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Fall 2010 • MIT Course X News • Web.Mit.Edu/Cheme FAll 2010 • MIT Course x newS • Web.mit.Edu/cheme/ XCurrentsMIT Chemical ENgineering Alumni NEwS Alumni and faculty mix at the May 14 symposium to honor Professor Emeritus Ed Merrill (Page 27) Letter from Department Head Klavs F. Jensen HigHligHts As a new school year begins, I am happy for this opportunity to share with you some of the latest developments in the MIT Chemical Engi- News from the Head 1 neering Department, as well as some things that our alumni are doing outside the MIT campus. This was one of our pri- Practice School News 4 orities when we redesigned our Alumni News in the fall of 2009: we want to help create a dialogue with and among Faculty News 10 our Course X alumni. I am grateful for the positive response we’ve gotten, and based on your feedback, we’ve added more alumni highlights and expanded the research news Research News 12 from our faculty. We hope you enjoy it! Alumni News 28 During the 2009-2010 academic year, the Department continued to excel, and re- tained its number-one ranking in the US News and World Report listing of top un- Fall Event Schedule 36 dergraduate and graduate programs; we have now held the first place position in chemical engineering for the past 21 years. Sponsored research volume increased find the latest news online: significantly once again for our faculty, rising from last year’s $41.2 million to a total of $50.4 million over the past year, representing a 22% increase. This is due web.mit.edu/cheme/ in no small part by the gracious support by our alumni and friends of the Depart- ment throughout the year, of which our faculty and students are very grateful. MITChemEng MITChemE 2 Letter from the Department Head continued This fall, we welcome four new professors in the Department, As mentioned, Professor Ken Smith retired in January of this each one bringing a new insight and expertise to our faculty. year, giving us a great excuse for cake and champagne during Daniel G. Anderson holds a joint appointment with the Harvard- our annual IAP faculty retreat. We thank Ken for his tremendous MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology; he has spent contributions through research, education and service to MIT the last eleven years working in the Langer Lab and will con- and to the profession of chemical engineering. More informa- tinue his work with advanced biomaterials and drug delivery tion on his retirement can be found on page 7. systems. Our second new professor is Richard D. Braatz, who is the new Edwin R. Gilliland Professor of Chemical Engineer- ing, following the retirement of previous Gilliland Professor Ken All of our faculty have been busy and enjoyed several national Smith. Richard comes to us from the University of Illinois at Ur- recognitions during the spring. Bob Cohen was elected into the bana-Champaign and is a leader in systems engineering. Allan S. National Academy of Engineering, and was also elected as a Myerson, joining the Department as a professor of the practice, Materials Research Society Fellow. Kristala J. Prather won the was previously in administration at the Illinois Institute of Tech- NSF CAREER Award. Professor Gregory N. Stephanopoulos won nology in Chicago. His research includes industrial applications the 2010 American Chemical Society E.V. Murphree Award and of crystallization. Our final new professor is Yuriy Román, who the BIO George Washington Carver Award for Innovation in In- comes to us fresh from his post-doctoral research with Profes- dustrial Biotechnology while junior faculty member Chris Love sor Mark E. Davis at the California Institute of Technology, work- was named the W.M. Keck Foundation Young Scholar in Medical ing in the synthesis and characterization of microporous and Research. Paula Hammond also received the 2010 Distiguished mesoporous materials. You can find more information on our Scientist Award from the Harvard Foundation. Of particular new faculty members on page 10. note is the awarding of the AIMBE Pierre Galletti Award, which is the AIMBE top honor, to Emeritus Professor Edward Merrill this spring. This past May, the Department hosted a Symposium to Honor Professor Emeritus Ed Merrill, for his sixty years as a member of the MIT faculty. It was an wonderful event, with alumni from all over the world packing 66-110 to celebrate this inspiring teach- er, advisor, colleague, and pioneer in the field of biomedical en- gineering. Speakers included former students, colleagues and current researchers who today continue to build upon his work in polymer synthesis, physical chemistry and biomaterials. We have much more on the symposium and Ed’s legacy of biomedi- cal advances in this edition, including current work by Profes- sors Langer, Anderson, Love, Chakraborty and Strano. This and other research news can be found on page 16. In keeping with the Ed Merrill theme, our 2010 Alan S. Michaels