Greetings from the Chair by: Richard A. Register December 2015
Holiday greetings to department alumni everywhere! The past year has been filled with strategic planning, at the department, School of Engineering, and University levels. A lot of work all around, but exciting to see ideas and plans for the future take shape, at least on paper. Over the coming years, we’ll work to bring those to fruition—stay tuned! The most visible change in the EQuad neighborhood this year has been the completion and recent opening of the Andlinger Laboratory, the physical home of the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, nes- tled between the A- and E-Wings of the EQuad, Bowen Hall, and the North Garage. At 129,000 gross square feet, the Andlinger Lab is providing specialized research space, excellent office space for students and postdoc- toral associates, and a beautiful lecture hall, all connected to the EQuad. Do be sure to have a look the next time you’re on campus! Enrollments in the SEAS and in CBE remain strong, with BSE students remaining at 25% of all Princeton undergraduates, and a CBE Class of 2016 numbering 47. Evidently the rest of the world is realizing what we’ve known for a long time: that there’s no better place to obtain both the strong technical foundation and broad per- spectives that will be necessary for tomorrow’s engineers to deal with the world’s most pressing challenges. Our graduate program attracted a strong class of 18 new Ph.D. students this year through a highly competitive ad- missions process. The annual Graduate Student Symposium, held this year on October 16, provided a forum for our upper-year students to showcase their research to a diverse audience, including many industrial attendees— and I continue to be impressed by the novelty, breadth, and depth of the research presented. As is invariably the case, the Saville and Wilhelm Lectures were scholarly highlights this past year, as each Lecturer has the opportunity to interact more extensively with our faculty and students than is possible during a simple department seminar visit. In April, we hosted Scott Shell *05 from the University of California – Santa Barbara as our 2015 Dudley A. Saville Lecturer, speaking on “Thermodynamic Balancing Acts in Novel Materi- als at Interfaces”, and in September, Ron Larson from the University of Michigan spoke on “Multi-Scale Model- ing of Transport in Complex Materials: Avogadro’s Challenge” and “Industrial Strength Simulations” as the 2015 Richard H. Wilhelm Lecturer. Pictures from both of these events can be found on this inside front cover of this newsletter. Please check the department webpage (www.princeton.edu/cbe) for the 2016 events—you’re all invited! For the past couple years, I have vigorously requested information on summer opportunities for our BSE students—a hearty “thank you” to those who have responded! And if you’ve become aware of any additional op- portunities, please do let us know—the inside back cover of this newsletter provides a space to write in and mail back this information (or feel free to just email it to me at [email protected]). And of course, I’m always eager to read any news you’d like to share! Meeting our alumni—both those I knew when they were students, and those who graduated before I arrived at Princeton—is truly the best part of department chair, so please stop by when you’re on campus. Best to you and yours for 2016, News
2015 Dudley A. Saville Lectureship M. Scott Shell University of California, Santa Barbara April 15, 2015 “Thermodynamic Balancing Acts in Novel Materials at Interfaces”
2015 Richard H. Wilhelm Lectureship Ronald G. Larson University of Michigan September 21, 2015 “Multi-Scale Modeling of Transport in Complex Materials: Avogadro’s Challenge ” September 23, 2015 “Industrial Strength Molecular Simulations”
In Memoriam Emilly Y. Zhu Class of 2013
Emilly Yue Zhu of Madison, WI, formerly of Fort Collins, CO, passed away on Friday, June 12, 2015 after being struck in a preventable motor vehicle crash in Madison. At Princeton, Emilly was active in many campus groups, such as PSEC and CSA. She was also a residential and engineer- ing peer tutor/interactor. Her warmth and excitement easily spread to her friends and classmates. Her genuine kindness and uplifting laughter ingrained her in the hearts of her friends and family. Upon graduation she worked as a Busi- ness Intelligence Developer at EPIC in Madison, Wiscon- sin. Our deepest sympathies to her family and classmates.
Page 2 News
CONGRATULATIONS!
William B. Russel celebrated his impending transfer to emeritus status with group members, faculty and staff in the Garden Room at Prospect House on June 21, 2015
Rodney D. Priestley Rodney D. Priestley was promoted to Associate Professor as of July 1, 2015
Clifford P. Brangwynne ASCB Gibco Emerging Leader Prize
Mark P. Brynildsen National Science Foundation CAREER Award
Pablo G. Debenedetti Mason Lecturer
Yannis G. Kevrekidis Hans Fischer Senior Fellow at TU Munich Einstein and Rothschild Fellowships
Sankaran Sundaresan Named Sollenberger Professor in Engineering
James Wei Pioneers of Diversity Award—AIChE MAC
Page 3 Faculty Updates
Ilhan Aksay’s group kept up its oline Bozlar, also both from France, first three students joined for summer research pace during 2015, continu- welcomed a new little American citi- fellowships: Samantha Ip (CBE ’18) ing projects on energy storage and zen in their family, son Louis, born 26 received a 2015 summer internship energetic materials, as well as main- June in Princeton. from the Andlinger Center for Energy taining a fruitful collaboration with Along with his freshman advis- and the Environment; Amy Xie (CBE John Lettow ’95 and Vorbeck Materi- ing duties, Ilhan taught CBE246, ’17) was awarded the Summer 2015 als Corp., and especially with the re- Thermodynamics, in the Spring se- Project X Research Program Fellow- searchers of the company in the Vor- mester and will do so again in the ship; and Nathan Suek (CHE ’17) beck Princeton Research Center Spring of 2016. He continued his received a summer internship award (VPRC) located just down the road in FRS133 Freshman Seminar, Materials from the Health Grand Challenges Monmouth Junction. World, in the Fall semester, with the Program at Princeton, and, more re- The students in Ilhan’s group help of Michalis Alifierakis and Dan cently a grant from the Association of are keeping busy. David (DJ) Bozym Dabbs, introducing freshmen stu- Independent Colleges and Universi- finished his doctoral work on sched- dents, whether SEAS majors or not, ties in New Jersey (AICUNJ) as he ule and is now swamped with his to materials science and the increasing continues his research through the studies as a member of the Harvard- role this area of research plays in mod- 2015-2016 academic year. These stu- MIT M.D.-Ph.D. Program. He re- ern technology. A mix of seminar, dents were soon joined by Lorena ports that his class in anatomy is fas- discussions, and laboratory exercises, Grundy (CBE ’17), Danielle Yee cinating and almost worth the sleep- the students enjoy reviewing the de- (CBE ’16), and Frank Nguyen (CBE less nights and hard work. Kevin velopment of materials in society, en- ’17). Danielle Yee was selected as the Sallah and Michalis Alifierakis moved compassing clay, wood, and metals, 2015 recipient of The Michelle Goud- up to fifth year status and are intense- culminating in polymers and electron- ie ’93 Undergraduate Summer Fel- ly focused on their respective projects, ics. lowship in Environmental Studies, both intending to finish by the end of Dan Dabbs is still keeping a and Frank Nguyen the 2015 recipient Spring semester 2016. While close eye on the laboratories and of the Reiner G. Stoll Fellowship. Michalis is enjoying his teaching as- equipment, while working on his re- These six undergraduate students did sistant activities with the freshmen in search in energetic materials and ener- an amazing job in getting the lab the freshman seminar on Materials gy storage. Having his children living started. The lab is very grateful for World, Kevin is helping Priyanka in Maryland is especially important to their hard work, and was happy that Goyal (CBE ’16) design and imple- him and his wife Joni since they are all of them decided to continue their ment experiments for her senior the- expecting their first grandchild in research during the Fall semester. In sis. Now in her third year of graduate January. Joni continues her rowing August, the lab welcomed Evan Zhao, study, Betül Uralcan, jointly advised with the Carnegie Lakers, participat- an incoming graduate student, for a with Pablo Debenedetti, is deep in ing in regattas in Pennsylvania, Bos- summer rotation; as well as two post- the theory and practice of supercapac- ton, New York, and Delaware. She is docs, Jhong-Min Chen from the Uni- itors, balancing laboratory work with now the captain of the Lake Carnegie versity of Kentucky, and Yanfei computational modeling. team, vowing to ensure that the com- Zhang from The University of Alber- VPRC Visiting Scientists Nicho- petitive standards of these master ta. The lab also welcomed Garrett las (Nik) Szamreta (CBE ’14), Valé- rowers remain high. Gosse (CBE ’16), and Richard Polo rie Alain-Rizzo, and Michael Bozlar Isabelle and Ilhan still find it dif- (CBE ’16) for their senior thesis pro- were joined by Paul Majsztrik, a for- ficult to spend time with real vaca- jects, as well as Sarah Grace Tucker mer Ph.D. student with Paul Bo- tions; but, occasional escapes to their (CBE ’17) for junior independent carsly’s group in Princeton’s depart- retreat at Lac Labelle, Québec, pro- work. It is hard to believe how quick- ment of Chemistry, although Jay Ben- vide time for activities other than real ly we have grown to fifteen members, ziger claims that Jay was Paul’s unof- work. Happy New Year from the including Mary Beth Friedfeld, who ficial real advisor. Valérie, a chemist Aksay research Group! has made all of our projects possible. and an Assistant Professor on leave of The lab is incredibly grateful to all the absence from the École Normale su- 2015 has been an exciting and faculty and staff of the CBE depart- périeure de Cachan (ENS Cachan) in eventful year, as we were welcomed to ment, and the Andlinger Center for France, is still enjoying her Princeton our new home at Princeton. The Ava- Energy and the Environment, for life, having settled in Princeton Junc- los lab relocated from the EQuad to their warm welcome, advice, and as- tion, and continues to supervise her its beautiful new installations at Hoyt sistance. You are always welcome to sons’ progress in swimming and the Laboratories in April, and the lab offi- visit us on the first floor of Hoyt La- local school system. Michael and Car- cially launched on May 26, when its boratories. We wish you all a Happy
