News & EventsPitt’s School of Engineering Board of Visitor’s Faculty Award Winner: Dr. Steven Little The Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, along with the University of Pittsburgh School of Engineering, congratulates the recipient of the 2009 Board of Visitor’s (BOV’s) Faculty Award: Steven Little, PhD, Assistant Professor and Bicentennial Alumni Faculty Fellow, University of Pittsburgh Departments of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, and Immunology. Researchers in Dr. Little’s lab focus upon therapies that are biomimetic in that they replicate the biological function and interactions of living entities using synthetic systems.
Congratulations, Dr. Little!
Congratulations to Di Gao! Dr. Gao's recent paper in the journal "Langmuir" is highlighted in the “Science & Technology Concentrates” section of this week’s Chemical & Engineering News (19 October, page 36). The C&EN article is titled “A Coating that Fights Ice” Congratulations to graduate student LiangLiang Cao and to Prof. Di Gao on garnering an amazing amount of press coverage for their article on anti-icing superhydrophobic coatings! Below is a partial list of all the news their work has generated in the very short time since the paper appears on the Langmuir web-site less than a month ago. This is really excellent work!
Chemical Engineering professor receives NIH Director’s High-Risk Research Award to understand how to dictate stem cell development
Dr. Ipsita Banerjee, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, receives ORAU Award Dr. Banerjee received a 2009-2010 Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award from Oak Ridge Associate Universities (ORAU). The Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Awards provide seed money for research by junior faculty at Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) member institutions. These awards are intended to enrich the research and professional growth of young faculty and result in new funding opportunities.
Dr. Anna Balazs to Receive U.S. DOE Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) Grant Anna Balazs, Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering and Robert Von der Luft Professor, is part of a team, led by Thomas Russell at the University of Massachusetts, that will investigate Polymer-Based Materials for Harvesting Solar Energy. Only 46 new multi-million-dollar EFRCs were established at universities, national laboratories, nonprofit organizations, and private firms across the nation. The goal of this Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) will be achieved through a fundamental understanding of polymer materials, the theory and modeling of non-equilibrium structures, and an innovative research program with polymer nanostructures. This effort will combine extensive expertise in the preparation of polymeric materials with x-ray and neutron scattering for characterization of the nanometer dimension polymer structures. This EFRC includes planned collaborations with scientists from institutions in Korea, Japan, and Germany and with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the University of Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania State University. It will perform neutron scattering at the High Flux Isotope Reactor and Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
2009 Bayer Distinguished Lectureship Dr. Robert E. Cohen, St. Laurent Professor of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, presented two lectures during his recent visit to the department as the recipient of the 2009 Bayer Distinguished Lectureship in Chemical Engineering. April 2, 2009 April 3, 2009 Designing Robust Omniphobic Surfaces
Professor Anna Balazs receives 2009 Swanson School of Engineering Board of Visitors Award. Please join me in congratulating Anna Balazs as the 2008 Board of Visitors Faculty Award winner. A copy of the presentation of the many accomplishments of Dr. Balazs is attached - Gerald Holder, U.S. Steel Dean of Engineering. I am pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2007-2008 Board of Visitor’s Faculty Award is Dr. Anna Balazs, Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering and Robert Luft Professor of Engineering. As you may know, the purpose of the Board of Visitors Faculty Award is to recognize the single-most outstanding member of the School of Engineering faculty who has had the most productive previous academic year in areas such as program development; leadership in the development of graduate research programs; meritorious recognition by peers at the national level; and special recognition as a teacher. The Awardee is selected based upon nominations by the department chairs. Final selection is made by the BOV Awards Committee whose members this year are David Brown (chair), Fred Kocher, Paul Lego, Bob Luft, John Marous, and Frank Mosier. More
Dr. Di Gao's work on Arsenic Removal from Drinking Water Highlighted on www.america.gov
Congratulations to Di Gao, Assistant Professor, whose work on developing a low-cost method for removing arsenic from drinking water is currently highlighted on www.america.gov. One of the three rotating graphics on the top left of the page links to his project. It is linked under the "Award-winning Projects Save Lives, the Environment" graphic. The direct link to his work is http://www.america.gov/st/env-english/2008/December/20081217120617abretnuh5.016273e-02.html under the title "Universities Collaborate to Improve Water Quality in China." Di's work is bringing some great publicity to the Swanson School of Engineering and to our department. Congratulations again, Di!
Congratulations to Dr. William Federspiel! We are very pleased to announce that Bill Federspiel has been vetted to be a member of the Bioengineering, Technology and Surgical Sciences Study Section of the Center for Scientific Review. His term begins July 1, this year and ends on June 30, 2013. This is a very prestigious achievement and comes as a recognition of his achievement and expertise in his field. Please join us in congratulating Bill!
