CMET News Archive
May 20, 2013: Bayles Wins Prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship - Nine University of Delaware students and alumni have won prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The highly competitive NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited U.S. institutions. NSF received more than 13,000 applications for the 2013 competition and made 2,000 award offers.
The oldest graduate fellowship of its kind, the GRFP has a long history of selecting recipients who become knowledge experts and achieve high levels of success. Past fellows include numerous Nobel Prize winners.
Alexandra Bayles, one of four UD students who won the fellowship, will attend graduate school in chemical engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
“I was awarded the fellowship based on the research I’ve done here at UD,” Bayles said. “I think that the funding serves as a testament to how much access undergraduates have to research within UD’s chemical and biomolecular engineering department.”
May 14, 2013: Graduate Student Selected to Participate in 63rd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting - Elizabeth Kelley, a fifth year graduate student in the University of Delaware’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, will have the opportunity to share her research on targeted drug delivery at the 63rd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting to be held June 30-July 5 in Lindau, Germany. Kelley’s selection to the annual international meeting, which focuses on promoting the global spread of knowledge in the areas of chemistry, physics and physiology, affords her the prestigious opportunity to discuss research with 35 Nobel Laureates and 625 other young researchers in an open conference setting. The theme for this year’s meeting is chemistry.
Among the Nobel Laureates expected is Akira Suzuki of Japan’s Hokkaido University, who alongside University of Delaware’s Richard Heck, earned the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Heck retired from UD in 1989 as the Willis F. Harrington Professor Emeritus of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
“Her natural curiosity about how things work, paired with a research process that is far more mature than her actual years of experience, makes Liz an outstanding candidate for the 2013 Lindau Meeting,” Millicent Sullivan, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and Kelley’s graduate co-adviser, said. Kelley is also co-advised by Thomas H. Epps, III, Thomas and Kipp Gutshall Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
May 6, 2013: Delaware Bio Selects UD's Kiick to Receive Academic Research Award - University of Delaware professor Kristi Kiick is currently developing a range of novel hydrogels in order to improve the treatment of cardiovascular conditions as well as the delivery of antibodies to protect against toxins. The polymers that comprise the hydrogels are engineered to regulate the rate of drug delivery and to protect the therapeutic molecules from degrading before reaching their destination.
For her work, Kiick, a professor of materials science and engineering and biomedical engineering, will receive the 2013 Academic Research Award at the Delaware BioScience Association’s (Delaware Bio) annual awards gala on May 22. Given annually, the award recognizes significant contributions to the advancement of life science research at an academic or medical research institution in Delaware.
In his nomination letter, Karl Steiner, UD senior associate provost for research development, referred to Kiick as one of “the best and brightest” and a “true leader on campus and beyond.”
“Kristi is a pioneer in biopolymeric hydrogels and she is collaborating with numerous partners across Delaware and beyond to develop these materials, which are based on polymers and resilin, for cardiovascular and protein delivery applications,” Steiner said.
April 29, 2013: Announcing Eric M. Furst as the 2013 Soft Matter Lectureship Recipient - The Soft Matter Editorial Board have chosen Professor Eric M. Furst as the recipient of this year’s Soft Matter Lectureship. This annual Lectureship was established by the journal in 2009 to honour a younger scientist who has made a significant contribution to the soft matter field. We would like to thank everyone who nominated someone – as always there was an excellent group of candidates – and congratulate Professor Furst.
Eric M. Furst is a Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Director of the Center for Molecular Engineering and Thermodynamics at the University of Delaware. Furst received his BS with University Honors in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, his PhD from Stanford University, and afterwards studied biophysics as a Chateaubriand postdoctoral fellow at Institut Curie, Paris. His interests span a wide range of topics in soft matter science and engineering, but focus in particular on the physics and chemistry of the colloidal domain. Furst’s research group is recognized for their contributions to active and passive microrheology, biomaterial rheology, interfacial phenomena, directed self-assembly of colloids and nanoparticles, and colloid electrokinetics.
April 18, 2013: Students translate academic research into plain English at Graduate Research Cafés - Giant penguins lived in the Southern Ocean 40 million years ago, growing as tall as 6 feet and weighing 200 pounds. Their demise may have been due to factors affecting modern species of penguins today: competition for food and a changing climate. Megan Cimino, a doctoral student in the University of Delaware’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment (CEOE), opened the final Graduate Research Café of the academic year on Monday with that hook into her work on changing penguin habitats in Antarctica. The talks are designed to capture the interest of a lay audience while sharpening the presentation skills of graduate students.
