Chemical Engineering Alumni/ae News Fall 2002 • Course X Room 66-350 • Fax: (617) 253-8992 FROM THE HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT.... PBS Program Highlights an underlying fundamental science Griffith, Langer, pg. 6 Professor and exploiting the broad and rich set Robert C. of opportunities at the interfaces with Cain Foundation, Roos ’44, Armstrong many other disciplines on some of Evans Help Fund New Head, MIT the most exciting technologies of our Undergrad Lab Facility, pg. 20 Chemical times. MIT provides a truly excep- Photo: Stu Rosner Engineering tional environment for both of these, New Alliance Shares Biotech because of the uniform excellence of Strengths and Benefits, pg. 22 reetings from Department departments in other, related areas of Headquarters! Life in the science and engineering on campus. Gdepartment continues at an MIT’s strong commitment to life ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: exhilarating pace, with new develop- sciences, the outstanding biology ments occurring on many fronts. I am department at MIT, and the innovative News from the Head...................... 1 grateful to have this opportunity to Biological Engineering Division touch on a few of the developments (co-directed by Professor Douglas Practice School News.................... 2 in the department, and I invite you A. Lauffenburger from our depart- Awards Day 2002.......................... 4 to learn more from the rest of the ment) combine to make the appro- New Appointment/Promotions ...... 5 newsletter. priate and meaningful inclusion of biology possible in ways that would Cooney / New Deshpande Ctr. ...... 6 First a few highlights: the Depart- otherwise not be possible. In respond- Jensen Elected to NAE .................. 6 ment’s graduate and undergraduate ing to these two opportunities the Langer Wins “Triple Crown”........ 7 programs were both ranked number department has in the past two years one among chemical engineering revamped both its graduate and under- The MIT ChemE Connection ..... 13 departments in the most recent U.S. graduate curricula. ChE Faculty Lead MIT ISN......... 16 News & World Report academic News from the Alumni/ae ............ 18 survey; our faculty achieved a record The department has also been a $22 million research volume; we significant part of MIT’s international Named Lectures .......................... 14 attracted the largest and most educational initiatives. As part of the Lauffenburger Wins Dual Honors21 outstanding incoming graduate class Cambridge MIT Institute (CMI), Alumni/ae Donors FY ’02 ........... 23 in recent memory for this academic the department has engaged in faculty year; we completed the renovation and student exchanges with the Research Briefs ........................... 34 of the entire sub-basement of Build- University of Cambridge, and has GSC Activities ............................. 36 ing 66 for a state-of-the-art undergrad- launched a joint Practice School uate teaching laboratory (See article Program (led by Professor T. Alan program combines faculty from the page 20); we renovated the graduate Hatton) that promises to add signifi- Departments of Chemical Engineering student offices and Walker Lounge cant value to both universities through and Biology at MIT with colleagues on the second floor of Building 66; interchange of ideas, people, and at the National University of Singa- and in the midst of all of this the collaborative development of new pore to create an entirely new, multi- we completely overhauled the under- subjects. Under the direction of pronged graduate program featuring graduate curriculum in the Depart- Professor Jackie Y. Ying, we have three different degrees. The depart- ment. It is a wonderful and exciting also launched one of the five core ment is also breaking new educational time in chemical engineering at MIT! programs that constitute the Singa- ground with its Doctor of Philosophy Two dominant intellectual themes pore-MIT Alliance (SMA), Molec- in Chemical Engineering (PhDCEP) are impacting our programs: weaving ular Engineering of Biological and biology throughout our curriculum as Chemical Systems (MEBCS). This HEAD see page 12 Practice School News BY PROF. ALAN HATTON, PRACTICE SCHOOL DIRECTOR he David H. Koch School of Chemical Engineering ile TPractice continues to be an attractive option for many of our graduate students, and continues to be recognized as a unique educational Photo: PS F opportunity within the Department, attracting top students from around the country and around the world. A total of 35 students attended the stations, during the Fall ’01 through Summer ’02 sessions. With the strong support of our hosting compa- nies, we are able to continue to provide the diversity of experiences for our students that has traditionally