Departm

ent of Chemical and B

iomolecular Engineering

University of Illinois at U

rbana-Champaign

114 Roger Adam

s Laboratory

600 South Mathew

s Avenue

Urbana, Illinois 61801-3602

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Department of Chemical and Biomolecular EngineeringUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign114 Roger Adams Laboratory600 South Mathews AvenueUrbana, Illinois 61801-3602

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Professor Bill Hammack Received the University of Illinois Branding Leadership Award

Assistant Professor Brendan Harley Received the Presidential Award for Contributions to Research

Professor Bill Hammack received the University of Illinois Branding Leadership Award for Communications and Marketing Excellence in recognition that he is “doing an amazing job as a one-man Illinois Brand machine” through his videos and other social media.

A pioneer in new and novel approaches to engineering outreach, Hammack uses social media, public-radio spots, books, magazines, and speeches to tell the human story behind engineering. Hits on his ongoing “Engineer Guy (The engineering details of all the stuff you wanna know about)” video series have exceeded three million. Make called him a “brilliant science-and-technology documentarian,” whose “videos should be held up as models of how to present complex technical information visually.” Wired called them “dazzling.” Scientific American’s blog called him a “smart, easygoing everyman with a firm understanding of the science.”

Hammack’s earlier radio commentaries were featured on programs with audiences of 6.5 million and continue to be accessed at engineerguy.com. The radio commentaries are collected in “How Engineers Create the World,” available in electronic and print formats.

To encourage others in public outreach and engineering literacy, Hammack wrote, “Why Engineers Need to Grow a Long Tail,” a short primer on how engineers can think about using new media to convey the excitement and importance of engineering—especially to the next generation of innovative engineers.

Assistant Professor Brendan Harley received the Presidential Award for Volunteer Contributions to Research from the American Cancer Society (ACS). The award honors the state’s top volunteers who lead the fight against cancer. A leukemia survivor, Harley speaks at events, works to interest high school students in biology and science careers, and focuses some of his research on how cancer cells behave.

The ACS funds biomaterials system research in his laboratory. His team’s success in engineering a functioning bone-marrow mimic could lead to a better understanding of blood and immune disorders and development of new anti-cancer and regenerative tissue therapies.

“Our findings will have an immediate impact by providing insight into how hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells use extrinsic cues,” Harley said, “but more significantly will offer the potential to improve our understanding of the etiology and progression of hematopoietic diseases and lead to new, more effective therapies that will benefit future generations.”

His research interests include developing biomaterials that act as analogs of the native extracellular matrix for orthopedic and soft tissue engineering applications, using 3-D.

Faculty Awards

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Dear Alumni and Friends,

A couple weeks ago 89 of our students received their BS degrees in Chemical Engineering. Another 25 or so will graduate in December, bringing us to a total of 114, the expected steady-state number for the next years. Despite the recession and a larger number of graduates, the demand for our graduates has only increased over the last five years. This is a further attest to the value of a Chemical Engineering degree from Illinois!

Dr. Hong Yang joined our program in January and is rapidly unfolding his research program in nanomaterials for energy and catalysis. This spring we are working hard to recruit additional faculty to help us educate our growing number of students and to strengthen the more traditional areas of the discipline, such as catalysis, energy, and computation. It is at times like these when a loyal alumni base is crucial so we have the resources to successfully compete for the most talented candidates. Also, I can tell you that Dr. David Flaherty, whose research is in the area of catalysis, will join us as an Assistant Professor in January 2013 after completing his postdoc at Berkeley. Look for more information on David in a future newsletter!

Beyond the confines of Roger Adams Laboratory, our students are looking ahead to the fall of 2012 when they will be able to return to a renovated Lincoln Hall for many of their classes. This 80-million dollar project led to structural rejuvenation, central air, state-of-the-art classrooms, computer labs, conference rooms, and offices for graduate students, faculty and staff. Similarly, a few years ago many classrooms in Noyes Laboratory were updated, and over the next two years Chemistry Annex, including all teaching labs, will be renovated and expanded. In all, these updated facilities will provide our undergraduate and graduate students the quality lecture rooms and labs they deserve while receiving their education at Illinois.

Over the years you, our alumni, have indicated the importance of training in non-technical skills. In this newsletter two of our graduate students, Samantha Weiss and Shuyi Ma, report on a series of lectures they organized on topics ranging from leadership to communication between scientists and politicians. Also, Jon Higdon tells us about his collaborative research on ‘meandering rivers’ with Exxon-Mobil, and Nick Jaeger reports on his visits with some of you. In addition to faculty awards, this issue also lists some of the awards, scholarships, fellowships (including our inaugural class of Dow Chemical Graduate Fellows), and prizes bestowed to our undergraduate and graduate students. For example, you will find a story about one of our juniors, Jacob Becraft, who is the recipient of two national awards: an Udall Scholarship and a Goldwater Scholarship!