In the second 20-minute presentation, chemical and biomolecular engineering doctoral student Peter Beltramo explained the peculiar properties of colloidal particles at the nanoscale. Football-shaped polymer particles, only one-thousandth the width of a human hair, line up in the same direction in solution when an electric field is applied. Beltramo is studying the sound properties of these self-assembled particles at high frequencies, around the same frequency as Wi-Fi. Theoretically down the road, the work could have applications on blocking soundwaves with specialized paints or materials.
March 18, 2013: Engineers Work to Create New Biomaterials with Energy Technology Applications -
When automotive engineers want to create a new car, they don’t build thousands of prototypes. Instead, they create computer models and run simulations for performance, efficiency and desirability before a model is selected for fabrication.
University of Delaware materials science professors Darrin Pochan and Kristi Kiick are taking a similar approach to building new nanomaterials from biomolecules — namely peptides and proteins — that could increase the efficiency of photovoltaics, also known as solar cells, and other electronic devices.
Collaborating with Jeffrey Saven, professor of physical and biological chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, Pochan and Kiick are working to develop useful protein-like molecules that can easily be scaled up into complicated nanomaterials for industrial applications.
February 28, 2013: UD Researchers Report Spontaneous Case of Vesicle Formation -
A University of Delaware research group has reported a spontaneous case of vesicle formation in the Journal of American Chemistry. The discovery was recently highlighted on the journal cover and the significance discussed in a Spotlight article.
Vesicles are fluid filled membranes or sacs useful for their ability to contain things. In the body, for example, they can be used in drug delivery, where a drug is placed in a vesicle and then self-directed to a particular location.
In nature, however, few reports of spontaneous vesicle formation exist. “That’s what makes this discovery special,” explains Norman J. Wagner, Alvin B. and Julia O. Stiles Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
February 12, 2013: Research Aims to Improve Personal Care, Medicinal Products -
For those who have wondered why shampoo moisturizes hair rather than drying it out, or how antidandruff shampoo works, it is due to a process known as coacervation.
The chemicals or organic materials that treat dandruff or moisturize skin are packaged with polymer-surfactant complexes in what is known as a coacervate. Coacervates then release the materials, such as oil droplets that moisturize hair, when exposed to an external compound such as water.
“Most people don’t realize that when you rub shampoo and water in your hands, coacervation is occurring,” explains Dongcui Li, a fourth year graduate student in the University of Delaware’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
Li studies how these coacervates form and bind to target surfaces in order to find a rapid molecular approach to the rational design of engineering complex polymer-surfactant materials found in certain solutions. “By learning more about the molecular interactions that govern the selectivity of the coacervation process, we can make the delivery process more precise and the product more effective,” she says.
November 14, 2012: Epps named visiting professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology -
Thomas H. Epps, III, Thomas and Kipp Gutshall Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware, has been named one of six new Martin Luther King, Jr., visiting professors/scholars at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
As an MIT visiting professor, Epps will collaborate with Timothy Swager, John D. MacArthur Professor of Chemistry at MIT, on research focused on controlled nanoscale assembly processes for organic electronic applications.
Epps, who has been widely recognized for his research, currently works with polymers (long chain molecules containing many chemically bonded units) that self-assemble into periodic and nanometer-scale structures whose shape, size, and orientation are governed by molecular interactions. He is studying these materials for uses including conducting membranes, nanoscale templates and drug delivery carriers.
November 2, 2012: CMET Students Receive Honors at AIChE Annual Meeting -
Two chemical and biomolecular engineering students received noteworthy honors at the 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) annual meeting. UD doctoral student Jung Min Kim received the 2012 Doh Wonsuk Memorial Award, which is given annually to up to two Korean students studying chemical engineering in doctoral programs in the United States. Given since 2004 by the U.S. Chapter of Korean Institute of Chemical Engineering, the award includes a certificate and a $1,000 honorarium.
Alexandra Bayles, a senior chemical engineering student, was awarded first place in the undergraduate student research poster session at AIChE annual meeting for her poster entitled, “Micromechanics of Anisotropic Partially Crystalline Emulsions.” Earlier this year, Bayles received the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship. She is advised by Eric M. Furst, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering.
October 9, 2012: NIST Awards UD $7 million for Continued Neutron Scattering Research -
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has awarded the University of Delaware’s Center for Neutron Science $7 million for continued neutron scattering research.
