Research Annual 2021 from the Chair
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chemical engineering & materials science Research Annual 2021 from the Chair reetings from the Department of Chemical nn Daniel Woldring, a postdoctoral fellow at Brandeis Engineering and Materials Science (ChEMS) at University, who joined us in the fall of 2019. He is an GMichigan State University! Since I last communicated assistant professor and will be working in the Institute to you in 2019, our University, our nation, and indeed the for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering. entire global community has been confronted with the Dr. Woldring’s research interests center on high trial of the COVID-19 pandemic. It certainly has been one performance therapeutics and diagnostics using novel of the most challenging periods in the history of our great protein engineering methods. institution. I am extremely proud of the concerted efforts of our students, staff, and faculty to meet these challenges nn faculty awards & honors head-on and continue our traditions of teaching, learning, Our faculty members continue to live up to their reputation and pushing back the boundaries of our understanding of as world class in service, teaching, and research, as is the world around us. reflected in the numerous prestigious awards and honors they have received this past year. Some highlights include: nn new faculty nn Robert Ofoli has accepted the position of Interim Faculty We have been very fortunate over the last two years to Excellence Advocate in the College of Engineering; have been able to continue our recruitment of new faculty. Several additions over this period have both broadened the nn Stephen Kamin was the recipient of the 2020 Withrow range of our research enterprise and provided greater depth Teaching Excellence Award; in key areas. Our new faculty include: nn Carl Boehlert was the recipient of the 2021 Withrow Teaching Excellence Award; nn Chengcheng Fang, who joined us as an assistant nn professor in the fall of 2020. She came to the Alexandra Zevlakink was awarded a NSF Career Award department as a postdoctoral fellow from the to improve the targeted design of thermoelectric University of California San Diego. Dr. Fang works in materials; the field of next generation batteries, energy storage nn Christina Chan was named an University Distinguished materials, and advance characterization techniques in Professor; materials science; nn R. Mark Worden was the recipient of the 2021 Withrow nn David Hickey, a research assistant professor at the Exceptional Service Award; University of Utah, who joined us as an Assistant nn Jose Mendoza was named a Fellow for Scialog. Professor in the fall of 2019. Dr. Hickey’s research focuses on the design of electroactive small molecules, nn molecular electronics, and polymer materials for a student achievements variety of applications related to energy storage, As always, our students, both undergraduate and graduate, catalysis, and biosensing; continue to be a source of great pride for our department. In spite of the stringent conditions of the pandemic, once again nn Jose Mendoza, an assistant professor at Florida State this year several of them have garnered accolades for their University, who joined the department as Assistant outstanding work, including: Professor in the fall of 2020. Professor Mendoza’s expertise is in the areas of quantum simulations, nn Mariana Desiree Reale Batista and Erik Stitt, PhD materials by design, multiscale S\simulations, big data, students in ChEMS, were both winners of 2019 Society machine learning and quantum computing algorithms of Plastics Engineers Foundation scholarships and were applied to pressing problems in the chemical and featured in the national trade publication, “Plastics materials sciences; News.” | college of engineering • department of chemical engineering & materials science nn Teaching Specialist Nicole Shriner, Senior Research nn distinguished alumni Associate Bin Tan, along with MSU graduate students Finally, our alumni from both the chemical engineering and Ryan Splichal, William Killian, and John Szafranski, materials science and engineering programs continue to competed in the third annual AIChE Beer Brewing make outstanding contributions to the greater engineering Competition in Orlando, FL in fall of 2019. ChemE’s and scientific communities. A few highlights for this year Sour Beer was runner up for the grand prize at the third include: annual AlChE Beer Brewing Competition. nn Derek Metcalf, who completed a BS in Chemical nn Graduate student Geeta Kumari, took third place Engineering in Spring 2018, and now attends Georgia honors in student speaking – graduate level at IMAT Tech, was awarded a 2020 Graduate Research Fellows 2020—the International Materials Applications & by the National Science Foundation. Technologies Conference and Exhibition. nn Thomas B. Okray will become the executive vice nn In the 2020 AIChE Student Design Competition, president and chief financial officer for the power Benjamin Farris won the First Place, A. McLaren White management company Eaton, effective April 1, 2021. Award for Best Overall Design in the Individual Category. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in chemical Christine Mason won The Walter Howard Design Award engineering in 1985. for the Best Applications of the Principles of Chemical nn Daniel Hoey, a 1989 ChEMS graduate, has been named Process Safety in the Individual Category and Shay Ladd chief of technical operations at the biotech company won First Place in Group 7 for her poster presentation EQRx in Cambridge, Mass. His experience is in global of ‘Modeling the Impact of Cerebrospinal Fluid Flow on pharmaceutical supply chain operations. Waste Clearance in the Brain’. nn CHEMS alumnus Jialin Liu was awarded the Acta nn ChEMS Ph.D. student Chauncey Splichal was on a team Student Award based on his research with former that took third place at the T2MED Hackathon (virtually) ChEMS Professor Yue Qi. in Israel, creating an AI polyp detection system to detect the 28 percent of abnormal growths that go undetected nn In May 2020, ChEMS PhD alumnus Karl J. Puttlitz in colonoscopies. was awarded the 2020 Red Cedar Circle Distinguished Alumni Award. nn ChE Junior Andrew Norfleet was nominated for the Our students, staff, and faculty have met a year of great Goldwater Scholarship. challenge with uncommon perseverance, hard work, and nn ChEMS PhD student Apoorva Kulkarni took first place an unwavering commitment to not only doing well for in student poster presentations for her research: themselves, but also doing good for the world. The research “Design and engineering of humidity resistant starch highlights contained in this brochure are but a snapshot of composite foams for automotive packaging via extrusion those efforts, and I hope you will enjoy reading them. While technology” at the 20th Annual Society of Plastics no doubt challenges remain, our efforts will continue, and Engineers Automotive Composites Conference and we look forward with great hope and anticipation for new Exhibition, hosted virtually in fall 2020. discoveries and future success in our work. Donald Morelli Chairperson and Professor department of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science Department Highlights he Michigan State University Department of Also included among the faculty ranks are multiple society Chemical Engineering and Materials Science (ChEMS) Fellows: Thas vibrant research programs in both chemical engineering and materials science and engineering. nn National Academy of Inventors nn American Institute of Chemical Engineers nn OUTSTANDING FACULTY Among our 34 faculty members, we have: nn American Institute of Chemists nn American Institute for Medical and Biological nn Five NSF CAREER Award winners Engineering nn Four University Distinguished Professors nn Society of Plastics Engineers nn Five MSU Distinguished Faculty/William J. Beal nn ASTM International Outstanding Faculty winners nn American Ceramic Society nn Six MSU Teacher-Scholar Award winners nn ASM International nn Four Withrow Distinguished Scholar Award winners nn ABET nn Three Withrow Junior Scholar Awards winners nn American Physical Society nn Ten Withrow Teaching Excellence Award winners (several have won multiple times) nn TMS Fellow nn Excellence in Diversity Award winner chemical engineering & materials science publisher / faculty editor College of Engineering Philip Eisenlohr, Associate Professor, Chemical Engineering & Materials Science Michigan State University 428 S. Shaw Lane, Room 2100 layout / design Francie Todd, Todd Marketing Consultancy East Lansing, MI 48824 Charlie Sharp, Sharp Des!gns, East Lansing, MI email [email protected] web chems.msu.edu Copyright © 2021 Michigan State University College of Engineering. All rights reserved. MSU is an affirmative action, equal-opportunity employer. | college of engineering • department of chemical engineering & materials science Many faculty members have also received national and nn mission & GOALS international recognition for their academic and research achievements. TThe Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science pursues a mission of growing national recognition as nn DEPARTMENT ACHIEVEMENTS a center of excellence in research, teaching, and service. In support of this mission the department has four goals: nn Total research expenditures were over $7 million last year nn Leadership and excellence in conducting nationally recognized, innovative, and cutting-edge research nn Approximately 125 refereed publications and 3 patents per year nn Recruiting high-performing