lecturer was Robert L. Bratzler ’75, an academic descendent of Ed’s. Bob discussed “Starting and Building Biotech Companies: From Sepracor to Selecta.” He is the executive chairman of Se- lecta Biosciences, a Watertown-based biotech company pio- neering the development of targeted nanoparticle vaccines for treatment and prevention of diseases. Bob shared advice and anecdotes from his experience of starting several successful biotechnology companies to a packed audience. Klavs Jensen provides a retrospect on the career of Chaitan Khosla, the Wells H. Rauser and Harold M. Petiprin Pro- Professor Emeritus Ed Merrill at the May 14th symposium fessor at Stanford University was our 2010 Warren K. Lewis Lec- in his honor. turer. Chaitan spoke on “The Untold Story of Gluten: Viscoelas- tic Wonder, Rat Poison, or Autoimmunity’s Rosetta Stone?” He presented issues surrounding the “fascinating material” gluten and celiac disease. Over the past two decades Chaitan has stud- Chemical Engineering Alumni News Fall 2010 for the latest Course X news, go to web.mit.edu/cheme/ 3 ied polyketide synthases as paradigms for modular catalysis, and has exploited their properties for engineering novel antibi- otics. More recently, he has investigated celiac sprue pathogen- esis with the goal of developing therapies for this widespread but overlooked disease. This fall we also hosted the 2010 Hoyt C. Hottel Lecture, honor- ing Professor Hottel’s work in energy technology. On September 22nd, Dr. Steven E. Koonin, the Under Secretary for Science at the US Department of Energy, spoke on “Energy Innovation at Scale.” More information is available at the web page (web.mit. edu/cheme/news/hottel.html). April 10th, 2011, marks the 150th anniversary of MIT’s found- ing. The Institute has many events and several symposia planned to celebrate the event; you can find more information at the website mit150.mit.edu. In this retrospective spirit, our Spring 2011 newsletter will include an historical perspective of MIT Chemical Engineering, as well as what we are doing today and in the future to further the legacy that you and I continue to learn from and contribute to. At June’s commencement reception, Klavs Jensen talks Thanks to the efforts of Arup K. Chakraborty, the Graduate with one of Course X’s newest alums, Rachel Licht ’10, Committee and the Student Office, we had an excellent year a Fullbright Scholar currently in France studying the recruiting a very talented class of graduate students. The gener- production of cellulosic ethanol by fermentation. ous external support of our doctoral program through graduate fellowships continues to be an essential asset in our effort to attract the very best students. Beyond its value as a recruiting tool, funding for graduate fellowships is a critical element of our We hope you enjoy this issue of the newsletter and look for- graduate educational philosophy. By providing fellowship sup- ward to your feedback. port for first year doctoral students, we enable the students to Thank you for your support and best regards. focus on the core subjects of chemical engineering and explore the breadth of research opportunities without being conflicted by teaching assistantships or sponsor requirements. The financial situation has impacted the Department and we have learned to live within our means, but fortunately been able to avoid reduction in staff and activities. The support you have given us over the years, and continue to provide, has helped us buffer the effects of the financial downturn. We deeply appre- ciate that many of you have continued to support the Depart- ment through the recession in spite of the economic hardships placed on everyone. Klavs F. Jensen Department Head MIT Chemical Engineering Department Chemical Engineering Alumni News Fall 2010 4 Practice School News also celebrated Mr. Koch’s upcoming 70th birthday and presented The David H. Koch School of Chemical Engineering Practice holds him with a montage of photos from recent Practice School sta- a special place in the hearts of many of tions and notes from students. It was a great evening and oppor- our alumni, and I am happy to share with tunity to thank Mr. Koch for his critical support of the Practice you some of the most recent happenings School. in the School as well as some upcoming developments. This fall, the Practice School moves into yet another locale: Brazil. We currently have seven students working at Vale Soluções em The Spring 2010 semester saw our stu- Energia (VSE) in Sao Jose Dos Campos, about 100 km north of Sao dents and directors fan out to General Paulo. I look forward to sharing with you in the next newsletter Mills (GMI) in Minneapolis, Novartis their experiences as we continue the tradition of providing unique in Switzerland, and stations at our two and challenging opportunities to hone students’ technical lead- newest locations: Morgan Stanley in ership skills.
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