Neutron scattering is a nanoscale measurement technique similar to X-ray and light scattering that is used to examine a material’s structure at the molecular, nano- and meso-scales. The technique is useful in engineering new nanomaterials for grand-challenge problems ranging from energy storage to biomaterials for improving human health. The project is a collaborative effort between UD and NIST’s National Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) to develop new methods to investigate nanoscale materials, work that builds upon a five year relationship between the two entities.
September 18, 2012: UD Professor Reports Smart Fluids Research in Scientific Journal -
Imagine a computer chip that can assemble itself.
According to Eric M. Furst, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Delaware, engineers and scientists are closer to making this and other scalable forms of nanotechnology a reality as a result of new milestones in using nanoparticles as building blocks in functional materials. Furst and his postdoctoral researchers, James Swan and Paula Vasquez, along with colleagues at NASA, the European Space Agency, Zin Technologies and Lehigh University, reported the finding Sept. 17 in an article in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science (PNAS) online edition.
July 30, 2012: UD Undergraduates Participate in Summer Research Projects -
A group of undergraduate students is spending their summer participating in research experiences with CMET faculty. Raheel Ahmed, Alexandra Bayles, Benjamin Fogal, and Yifei Liu are working with Prof. Eric Furst; Matthew Hoffman, Kevin Hunter, Ronald Lewis, Ellen Reed, and Eddie Sangern are working with Prof. Thomas Epps; Matthew Enterline and William Facciolo are working with Prof. Chris Roberts; Brandon Stewart is working with Prof. Darrin Pochan; and Keyi Xu is working with Prof. Norman Wagner.
July 13, 2012: UD Engineers Develop New Instrumentation to Study a Fluid's Microstructure -
A team of researchers from the University of Delaware and two national laboratories have developed a new scientific instrument capable of studying the microstructure of complex fluids, polymers, nanomaterials and surfactant solutions using neutron scattering techniques.
The advance adds the ability for researchers to study time-dependent deformations (instances where fluids or solutions distort or change shape over time), a capability not previously available. The work is a collaborative effort between UD's Center for Neutron Science and two of the world’s premier neutron scattering facilities: the National Center for Neutron Research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Md., and the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, France.
June 20, 2012: UD Researchers to Collaborate with Fraunhofer Center for Molecular Biotechnology - Two collaborative research projects have been selected for funding under a six-year partnership agreement that includes the University of Delaware, the Fraunhofer Center for Molecular Biotechnology (CMB) and the state of Delaware. The two-year grants total $400,000 to support work to be conducted at UD and Fraunhofer.
Kristi Kiick, professor of materials science and engineering and biomedical engineering at UD, is leading a project to develop and demonstrate the ability of engineered polymer gels to increase the stability, immunogenicity, and/or therapeutic efficacy of proteins produced by Fraunhofer.
May 31, 2012: Epps named Gutshall Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering - Thomas H. Epps, III, associate professor at the University of Delaware, has been named the Thomas and Kipp Gutshall Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
The endowed position is funded through a generous gift from UD alumnus Thomas Gutshall and his wife, Kipp. It is meant to reward exceptional young faculty talent. Unlike senior endowed chairs, the designation may rotate among young faculty periodically, depending upon need.
The professorship is the University’s first "career development” faculty chair, a term synonymous with young faculty chair. It is intended for a teacher/scholar at the assistant or associate professor level.
May 21, 2012: American Society of Engineering Education honors UD's Sandler - Regarded as one of the University of Delaware’s most decorated and renowned faculty members, Stanley Sandler has made his presence known in academic, scientific and professional communities worldwide.
His career, which spans more than 45 years, has included by numerous honors and awards, visiting professorships at universities around the world, almost 400 research papers, and 10 books both written and edited.
This June, Sandler, the H.B. du Pont Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, will receive the CACHE (Computer Aids in Chemical Engineering) award for excellence in chemical engineering computing for his groundbreaking use of technology in the classroom. He will receive the award, which consists of a plaque and a $1,000 stipend, at the 2012 the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) meeting in San Antonio, Texas.
May 15, 2012: Energy in Action - Krzysztof Szalewicz, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Delaware, and Rafal Podeszwa of the University of Silesia Institute of Chemistry in Poland have developed and validated a more accurate method for predicting the interaction energy of large molecules, such as biomolecules used to develop new drugs.
The research is reported as a communication in the April 27 issue of the Journal of Chemical Physics, which is the most highly cited journal in atomic, molecular and chemical physics according to Thomson Reuters. The journal is published by the American Institute of Physics. Despite appearing at the end of April, the paper was on the list of the 20 most-read articles in JCP for that month.