Page 4 Holiday and a wonderful and healthy d’homme in the core lab course. With ture 2014, 512, 383-U313). 2016! an enrollment of 45 the lab was Jay’s role in the experiment was packed and we needed three instruc- to reduce internal background from Jay Benziger reports that his tors to be able to read all the lab re- radioactive impurities in the liquid family is growing as his research ports. Jay also taught a section about scintillator to permit the detection of group is shrinking. Jay and Emily Energy and the Environment as part the neutrino flux. We have achieved now have 4 grandchildren. Tara has of an introductory engineering course. unprecedented low backgrounds for a Eli (3.5) and Grace (1.2) and Amber The students got to make their own large scale liquid scintillation detector and Neil have Talia (2.5) and Lennox biodiesel and run emission compari- (1000 tons of 1,2,4 trimethyl ben- (0.1). Lennox was the new addition sons of their biodiesel to normal die- zene). Jay was responsible for devel- in October. When you look at 4 kids sel. oping the purification systems which under 4 it is amazing to see how This fall Jay is teaching the En- included a 2 ft. diameter, 25 ft. tall quickly they change. We continue to gineering Ethics course and co- distillation column built with the com- have weekly dinners and there is lots teaching Energy Technologies with bination of high purity of confusion when everyone is run- Yiguang Ju from MAE. The first day (pharmaceutical grade material finish- ning around the house. The girls, of the ethics course was the day when es) and high vacuum technology Talia and Grace, lead the activities. the VW scandal on emissions control (<10-8 mbar-l/s leak rate). It is quite They give big smiles and then go and broke. Perfect timing to study the an elegant piece of classical chemical wreak havoc on poor Eli and the causes of ethical lapses by engineers in engineering in a very non-traditional dogs. Emily’s shar pei goes and hides corporate environments. Jay has also application! (see Benziger, J. The in the dog crate when Grace decides been introducing movies as a way to Borexino purification system. Interna- she wants to play. introduce some of the ethical challeng- tional Journal of Modern Physics A Jay and Emily have also been es. For the recent class on environ- 2014, 29.) helping out with a lot of the child care mental ethics we watch WALL-E to Because of the successful Chemi- for Eli and Grace. Tara is a nurse look at the consequences of engineers cal Engineering efforts the detector practitioner at Cornell Medical Cen- making too much “stuff”. The recent has successfully measured the 7Be and ter. So, on the days she works Jay is reading assignment also caught the pp neutrino fluxes and set new limits responsible to get the kids up, fed, students by surprise – they are asked on the CNO solar neutrino fluxes. dressed and delivered to nursery to read The Lorax! The class has The detector has also achieved strik- school in the morning. The evening some fascinating discussions covering ing success measuring geoneutrinos brings the reverse activities – pick topics from engineering responsibility from the earth’s core. kids up, feed them, and get them to for oil spills to automobile safety and Jay is now working with the bed. Eli is negotiating most nights to even the engineering responsibilities physicists on ways to use salts see Star Wars again and again. He in protecting privacy on Facebook. (sodium carbonate and sodium io- wants to be a storm trooper when he Jay is always interested in hearing dide) to make solid scintillators that grows up. After a year of taking care how technology challenges the re- can be introduced to the Borexino of Grace and Eli, Jay and Emily real- sponsibility of engineers to society detector as a new Dark Matter Detec- ize why you have kids when you are and would love to hear from any tor. young – it takes too much energy to alumni with recommendations. Jay’s fuel cell efforts are slowing keep up with little kids day after day. Even though Jay’s group has down as he graduated four group Emily has completed her first shrunk Jay has had a flurry of publi- members in 2013. Jay is hopeful to year of retirement. Besides the cations for the Borexino Solar Neutri- clean out a backlog of partial manu- grandkids she has found lots to keep no Detector. Borexino is a 1000 ton scripts with the respite from the flow her occupied. She is playing her harp liquid scintillator detector located from students anxious to finish up. It now instead of the bagpipes. But she 1000 m below Gran Sasso in Italy. is giving Jay the opportunity to focus continues with her Scottish heritage (Gran Sasso is in the Apennines on unifying the concepts of multi- and made another kilt this past sum- where the Germans held Mussolini phase transport in fuel cells. Jay is mer. She has also been going down prisoner.) It detects fluorescence becoming very well acquainted with to Florida for a week or two every from neutrinos scattering electrons in the breadth of fuel cell literature. He other month to help out her sister and aromatic solvents. The experiment has taken on one of the senior editor avoid some of the cold weather. has been highly successful, being fea- positions for Journal of Power Jay is maintaining a full slate of tured in Nature last year (Borexino, Sources and is handling a large por- teaching. Last spring he collaborated C. Neutrinos from the primary proton tion of the fuel cell manuscripts and a with Bruce Koel and Bob Pru- -proton fusion process in the Sun. Na- significant fraction of manuscripts
Page 5 coving photoelectrochemical devices. our efforts to bring microfluidics to this proposal we are developing a new The problem with having to read so the problem of RNA/protein phase technology to dynamically assemble many papers on a narrow subject is transitions and cell growth control. liquid-phase nuclear bodies that will you realize how little progress is be- She will continue her research as a directly impact the organization and ing made on making fuel cells a com- faculty member at Azim Premji Uni- activity of the genome. We also were mercial success. versity, a liberal arts college in Banga- granted seed funding through the lore, India. She is joined by her hus- Princeton-Humboldt strategic part- The Brangwynne lab wishes eve- band Shashi Thutupalli (an honorary nership. Together with Sabine Petry ryone Happy Holidays and best wish- Brangwynne lab member, having in Molecular Biology, and Simone es for the new year! For us, 2015 was closely collaborated with Sravanti on Reber at Humboldt University in Ber- a very exciting and dynamic year. some fantastic work studying C. ele- lin, we are pursuing a joint project to We welcomed a new postdoc, Laura gans population dynamics!), who will study liquid phase organelles and plan Gray, who is working jointly with the take up a faculty position at the to work together next summer at the Priestley lab on a MRSEC-funded NCBS in Bangalore. MBL in Woods Hole. project to study synthetic and protein This year the lab is grateful for Things are good on the home polymers. Visiting postdoc Huaiying several honors and awards. Graduate front. Cliff and Sarah spent a quiet Zhang spent a few months in our lab students Lian Zhu and Nicole Taylor summer in NJ with some trips to see to finish up the collaboration we be- both won highly competitive NSF family in New England. Leana gan at the MBL last summer; she has graduate fellowships - such good for- turned 5 this fall and is finishing her now started another postdoc at Penn. tune to have talented and well-trained last year of nursery school before We also were excited to host three CBE students! Cliff won the Ameri- starting kindergarten. She is current- talented undergraduates over the can Society of Cell Biology (ASCB)/ ly interested in gymnastics, Irish step summer: REU student Jasmine Gibco Emerging Leader Prize. The dancing, native American culture, and Camacho, and Princeton undergradu- award comes with a $5,000 check (!), ice skating (maybe she’ll join Cliff and ates Martin Kurian (currently a CBE and was given “For discovering that Mikko at noon-time hockey, in about sophomore), and Tiffany Richardson nonmembrane bound cellular com- 14 years?). Audrey is 2 and 1/2 and (Molecular Biology junior). Both partments can form by liquid-liquid has started going to nursery school a Martin and Tiffany are continuing phase separation, which has launched few days a week. She likes to play with their research projects during a completely new research field at the hide and seek with her sister, dress the academic year. Jordan Shivers interface of biology and physics”. up, and generally says lots of cute has returned to the lab as a senior Things in our field have indeed things. Right on schedule, Audrey thesis student, joined by Gil de gotten very exciting, with interest in turned 2 and quickly squashed the Oliveira Gil. We’ve also had Aleena liquid phases in cells rapidly expand- notion that this child was “less chal- Patel (CBE) and Zidong Zhang ing (It’s “raining liquids”, as a recent lenging”, but she continues to amaze (QCB) as Ph.D. rotation students Molecular Cell progress article de- us at every moment! They are both pursuing exciting early stage projects. scribed the explosive growth of this wonderful and wonderfully energetic, The lab said goodbye to our first field). Cliff continues to travel widely and keep their parents continually postdoc, Steph Weber. Steph joined to give seminars about the lab’s work. busy and very proud. the lab soon after our doors opened, We were fortunate to have a number and was an ever-present and key of papers come out this year in top Happy Holidays from the founding member of our team. Her journals including PNAS, Molecular Brynildsen lab! Lab highlights from work revealed that the physics of Cell, Nature Physics, Biophysical Jour- 2015 include an NSF CAREER phase separation explains a number of nal, Current Biology, Scientific Re- award, a Howard B. Wentz, Jr. Jun- aspects of the assembly of nuclear or- ports, and Proc. Royal Soc. B. Among ior Faculty Award, and grants from ganelles. We were sad to see her go, the terrific Brangwynne lab student the NIH, Army Research Office, and but excited because she is off to big- and postdoc work published this year School of Engineering and Applied ger and better things - she landed a is the Biophysical Journal article by Science (Forese Family Fund for In- well-deserved faculty position at former senior thesis student and first novation). The Brynildsen lab also McGill University, where she will author William Gilpin (‘14), who is celebrated the graduation of its first begin her independent career. We now doing a Ph.D. at Stanford. Ph.D. student, Stephanie Amato, who are also sad but excited for postdoc We also were fortunate to have also received an Air Products Assis- Sravanti Uppaluri, who is leaving us two more proposals funded. We re- tants in Instruction Award for her the end of this year. Sravanti has ceived a grant from the NIH as part of excellent work as an AI for CBE341. done excellent work, and pioneered the large 4D Nucleome project. For In addition, Jonathan Robinson, an- Page 6 other Ph.D. student in the group, re- undergraduate students, and post- erts in Adelaide and Prof. T. Sapsis at ceived an Emerging Alumni Scholars docs. This past year saw the gradua- MIT (on equation-free computations Award, which recognizes students tion of Dr. Kevin Daly, now at Exx- for partial differential equations). He who have excelled in research and onMobil, who was jointly advised also collaborates with Tom Bertalan demonstrated an impressive ability to with Thanos Panagiotopoulos and Jay (one of our strong group of fourth- communicate their work to broad au- Benziger. A research highlight in year Ph.D. students) on linking un- diences. 