Pitt team wins the EPA 2009 P3 Award A University of Pittsburgh team of undergraduates and graduates lead by Prof. Di Gao won the 2009 Youth Council on Sustainable Science and Technology (YCOSST) P3 Award sponsored by the AIChE Institute for Sustainability and SustainUS at the EPA’s National Sustainable Design Expo this past weekend (4/18/09). The awards ceremony was held in front of the Capital Building in Washington DC. The Pitt team competed with 43 teams, including teams from MIT and Berkeley! The citation on the award certificate reads: "2009 YCOSST P3 Design Award to: University of Pittsburgh For the project that best exemplifies: 1. Research involving interdisciplinary collaboration, using innovative technologies to facilitate distance communication during research and employs sustainable practices; 2. Deployment to regions with limited resources such that Youth or people without significant financial ability or property rights can obtain and use the device/invention; 3. Use of sustainable materials that are locally produced and available to the general population and enable the device/invention to be maintained locally.” The project title is: “Removal of Arsenic from Groundwater Using Naturally Occurring Iron Oxides in Rural Regions of Mongolia” Team members are: Brian Novicki, Liangliang Cao, Bradley Harden, Allison Hahn, Jason Monnell, Edward Mccord, and Di Gao Please join Pofessor Karl Johnson in congratulating Prof. Gao and his team members on a job well done!
Congratulations to Dr. Prashant Kumta! Prashant Kumta, Edward R. Weidlein Chair Professor in the Swanson School of Engineering has been unanimously elected as a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society by the Society's Board of Directors. Congratulations on this distinguished honor!
Professor Di Gao receives NIH Grant to Study Genome Sequencing Congratulations to Di Gao, Assistant Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, on receiving a grant titled "DNA Sequencing-At-A-Stretch" from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) for basic research on technologies that will lead to genome sequencing at a dramatically reduced cost. NHGRI’s Revolutionary Genome Sequencing Technologies grants have as their goal the development of breakthrough technologies that will enable a human-sized genome to be sequenced for $1,000 or less. Dr. Gao's team will lay the groundwork to prove basic principles for a technology where DNA strands are pulled away from a solid surface when stretched by an electric field. When the stretching force exceeds a certain value, which is proportional to DNA length, the DNA strand would be released from the surface and detected by fluorescence. The order in which strands are released allows the instrument to identify the sequence of base pairs.
Professor Johnson Named Interim Chair of the Department Karl Johnson joined the University of Pittsburgh in 1995 after completing a National Research Council Research Associate Fellowship at the Naval Research Laboratory. Over the past thirteen years, he has conducted research on the molecular modeling of complex systems using the tools of statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics, and equations of state, with an overall goal to develop accurate engineering models that have a sound theoretical basis. Johnson received a 2008 Department of Energy Hydrogen Program R & D Award "In Recognition of Outstanding Contributions to Hydrogen Storage Technologies". Johnson holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University and is also a W.K. Whiteford Professor and NETL Faculty Fellow.
Pitt Professor Recognized for Work to Better Understand and Possibly Control the Human Immune System Steven R. Little, an assistant professor of chemical engineering in Pitt's Swanson School of Engineering, received a 2008 Beckman Young Investigators award for his ongoing effort to create particles that would behave as natural cells do to carry out specific tasks. The foundation is named for renowned scientist Arnold Beckman, inventor of the pH meter and pioneer of Silicon Valley, and awards novel work with far-reaching potential. The award includes a three-year grant of $300,000. More
Prof. J. Karl Johnson Receives U.S. DOE Award Chemical engineering professor J. Karl Johnson has been selected to receive the 2008 DOE Hydrogen Program R & D Award. This award is given annually at the U.S. Department of Energy Hydrogen Program Review meeting held in Washington, D.C. Professor Johnson's citation reads "In Recognition of Outstanding Contributions to Hydrogen Storage Technologies."
Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Researcher Wins Goldwater Scholarship
Bayer Distinguished Lectureship 2008 The University of Pittsburgh Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering was pleased to host Dr. Doug Cameron, Chief Scientific Officer of Khosla Ventures, as the 2008 Bayer Distinguished Lecturer. On Thursday, May 22, he presented a lecture titled "Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources: Evolution and Revolution." The following day he gave a talk titled "Metabolic Engineering for the Microbial Production of Chemicals."
