UF ChE News_Winter 2014-15

AIChE Annual Meeting

Faculty recruiting & more PAGE 8

Alumnus Wins

Engineer of the Year PAGE 10

CELEBRATING 75 YEARS OF ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE PAGE 4

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING NEWS DECEMBER 2014

University of Florida Department of Chemical Engineering To be added to our communications list or to send us your story, send an email to Monique Phears at mphears@che.ufl.edu.

CHAIR’S MESSAGE Greetings from Gainesville! This is a thrilling time for the Gator ChE family as we embark in the faculty search process to hire two new Assistant Professors who will increase our faculty ranks to 23.

Dr. Richard Dickinson Department Chair

This year marks the 75th Anniversary of the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Florida. With over two hundred family and friends of Gator Chemical Engineering in attendance, we celebrated this milestone with a very special event, where we unveiled the Wall of Fame. This wall, proudly displaced in the atrium of our new Chemical Engineering Student Center, honors those who have done the most to bring the department the stature we enjoy today, including distinguished alumni, distinguished former faculty, and financial donors.

At a memorial service that morning, we also shared memories of Professor Seymour Block, who gave seventy years of service to the Chemical Engineering 2

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We were pleased to meet many outstanding faculty candidates as well as many distinguished friends of the department at AIChE Annual meeting in November, where we hosted a special dessert reception at Nikolas’s Roof on the top floor of the Atlanta Hilton. Thank you to all of the Gator ChE family and friends who could join us! Also at the AICHE meeting, we celebrated the awarding the prestigious Thomas C. Baron Award in Fluid-Particle Systems to Professor Jennifer Curtis, Fluid-Particle Systems. Notably, this is the second Baron Award in to our department faculty in the last few years, with Professor Tony Ladd also a recent recipient. Professor Curtis was also the keynote speaker at the AIChE Women’s Initiatives Committee Luncheon this year at the Annual Meeting. Congratulations, Jennifer! department, coming in everyday until soon before his recent passing this summer.

Thank you to all who could join us for this special day!

The Department continues to do very well. The PhD program enrollment continues to rise as the department welcomed fourteen new students into the PhD program this year. The Graduate School’s annual assessment of PhD programs again ranked ChE near the top at UF, placing #2 this year among all programs on campus. Undergraduate enrollment also continues to rise, and our outstanding class of graduating seniors were again in high demand from industry and graduate school recruiters.

Research activity, as measured by research expenditures, has more than doubled in the last five years. Congratulations to the faculty and graduate students for your wonderful accomplishments in research.

Finally, on behalf of the students, faculty and staff, let me express our deep appreciation to all of the generous financial supporters of the department. Financial contributions, including cash donations, pledges and bequests, exceeded $7 million in the last three years alone, thereby ensuring a bright future for Gator ChE indeed.

Thank you for your tremendous support!

Go Gators!

IN THIS ISSUE FEATURE STORY ChE Celebrates 75 Years Pages 4 - 7

Faculty News & Awards Page 9

AIChE Annual Meeting

Pages 10 & 11

Alumni News Pages 12 & 13

Student News & Awards Pages 14 & 15

FACULTY HIGHLIGHT Dr. Fan Ren Page 8

2 Department of Chemical Engineering

September 5, 2014

Distinguished former Dept.

Chair, John O’Connell, wins the “Most Nominated Professor” Award.

Offering remarks and reflections were Dean of Engineering Dr. Cammy Abernathy, department alumna Mrs. Sheila Boyington-Chapnerkar, current student Mekutabasi Archibong and other alumni during the “pass the mic” session. The department was honored to recognize three highly distinguished former Department Chairs who returned to Gainesville for the celebration, Drs. John O’Connell, Dinesh Shah and Tim Anderson.

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THE 75th

ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION Over 200 faculty, distinguished former department chairs, staff, alumni, students and friends gathered at the new Chemical Engineering Student Center on September 5th to celebrate the department’s accomplishments over the years. The celebration featured live music, a buffet, giveaways, guest speakers and an unveiling of the wall of fame, which recognizes alumni, faculty and donors who have contributed most to the reputation and stature of the department. Event attendees also registered for tours (led by current PhD students) of the new student center and the department labs.

For ChE alumni, this celebration was a great opportunity to reconnect with old friends, classmates and professors and to see the remarkable changes and growth within. Several alumni made $75 donations to nominate professors who have made the most impact on their lives.

Alumnus, Dr. Dane Boyington, shares his reflections with the crowd.

See event photos online at http://www.che.ufl.edu/News_Updates.htm

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Department of Chemical Engineering

September 5, 2014

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ChE Advisory Board members (standing) were among those recognized. Pictured are William McGrane (foreground) and Michael Haycock.