May 3, 2012: CMET Celebrates 20th Anniversary - Established in the Spring of 1992 as a research unit within the University of Delaware's Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, the Center for Molecular and Engineering Thermodynamics (CMET) celebrated its 20th anniversary during their 2nd Annual Research Review held on Thursday, May 3rd, at the Clayton Hall Conference Center. Approximately 60 faculty members, students, postdoctoral researchers, and members of industry attended this event which featured student talks from each of the faculty members’ research groups, as well as a poster session. A complete listing of the day’s events can be seen here.
April 16, 2012: UD's Alexandra Bayles awarded prestigious Goldwater Scholarship - University of Delaware junior Alexandra Bayles, a chemical and biomolecular engineering major, has earned a scholarship from the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation.
The scholarship program, which honors the late U.S. Sen. Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona, aims to inspire outstanding science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) students to pursue STEM-related careers. It is the premier undergraduate award of its kind, providing awardees up to $7,500 per year toward tuition, fees, books and room and board costs.
March 16, 2012: College of Engineering's Kristi Kiick selected as AIMBE Fellow - Kristi Kiick, deputy dean of engineering and professor of materials science and engineering and biomedical engineering at the University of Delaware, has been inducted into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows, Class of 2012.
This elite appointment distinguishes Kiick among the top two percent of her peers. AIMBE College Fellows include the top 1,000 outstanding bioengineers in academia, industry and government. She was among 94 new AIMBE Fellows inducted during the AIMBE 21st annual meeting in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 20.
February 29, 2012: UD's Darrin Pochan named fellow of the American Physical Society - Darrin Pochan, professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Delaware, has been named a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS).
The fellowship recognizes individuals who help advance physics through original and independent research. Membership as an APS Fellow distinguishes Pochan among the top one-half percent of all APS members.
January 13, 2012: LAOS Rheology Day: Colburn Laboratory, University of Delaware - LAOS rheology day participants gathered in Colburn Laboratory at the University of Delaware from around the US to discuss recent advances in the use of large amplitude oscillatory shear to interrogate material properties. The participants included many industrial scientists from DOW, DuPont, ExxonMobil and TA Instruments as well as students and faculty from four institutions. Talks focused on three broad classes of materials- shear thickening colloidal dispersions, shear ordering and melting of block copolymer micelles, and shear banding wormlike micelles, as well as new advances in LAOS rheology, including: large amplitude microrheology, time resolved SANS (small angle neutron scattering) measurements of microstructure during LAOS, flow velocimetry during LAOS, and stress versus strain controlled LAOS measurements. New theoretical predictions for shear banding wormlike micelles, yield stress fluids, and active microrheology of colloidal dispersions were also presented and discussed. The talks were followed by lively discussion.
December 21, 2011: UD Chemical Engineer Guest Authors PNAS Commentary on Directing Colloidal Assembly - The University of Delaware's Eric M. Furst authored a commentary in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) advance online edition Dec. 19.
October 4, 2011: Epps named Francis Alison Society's 2011 Mangone Young Scholar - Thomas H. Epps, III, assistant professor of chemical engineering at the University of Delaware, has been selected by the University's Francis Alison Society to receive its 2011 Gerard J. Mangone Young Scholars Award.
The award, named in honor of a distinguished University professor, recognizes promising and accomplished young faculty. The recipient is chosen by fellow faculty members who have received the Francis Alison Award, the University’s highest faculty honor. Epps will receive his award on Wednesday, Nov. 2, from the Francis Alison Society.
July 13, 2011: CMET Alumnus Awarded Victor K. LaMer Award - Matthew Helgeson, a UD alumnus, was an invited lecturer at the 85th American Chemical Society's Colloids and Surface Science Symposium in Montreal, June 19 - 21, where he was honored with the Victor K. LaMer Award, an award bestowed annually on the best doctoral thesis in the past three years in the U.S. and Canada.
According to his former adviser Norman J. Wagner, Alvin B and Julia O Stiles Professor of Chemical Engineering and department chair, Helgeson’s research includes seminal contributions to the understanding of complex fluids, surfactant and nanoparticle science and materials processing.
June 9, 2011: Graduate Student Awarded NASA Space Grant Fellowship - Astronauts are exposed to many dangers in space, particularly debris encountered while working outside the aircraft. Micrometeoroid orbital debris (MMOD) are sub-centimeter sized particles that can travel up to 19 kilometers per second and have the potential to penetrate space suits, placing astronauts at risk and sometimes forcing them to abort their mission.