2015 was the publication of a compu- certainty quantification with complex This fall we welcomed two CBE tational paper in the Proceedings of the networks (and, in particular, models senior thesis students, Sara Sacco and National Academy of Sciences on the of physiological neural networks, also Joseph Graen, and one Oxford ex- mechanism and rate of ice nucleation with our friend Prof. Carlo Laing change student, Glen-Oliver Gowers, at atmospherically-relevant conditions. from Auckland). Alexander Holiday who will be conducting his senior The lead author of this work was Dr. (along with Prof. A. Zagaris at Twen- year project with us. Over the sum- Amir Haji-Akbari, a post-doctoral te) has been making big strides in mer, we hosted Michael Vetick, a researcher in Pablo’s group. Pablo’s finding how to reduce the number of Mercer County Community College family is doing very well. Silvia con- parameters in complex reaction net- (MCCC) student who conducted a 6- tinues to enjoy teaching science at works, while Dmitry Pozharskyi an- week internship with us, Dhruva Princeton Day School. Gabriel lives chors our work on designing engi- Byrapatna, a high school student who in Washington, DC, and works as neered granular crystal materials worked with us through the Prince- national political reporter at Politico. (with P. Kevrekidis at UMass and C. ton Laboratory Learning Program, Dina is a senior at Princeton; her in- Daraio at the ETH) and, more gener- and Viveka Mastandrea, a Princeton terests span neuroscience and public ally, on coarse-graining large optimi- undergraduate majoring in computer health. Pablo and his family, includ- zation problems. The collaboration science who worked with us to devel- ing Tigger, our Bernese Mountain with Stas’ group on image pro- op a host-pathogen web-game. This Dog, send you their warmest holiday cessing/data mining in developmental year we published articles in the jour- greetings! biology is a constant source of ideas nals Nature Communications, Current and challenges, and the link with Yale Biology, Metabolic Engineering, mBio, Yannis Kevrekidis: This was, in and Prof. Coifman’s group in Mathe- Antimicrobial Agents and Chemothera- many ways, a very good year for the matics there is proving especially py, and Current Protocols in Microbi- group, but it was marked by the de- fruitful through visits of Prof. Ronen ology, with another two that are cur- parture of two important members – Talmon from the Technion – and be- rently in press at mBio and PLoS Dr. Matt Williams, our NSF Postdoc- cause several excellent students/ Computational Biology. 2015 was an toral Fellow, who started working at postdocs from that group have moved eventful year for the Brynildsen lab, UTRC in Hartford, and Dr. (as of last to PACM in Princeton, working with and Mark is looking forward to what June) Carmeline Dsilva, who is now our collaborator there, Prof. Amit 2016 holds! working for Bloomberg. At least Car- Singer. We had an international visi- meline stayed geographically in tor with Jay Benziger this summer, Pablo Debenedetti continues to Princeton, and since Yannis visits Prof. Serafim Kalliadasis from Imperi- enjoy his job as Princeton’s Dean for UTRC often, he gets to meet and even al College, collaborating on Jay’s in- Research. Communications, technolo- work with Matt sometimes. On the sights about two-phase flow in fuel gy licensing, corporate and founda- plus side, we have a new group mem- cells. tion relations, and research compli- ber, David Sroczynski, who in a broad This semester Yannis is on sab- ance are some of the job’s many inter- sense continues along the lines of batical in Munich, Germany (yes, he esting aspects, all of which are di- complex systems computational re- did go to the Oktoberfest there) – he rected towards supporting Princeton’s search that Carmeline was pursuing. is Hans Fischer Senior Fellow at the thriving research enterprise. Chair- We also have a new postdoctoral sci- Technical University in Muenchen, ing the search committees for the next entist in the group, Dr. Ray Sehgal and Stavroula and 5 yr-old Domna - Dean of the School of Engineering from UMass (from the group of our who this year started kindergarten!) and Applied Science and the next friend and collaborator Dimitri are spending some time with him Vice President for the Princeton Plas- Maroudas–Ray will work at the inter- there in November and December. ma Physics Laboratory are especially face between stat mech simulations Stavroula is also on sabbatical from interesting ongoing activities. On the and data mining. Dr. Minseok Choi, Rutgers, and we are proud to say that personal research front, Pablo consid- our other postdoctoral fellow, is a the wife-husband team got their first ers himself privileged to work with great link with the groups of Prof. G. joint NSF proposal funded this year such a talented group of graduate and Karniadakis at Brown, Prof. A. Rob- (a little modeling and computation at
Page 7 the service of drug delivery experi- no from UCLA, also have worked in interfaces related to catalytic oxidation ments at Rutgers!). George is now a our group as Visiting Student Re- of aqueous contaminants. sophomore in Princeton (and leaning search Collaborators. Dr. Laura Steven Wulfsberg will have his towards Physics). It has been won- Kraya, Dr. Coleman Kronawitter, and FPO in December covering his re- derful to have Lakis Mountziaris form Dr. Xiaofang Yang are Associate Re- search related to liquid metals as plas- UMass, a good friend and collabora- search Scholars doing research in the ma-facing materials for fusion energy tor over many years, be on sabbatical group. Last spring Jacob Miller systems, which was part of a joint in Princeton this Fall – and our col- (CBE) and Olivia Watson grant with other Princeton faculty, laboration with Prof. Bill Gear, who (Chemistry) completed their senior Profs. Howard Stone, Steve Bernasek, this Fall gave a plenary lecture on thesis research within our group. Emily Carter, Pablo Debenedetti, and Rhodes, in Greece, on some of this This summer we had three under- Thanos Panagiotopoulos. Seyi Fa- work, continues very fruitfully. There graduates participating in research in soranti continues his research, joined have been several trips and invited/ our laboratories, and this fall Thomas recently by Thomas Thiem, on the plenary talks (London, Vienna, Zur- Beauchemin (CBE) is doing junior fundamental surface science of plasma ich, Patras…) but it is a pleasure to independent study with us. Six un- -facing components (PFCs) for im- have a recent nice development to dergraduates are doing senior thesis proved plasma performance in the report: Yannis got elected a few days research in our lab this fall and com- National Spherical Tokamak Experi- ago by the Academy of Athens (the ing spring: Manali Gokhale, Jessica ment-Upgrade (NSTX-U) at PPPL. Greek National Academy) as a corre- Jahnke, Aoi Senju, and Abigail Ulcej Steven and Seyi were also supported sponding member. For his induction from CBE, Kevin Pardinas from partially by the Program in Plasma he now (alas!) has to prepare a talk MAE, and Melina Acevedo from Science and Technology (PPST) at about his work, in Greek, that should Chemistry. Princeton. A new postdoctoral re- be palatable to a general audience. Peng Zhao and Clark Chen are searcher Dr. Luxherta Buzi will be Yannis will be back in Princeton in working on a solar fuels project to joining us in the NSTX-U project at the Spring (teaching differential understand the surface chemistry of the end of November. Also working equations again!); he already looks water oxidation on pure and modified in our labs at PPPL, Dr. Laura forward to summer visits to the New- hematite (iron oxide) surfaces. Dr. Kraya, Michelle Hofman and Yuxin ton Institute (as a Rothschild Fellow) Coleman Kronawitter is heading up a Yang are carrying out fundamental in Cambridge, and to the Zuse Insti- related project on establishing the role studies of reactive processes at plasma tut (as an Einstein Fellow) in Berlin. of the electrode surface in solar-driven -surface interfaces, supported by pyridine-catalyzed CO2 reduction, AFOSR in collaboration with Prof. Bruce Koel and his group have with exciting new results locating the George Schatz at Northwestern Uni- had a good year. The group contin- reactive sites for nucleophilic attack in versity and Dr. Yevgeny Raitses at ues to conduct their research in labor- the adsorbed pyridine molecule deter- PPPL. Yao-Wen Yeh, working both atories in J111 and G100 in the mined by molecular orbital-resolved at PPPL and in the Image and Analy- EQuad and T260 and C123 at the imaging of pyridine chemisorbed on a sis Center (IAC) in PRISM, is lead- Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory GaP surface using a low-temperature ing our contributions to a new large (PPPL). Bruce also moved offices at scanning tunneling microscope DOE grant involving several Prince- PPPL to L219C. Clark Chen, Yuxin (STM) at Brookhaven National La- ton faculty and led by Dr. Yevgeny Yang, Manny Scoullos, and Thomas boratory (BNL). Manny Scoullos is Raitses at PPPL on fundamental stud- Thiem are graduate students in CBE investigating the fundamentals of bio- ies of synthesis of nanomaterials using doing their research in the group. mass upgrading to fuels and chemicals arc discharges. Peng Zhao, Oluseyi Fasoranti, over catalytic bimetallic nanoparticles Several people have left the Michelle Hofman, and Steven Wulfs- in a collaborative research project group during the past year. Jie Fu is berg (coadvised with Prof. Steven with Prof. Simon Podkolzin at Ste- off to her new job at Intel following Bernasek) are graduate students in vens Institute of Technology. Dr. the completion of her Ph.D. degree in the Chemistry department who are Xiaofang Yang is working with Prof. Chemistry and thesis “Structure and working in the group. Yao-Wen Yeh Dan Steingart and his group on ad- reactivity of nickel and iron modified (coadvised with Dr. Nan Yao) is a vancing closed cell zinc bromine cells palladium(111) surfaces.” Dwayne graduate student in Electrical Engi- for large, low cost energy storage. Wang has returned to Singapore after neering in our group. Graduate stu- We also continue to work on a small completing his MS degree in CBE dents Helge Stein from the Ruhr- joint project with Prof. Weile Yan at and thesis “Atomic H interactions University-Bochum (through the Texas Tech University investigating with modified and unmodified single REACH program) and Marlene Pati- reactions at iron-enriched mineral crystal surfaces.” Dr. Angie Capece is