See event photos online at http://www.che.ufl.edu/News_Updates.htm

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Department of Chemical Engineering

Faculty News Faculty Highlight Dr. Fan Ren

Since joining the Chemical Engineering Department in 1998, Dr. Fan Ren has led a world-renowned research program on advanced microelectronic device fabrication metal–semiconductor field effect transistors (MESFETs), High-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs), heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) and Bio-sensors.

In particular, his research efforts on GaAs-based MESFETs, HEMTs and HBTs are pivotal in providing the processing technology that has enabled these devices to be successfully commercialized around the world in lightwave communication systems, satellite communications, 3G mobile communications infrastructure, WiMAX base stations and mobile smart phones. He has also been one of the prime movers in the development of improved processing methods for InGaP/GaAs

ren@che.ufl.edu heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) with a carbon doped based layer. His research on GaAs and InGaAs based metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) laid the ground work for an intense period of activity by researchers around the world on the III-V semiconductor based MOS technology.

Ren has also initiated a number of projects on the subject of wide energy bandgap semiconductor devices and sensors supported by various funding agencies and industries. His team developed various low cost, gas, bio, chemical and medical sensors integrated with wireless transmitters for real time data transmission. These sensors have made possible detection of kidney injury molecule, prostate specific antigen, exhaled breath condensate based glucose sensing and saliva based breast cancer sensing.

This work was published in Science, Nature Technology and Compound Semiconductor magazines, thirty other refereed journals and in 6 patent applications.

Beyond his remarkably productive research career, which has generated over 870 publications, more than 20,000 citations of his research, and more than $20M raised in research funding, Dr. Ren has been passionate and innovative educator and has dedicated himself to the quality of education for undergraduate and Master’s students in Chemical Engineering.

For more information on Dr. Ren’s work, visit his website at: http://www.che.ufl.edu/ren/

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During his two year appointment as Director of the Unit Operations Laboratory, he transformed and modernized the lab by raising $180K for renovations and the implementation of 5 new experiments. The lab experience for students in prior years is nothing like what they’ve experienced since these updates have been made.

Ren also designed a graduate level management lab course to help students become effective teaching assistants. In addition to adding support to the lab, this course provides Masters’ students new opportunities to enhance their communication skills through interactions with undergraduate students, valuable hands-on experience on all the equipment in the unit operations lab and an understanding in the application of theory of unit operations to real-world systems. This experience has led to great job opportunities for many students. He also created two graduate high-tech laboratory classes, Semiconductor Material Characterization and Device Fabrication Laboratory and Advanced Chemical and Bio Laboratory. In these courses, students learn state-of-the-art nanoscale science and nanotechnology, as well as applications of physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, engineering, and materials science. This ensures that students gain a well-balanced education with theory and hands-on experience.

To develop these courses, Ren led a team of ten ChE colleagues on projects designed to generate ideas, prepare lab manuals and set up experiments for the Advanced Chemical and Bio Laboratory course.

Dr. Ren is a wonderful example of a professor who can excel simultaneously at teaching and research, and the impact he has made on the quality of education in the Chemical Engineering Department as well as the advance of microelectronic device fabrication technologies are deep and long lasting.

Faculty Awards & Honors Dr. Fan Ren has been awarded three U.S. patents: Chlorine Detection, Patent: US 8,836,351 B2 A high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) capable of performing as a chlorine sensor is disclosed.

Sensors Using High Electron Mobility Transistors, Patent: US 8,835,984 B2 Embodiments of the invention include sensors comprising AlGaAs/GaAs high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs), inGaP/GaAs HEMTs.

Dr. Fan Ren

Distinguished Professor

Sensors Using High Electron Mobility Transistors, Patent: US 8,828,713 B2 Embodiments of the invention include sensors comprising high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) with capture reagents on a gate region of the HEMTs.

Dr. Jiang’s presentation titled, “Bioinspired Broadband Antireflection Coatings for Infrared Spectroscopic Instruments” has won the NOVA Award for Best Oral Presentation in the conference on Advances in Optical and Mechanical Technologies for Telescopes and Instrumentation at the SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2014 meeting.

Dr. Jiang has also won a 5-year research grant from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) to develop basic understanding of a new type of smart material for detecting and securing Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). These smart materials, with unconventional indicators for different chemicals, could provide significantly improved methods that simultaneously address detection, control/denial, and containment of WMD materials and facilities.

Effective October 8, 2014, Dr. Orazem was named as an Adjunct Professor of the Beijing University of Chemical Technology. This appointment is intended to enhance collaboration between the electrochemical groups at UF and the Beijing University of Chemical Technology.

