CBE Alumni Newsletter
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CBE Alumni Newsletter Issue No. 13/August 2009 “A Tradition of Excellence.” www.chbmeng.ohio-state.edu Dear Alumni and Friends of the Department, This past year was one of exceptional evolution of the Department. Singular was our change of name to the William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. The name change was in recognition of the generosity of Bill and Ernie Lowrie in providing a gift of $17M to help transform the department. $11M of the gift will go a long way to the challenge that we raise $17.5M for the new Koffolt Labo- ratories which we expect to occupy by the end of 2014. The rest of the gift has been used to establish the H. C. “Slip” Slider Professorship, and in the future will endow a new chair named to honor Ernestine R. Lowrie and an endowment to support new Message from the Chair the from Message initiatives in the department. The Lowrie naming ceremony took place on February 6, 2009 and a short video of the event is on our web page under the “General Informa- tion” tab.Lots of detail was provided on Bill Lowrie in our Annual Report which you should have received a few months ago. The annual report is also on our web page under the “Alumni” tab. The other significant news is that we are dealing with very high enrollments that have now percolated through to the senior year. This year we had 118 students in the Unit Operations lab and in order to cope with such a large group we have divided the class and have half of the class doing experiments on different days of the week. There are experiments on all three floors of our high bay laboratory. We expect to have a record number of B.S. graduates in academic year 2009. Indications are for no let up in enrollment pressure as another large class is expected this September. This newsletter describes a number of accomplishments of our students and faculty. A large number of our under- graduates are conducting research in faculty laboratories. Such opportunities are fueled by the research support of our very productive faculty with research expenditures in this fiscal year topping $13M. This is the third year in a row that research expenditures have exceeded $12M a phenomenal feat considering that during this period faculty size was constant at 17. This summer we will welcome our 18th faculty member, David Wood, who will join us from Princeton University. We have had some change and enhancement in our support staff. As you know Sherry Stoneman retired in Janu- ary. Replacing Sherry is Kirsten Marinko in a somewhat different responsibility set as her title is Communications Coordinator. Kirsten will be responsible for Alumni Relations, our various communication pieces and will provide support for our fund raising activities. The new Koffolt Laboratories, as mentioned, requires us to raise $17.5M in matching funds. The total cost of the building which will house our entire department and a segment of the Chemistry Department is $126M so our match is highly leveraged. Thanks to all of our alumni who have already been contributing to our “Campaign for the New Koffolt Laboratories” or have pledged a multi-year gift toward the enterprise. Our faculty, staff and students appreciate your generosity. Best wishes for another wonderful year! Go Buckeyes! 2 CBE Alumni Newsletter 2009 Directory Department Chair Staff Stuart Cooper 292-7907 Angela Bennett 292-9076 Graduate Program Coordinator Faculty Bhavik Bakshi 292-4904 David Cade 292-2728 Jeffrey Chalmers 292-2727 Building Coordinator L.S. Fan 688-3262 Martin Feinberg 688-4883 Bill Cory 247-2449 Winston Ho 292-9970 Human Resources Manager Kurt Koelling 292-2256 Isamu Kusaka 688-8302 Mike Davis 292-6928 James Lee 292-2408 Systems Specialist Umit Ozkan 292-6623 Andre Palmer 292-6033 Brian Endres 292-6986 Michael Paulaitis 247-8847 Academic Advising Coordinator James Rathman 292-3760 David Tomasko 292-4249 Leigh Evrard 292-2780 Jessica Winter 247-7668 Design Engineer David Wood 292-9636 Barbara Wyslouzil 688-3583 Lynn Flanagan 688-3309 S.T. Yang 292-6611 Fiscal Administrator Paul Green 292-2718 Lab Supervisor Geoffrey Hulse 292-3589 Director of Information Technology Dave Jones 271-6718 What’s Inside: Systems Engineer Message From The Chair 2 Prem Kumar 292-5120 Directory 3 Education Director New Building Campaign & Committee 4 Lowrie Lecturer 6 Martha Leming 688-5640 News 7 Fiscal Ungergraduate Awards 11 Graduate Awards 12 Kirsten Marinko 292-7907 Faculty Awards 13 Communication Coordinator Lowrie Banquet 14 Alumni Donors 16 Layla Mohmmad-Ali 292-9889 Alumni Updates 18 Fiscal New Arrivals 19 Schedule of Events 20 Holly Prouty 688-5686 Alumni Support Form 21 Undergraduate Advisor Alumni Update Form 22 Blast from the Past 23 Susan Tesfai 292-5086 Fiscal Associate CBE Alumni Newsletter 2009 3 Koffolt Campaign National Committee: William G. Lowrie (B ChE ’66), Chair Jeffrey D. Adams (B ChE ’87) Sheldon, South Carolina San Mateo, California