Page 8 now an Assistant Professor of Physics considerable attention in books and in and Caroline came back to do their at The College of New Jersey, and the journal literature. As Prigogine theses, and they were joined by Kenny Dr. John Roszell is now a Project made clear, his principle has signifi- Hubbell, Jason Qin, and Lawrence Consultant at SunGard Financial cant limitations. Mort has been able Yu. Last but not least, Jared Balaich, Systems in Toronto, Canada. to show that the entropy potential a first-year molecular biology grad This fall, Bruce is teaching CBE associated with his work leads to a student, has been rotating in the lab 526 Surface Science, and he co-taught minimum entropy principle for the this fall. Jamie continues in his role CBE 346 Core Laboratory last spring steady-state which has much greater as undergraduate departmental repre- with Bob Prud’homme and Jay Ben- scope and validity. The generality sentative, and enjoys interacting with ziger. Outside of teaching and re- and comprehensiveness of the new the undergrads. We have nearly 50 search, Bruce chaired the SEAS Self- equations have led Mort to the conclu- seniors this year, nearly 40 juniors, Study Committee on Facilities and sion that with sufficient effort, the and nearly 60 sophomores. Jamie Resources during the past year, con- equations may eventually be included continues to teach the separations tinues to serve on the Science Adviso- among of the fundamental equations course, CBE 250, for the 8th time this ry Committee of the Center for Func- of the field. Further confirmation of fall. He also taught his elective Bio- tional Nanomaterials (CFN) at BNL, the validity of the equations comes molecular Engineering (CBE 438) and served on several review commit- from the agreement of the results of last spring. CBE 438 is getting tees for large DOE projects. the equations with other completely (temporarily) retired in spring 2016 independent methods. The considera- so that Jamie can teach a new course Mort Kostin has been continuing ble time that Mort has been spending entitled Enzymes. Henry the dog is his work on his generalization of tran- on this research is the most exciting still a frequent presence in Hoyt Labs, sition state theory, which is based on and enjoyable of his career. where he’s learned how to tolerate a his previous publications, and which 10 hour+ workday (hint: it involves has required him to solve a large It’s been a busy 2015 for the several walks around campus). Henry number of challenging problems asso- Link lab. Grad student Mikhail was able to meet a bunch of CBE al- ciated with the generalization. In Maksimov came back to Princeton ums during reunions, many of whom many cases he has obtained excellent from sunny San Diego (where he’s an couldn’t believe how big he’s gotten. to very good agreement with experi- engineer for Illumina) to defend his ment with no adjustable parameters, thesis in January. A couple of papers Lynn Loo: It seems that the year which is the usual standard of re- from Mikhail’s thesis were accepted goes by even quicker (as if that’s pos- search of very high quality. The ad- this year. By the time you are reading sible!) with a baby toddler in tow! vantages of this new approach are this, Alan Futran will have defended Drew is now two and appears to be that it is more comprehensive, more his thesis too. That leaves five grad quite the chatterbox! Weekends this accurate and more rigorous than the students in the lab, Caitlin Allen year were filled with visits to the Phil- well-known traditional equations of (G6), Frank Piscotta (G4), Joe Koos adelphia zoo, the Camden aquarium transition state theory. As you may (G4), Chuhan Zong (G4), and Wai and the various parks in New York recall, on July 1, 2013 he took retire- Ling Cheung (G2). Everyone except City. In the summer, Drew enjoyed ment, principally so that he would for Wai Ling headed out to Denver getting wet and making friends at the have a better opportunity to make last March for the ACS meeting splash park in our neighborhood of further progress on these important where everybody presented their re- Tribeca and at the fountain at the problems. Initially, he was able to search. As always, the Link lab host- Woodrow Wilson Plaza (although I’m make outstanding advances during ed a bunch of senior thesis students. pretty sure we’re not supposed to go his available time, but originally un- Ariel Kunkel, Nini Le, and Caitlin in it!). Of course, Cassie and Baxter anticipated obstacles have somewhat Wood graduated in May. In spring of were in tow for these excursions so slowed his rate of progress. Never- 2015, we had two students doing jun- you can imagine how long it takes and theless, by devoting additional time ior independent work as well, Chad the chaos that entails each time we get and effort, he has been able to show, Wangsanuwat ’16 and Steven Tsai ready to leave the house! 2015 was a for example, how his previous work ’17. Caroline Kim ’16, from the mo- year of matrimony for the group. Petr on the generalizations of transition lecular biology department, also Khlyabich got married earlier in the state theory can be used to improve joined the lab last spring to do her year; Geoff Purdum and Anna Hailey on the principle of minimum entropy thesis work. Caroline was in the lab got married late in the summer. production for the steady-state, which over the summer, and we also hosted Melda Sezen is engaged and is plan- was advanced by the Nobel laureate I. Cat Nguyen ’17 for a summer intern- ning for a summer wedding in Turkey Prigogine, and which has received ship. Once fall rolled around, Chad next year. So it appears that Nick
Page 9 Davy will be the sole bachelor in the Mike Celia has proven to be quite the In the summer, Lynn completed group after August 2016! learning experience for all involved! her term as the Associate Director of On the research front, we wel- Geoff Purdum published a paper that External Partnerships at the comed Dr. Marcos Reyes-Martinez, describes polymorphic transfor- Andlinger Center, after having suc- who joined us from Alex Briseno’s mations in naphthalene diimide thin cessfully led the negotiations to set up group at the University of Massachu- films in Advanced Functional Materi- an umbrella research agreement be- setts at Amherst. With an Intelli- als; his expertise in x-ray diffraction tween Princeton and ExxonMobil. At gence Community Post-doctoral Fel- has also expanded his collaborations $5MM for the first five years, this lowship, Marcos is evaluating the ani- with research groups around the umbrella agreement is meant to lower sotropy in mechanical properties and world. Melda Sezen discovered inter- barrier for collaboration between re- opto-electronic properties of 2D- and esting piezoelectric properties in con- searchers at ExxonMobil and faculty hybrid organic-inorganic materials. ducting polymers and is exploiting on campus. Princeton E-ffiliates Part- Maggie Cutlip ’16 returned to our these traits to fabricate highly sensi- nership is now in the capable hands of laboratories for her senior thesis re- tive and accurate temperature sensors. Paul Chirik, professor of chemistry. search after having spent a summer She also spent a week in the summer The fall semester thus saw Lynn fo- and the spring semester with us, and at UCSB exploring the thermoelectric cusing on other activities, including is examining ternary blends compris- properties of her conducting poly- moderating a debate at the World ing non-fullerene materials for solar mers. Nick Davy continues to explore Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of cells. Matt Volpe ’16 spent the spring the properties of hetero-atom- the New Champions in Dalian on the semester examining the solution char- containing contorted hexabenzocor- next industrial revolution, and spend- acteristics of perovskite formation. onenes and has made the first solar ing time as a visiting professor and a Over the summer, we hosted Sally cells comprising a pair of contorted distinguished visiting professor at Jiao ’18 and Anastasia Ivanushkina hexabenzocoronenes. Interestingly, Nanjing Technological University and ’18 with fellowships from Princeton these solar cells exhibit unusually high Peking University’s new graduate Environmental Institute’s Grand photovoltage, whose origin Nick in- school in Shenzhen, respectively. Challenges Program and the Anding- tends to elucidate in the upcoming Come spring, Lynn will serve as Act- er Center’s Lewis Summer Internship year. Post-doc Dr. Yi Ren published ing Vice Dean to the School of Engi- Program, respectively. Fall 2015 saw a nice paper detailing the self- neering and Applied Science while the addition of Dallas Nan ’16 who is assembly characteristics of axially- Jeremy Kasdin takes his well- conducting techno-economic analysis functionalized subphthalocyanine de- deserved sabbatical leave to conduct of biofuels production through non- rivatives, and has submitted a manu- research in Hawaii. thermochemical routes and Prof. Kok script on the design, synthesis and Volatility returned to financial Keong Cheong, a Fulbright Scholar characterization of diazophosphepines markets in 2015. Philip has been from the University of Tunku Abdul derivatives. In this manuscript, Yi busy at Dillman Capital researching Rahman in Malaysia. showed beautifully how he is able to and deploying new investment strate- We said goodbye to Anna tune their opto-electronic properties gies as global markets digest central Hiszpanski, who successfully defend- through simple functionalization bankers’ passing the baton on rates, ed her thesis in the spring; she is cur- routes. Post-doc Dr. Jia Gao contin- OPEC’s fight for marketshare in oil rently a post-doctoral fellow at Law- ued his work on carbon nanotubes, and China’s restructuring towards a rence-Livermore National Laborato- and submitted a manuscript that de- consumer-led economy. His activities ry. Tyler Tamasi ’15 also completed tailed the charge transport character- have led to numerous invited speaking his degree requirements and graduat- istics of what we believe to be the first opportunities, including at the Waters ed in May. solution-processed graphene nanorib- USA conference and at the Cyber Anna Hailey is on the bon field-effect transistor with ambi- RISK North America conference. homestretch, having published a pa- polar characteristics! Post-doc Dr. With the year winding down, he now per in Advanced Functional Materials Petr Khlyabich continues to multitask looks forward to some travel and R&R on the impact of interspherulitic on elucidating the structural develop- with his parents in Malaysia in No- boundaries on charge transport. We ment in ternary blend solar cells as vember, and his in-laws in Taiwan in are also in the final stages of editing well as hybrid organic-inorganic per- December. her draft manuscript detailing the ovskite solar cells, having published techno-economic analysis of cofiring one paper that relates the structural Happy holidays from the Nelson biomass and natural gas for liquid development of ternary blend active group! 