April 14, 2011: CMET Hosts Research Review. - Approximately 60 faculty members, students, and postdoctoral researchers attended CMET’s first annual Research Review on Thursday, April 14th, from 8:30 am – 2 pm at the Clayton Hall Conference Center. Opening remarks were given by CMET’s Director, Prof. Eric Furst. Faculty members Michael Mackay, Christopher Roberts, and Norman Wagner presented keynote talks throughout the morning. In addition, students from each faculty group presented talks on their research projects and contributed posters during the poster session. Click here to see the complete program from the event.
January 12, 2011: Lenhoff wins ACS biotechnology award. - Abraham M. Lenhoff, Allan P. Colburn Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware, has won the American Chemical Society's (ACS) 2011 Marvin J. Johnson Award for microbial and biochemical technology.
December 16, 2010: NIH renews membrane protein center grant. - The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded the University of Delaware a five-year, $5.7 million grant for continued study of membrane protein production and characterization, an important area of biomolecular research.
December 9, 2010: Engineering student a finalist in rheology poster competition. - Amanda Kate Gurnon, a second-year doctoral student in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware, has won third place in the graduate student poster competition at the Society of Rheology's 82nd annual meeting.
November 5, 2010: Chemical engineering's Lenhoff, Sandler named visiting professors. - Two of the most prominent chemical engineering professors at the University of Delaware -- Abraham M. Lenhoff and Stanley I. Sandler -- are taking their knowledge on the road as visiting professors at other universities.
September 28, 2010: Paper documents new solar cell characterization method. - Michael Mackay, Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Delaware, is co-author of a paper demonstrating a new method for characterizing polymer-based solar cells.
September 14, 2010: Three engineering faculty receive DuPont Young Professor grants. - University of Delaware professors from the departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Chemical Engineering were recognized by DuPont as three of 12 young professors from universities in the United States and China to receive the DuPont Young Professor grant for original research.
September 3, 2010: Szalewicz elected to prestigious International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science. - Krzysztof Szalewicz, professor of physics, astronomy and chemistry at the University of Delaware, has been elected to membership in the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science (IAQMS). The academy comprises an elite group of top researchers from around the world, including several Nobel Prize winners.
June 29, 2010: Sandler presented international award. - Stanley I. Sandler, Henry Belin du Pont Chair of Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware, was presented the Properties and Phase Equilibrium for Process and Product Design (PPEPPD) Eminence Award during the International PPEPPD Meeting held in May in Suzhou, China.
April 21, 2010: Chemical engineering grad student receives polymer science award. - Julie Albert, a doctoral candidate in chemical engineering at the University of Delaware, has been selected as a finalist for the 2010 AkzoNobel Student Award in Applied Polymer Science. She will present her work at the Fall 2010 American Chemical Society National Meeting, to be held in Boston from Aug. 22-26.
April 19, 2010: Chemical engineering grad student receives prestigious fellowship. - Elizabeth Kelley, a second-year doctoral candidate in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware, has been selected to receive a 2010 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship. The fellowship covers full tuition and fees for three years and provides a yearly stipend of more than $30,000.
April 2, 2010: UD engineering graduate students invited to participate in polymer research symposium. - Two University of Delaware engineering students -- Ohm Krishna and Kelly Schultz -- were selected to participate in the American Chemical Society's Excellence in Graduate Polymer Research Symposium. Both are doctoral candidates affiliated with UD's Center for Molecular and Engineering Thermodynamics.
January 20, 2010: Epps among PECASE recipients honored at White House. - Thomas H. Epps, III, assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware, was part of an elite group of young scientists and engineers honored by President Barack Obama at the White House on Wednesday, Jan. 13.
November 21, 2008: Lenhoff wins ACS award for separations technology. - Abraham Lenhoff, Gore Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware, has been selected to receive the 2009 American Chemical Society (ACS) Award in Separations Science and Technology.
September 30, 2008: Sandler named one of top 30 chemical engineering authors. - Stanley Sandler, Henry Belin du Pont Chair of Chemical Engineering at UD, has been named one of “Thirty Authors of Groundbreaking Chemical Engineering Books” by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).
September 30, 2008: UD research group's paper wins national rheology award. - A paper co-authored by Eric Furst, associate professor of chemical engineering, has been selected to receive the Journal of Rheology 2008 Publications Award. The award was conferred at the XVth International Congress on Rheology in Monterey, California, in August.
January 15, 2008: Delaware experiment under way aboard ISS. - A University of Delaware experiment is under way aboard the International Space Station.