Richard A. Arnold (B ChE ’48, MBA ’50) Cynthia (Cindy) Gerstle Bishop (B ChE ’86) Houston, Texas Coppell, Texas James F. Dietz (B ChE ’69, MS ’70) Matthew J. Galosi (B ChE ’80) * Northfield, Illinois Katy, Texas Katy, Texas David R. Grove (B ChE ’70) Jack A. Hammond (B ChE ’61) Stuart, Florida Iron Gate, Virginia Ronald D. Harris (B ChE ’61, MS ’61) Karen Lafferty Hendricks (B ChE ’71) New Building Campaign & Committee Campaign Building New Columbus, Ohio Maineville, Ohio Smith G. Howland (B ChE ’69, MS ’69) * Kathleen (Kathy) Applegate Hogenson (B ChE ’82) * Houston, Texas Houston, Texas Dennis W. Hurley (B ChE ’67) Alex W. Kawczak (B ChE ’82) Midland, Michigan Dublin, Ohio Paul J. Kienholz (B ChE ’57) Thomas Koffolt Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Savannah, Georgia Sumner (Sonny) Saeks (B ChE ’82) Lawrence R. Steele (B ChE ’58, MS ’58, PhD ’62) Cincinnati, Ohio Princeton, New Jersey Brian K. Weider (B ChE ’78) * Michael D. Winfield (B ChE ’62) Houston, Texas Long Grove, Illinois L. E. Woodworth (B ChE ’61) *Houston, TX Subcommittee Columbus, Ohio The Koffolt Laboratories National Campaign Committee met on April 16, 2009, to discuss their continuing work towards reaching the $17.5 million fundraising goal for the construction of a new building to replace the current Koffolt Laboratories. The current building was constructed in 1958, and the university has committed that con- struction of the new building will be complete by 2014. Bill Lowrie ’66, chair of the committee, reported that commitments received to date for the project from alumni and friends totaled more than $12.5 million. Committee members are currently finalizing their own commit- ments, and will reach out to fellow Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering classmates to encourage their support for the project. Enrollment in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering continues to grow, making space in the new building even more important to the future success of the department. Dr. Stuart Cooper, department chair, expects that the final architectural plans will be developed in the 2009-10 academic year, with groundbreaking on the new facility expected in 2012. 4 CBE Alumni Newsletter 2009 New Building Campaign & Committee Campaign Building New New Building Campaign Committee from left to right: Greg Washington (Interim Dean, College of Engineering), Mike Winfield, Jack Hammond, Bill Lowrie (Committee Chair), Karen Lafferty Hendricks, Alex Kawczak, Dick Arnold, Cindy Gerstle Bishop, Sonny Saeks, Paul Kienholz, Stuart Cooper (Deparment Chair). Mike Sherman, gives a presentation to the New Building Campaign Committee. CBE Faculty Commit More Than $100,000 to Name Space in New Koffolt Laboratories Professor Emeritus and former department chair, Dr. Jacques Zakin, led a campaign among the CBE faculty to secure their sup- port for the Koffolt Laboratories Building Campaign. To date, eighteen current and emeritus faculty members have commit- ted $104,135 to name a space in the new facility. Though the actual space will not be selected until the architectural plans are complete, faculty members expressed their interest in selecting a space that would be of particular importance to students such as a student study area. Jack remarked that he was overwhelmed by the generosity and positive attitude of all our faculty. “The campaign was much easier than I thought it would be!” CBE Alumni Newsletter 2009 5 2009 William G. Lowrie Lecturer Gabor A. Somorjai received his PhD degree in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1960. After 4 years at IBM, he returned to Berkeley as an Assistant Professor where he has been Professor of Chemistry since 1972. He was designated University Professor in 2002. Prof Somorjai also serves as Director of the Lowrie Lectures Surface Science and Catalysis Program at the Center of Advanced Materials at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He has published 3 textbooks and more than 1,000 scientific papers. From his 125 PhD students and more than 250 post-docs about 100 have faculty positions. Among his many honors are the National Medal of Science, membership in the Na- tional Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Langmuir Prize, the Wolf Prize, the Henry Albert Palladium Medal, a number of research awards from the American Chemical Society including the Priestley Medal and 8 Honorary Doctorates. Lecture I:Molecular Foundations of Catalytic Selectivity by Metals Heterogeneous metal catalysts are nanoparticles that carry out re- actions at high reactant gas pressures or in the liquid phase. Mod- el surfaces were used to study heterogeneous catalytic reactions in order to control and monitor the atomic surface structure, compo- sition and reaction intermediates while simultaneously measuring reaction rates and selectivities. To obtain quantitative correlations between catalytic reaction kinetics and the molecular factors that control reaction dynamics.