UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE Chemical Engineering Alumni News Delaware First The Path to PartnershipDiversity ™ Engagement Prominence Impact Delaware Alumni Reception Monday, November 17, 2008 7-10 p.m. WHAT’S INSIDE Carpenters’ Hall 320 Chestnut Street Letter from the Chair .............................. 2 Philadelphia, PA Coordinator Message............................. 3 www.aiche.org/annual Class Notes................................................. 6 Seminars ..................................................16 Alumni Reception .................................17 Highlights.................................................20 Al Uebler 30 years ............................20 Engineers Without Borders ........22 Teaching Fellows ...........................23 Faculty & Department News .............24 TWF Russell Symposium 2009 ...........32 Students Recognized ..........................40 2007-08 Contributions ..........................................43 Lette R FROM the Chai RM an elcome to the 2008 about these and other achievements of merit by our Alumni Newsletter! faculty, graduate and undergraduate students. WAs I noted last year, I am also pleased to report that we have a record “a lot can happen in a year” incoming graduate class (30 accepts) and a near record – what an understatement! 109 (and still counting) incoming freshman class (Per- The first year with our new haps the record salaries offered the graduating class of President, Dr. Patrick (Pat) 2008 have had an effect?). Our Energy and Biochemical Harker can best be described Engineering minors are immensely popular and our as astonishing. The overrid- undergraduate research opportunities serve to further Norman Wagner ing theme on campus has engage our talented undergraduates in our mission of been the development and creating knowledge through scholarly research. From th announcement, at the first UD Forum on May 10 , of A to Z - Alzheimer’s to Zeolites - the faculty, research ™ the new strategic plan – “Path to Prominence ” –a brief staff, postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduate synopsis of which you will find on the inside back cover research assistants continue to imagine, invent, and (more details at www.udel.edu). innovate with world-class (and, as you can read herein, “Change” best describes the atmosphere on campus, extra-planetary-class) research tackling some the grand and in the past year we have seen the replacement challenges facing our society. You can learn more about of nearly the entire upper administration as well as this exciting research on our web site, as well as by many leadership roles around campus, and within the visiting Colburn lab and perusing some of the over 50 Department and College. Eric Kaler, former Dean of research posters in the hallways that explain the work the College and valued colleague, accepted the posi- going on in the laboratories behind them. tion of provost at Stony Brook. He has been replaced With these highly visible leadership roles, groundbreak- by Michael Chajes, former chair of Civil Engineering ing research, and often unheralded, but valued ser- at UD and interim Dean. Mark Barteau (Robert L. vice to the University community, the profession, and Pigford Chair and director of the UD Energy Institute), society, Chemical Engineering is leading the University who played a central role in organizing and leading on its Path to Prominence™. You, our remarkable alumni, the development of the UD Strategic Plan, has been are largely to thank for giving us this opportunity. Our promoted to Senior Vice Provost for Research and current success, as well as the future success of our pro- st Strategic Initiatives as of July 1 . This past January, Dion gram is enabled by your valuable donations as well as Vlachos started as CCST center director and Eric Furst by your contributions to society through your service, as CMET center director. Further, as I am writing this technical leadership and citizenship. Please continue letter, Kelvin Lee (Gore Professor and DBI Fellow) has to engage your alma mater, as we are proud of your been announced as the new director of the Delaware achievements and welcome your input and sugges- Biotechnology Institute. tions. I and the rest of the faculty, students, and staff, as The Delaware Tradition of Excellence embodied in the well as your classmates look forward to hearing from Chemical Engineering program continues to help mold you! UD’s future with numerous, remarkable achievements of our faculty, students, and staff. Our three most recent hires, Terry Papoutsakis, Kelvin Lee, and Maciek An- toniewicz are highly productive, as you can read about herein, and we are proud to celebrate Millie Sullivan P.S. Please consider joining us in celebrating the 100th winning the NSF CAREER award (number 14 for the De- anniversary of AIChE at the Delaware Alumni reception partment) and Anne Robinson’s promotion to the rank in Philadelphia and meet the new UD President, Patrick of Full Professor. We are also very pleased to have Prof. Harker, and don’t forget to mark your calendar for the 75th