Chemical Engineering Faculty Joseph McCarthy and Robert Parker Receive 2008 Carnegie Science Center Award for Excellence in Higher Education
Professors McCarthy, Parker and Sacre highlight the Pillars Curriculum (Video)
Pitt-Bradford Appoints Acting Director of Energy Institute BRADFORD, Pa. – The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford has appointed Dr. James T. Cobb Jr., an associate professor emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh with extensive experience in energy research, as acting director of its new Energy Institute. More
ChE Undergraduates Receive Scholarships for Studies in Petroleum Engineering Joseph Dudas and Zachery Heilman have been awarded Lewis E. and Elizabeth W. Young Scholarships for the 2007-08 academic year by the Pennsylvania- Western Section of the Woman's Auxiliary of the American Institute of Mining Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Inc (WAAIME) in conjunction with the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Inc (AIME). More
Chemical Engineering Students Win BIG IDEA Competition Based on Research in Professor Di Gao's Lab Pittsburgh, PA – October 26, 2007 – The University of Pittsburgh Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence at the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business last night announced the six winners of the BIG IDEA Competition, sponsored by the Institute’s Entrepreneurs’ Society. The competition, which sought the best business ideas to turn into competitive business plans and businesses, received submissions from students in many different programs and schools across the University. Winners will work with dynamic teams of professional business consultants, industry experts and entrepreneurs to build strong business plans that they can use in local, regional and national business plan competitions. For winners who have already founded their own businesses and those who seek to do so, the business plans will also serve as a solid foundation and tool for entrepreneurial success. Winners include: Njideka Mbonu and Liangliang Cao, students in Pitt’s School of Engineering Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering , and Nneka Mbonu of the Katz Graduate School of Business, who have developed a sensor to detect gelatinases, a family of enzymes closely associated with tumor aggressiveness. Knowing the levels of a patient’s gelatinases can provide information important to the diagnosis, course and outcome of cancer, and thus are useful to doctors determining patients’ treatments for cancer. The BIG IDEA Competition does not end with the plan. Once winners and their teams have crafted elite plans, they will present at local, regional and national competitions. These competitions create unparalleled opportunities for students to network with enterprising students and business people from all over the country, while also providing the chance to earn significant capital to get their businesses started.
Dr. Little Selected as a Clinical Research Scholar Steven Little, Assitant Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, has been recently selected as a Clinical Research Scholar (CRSP) through the K12 mechanism of the National Institutes of Health. This 4 year program's primary intent is to provide training toward independent status at the interface of the fields of Chemical/Bioengineering and Immunology/Transplantation. Dr. Angus Thomson (Director of Transplant Immunology) of the Starzl Transplantation Institute will serve as the primary mentor on the award. The focus of research will be to engineer biomimetic immunotherapeutic strategies through the use of biodegradable materials and the principles of drug delivery.
Dr. Shiao-Hung Chiang, Professor Emeritus, receives the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Filtration and Separations Society From American Filtration & Separations Society News Letter, April 23, 2007 The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Dr. Shiao-Hung Chiang at the AFS 20th Anniversary Annual Conference & Exposition, March 27, 2007, Orlando, FL. More
Pitt Ranks in Uppermost Tier of U.S. Public Research Universities The University of Pittsburgh ranks in the uppermost tier of U.S. public research universities according to The Top American Research Universities, the recently issued 2006 annual report of The Center for Measuring University Performance. The report places Pitt in the company of only six other leading public research universities: the University of California at Berkeley, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. More
ChE Undergraduates Receive Scholarships for Studies in Petroleum Engineering Justin Friend and Drew Michelle Sakai have been awarded Lewis E. and Elizabeth W. Young Scholarships for the 2006-07 academic year by the Pennsylvania- Western Section of the Woman's Auxiliary of the American Institute of Mining Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Inc (WAAIME) in conjunction with the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Inc (AIME). More Pitt Professor Designs Less-Risky Reactor for Clean, Safe Energy Reactors that burn hydrogen or natural gas to generate energy can be dirty and dangerous. The mix of air with hydrogen or natural gas can explode easily if composition and temperature are not carefully controlled. And reactors often produce polluting byproducts. Now, University of Pittsburgh researcher Goetz Veser has created a safer alternative—microreactors that won’t explode, no matter what the gas composition or how hot they get, and that can keep undesirable pollutants, like nitrogen oxides (NOx), from forming. His results could be used to design processes for safe, clean energy production and hydrogen storage. Veser, who is assistant professor of chemical engineering in Pitt’s School of Engineering, discussed his findings Sept. 12 during a presentation at the 232nd American Chemical Society National Meeting in San Francisco, Calif. More
Alan J. Russell named University Professor of Surgery University Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg made the appointment, which become effective June 1, based on the recommendations of Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor James V. Maher and Senior Vice Chancellor for the Health Sciences Arthur S. Levine. Russell is a professor of surgery in the School of Medicine, of bioengineering and chemical engineering in Pitt's School of Engineering, and of rehabilitation science and technology in SHRS. He also serves as director of the University's McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, executive director of the Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative, and director of the National Tissue Engineering Center. More
New Faculty Join the Department The department is pleased to announce the addition of two new faculty members, Di Gao and Steve Little. Di, who began his appointment on September 1, 2005 has research interests in the areas of synthesis, assembly, and characterization of novel nanostructures, as well as the integration of these nanostructures into functional devices and systems for technological applications such as biomedical and environmental sensors. Steve Little’s research interests focus on controlled delivery for tissue engineering, immunotherapeutics, and biomimetic materials. Steve will join us on January 1, 2006.
Professor Anna C. Balazs Appointed to Distinguished Professorship The University of Pittsburgh has named Anna C. Balazs a Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering in the University’s School of Engineering. More
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