Robert Frederick Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering HALL NEWS OLINOctober 2018 No. 107 SYMPOSIUM HONORS BIOENGINEERING PIONEER MIKE SHULER 8 TABLE OF DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE CONTENTS renovation. College advising and registrar celebrate the exceptional career of Mike Thank you all for your engagement will be moving out of the first floor, Shuler. As many of you know, Mike has with the Smith School. As always, please MESSAGE FROM allowing us to transform the second and been a cherished colleague and mentor be in touch and come visit us whenever third floors into state-of-the-art research and an internationally respected scholar you can! labs. This project represents a major step and innovator. We are lucky to have him THE DIRECTOR: toward the school having full ownership of continue as a colleague in an emeritus Sincerely, Olin Hall (Dusty Rhodes’ intent, of course) position. In other bittersweet news, and the largest growth in our research Paulette Clancy also retired into an emerita ABE STROOCK footprint in 30 years. Continuing this position this summer to take on a newly momentum toward a complete renovation created department head role in CBE at DEAR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF of the building is a major priority in these Johns Hopkins. She has been a pioneer as coming years to support programmatic the school’s first woman faculty member THE SMITH SCHOOL, growth and exciting new initiatives (see and as a leader in the use of molecular Abe Stroock giving opportunities on page 36). simulation in our field. She will be sorely Gordon L. Dibble '50 Professor and he view and prospects are still Chuang ’18 mounting an exhibit at the In closing, I point you to the cover missed as a colleague and leader at William C. Hooey Director excellent from Smith School’s Johnson Museum (page 29) to Snehashis story of this issue (page 8) on the Cornell. perch up on Ithaca’s East Hill. Choudhury, Ph.D. ’18 developing symposium we held this past summer to As the days grow cooler outside, competitive new battery technologies the Olin Hall is warming up with (page 28). It is a privilege for the faculty Tthe energy of new and returning students. and staff to host all of this energy and successful year of hiring. Nick Abbott They are taking on the classics (mass and talent each year. Luckily chemical and joined us this year from the University of TABLE OF CONTENTS energy balances, thermo, unit operations biomolecular engineering continues to Wisconsin to become a Tisch University lab…), new challenges (biomolecular attract the best and brightest. Professor in the Smith School. Nick is Faculty Research: Professor Yong Joo ...............................................................................................2 To support this vibrancy, the school’s engineering, product design, sustainable a member of the NAE and a world- Robert Smith Initiatives .......................................................................................................................6 energy systems…), and leadership roles faculty has been busy and growing. renowned innovator in the science and across the campus in research, engineering Our faculty continue to fill important application of soft materials (page 22). Symposium Honors Professor Mike Shuler .....................................................................................8 project, the arts, outreach and mentorship. leadership roles at Cornell: Lynden Archer In 2019, we will be joined by two junior Alumni News ......................................................................................................................................12 Our students are motors of activity and has taken on the directorship of the faculty—Dr. Sijin Li of Stanford and Dr. In Memoriam ......................................................................................................................................13 Cornell Energy Systems Institute (page innovation. Rong Yang of Harvard Medical School— CBE News & Events ..........................................................................................................................14 With support from the school as 20) and Jeff Tester (former director of the who will broaden and deepen our Robert F. Smith Initiatives, graduate college’s Energy Institute) has been named strengths in biomolecular and biomaterials Reunion 2018.......................................................................................................................................15 students launched a podcast series— scientific lead on a university project to engineering. ChemE Vegas Night ...........................................................................................................................17 Science Blender—from Olin (page 7) heat the campus with deep geothermal This issue includes an article authored Cornell Energy Systems Institute ....................................................................................................20 and organized Cornell’s first graduate energy. Lynden has also been elected to by Yong Joo, the BP Amoco/H. Laurance Welcome Professor Nicholas Abbott ...............................................................................................22 student reunion (keep an eye out for the National Academy of Engineering Fuller Professor of Engineering (page the announcement of next year’s grad (NAE) for the impact of his research 2). He provides an inside view into the Faculty News and Awards ................................................................................................................23 reunion). The UGs have also led Smith and the excellence of his leadership research activities of his lab on processing Staff News ...........................................................................................................................................24 Initiatives. A particularly ambitious (page 23). Chris Alabi and Fengqi You of advanced materials for energy Graduate News ...................................................................................................................................25 one—Chemical Engineering Crash Course have been honored by awards from the applications, including a discussion of how Undergraduate Profiles .....................................................................................................................29 or 4C—has developed curriculum and American Chemical Society and American he is moving his research into industry hands-on projects to introduce engineering Institute of Chemical Engineers (page 23). through entrepreneurial activities and Congratulations to the Class of 2018 ...............................................................................................32 principles to local high-school students Impressively, Matt Paszek won the coveted collaborations. Undergraduate Awards .....................................................................................................................33 (page 6). Tau Beta Pi teaching award, making it two Following up on the cover story Giving Opportunities ........................................................................................................................36 Student profiles in this issue of in a row for the Smith School (Chris Alabi from last year’s Olin Hall News about the Olin Hall News highlight the richness was honored last year). renewal of Olin Hall, starting in January Photos provided by Thomas Hoebbel Photography, John Reis Photography, and University Photography. of student activities, from Grace We also had an exceptionally of 2019, we will start a first phase of the 1 | OLIN Hall News FACULTY RESEARCH them generally leads to low bulk density electrospray,” this new process achieves SCALABLE NANO-MANUFACTURING materials, meaning that with the given what many had been chasing in the battery space, you can’t put in a large amount of field: scalability with dense but controlled PROCESSES FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE the material. Initially, we thought that if we assembly of nanomaterials. made good materials, battery manufacturers Electrodes and separators based on BATTERIES WITH ENHANCED SAFETY would use them. But this industry wants scalable nano-manufacturing processes electrode materials with high density that such as gas-assisted electrospinning and air- By Yong L. Joo, the BP Amoco/H. Laurance Fuller Professor of Engineering are ready to be used in their systems without controlled electrospray are about to be used modification. So we took it back to the in breakthrough batteries that deliver much drawing board. higher energy density than conventional Since then, our process has evolved technologies and can be successfully scaled again—instead of fibers, we’re now able to to be cost competitive with enhanced safety. use the same combination of forced air and But I’m just as excited at unlocking the electric field, but this time to create small fundamental secrets behind the creation of droplets that form a film. In other words, these materials and creating the synergy our group has moved from electrospinning among the components. fibers to electrospraying droplets. The A lot of understanding the interplay “gas-assisted electrospinning.” We first deposition of the sub-micron scale droplets among battery components is needed in filed a series of patents on this new process makes a very dense coating or film that both studying the process and developing and its applications, and published papers can resolve a lot of issues we had with the the process for