2015 was a highly productive transportation fuels production. This layers to constituent miscibility in Ad- year, during which several of our fa- collaboration with Eric Larson and vanced Functional Materials. vorite projects were published in high Page 10 profile journals. We had one new Arash Nikoubashman, who has been a degree from the University of Minne- graduate student, Alisya Anlas, one PCCM fellow in the group since Octo- sota, where he did undergraduate re- new postdoctoral fellow, James Spur- ber of 2012, got a position at the In- search on DNA microfluidics. He is lin, and one new research associate, stitute of Physics, University of Mainz working on self-assembly of patchy Suifen Lyu, join the group this year. in his native Germany. He also particles in the presence of colloids. Our lung projects have revealed some earned a Blavatnik Award for Young Continuing group members in- exciting mechanical mechanisms for Scientists, which “supports and hon- clude third-year Ph.D. students Mike development, some of which were ors outstanding scientists and engi- Howard from Penn State University, first postulated in the late 1800s! neers” and comes with $30,000 of and Andrew Santos from North Caro- These projects are led by postdoctoral unrestricted funding. The award was lina State. Mike is the recipient of a fellows Victor Varner, Adam Navis, conferred during an elaborate ceremo- National Defense Science and Engi- and James Spurlin, with fantastic as- ny held at the New York Academy of neering Graduate Fellowship and is sistance by senior thesis students Sa- Sciences in early November. Zoltan interested in flow effects on morpholo- hana Jayaraman and Daniel Tzou. Mester, a postdoctoral research associ- gy and crystallization of colloid- Graduate students Michael Siedlik ate since October 2013, moved from polymer systems. Andrew is the re- and Siyang Han continue to lead our Princeton this past summer to take up cipient of a National Science Founda- efforts in mammary epithelial mor- a position with Aspen Technology in tion Graduate Fellowship and is phogenesis. Our studies on the me- Houston, Texas. Filipe Lima com- working on self-assembly of surfac- chanical regulation of tumor progres- pleted his stay with the group study- tants. Joey Vella (who is co- sion are being carried out by postdoc- ing self-assembly of ionic micelles and supervised by Pablo Debenedetti), is toral fellow Mei Fong Pang and grad- returned to the University of Sao Pau- now the “senior student” in the uate students Alexandra Piotrowski- lo, Brazil. Evaline Tsai, an under- group, even though he is only in his Daspit, Allison Simi, and Alisya An- graduate student in the group (Class fourth year. He works on simulations las, in collaboration with Joe’s group of 2015) completed her senior thesis, of liquid metal properties in connec- at Boston University and cancer biol- for which she won the Michelle Goud- tion to their possible role as plasma- ogists at the Mayo Clinic; three senior ie Award (a first for the group). She facing components in fusion systems. thesis students, Danny Thomson, is now pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Postdoctoral associate Hao Jiang, who Divya Jayaraman, and Ben Spar are Cambridge, U.K. The group hosted has a Ph.D. in chemical engineering working on different aspects of tumor Aishwarya Gautam, a REACH stu- from the University of Wyoming and mechanics. dent from Hong Kong University of a B.S. from the China University of Terry is now an inquisitive and Science and Technology in the sum- Petroleum is working on water / highly opinionated first grader who mer. Two undergraduate students, CO2 / electrolyte phase behavior and loves math, art, and playing tag with Kevin Silmore and Devansh Gupta, transport properties for carbon se- his friends. He and Joe harvested also joined the group for their senior questration applications. almost 85 pounds of vegetables from theses. Kevin has already completed Thanos was on sabbatical in the our small backyard garden this year an independent junior-year project spring of 2015 and spent several (mostly cherry tomatoes and bitter and is currently working on surface weeks in Doha, Qatar, collaborating melons), despite the losses to bunnies, tension calculations for long alkanes. with Prof. Economou on problems voles, and deer. Dev is trying to resolve a puzzle relat- related to carbon sequestration. This ed to simulations of salt solubilities, past fall, he taught graduate thermo- Warm holiday greetings to all where different techniques seem to be dynamics (CBE 503), using a new from Thanos Panagiotopoulos and his giving widely different results. book on Thermodynamics and Statis- group. 2015 has been a great year, Two Ph.D. students joined the tical Mechanics by former group marked by many changes. Nate group in January and are now in their member Scott Shell, now a tenured Mahynski defended his Ph.D. thesis second year of the program. Nannan Associate Professor at the Univ. of in late May (early!) and moved to Li came to Princeton from Caltech via California, Santa Barbara. NIST, Gaithersburg, MD, where he Singapore, where she was awarded a Family updates: We continue to holds an NRC postdoctoral fellow- prestigious A*Star fellowship to pur- enjoy the Greek island of Paros for a ship. His work on directed crystalli- sue doctoral studies in the U.S. She few weeks in the summer. Elektra is zation of colloids was recognized by is working on modeling self-assembly happy with her job at Trinity Part- the Wormland Prize, conferred every of polymers into nanoparticles, con- ners in Boston where she was promot- two years by the international Ther- necting with the experimental groups ed to “senior associate consultant.” modynamics Conference (held this of Prof. Prud’homme and Priestley. Not quite by accident, she worked year in Copenhagen, Denmark). Wes Reinhart got his undergraduate with a promising intern, Dina
Page 11 Debenedetti, over the summer (see Burroughs, Hyuncheol Jeong and than I, or female Chemical Engineer- Debenedetti writeup). Ares started in Dane Christie as well as postdoctoral ing students at Princeton have much 11th grade at Princeton High School, scholar Dr. Steven Wei. Jose Santos higher ethical standards. The fishing and is active with cross-country run- completed a successful REU program was tough and frustrating. The guide ning, tennis, and playing the clarinet, working with Hyuncheol. Sunny Niu, is up on a platform polling the boat. when not busy doing homework. We Uyanga Tamir, Vivienne Tam and He can see the fish long before I can. did our first “college tour” in the late Amy Gonzalez all completed their He would then tell me where the fish summer (liked Dartmouth, Brown, senior thesis in the group in Spring were. I could never see them. He but did not like MIT!). The family 2015. This fall, Megan Lydzinski is would tell me to cast. The frustration dogs, Charlie and Rascal, are having a working on her senior thesis in the lab came in not being able to cast as far, great time playing around the house in collaboration with Mary Bur- as accurately, or as quickly as I would and leading their owners on walks roughs. Our group gave presenta- like (and certainly as he would have around Princeton. tions at APS, AIChE and ACS. In liked!). Right now I will say I don’t addition, group members delivered need to go bone fishing again. But I Happy Holidays from the Priest- presentations at several international know I felt the same way 4 years ago ley Lab! This past year the group conferences. The group also contin- when I went the first time. I assume officially welcomed Vicki Lee as a ued its participation in many outreach after some prolonged period of time I new graduate student. Vicki will be activities. Happy Holidays and Hap- will forget the frustration, remember working on the development of hy- py New Year! only the fun of the fish running and brid polymer-inorganic Janus parti- taking out 150’ of line. cles as phase selective catalyst. The Life in the Prud’homme world (2) Our Hawaii Trip: I attended group also welcomed three new post- (with apologies to Sharon, I will keep the World Molecular Imaging Confer- docs: Dr. Laura Gray, Dr. Wenda this in first person rather than the ence in Hawaii. Dottie’s ears perked Wang and Dr. Mithun Chowdhury. awkward third person). Much of the up upon hearing the venue, so she Laura, who is co-advised with Cliff interesting events this year orbit came. You have to understand one Brangwynne, will study the dynamics around trips we have taken. thing about the Prud’hommes and of soft matter in confinement. Wenda (1) Bahamas: Dottie decided purchasing things on trips. My wife will investigate new routes to prepare “we” wanted to go to the Bahamas. will say she (we) don’t need to buy Janus colloids and study Janus colloid Ok. My part of the vacation was two anything on a trip. She absolutely self-assembly. Mithun will study the days of fly-fishing for bonefish. Dot- believes that in her heart. I always properties of confined polymers as tie and I went out the first day with bring larger suitcases based on our well as investigate MAPLE as a dep- Ishmael, the guide. He was a very previous experiences. On this trip she osition tool for polymer thin film surreal fellow. He told us that he had found a fabric store with a sale on Ha- growth. Dr. Colin Neikirk, the last of 9 children – by four different women. waiian print fabric for $1 and $2 a the original Priestley Lab members, They appeared to have occurred in yard. She bought 47 yards of fabric! - successfully defended his dissertation parallel rather than serially. Dottie - which barely fit in the extra extra and is currently employed at Applied didn’t come the second day. With me, suitcase I had brought. The last day Materials in San Jose, CA. Dr. Kim- he confided that he didn’t think a just as we were leaving (i.e. we had berly Shepard also completed her marriage should last more than 10 our bags packed at the door) a fire Ph.D. in 2015. Kimberly was the years. He needed variety and change alarm went off. We were on the 15th winner of the Porter Ogden Jacobus (it didn’t seem to enter his calculation floor of the condominium. I had to Fellowship at Princeton University. what his wife(s) might think). He pee, so I told Dottie to head down and She was also a finalist for the Padden got bored with the same woman. He I would be right there. I got to the Award from the Division of Polymer then wanted to know if I got proposi- hall and Dottie was gone. She had a Physics of the American Physical So- tioned by female students frequently! 