Robert Frederick Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering HALL NEWS OLINOctober 2016 No. 105 SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL AND BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING NAMED IN RECOGNITION OF PHILANTHROPIST RobERT FREDERICK SMITH ’85 19 TABLE OF DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE CONTENTS chemical engineering contexts. His arrival in supporting all aspects of our mission. opens exciting new opportunities in both Further, he has done it with grace and MESSAGE FROM our teaching and research programs. flare, while maintaining a world-class In closing, I want to express my research program (see page 7 to catch a gratitude for the exceptional stewardship glimpse). Thank you, Lynden! THE DIRECTOR: of the Smith School that Lynden Archer I hope you enjoy the stories assembled provided over the past six-plus years. As here and that they will tempt you back to Abe Stroock, William C. Hooey Director I consider the task that I have engaged, I Olin Hall soon and frequently. Please be in and Gordon L. Dibble '50 Professor ABE STROOCK am humbled by his record of achievements touch when you visit Ithaca. DEAR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF THE DEPartmenT, TABLE OF CONTENTS his summer, I had the good developing curriculum in product design. fortune to become the School’s This beautiful new space represents an Faculty News ........................................................................................................................................2 new director in an Olin Hall that important first step in our ambitious plans has been ringing with excellent to modernize Olin Hall to serve as the Understanding the Rules of Physiology to Engineer new Drug Carriers: Chris Alabi .............4 Tnews. As the cover story of this issue school’s home base for another 75 years. Breaking the Rules to See More Clearly: Susan Daniel ..................................................................5 announces, the School has been an There’s more Olin Hall news to come! Challenging Conventional Thought to Make Better Batteries: Lynden Archer ..........................7 inspiration for and the central benefactor All the while, the Smith School’s of a historic gift by our alumnus, Robert students have been grinning and bearing Connecting the Dots: Tobias Hanrath ...............................................................................................9 Smith (B.S. ’85). With this gift, we our ever challenging program while new classes of molecules to guide drug The UO Lab Project: A Gift from Today’s Engineers to Tomorrow’s..........................................10 proudly take on a new name, the Robert engaging deeply with the campus and delivery and form potent antibiotics. For Frederick Smith School of Chemical and the world. In the profiles on pages 30-34, his work on this theme, Chris received a Alumni News .....................................................................................................................................15 Biomolecular Engineering, and a renewed you’ll find a clarinetist, a captain of the CAREER Award, the highest honor the In Memoriam ......................................................................................................................................18 mission in education and research. field hockey team, and a leader in the National Science Foundation can bestow Propelled by Robert’s powerful vote of American Indian Science and Engineering upon a young faculty member. Behind CBE Named in Recognition of the Leadership of Robert Frederick Smith ’85 .........................19 confidence in our track-record and our Society; they are headed to careers in the scenes, it is an exceptional group CBE News & Events ..........................................................................................................................21 potential, we are charting a path forward finance, research, and process engineering. of graduate students that make these Reunion 2016.......................................................................................................................................23 that will support excellence across all our The diversity of these individuals and of advances possible. This year, we named programs and will cultivate the diversity their trajectories is the hallmark of Smith the second class of Fleming Scholars for Staff News ...........................................................................................................................................24 that strengthens both our institution and School’s graduates. Continued record work on biomolecular topics (page 25), Graduate News ...................................................................................................................................25 the industries in which our graduates enrollments (100 B.S degrees in 2016) and honored four senior Ph.D. students serve as leaders. provide a satisfying indication of our with the Austin Hooey Graduate Research CBE’s WOMEN Event Inspires Students from Rural Communities ..........................................27 In parallel, the heart of Olin Hall success and the vitality of the field. Excellence Recognition Award (page 29). Undergraduate Student Profiles ......................................................................................................30 itself has undergone critical reimagining Our faculty have been busy making One bit of breaking news that did not Cornell’s ChemE Car Wins First Place at National Competition ................................................35 and renovation. As reported on page 10, news with their scholarship as well. get into this issue is the arrival of Fengqi based on your generous contributions, we For example, you will find on page 9, You as the inaugural Roxanne E. and Student Awards & Honors ................................................................................................................36 have transformed our Unit Operations Tobias Hanrath and his lab have made Michael J. Zak Professor of Energy Systems Congratulations to the Class of 2016 ...............................................................................................39 Laboratory—a center piece of the chemical fundamental contributions to a next Engineering, a new position made possible engineering curriculum—into a flexible, generation approach to form electronic by the generosity of Roxanne and Michael Giving Opportunities ........................................................................................................................40 modern space with new and rebuilt materials for computing, energy storage (’75, Operations Research). Fengqi is an experiments. Additionally, the lab’s and energy capture. On the biomolecular established leader of his generation in the Photos provided by Thomas Hoebbel Photography, John Reis Photography, and University Photography. extended second floor will host a new front (page 4), Chris Alabi has applied development of tools for system analysis class of experiments to support our rapidly his growing synthetic toolset to invent and optimization in a broad array of 1 | OLIN Hall News FACUlty NEWS & AWARDS understanding phenomena at biological Board of Trustees as the Gordon L. interfaces and chemically patterned Dibble ‘50 Professor of Chemical and surfaces that interact with soft matter— Biomolecular Engineering. This summer, FACULTY liquids, polymers, and biological materials he was elevated to the directorship of like cells, viruses, proteins and lipids. In CBE. Stroock has been described as an particular, her group investigates virus-cell innovator, thought leader, and one of membrane fusion and the impact of cell- the most creative chemical engineering NEWS & AWARDS membrane properties on virus entry and researchers of his generation. He is also the emergence of new human pathogens. consistently rated by CBE students as one goal is to leverage this understanding Sciences, selected as a scientific advisory Daniel was appointed director of graduate of the school’s most influential teachers to engineer synthetic macromolecular board member for the Carbon X-Prize, studies for CBE and in this role will and mentors. superstructures that may be used as named Senior Associate Editor for the oversee all aspects of the program. active biological ligands and scaffolds. journal Science Advances, and invited to An exciting component of the project will serve on the joint editorial board of the employ a powerful sequence-defined American Chemical Society (ACS) journals Paszek’s research as an NIH New oligo-thioetheramide molecular platform Macromolecules and ACS-Macro Letters. Innovator will examine how spatial pioneered by Alabi and his students to Finally, Archer was recognized by Cornell arrangements and physical properties of create synthetic antibacterials and RNA Merrill Presidential Scholar Michael Statt the sugary film that coats cell surfaces, delivery agents. ‘16 as the member of the faculty who had the glycocalyx, regulates the transfer of the greatest influence on his development molecular signals from outside to inside as a student scholar. This summer, Archer a cell. The project will also develop completed his second term as Director of new technologies for imaging and CBE. describing the biophysical properties of the glycocalyx. The research will advance Christopher Alabi understanding of how cells detect, Christopher Alabi, Nancy and Peter interpret and respond to chemical and Meinig Family Investigator in the Life mechanical signals. It also has implications Roseanna Zia Sciences and