Dr. Orazem was also a highlighted speaker at the Advanced Symposium on Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy held October 21-22, 2014 at the Beijing University of Chemical Technology. He autographed copies of the Chinese translation of his book, Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy.

Dr. Peng Jiang Professor

Dr. Mark Orazem Professor

9 Department of Chemical Engineering

2014 AIChE Annual Meeting Atlanta, Georgia

November 16-21, 2014

VIP DESSERT RECEPTION This VIP, invitation-only dessert reception was held at Hilton Atlanta’s rooftop restaurant, Nikolai’s Roof.

AIChE is the leading organization for chemical engineering professionals, and this year’s annual meeting in Atlanta served as the perfect opportunity for the department to recruit faculty candidates for two tenure-track Assistant Professor positions. Nearly 48 faculty candidates and 170 VIP’s were invited to a dessert reception at the rooftop of the Hilton in downtown Atlanta. Candidates networked with current UF ChE faculty members and advisory board members. The tenure-track Assistant Professor positions have an August 15, 2015 start date and are currently posted at jobs.ufl.edu.

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Former department chair, John O’Connell was elected to serve on the 2015 AIChE Board of Directors on November 19, 2014.

Directors serve three-year terms.

Professor Sergey Vaskenkov (left).

Professor Peng Jiang (right).

Dr. Jennifer Curtis, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Associate Dean of the College of Engineering, received the AICHE Thomas Baron Award in Fluid-Particle Systems for her outstanding contributions in both CFD and DEM modeling of dilute and dense fluid-particle flows, with application to a wide variety of fluidized processes. Dr. Curtis was also the Keynote speaker for the Women’s Initiatives Committee (WIC) Networking Luncheon, held at the Hilton Atlanta Grand Ballroom on November 17th, in conjunction with the AIChE annual meeting.

The AIChE Annual Meeting is the premier educational forum for chemical engineers interested in innovation and professional growth.

DR. JENNIFER SINCLAIR CURTIS

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Professor Anuj Chauhan (left) chats with a faculty candidate.

UF ChE graduate students also attended the VIP Reception.

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Alumni News

Send your story to mphears@che.ufl.edu

NORTH LAUDERDALE, Fla. - From left: Commissioner David Hilton, Vice Mayor Jerry Graziose, Assistant Public Works Director George Krawczyk, Commissioner Rich Moyle, City Manager Ambreen Bhatty and Public Works Director Mike Shields.

George Krawczyk ‘00 Government Engineer of the Year Ray Cocco ‘82

When pinpointing what defines great American corporations and their innovative leaders, Ray Cocco (BSCHE ’82) knows the key.

“Teamwork,” says Cocco, president and CEO of Particulate Solid Research (PSRI) in Chicago. A fluidization and particle-engineering expert whose work is followed by industry giants such as BASF, BP, Chevron, Dow Chemical, Exxon, Indian Oil, Petrobras, Shell and about 30 others, Cocco says the best companies focus their research into teams. This approach was instilled in him at the University of Florida’s Chemical Engineering Department. There, teamwork was not only accepted, it was promoted.

“In the real world of engineering, no one does a project on their own. The people who don’t play well together don’t succeed,” he says. This is why Cocco says the collaborative atmosphere at UF was so important to his successes.

North Fort Lauderdale’s elected officials and staff recognized George Krawczyk on being named Government Engineer of the Year by the Broward County Chapter of Florida’s Engineering Society. Krawczyk was recognized for his continued dedication, professional contributions and volunteer activities with FEC. Shields stated, “Krawczyk is a tremendous asset to the City and we are really lucky to have him”. He began his career with City of North Lauderdale in 2012 and graduated from UF in 2000.

“In today’s world, we cut back educational budgets over and over and over again. This is not good for the economy and not good for the country,” he says. The private sector has to step up.

Other lessons Cocco learned at UF are the importance of humor and encouragement. He said professors John O’Connell and Tim Anderson, in particular, used those tools to teach.

While Department Chair Rich Dickinson is quick to express his gratitude to the Coccos and others who support UF engineering, he adds that he knows UF can, in turn, contribute more research right back into the field of particle technology, among other important fields, to help the economy. “Particle science and technology research has advanced through groundbreaking contributions from chemical engineers, including some of our own faculty,” Dickinson says. “Ray and Susan’s vision ensures that UF will continue to contribute to this important field in substantial ways.” Cocco says he is happy to help.