characterized our program. Dinner with Summer 2002 General Mills Station Members (L side of The Practice School operated stations table from F to B): Andrew Kim (Asst. Station Director) , Joanna Yu, at a number of companies over this Stephany Lin, and Michael Rappel. (R side of table from F to B): past year. In Fall ’01, Paul Bryan Matthew Sokol, Yuhua Hu, Ramin Haghooie, and Uttam Kumbhat. Not directed the station at Cabot Corpo- pictured: Thomas Lada, and William Dalzell (Station Director). ration in Billerica MA, and John Friedly ran the General Mills station, courses here at MIT. This fall, we many of our industrial friends as a primarily in the Minneapolis area, completed a joint Practice School result of the terrible tragedy in New but with one project in Lodi, Califor- session under the CMI program, York in September of that year. nia. The Spring ’02 sessions were at BP Chemicals in Hull, UK, in conducted at M&M Mars Inc. in which the four Cambridge students However, we did hold the annual Elizabethtown, PA (John Friedly as were joined by four MIT students Practice School Awards Banquet, director) and the Minneapolis station under the supervision of Director where the Tester, Vivian, Wojtowicz at Cargill Inc. was supervised by Barry Johnston and Assistant Direc- and Rousseau Awards for Paul Bryan with some assistance tor Andrew Kim. By all accounts this Outstanding Performance in the from Anish Goel, who was in has been a very successful collabora- Practice School projects were training for his Directorship role at tion and we look forward to continu- presented. Recipients were Jacob the Mitsubishi Chemical station in ing it in coming years. The remainder Johnson and Stephen Fox, sharing Mizushima, Japan in the summer of of the fall will see us running stations the Vivian award; Lino Gonzalez, ’02. In Japan, Anish was aided by at General Mills facilities in Lodi whose enthusiasm for the program Associate Director Carlos Rinaldi – CA and Cedar Rapids IA, supervised earned him the Tester award; Megan both Anish and Carlos had recently by Brian Baynes. At these stations, LeMott, whose personal generosity, graduated with their PhDs from five MIT students will be joined by integrity and commitment to the MIT, and both were outstanding three students from Singapore under program won her the Wojtowicz students during their stints in the the auspices of the Singapore-MIT award; and Anand Sivaraman who Practice School some years earlier. Alliance program. received the Rousseau Award for Other stations over the summer were Leadership and Ethics in Chemical at KalKan in Vernon, CA (John The breadth of technical problems and Engineering Practice Friedly, Director), General Mills in environments provided by this large Cincinnati OH, Minneapolis MN and number of diverse companies afforded Beth Tuths who celebrated her Lodi CA (with Bill Dalzell running an excellent educational opportunity anniversary with the Practice School the show, assisted by Andrew Kim, for our students. We are grateful to as Administrative Assistant to the a recent MSCEP graduate) and Alker- these companies for their hosting of Director in June, 2002, must be mes in Cambridge MA (John Friedly our Practice School Stations. congratulated on her fine organization again). Last fall we initiated a joint of the Award Dinner, and on so very program with Cambridge University The Department’s Annual Informa- ably dealing with all those little (and under the Cambridge-MIT Institute tion Conference, to have been held in big!) problems with which the (CMI) in which four Cambridge October 2001, was cancelled because students participated in our core of the travel restrictions imposed on PS see facing page 2 2001 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING FELLOWSHIPS ••• Class of 1936 Fellows William & Margaret Hutchinson Bayer Fellow Dhananjay Dendukuri Rousseau Fellow Andy Wijaya Hiroyo Kawai Huan Zhang Jin Zhou Shell Doctoral Fellow Keith & Helen Rumbel Fellow Tyler Philip Martin Edwin R. Gilliland Fellow Benjamin N. Wang Sharon Yu-Wen Soong Chemical Engineering Practice Adel F. Sarofim Fellow School Fellows John Henry Grover Fellow Joel Forrest Moxley Alisa Mei-Jin Ching Mohit Rawat Hiroki Kaido Arch Scurlock Fellow Haas Family Fellow Manoj Viswanathan Exxon Mobil Fellow Sheng Li Chun-Yue Lee John C. Sluder Fellows Robert T. Haslam Fellow Beth P. Dubeck Procter & Gamble Fellow Yunpeng Yi Corey James Moore Jared K. Johnson Frederick Holloway Fellow Howard Stern Fellow Rohm & Haas Fellow Zubair Anwar Chester K. Bai Malancha Gupta George M. Keller Fellows Frank Hall Thorp/Class of 1936 Dumbros Fellow Brandon Shaw Blackwell Fellow Joseph L. Lowery Phuong Nguyen Jacob W. Albrecht Joseph Francis Shuga Dupont/MIT Alliance Fellows Rosemary Wojtowicz Fellow Erik Christian Allen George M. Keller Chevron Fellow