40 lb suitcase and her 15 lb carry on ciety. Kimberly is currently a senior Apparently, this would have been a satchel. I had two suitcases, each research engineer at Bend Research major point in favor of teaching, in his weighing 40 lbs. I know in a fire drill in Oregon. Dr. Rui Liu completed opinion. I said no. He said he had you are not supposed to use the eleva- his three-year postdoctoral fellowship been out with a client recently who tor. I assessed the situation: the in the group. He is currently an assis- was an applied math professor at a building was concrete, there were no tant professor at Tongji University in college in Chicago. That person said sounds of fire engines, there was no Shanghai, China. Good luck Rui! he was frequently propositioned by smoke, and if I carried these suitcases Continuing group members include female students. I suggested that ei- down 15 floors I will probably have a graduate students Chris Sosa, Mary ther he was much more handsome heart attack. Therefore, I took the Page 12 elevator. Later in our discussion (3) Reading Oz books: I have Here is another exchange: about the situation Dottie said I have started re-reading Frank Baum’s 23 “I don’t remember that building,” a problem obeying authority. Proba- volume series of Oz books, which said Dorothy. “What is it?” bly a discussion for another time. were from my father’s childhood . I “That is the College of Art and I get to the street. No fire grew up reading the series as a kid. I Athletic Perfection,” replied Ozma. trucks, no people, no Dottie. I call would hide in my bed under the co- “I had it built quite recently, and her cell phone — no answer. I text vers with a flashlight to read after my the Woggle-Bug is its president. her twice — no response. I was a folks had said it was bedtime. Ozma It keeps him busy, and the young little worried. Leaving the two suit- of Oz, which I am reading, was print- men who attend the college are no cases on the street and heading up the ed in 1913-- I am holding and reading worse off than they were before. stairs didn’t seem like a good plan. I a book that is 101 years old. That in You see, in this country are a num- waited. About 15 minutes later here itself is quite amazing. The book has ber of youths who do not like to comes my wife staggering down the beautiful color plates every few pages. work, and college is an excellent outside stairway! She had walked Even today the book is a delight. It is place for them.” down 15 flights, and then had to walk cleverly written and the vocabulary is Technical Things: Research has up one flight since there is no exit on wonderful. It has a hungry tiger who continued to be fun. Our nanoparticle level 1; you have to exit on level 2. wants to eat everyone around him, but work has taken us into interesting Her muscles were so shredded that he knows he will only be hungry collaborations involving imaging and for the next three days she couldn’t sit again, and then he will feel guilty for targeting. If you want to target a na- down without collapsing and she had having eaten a friend. So he is always noparticle to a specific disease site, to walk down stairs sideways. Her hungry. The sawhorse, that is really a you also need an imaging modality to legs just didn’t work. My poor wifey. sawhorse that came to life, is content see if it actually goes there. It is grati- Dottie’s gardening vocabulary. with his lot because he knows he is fying to learn that a major pharmaceu- As many of you know, Dottie is a useful: quite a discordant idea in our tical company has used our nanoparti- Master Gardener – the Rutgers train- culture today. Dorothy asks the saw- cle formation technology to make ing program that qualifies you to be horse: drugs for clinical trials. Another part of the Mercer County Agricultur- “Are you intelligent?” asked the startup company has formed around al Extension program. She speaks girl. our imaging platform. This year has almost exclusively about plants using “Not very”, said the creature. “It seen Vikram Pansare finish his thesis their Latin names. A rose by any oth- would be foolish to waste intelli- and Bryan Benson finishing and head- er name is still a Rosa Polyantha. I gence on a common sawhorse, ing to Solvay. From the postdoc appreciated the following Rosetta when so many professors need it. ranks: Christina Tang began her fac- Stone to help me understand her vo- So I am pretty well satisfied.” ulty position at Virginia Common- cabulary (from the Trade Secrets Well said. We professors definitely wealth, Pijus Sasmal began his faculty Garden in Carlisle PA). need all the help we can get. position at Jahaharlal Nehru Univer- sity, and Nick Weissmueller began at What the catalog says What it really means BMS. Among the Prud’homme kids, Beautiful foliage The flowers are pathetic Wendy and Patrick are still in Kenya. Delicate flowers You need a magnifying glass to see them Wendy was promoted to Associate Professor in the Duke Medical Dormant in hot weather Looks dead most of the year School. It was great fun to watch my “little daughter” give an invited talk Drought tolerant Prone to rot on her malaria research at the recent Invasive It will come up through a foot of concrete Tropical Disease Conference in Phila- delphia. We enjoy Skyping with their Late to emerge Looks dead most of the year two year old son, Eli. Graham and Michelle had their first child, Easton Native It’s a common weed (named after Ansel Easton Adams, Unusual One of the ugliest plants on the planet who they love). Graham is in a new startup that uses his computer science The smallest particle of this plant will take over skills in data mining to decide invest- Vigorous your whole garden, and you’ll never get rid of it. ment strategies for oil and gas field development. Jodie is still in her
Page 13 startup, Etagen, in Menlo Park, Cali- in the American Institute of Medical how the addition of a relatively short fornia. Taylor is trying to develop a and Biological Engineers (AIMBE), glassy block to a polyethylene chain woodworking business. Bobby was election to Fellow status in AIChE, could enormously improve the materi- promoted to manager of his AT&T and being a recipient of the Jack al’s room-temperature mechanical store. And Bradley graduated from Grebb Award for Leadership in R&D properties. NSF Fellow and third- Rutgers with a biology degree and is at BMS. The induction ceremony for year Ph.D. student Dane Christie, having a ball doing field work in wa- AIMBE was especially enjoyable since jointly advised with Rod Priestley, is ter quality monitoring for the USGS. it was with Ph.D. alumni from her mapping out the local glass transition time at Princeton – Tom Truskett and temperature within block copolymers Rick Register and Jean Tom Jackie Ying. Jean continues to enjoy selectively labeled with a fluorescent have adjusted to having only one kid leading the engineering effort at BMS probe. in the house, now that Jeffrey is a on its small-molecule portfolio, with Rick enjoyed seminar visits this sophomore at Princeton (and CBE this year being the third year in a row past year to Northeastern, U. Minne- concentrator). Nothing he’s seen so that her group has had a significant sota, and U. Washington, as well as far has convinced him to change his tech transfer effort to manufacturing invited talks at both Spring and Fall mind! Last summer, Jeff worked in for a new chemical entity. ACS National Meetings, as well as the the Materials Engineering and Sci- Senior Register Group member Smart Coatings conference in Orlando ence Division at the National Institute Raleigh Davis left Princeton at the in February (a nice respite from win- of Standards and Technology end of July to start work at Solvay ter in Princeton). Rick will also be (Gaithersburg, MD), in the same Performance Polymers outside Atlan- chair of the 2016 Gordon Conference building where Rick worked 30 years ta, returning in the fall for a successful on Polymer Physics (with Adam earlier—it is indeed a small world! and enjoyable defense of his thesis, Burns as chair of the associated Gor- (Jeff also enjoyed living with his investigating the process of shear- don Research Symposium)—the first grandma in Rockville, and all the alignment of cylinder-forming block time Rick has done any conference good food that came with it.) Jeff has copolymer thin films. At about the organization since his time as Pro- injected some energy into the Prince- same time, former postdoc Dong- gram Chair for the ACS PMSE Divi- ton club volleyball team this year, Gyun Kim left Princeton for a perma- sion in the late 1990s (and fun!). with one tournament (ending 2-2) nent staff position at the Korea Re- Finally, we were able to find a already under their belt, and more search Institute for Chemical Technol- short week in August where all four scheduled for the coming months. ogy, after publishing groundbreaking family members had no unmovable Both Rick and Jean beamed with papers in ACS Macro Letters on living commitments, allowing us to continue pride upon learning that Jeff was a vinyl addition polymerization of sub- our National Park family vacations for recipient of the Shapiro Prize for his stituted norbornenes, and in Chemis- another year, this time to Arches and scholastic performance as a freshman. try of Materials on the use of such Canyonlands National Parks in Utah, Keith has also adjusted to being polymers for recovery of butanol from and to nearby Westwater Canyon out- the (sole) focus of attention of both dilute aqueous solutions such as fer- side the parks. Lots of excellent pho- parents, initially a very distressing mentation broth. Dong-Gyun’s work tos of surreal landscapes, and of the proposition. Now a sophomore at is being continued by new postdoc family floating down the Colorado West Windsor-Plainsboro High Beomgoo Kang, recently arrived from River. School South, Keith made the varsity the University of Tennessee. The soccer team this year, which beat senior group member is now fifth-year Bill Russel is deploying his two crosstown rival West Windsor- Ph.D. student Adam Burns, working years of sabbatical leave in several Plainsboro North for the first time in on both semicrystalline block copoly- stages. The Fall of 2014 and