These early lessons are partly why Cocco and his wife, Susan Somers, decided to support UF’s Chemical Engineering Department. Their bequest will fund a professorship in the emerging science of particle engineering. The couple has other reasons for supporting UF, too.

“Florida kind of changed my life,” says Cocco. “I was this dumb little student. Now I have a great career and great life, and it’s all because of Florida. Today, I see UF as a hidden giant with a huge potential. I’d like to see it become No. 1. That’s a real possibility.”

Since about 50 percent of the products on the market today are created or refined using fluid-based particles, there is a lot of success to be had in Cocco’s field. Systems integrated design and process optimization is key to the difference between companies making pennies or fortunes.

MIKE MASEM, DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT Among the many wonderful successes to have come from the ChE 75th anniversary event, we had several ChE alumni philanthropically give back generously this Fall. Their support benefited ChE student scholarships, guest lectures, student organizations, faculty research and general programmatic needs of the department.

Over $175,000 was raised for the department from the excitement and energy around this event!

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We thank all of the alumni who so graciously continue to support our wonderful students, faculty and programs. We are grateful for every partnership that helps us shape and transform the next generation of chemical engineering at UF. I am happy to discuss with you your individual philanthropic goals. Please contact me at 352-392-6795 or mmasem@eng.ufl.edu.

ChE Fall Panel Discussion Chemical engineering undergrads and grads took advantage of a unique opportunity to network with and learn from our industry-leading alumni. An informative industry panel discussion was held on Friday, September 5th, in conjunction with the 75th Anniversary event festivities and the fall Advisory Board meeting.

The panel shared their successes and failures, leadership experiences and info on latest trends in industry hiring.

Panelists were: Michael Haycock, Vice President of Operations for Tropicana Products; William Cirioli, Vice President of Global Technology for Exxon Mobil; Raymond Cocco, President & CEO of Particulate Solid Research, Inc.; and Kenneth Owens of SKW Quab.

Pictured below: Advisory Board members Larry Seward, Vasant Chapnerkar & alumnus Lenny Bernstein at the panel networking lunch.

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Student Awards & Honors

Carla Guidi Azarola

Third year chemical engineering student Carla Guidi Azarola has been awarded University of Florida’s Anderson Scholar of Highest Distinction Award. This award is the highest recognition bestowed on students for their first two years of course work. Carla has also been nominated another year for the Hispanic Scholarship Fund’s Scholar Award. The Hispanic Scholarship Fund is a non-profit organization.

Feng Zhang

The Morton M. Traum Surface Science Student Award was awarded to PhD student Feng Zhang for the best student poster presented in the poster session sponsored by the Surface Science (SS) Division at the AVS International Symposium. This is the oldest student award in AVS, and Feng won the award for his poster titled, “CO oxidation on PdO(101) during temperature programmed reaction spectroscopy: Role of oxygen vacancies”.

Gabriel Tong PhD student Gabriel Tong presented his poster at the 2014 Center for Nanophase Materials and Sciences User Meeting at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory on August 1st, 2014.

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Student News Shujun He Undergrad Shujun He has won the 2014 UF International Student Award. His advisor is Dr. Fan Ren. The College of Engineering recognized Shujun at the Outstanding International Student Award Ceremony on November 17th at the Reitz Union Auditorium. The Outstanding International Student Awards Ceremony was initiated to highlight the accomplishments of international students at the University of Florida. The awards are designed to recognize students who not only meet exemplary academic achievement, but also a wide range of accomplishments and contributions.

STUDENT HIGHLIGHT

Surojit Ojha Surojit Ojha, along with poster mate, Rahul Chatterjee won the best poster award in Advance Chemical and Biological Process Laboratories (Summer 2014) Poster Presentation. As one of the top four presenters, Surojit also presented this poster at the 75th Anniversary event.

View these posters and awards online at: http://www.che.ufl.edu/Student_ Awards.htm

Carmen J. Gil, ChE Undergrad For the Spring and Summer 2014 semesters, undergraduate junior Carmen Gil conducted theoretical research at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Her research consisted of engineering the magnetic properties in two dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide materials like WSe2 for applications in novel nano-electronic devices. She published a first authored paper in the Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter titled, “An ab initio study of transition metals doped with WSe2 for long-range room temperature ferromagnetism in two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide”, and will be giving a presentation at the Emerging Researchers National (ERN) Conference in Washington, DC in February.

The presentation is titled, “A theoretical investigation of ferromagnetism in doped transition metal dichalcogenide WSe2”.

To see Carmen’s paper, visit: http://www.che.ufl.edu/Student_Highlight.htm.

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Department of Chemical Engineering PO Box 116005 Gainesville, FL 32611 www.che.ufl.edu