Michael Mackay (B79) join the department of Materials birthday and retirement-fest for TW Fraser Russell. Science and Engineeringw with a courtesy appointment u in Chemical Engineering. Pleasew read on to learn more d w l.e .CH ude 2 E. Chemical Engineering UNIVERSITY of DELAWARE y comments for this year begin with a restate- ment of announcements that in February AL UM ni M2008, J. Erik Fyrwald, B81, became the chair- man of the board, president, and chief executive officer COOR dinat OR of Nalco Company. Nalco is a leader in water treatment and energy services and related specialty chemicals Messa G E with 11,700 people worldwide and sales of $3.9 billion. Prior to joining Nalco, Erik had a fabulous career with In his lecture, “Biomass Energy: DuPont. He began as a production engineer, and be- Cost, Scale and Policy Issues”, Jon Olson tween 1981 and 1990 he held various sales and man- Peter examined the econom- agement. In the next decade he was head of DuPont ics of abundant and underuti- Nylon Plastics Asia division, the global leader DuPont lized biomasses for energy production. These include Engineering Polymers, and finally VP for Corporate straw and corn stover, forest harvest residues, whole Strategic Planning and Business Development. In 2000 forests and manure. The approach also considered he became the VP and General Manager of DuPont’s purpose-grown crops such as corn and switch grass. Nutrition and Health division followed by promotion in His analysis is a careful examination of the costs for 2003 to VP of the Agriculture and Nutrition division. growing the biomass, gathering it, transporting it to a process site, and selection of the process for recovering Rodney Chase, the interim Chairman of the Board for the energy value or converting it to fuels. Sustainable Nalco, announced the selection of the new CEO with: and carbon neutral routes to energy now have great “Erik Fyrwald brings to Nalco all of the qualities we sought in research buzz but need to be illuminated by engineer- a CEO, including a strong, extended track record of success in ing economics. large, global operations. He is both an exceptional motivator of people and a driver of innovation. His business acumen, strate- On Friday, April 11th, Michael Strano, associate profes- gic insights and commitment to sustainable development made sor of chemical engineering at MIT, presented the Col- this selection an ideal fit.” burn Lecture. This lecture is to honor individuals who Erik Fyrwald’s response was equally positive: have achieved significant success in research at a young age, and Michael Strano clearly fits this definition. Mi- “With Nalco’s water, energy, paper and air expertise, we have chael earned a BS in chemical engineering at Brooklyn an incredible range of growth opportunities to pursue. I look Poly in 1997 and his PhD at Delaware in 2003 under the forward to working closely with the Company’s experienced and deep management team to fully capture the value that exists in direction of Hank Foley. He then had a post doc ap- these businesses.” pointment at Rice with Richard Smalley, a Nobel Lau- reate who made major discoveries characterizing the Surely Nalco will be well served by this outstanding structure and properties of nanotubes and buckeyballs. corporate leader. Michael was an assistant professor at the University of Three alumni presented named department seminars Illinois from 2003 until 2007, when he moved to MIT. He this academic year. The three were Peter Flynn, Michael has won many awards including the Presidential Early Strano and Brian Baynes. Career Award (2005), the Coblentz award for molecular Peter Flynn, B67, returned to the Department to give spectroscopy (2006), the ACS award for excellence in the 2007 Gerster Lecture on November 12th. This named colloidal science (2007), and the Young Investigator lecture honors Jack Gerster for his successes in teach- award from the Materials Research Society (2008). ing, research and administration. Peter graduated with Michael’s seminar was titled, “The Chemistry of Single- high honors and a degree with distinction in three Walled Carbon Nanotubes: Applications to Biomolecule years. Peter earned a MS at Berkeley (1968) and a PhD Detection, Nanotube Separation, and Electronic Net- at Alberta (1974). He spent 25 years in Canada’s energy works.” Carbon nanotubes can be used as unique detec- industry before returning to the University of Alberta, tors. For example DNA adsorbed on a nanotube may where he holds the Poole Chair in Management for undergo a structural shift, which can be followed by w Engineers. His extensive research examines the price measuring the fluorescence in the near infrared. u patterns in deregulated power markets and the eco- Strano’s group has shown how networks of nanotubes w d nomics of greenhouse gas mitigation, particularly can be flexible electronic devices and chemical detec- .e through utilization of biomass. Peter’s success closely tors. These devices are exceedingly sensitive to their w l parallels those of Jack Gerster, and hence his selection environment, apparently adsorbing entities both .