the early four years, and has advanced to the mers and stereoregular poly- Spring of 2015 was time for his last final round of the Mercer County norbornenes, who was recently recog- graduate student, Ben Landrum, to tournament. Keith has also complet- nized with a Wu Prize for Excellence complete his Ph.D., primarily and ed training as a soccer referee and is and by selection for the Excellence in splendidly advised by Roseanna Zia at earning $35 per game, refereeing rec- Graduate Polymer Research Award Cornell. Meanwhile Priscilla and her reational soccer games for younger Symposium at the AIChE Annual helpers finished up restoring our Bou- kids in the township. (The higher Meeting in November. Fourth-year dinot Street home and with the advent hourly wage has Rick contemplating a Ph.D. student Will Mulhearn contin- of spring set to work on the gardens. career change.) ues work on identifying polymers mis- Bill left on January 2 for a sunny (and Jean had an exciting year with cible with polyethylene to high molec- very dry) winter at Stanford where her election to the College of Fellows ular weights, and recently showed the Chemical Engineering Depart- Page 14 ment chaired by Eric Shaqfeh ‘81 had soft matter. The department’s retirement din- recently moved into their spectacular The BP Institute was well situat- ner held for Bill in June was beauti- building that completed the modern ed in West Cambridge to where the fully designed and executed. Surita EQuad. While in the Bay Area, Bill “new” Cavendish had moved a num- Bhatia created an unusual Academic reconnected with a number of ber of decades ago. Chemical Engi- Tree that accommodates Bill’s 42 Sprouts, e.g. Frank Torres, Alan neering will occupy their new build- Ph.D.s and the generations following. Glendinning, Steve Niksa, and Wein- ing next Fall to join the Gates build- Many Sprouts attended from near and ing Man, as well as Ricardo Levy, a ing for computer science and at least a far. classmate at Stanford whose career is half dozen others. Eventually, all the Priscilla added to her work in the highlighted in Letters to a Young En- science and engineering departments Princeton Public Schools this year trepreneur, and Jim Tighe, a Rice will be relocated there. In anticipa- when the district finally launched the University classmate who is the Sen- tion of that, the university is building first dual immersion program in ior Advisor for the (SF) Bay Area thousands of apartments to accommo- Princeton, and one of the very few in Council. En route home in late Feb- date academic staff, fellows, and post- New Jersey. This is a significant step ruary Bill spent a week in Hong docs, and schools to educate their chil- forward for the community and very Kong evaluating applications from dren. South of Cambridge there is exciting for Priscilla who had been southeast Asia for Ph.D. programs in even more construction underway as advocating and planning for adding the local universities. When he re- the Addenbrooke’s hospital complex dual language immersion to the dis- turned to Princeton in early March, expands. trict offerings. Ben Landrum and Roseanna Zia con- The major advances on the fami- Bill’s sabbatical continues this verged in Princeton for the successful ly front were the birth in early March Fall with Bill spending two days a defense of Ben’s dissertation. The of Katla Elin Russel, to Annika and week with Norm Wagner *88 at the next day Bill left for Cambridge Uni- Bailey in Laramie, Wyoming, and the University of Delaware and most oth- versity, where he was hosted by Alex entry into kin- er days in the EQuad. Routh *00 in Gonville and Caius Col- dergarten by lege and the BP (British Petroleum) Kai, Lena and This year the Shvartsman group Institute. Daniel’s son, in has graduated its 11th Ph.D. (Bomyi Bill's three months in Europe Palo Alto. Lim, who started a postdoc with Mike included a number of trips to London, Priscilla’s deft Levine at the Genomics Institute) and including a couple of days at Imperial influence land- said goodbye to its 7th postdoc College London. One highlight was a ed Kai in the (Miriam Osterfield, who started her dinner hosted by Alice Gast*84 and Spanish dual own research program at UT South- Bradley Askins in The President’s western in Dallas). Alan Futran suc- Flat for a dozen Princeton alumni. language im- ceeded in prying a couple of secrets On another visit he met with Ellis mersion class, out of ERK, the group’s pet enzyme, Gartner, earlier with W.R. Grace but so he will com- and should defend by the end of the now in France with LaFarge. Cur- plement his year. Two new postdocs, Paul rently Ellis is the center of the efforts proficiency in Villoutreix and Nareg Djabrayan, to devise strategies to diminish the English and have joined the lab, to continue the CO2 generated by the production of Russian with a projects that had been initiated by cement, which accounts for 30% of third language. Bomyi and Alan and develop new ide- total CO2 emissions. Other activities Both our sons as. Mahim Misra is getting ready to included meetings on Arrested Gels in and our daugh- write his thesis, on the computational Cambridge, Film Formation in Lon- ters-in-law are models of shape transformations in don, a workshop in Edinburgh on happy and ac- developing tissues. Other members of Dense Suspension Flow that drew en- tive with their the lab are making steady progress in gineers from across Europe, and a day varying careers. Although both their work on developmental bioener- at Lord’s watching a cricket match. grandchildren are far away we try to getics (Jasmin Imran Alsous and In between, a trip to France included get together every two months with Yonghyun Song) and signaling en- several days with Stanford classmates episodes on Facetime between visits. zymes (Yogesh Goyal, Granton who were among the founders of the This year everyone will gather in Jindal, and Henry Mattingly). Over University of Compiegne and then a Camden, Maine for what the younger the summer, the lab hosted a noisy couple of days at ICS Strasbourg with generations hope is a white Christ- bunch of undergraduates, some of people interested in many facets of mas. whom decided to stay on during the
Page 15 academic year, increasing the number teaching the graduate math course in thesis research on growing zeolite of consumed birthday cakes and dis- Fall. Matt Girardi completed his crystals in membranes - jointly super- cussed books and movies. Ph.D. in September and started work- vised by Claire White (Civil) and ing at Institute for Defense Analysis. Sundar; Chris is now at Imperial Col- Professor Sankaran Sundaresan Three post-doctoral fellows joined his lege. Currently, Emily Viggers ’16 is sends his holiday greetings to every- group this year: Chris Boyce came in working with Sundar on thermody- one. It has been an interesting year January after a Ph.D. at Cambridge, namics of draw solutions for forward for him and his family. This summer, UK and is now beginning to look for osmosis. his daughter Hema completed her a faculty position. Jari Tapani coursework towards graduate certifi- Koehmainen came after a Ph.D. in In October, James Wei traveled cation in elementary school teaching Finland; Siavash Darvishmanesh to China to give the plenary talks at at Rider University and started stu- came from a post-doc position at Ar- the Sino-US Joint Conference in dent teacher training in Fall. Sundar kansas. Chris is exploring the fate of Chemical Engineering in Shanghai, says that it has been a revelation to wet agglomerates in fluidized beds, on “Diffusion Regimes in Zeolite learn about the rigor of the student while Jari is studying the interplay Channels”. Then he traveled to Bei- teacher experience and to witness the between triboelectrification and fluidi- jing to give the opening plenary talk growth that comes with excellent zation. Sia is studying the thermody- at the Chinese Industrial Engineering mentoring by the cooperating teacher. namics and transport characteristics of Society of Chemistry with the title of Hema will complete her training in aqueous draw solutions manifesting “Global Challenges: Dangers and Op- December. His daughter Neereja is liquid-liquid phase separation in the portunities”. In November, he trav- now a fourth-year graduate student in context of desalination through for- eled to Salt Lake City and was hon- Electrical Engineering at Princeton, ward osmosis. ored at the celebration of Minority working with Andrew Houck. She Continuing group members: Yile Affairs Committee 25th Anniversary presented her first paper at the March Gu (now a fourth year graduate stu- Celebration, and given the Pioneer of APS meeting; Sundar was in the last dent) has obtained new insights on Diversity Award. row, trying unsuccessfully to follow the role of fines on fluidization; Greg the talk dealing with interaction of Rubinstein (now a fifth year graduate photons with qubits - wonder who student) has elucidated the role of was more nervous. Sundar and his Stokes number of fluid-particle drag wife Latha spent three weeks in Ger- through detailed simulations; Lichao many in June as a part of his Hum- Cai (now a sixth year graduate stu- boldt Fellowship (at TU Hamburg- dent being supervised jointly with Harburg). This trip took them to Brian Pethica and Pablo Debenedetti) Berlin, Binz and Hamburg. They will defend his thesis on formation plan to do this Germany trip every and growth of clathrate hydrates in year for a few years and it is a nice fresh water and saline solutions in the getaway that they look forward to. next few months. Ali Ozel, a research When they were in Germany, some- associate in his group, who has been thing exciting happened in New Jer- probing coarse-graining Euler- sey: Neereja’s friend Shrikant (a for- Lagrange simulations for fluid- mer Ph.D. student from Houck’s particle flows, is beginning to look for group, now at IBM) proposed to positions in Europe. Neereja and she accepted. She now Professor Fernando Milioli and has a shiny ring! They are planning a his wife, Dr. Chris Milioli from Uni- wedding in summer 2016. Sundar versity of Sao Paulo, Brazil are visit- turned 60 this summer – following a ing Sundar in 2015. They were at family tradition, there was an extend- Princeton four years ago and are en- ed family get–together in the end of joying their second visit as well. They July, with celebrations (and prayer are trying to understand scaling for events, which is also typical in his fluidized beds. family). This summer brought the happy At work, Sundar taught the un- news of marriage of Greg Rubinstein dergraduate course on Chemical Re- to his classmate Anna Hailey. Chris action Engineering in Spring and is Kwadwo Gordon ’15 did his senior Page 16 Staff Updates
The Chemical and Biological Engineering staff has enjoyed another productive year assisting the faculty and students.
