C. Balazs as New Member

Less than a year after being elected to the National Academy of Sciences, Distinguished Professor Anna Balazs was named as one of the newest members of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). The Academy accepted Balazs’ membership “in recognition of distinguished contributions to engineering and for creative and imaginative work in predicting the behavior of soft materials that are composed of multiple cooperatively –interacting components.”

She is the first faculty member at Pitt to hold membership in both the Engineering and Science academies. Balazs and the 111 new members and 22 international members announced by NAE President John L. Anderson were inducted at the NAE Annual Meeting October 2-3 in Washington, DC.

Balazs’ research focuses on “biomimicry” and the theoretical and computational modeling of polymers. An internationally acclaimed expert in the field, her many accolades also include the first woman to receive the prestigious Polymer Physics Prize from the American Physical Society in 2016. She is also the

John A. Swanson Chair of Engineering in the Swanson School’s Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering,

“This has been a tremendous year for Anna and long-due recognition of her outstanding career in engineering and chemistry,” noted Steven R. Little, Department Chair and Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering. “Her continued impact in this singular field represents the foundation for soft robotics, advanced materials, and a new interpretation of polymer chemistry. Most importantly, Anna is also a remarkable teacher, mentor, and colleague, especially to our young faculty. All of us share in her excitement today and share a sense of pride in her lifetime accomplishments.”

Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature” and to “the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education.”

Balazs is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the Materials Research Society, and received some of the leading awards in her field, including the Royal Society of Chemistry S F Boys – A Rahman Award (2015), the American Chemical Society Langmuir Lecture Award (2014), and the Mines Medal from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (2013).

A Step Toward Decarbonizing the Chemical Industry

Around the globe, countries including the U.S. have pledged their support to carbon neutrality by 2050. Despite slight improvements in recent years, the chemical industry is still among the industries with the largest carbon footprint; developing technology to make the chemical industry carbon neutral is key to meeting this goal.

Shrinking that footprint, however, is difficult: decarbonization requires a significant amount of time, effort and – most importantly – new technological advancements to change the way chemical plants operate.

University of Pittsburgh engineers are leading a multi-site team that received $3.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop the necessary scientific foundation for carbon-neutral hydrogen technologies to take hold in the chemical industry. Pitt is among the

54 universities and 11 national labs to receive this DOE funding to research clean energy technologies and low-carbon manufacturing. “It’s difficult to decarbonize the chemical industry because it was built up in a world that relies heavily on fossil resources, both as fuel and as the raw material for chemical manufacturing. To operate without relying on fossil fuels, these very sophisticated plants would have to be fully redesigned,” explained James McKone, associate professor of chemical engineering who leads this work at Pitt along with Associate Professor Giannis Mpourmpakis. “The goal of our project is to understand the fundamental physics and chemistry of protoncoupled electron transfer, which can provide a foundation for new carbon-neutral hydrogen technologies.”

ChemE Student Benjamin Hudock Can’t Stop Learning

Benjamin Hudock lives a secret life.

He attends his engineering classes like any other student, but he also brings books with whatever he’s fascinated with at the time – from Russian literature to calligraphy to the agriculture industry in South America. Hudock has never been concerned about breaking from the norm of the crowd he’s with; he’s focused only on the next challenge he plans to master.

His dedication to learning unconventional subjects outside of engineering has paid off. Hudock, a rising senior studying chemical engineering who is also receiving a certificate in Latin American studies, was announced as one of nine Pitt students named Fulbright Scholars in 2022.The U.S. Fulbright Program grants selected students the opportunity to teach English abroad. Hudock will be headed to Brazil for the program and is one of nine Swanson School students to have earned the honor in the past decade.

“Benjamin is an exemplary Fulbright recipient,” Lesha Greene, the director of national scholarships at the David C. Frederick Honors College, said. “His genuine love of Brazilian culture as well as his experiences surrounding language learning makes him a great fit.”

Hudock is still integrating his passion for languages and his commitment to engineering. He is part of Engineers Without Borders in Nicaragua and Ecuador and is usually the point person to translate meetings between engineering professionals over Zoom. Hudock said his expanding communication skills are helping him bridge the divide between engineering and learning languages.

“I can go into a chemical plant and sit down and chat with an operator who just has a completely different background than me but I find we can relate over something. I kind of just built up this huge base as someone who is broadly interested in many different things.”

Hudock had integrated what he’s learned in the engineering classroom to studying foreign languages. Over that journey, he said he’s learned the importance of reading above all to build on his growing interests.

“Reading is what unlocks the door for you,” Hudock said. “There’s no substitute for me than just books, books, books.”