We wish everyone a very happy holiday season!!
This year in the Armstrong household could pretty much be defined as an ongoing episode of “This Old House” with cast and crew who are more than ready for the season to be over! Jackie and her husband Jim started last February by gutting the kids’ bathroom down to bare walls and rebuilding it. Bitten with the home improvement bug (or too tired to realize what they were about to get themselves into…), Jackie and Jim decided to rip out the kitchen as well. The kids have been really good sports about living in a construction zone. We only have three at home now. They all had great years with Bridget being in the play, playing field hockey and soccer, and being in jazz band and regular band. Andrew got rave re- views for his lead in the play and won three awards and distinguished honors at 8th grade graduation. Victoria worked really hard for her final youth project and made her confirmation in church. Liz graduated from high school winning several art awards and a local education scholarship and left for East Stroudsburg University to major in History Education. Zack is working hard and really enjoying his 2-year LDS mission in Salt Lake City (and Jackie continues to count down the weeks until he comes home in July 2016). Jackie is thankful to be part of this great CBE department and hopes everyone has a wonderful holiday season and a joyful, peaceful new year!
Adrian Cupid: I can’t believe we are about to enter into 2016, where did the time go? Life continues to fly by and in our household as the Parents are officially “The Cupid Chauffeurs to the kids”. Our son Kellan has landed the lead role and is currently acting in an independent film and our daughter Turquoise (who auditioned and got accepted into a Dance Com- pany in NJ for this year) completed a successful 5 week Dance program in New York with the Alvin Ailey Dance Company. It is definitely an exciting time in our household even with the busy schedules. Have a Blessed and safe Holiday from my Family to yours!
MaryBeth Friedfeld: This year has been more hectic, but in a good way. Plans for Katie’s wedding this coming June are progressing – now if only I could find a mother-of-the-bride dress! John is working (finally) at SRI International and is enjoying learning about wafer fabrication and recipe engineering. Matthew is in his final year at Rider and working harder than ever. John and I are trying hard to keep track of everything going on in our lives. Life at Hoyt can also be hectic with construction, mice and noise affecting us all to a certain degree. Just when things seem like they are under control, a new challenge comes along. At least it keeps the day interesting! Happy Holidays to all and my best wishes for a safe and joyful new year.
Page 17 Staff Updates
Lisa Kraut: I’m very excited to be the newest member of the CBE staff! My family, horses and dog are gearing up for our second Northern winter as we moved here in August 2014, from Florida. Wishing everyone a very Happy Holiday Season and all the best in the New Year!
Sharon Malley: Thank you to the CBE staff for making this the best department! Mike and I celebrated our Fifteenth Wedding Anniversary on September 17th in Hilton Head. My brother and his wife sold their home, bought a new one, and moved all within a 6-week period. It was a very hectic time for everyone, but we all survived! My niece, who is an ER nurse, has returned to school part-time for her Master’s Degree. My stepdaughter is interning on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and loving every minute it. Here’s wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday season, and many new and wonderful memories for the future!
Karen Oliver: Yet another year has flown by and our Ph.D. program continues to grow stronger! We have an amazing first year class of 18 that entered in September. They have brought a ton of laughter and energy to the department – I love it! – (let’s hope that lasts throughout their tenure here in the department)! Fourteen students graduated during the 2014-15 AY, and three more since then! They are certainly missed, but have moved on to make the world a better place. I continue to enjoy my “Grandma” status immensely!! Krissy is running all over the place (at 9 months old!!) and a joy every second I get to spend with her! I wish everyone a joyous holiday season and a safe and prosperous 2016!
Eric Paul: It has been a quite year for me for the most part. I am still happy with my new apartment I moved into last fall. It is nice not to have to shovel snow in the winter. My family has been OK and we are pressing on. I wish you all Happy Holidays and a very good New Year.
Don Schoorman: Another year has passed us by all too quickly. Last year the undergraduate lab had 48 students enrolled, the largest class in the 16 years I’ve been here. Two new experiments were brought on line, a spin coating experiment and a 4th control experiment. The concept for a new level control experiment came out of my trip to visit Faith Morrison at Mich- igan Technological University last spring. After a few tweaks, it proved to be a good experiment. I want to convey my many thanks to Faith and Tom for their assistance and hospitality while I was visiting MTU. As a result of generous fund- ing from SEAS, we have been able to upgrade nearly all the Core Lab experiments over the last 4 or 5 years. In the past 5 years we have not had a single experiment breakdown that could not be fixed in less than 30 minutes. On a more personal note, the thought of re- tirement keeps drifting through my head. I REALLY enjoy working with the great faculty, staff and students at Princeton, and then I think it would be nice to be able to sleep in whenever I want and spend more time pursu- ing hobbies. So far, Princeton has been winning the tug of war in my head. I wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.
Undergraduate Administrator, Julie Gerek Sefa would like to wish everyone a happy, healthy, blessed holiday season. Congratulations to the Class of 2015. How quickly time passes. Please do stop by and say hello if you are in the Princeton area. You are always welcome here. Best wishes for the new year!
It has been another wonderful year for Patti West who loves spending time with her family. Patti’s youngest son, Jeffrey, and his sweet wife Nicole became the proud new parents of a baby girl, Charleston. Patti and Richard look forward to cele- brating the upcoming holidays with their new granddaughter, family and friends. She wishes everyone a very special holi- day season and a wonderful new year!
Heather Yacone: It has been another enjoyable year in the CBE main office! After being briefly out of stock, the M&M machine has been refilled more times than I can count! Wishing everyone a happy holiday season and new year!
Page 18 2015 Alumni Questionnaire
Please Return by: Fax: 609-258-7761 or E-Mail: [email protected] or Mail: Princeton University Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering Princeton, NJ 08544-5263
Please take a moment to complete this questionnaire and return it to the department. Thank you!
Full Name: ______
Name while at Princeton : ______
(if different from above)
Princeton Degree: ______Year: ______
E-Mail Address : ______
Is there any personal news that you would like to share? (Please feel free to use the back)
If your firm offers summer positions for chemical engineers, or is actively recruiting for full-time positions, please provide the following:
Nature of positions:
Name and address of contact person:
Thank you to everyone who contributes to Annual Giving! Your gifts directly benefit Chemical and Biological Engineering by providing funds for: Graduate student recruitment Travel to conferences Laboratory and student office renovations Computing facilities Start-up packages for new faculty
You may give online: www.princeton.edu/AG/aggift.html or call the toll-free, 24-hour gift line 1-800-258-5421 (609-258-3373 outside the U.S.)
Page 19
______
Princeton University Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering The Engineering Quadrangle Princeton, NJ 08544-5263