I hope you will enjoy reading this newsletter, and don’t hesitate to contact me with your feedback and ideas (your story?!) for future newsletters.

Best Regards,

Paul J.A. Kenis Professor and Head kenis@illinois.edu (217) 244-9214

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Contents

Faculty Research 3

Undergraduate Research 5

Undergraduate Awards 6

Graduate Awards 8-9 and Fellowship

Graduate Education 10

Corporate Research Project 12

Alumni 14

Faculty Awards 16

www.chbe.illinois.edu email: ChemEng@illinois.edu

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Paul. J. A. Kenis Department Head

Mass Transfer Editors:

Kay Moran Assistant to the Head

Paul Kenis Department Head

Tina Prow Director of Engineering Publications

Greta Weiderman Assistant Director of Communications

Graphic Design:

Nivens Design

From the Department Head’s Desk

From the Road Nicholas Jaeger

Our alumni are remarkable in any number of ways, and it is my pleasure to travel throughout the country to visit with so many of you about the successes of your careers, the excitement in your lives, and all of the ways that your time at Illinois has shaped those experiences.

Recent travel destinations have included Dallas, Houston, Albuquerque, Los Alamos, Chicago, Boston, and Minneapolis. Department Head Paul Kenis joined me on a few of these occasions, which was a treat. Some of you may know that he did his postdoctoral work at Harvard, and he knows the Boston area quite well; so his navigation skills were put to the test as we travelled between appointments. I can share with you that this trip illustrated a rare instance when the “short-cuts” were, in fact, “shorter” and more efficient.

During our recent trip to the Boston area, we had dinner with Ted Houvouras (PhD ’53), who shared impressions about his experiences in the department during the early 1950s. The following day, Richard Alkire, the Charles and Dorothy Prizer Chair Emeritus Professor, joined us for lunch with Alex Vogel (BS ’63). As with so many of our alumni, Ted and Alex have each made very real and meaningful differences in the future of our great department through their engagement and generous support.

Although traveling the country to connect with alumni is important work for the department, the occasions when we are able to host alumni on campus are particularly special. Reconnecting with faculty, interacting with students, and learning about the direction of the department are among the interactions we enjoy facilitating whenever alumni are back on campus.

The University of Illinois is, indeed, a special place. The work of our talented students and outstanding faculty is a daily perpetuation of the department’s rich history. On occasions when we are able to link the contemporary work of the department with the passions and interests of our alumni, we take an important step forward in the advancement of our mission. So whether it is in your hometown, or during a return trip to campus, please know that your personal relationship with the department is important to us in so many ways, and we look forward to the next time we are in touch.

Alumni Interactions/Development

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Nick Jaeger Assistant Director of Development 217-244-9418 (office) 217-552-4399 (cell) njaeger@illinois.edu

Charles (Chip) Zukoski Named Tarika Chair

Charles Zukoski has been named the inaugural “Elio Eliakim Tarika En-dowed Chair in Chemical Engineering”, in short the Tarika Chair.

Elio Tarika, a native of Cairo, Egypt, arrived in the United States on the first Liberty ship that sailed from Alexandria, Egypt, after World War II. Elio ob-tained his BS in chemical engineering at Illinois in 1949. He had a long and successful career as a researcher and executive in the chemical industry, mostly with Union Carbide. In 1990 he retired as chairman of the board of the Viskase Corporation. Elio Tarika currently lives in Naples, FL.

Nancy Tarika, Elio Tarika’s late wife, endowed the chair in honor of her hus-band. Nancy was a graduate of the University of Arizona and obtained her M.B.A. at Northwestern University. She began her career with Union Carbide as a chemist in research and development. She became the Director of Mar-keting and Sales in the Films Packaging Division and then the first and only woman President of a Union Carbide Division. She continued as President of the Viskase Corporation.

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Faculty Research

Assistant Professor Hyun Joon Kong, along with graduate student Ross DeVolder and other collaborators, have developed a patch that will help treat cardiovascular disease.

They developed an angiogenic microfiber patch that releases angio-genic growth factors along aligned fibers and subsequently directs the spacing and orientation of mature and functional neovessels. The angiogenic microfiber patch was prepared by electrostatically bind-ing electrosprayed angiogenic growth factor-encapsulating polymeric microparticles with electrospun polymeric microfibers. The micropar-ticles released the angiogenic growth factors in a sustained manner, while the straightly aligned polymeric fibers guided cells to adhere along their orientation.

“The patch will be highly useful in treating cardiovascular disease, which is the leading cause of death and disability of people all over the world,” Kong said. Their work was reported in Advanced Materials.

Professor Paul Kenis and collaborators are pursuing research to improve the conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) into intermediates for liquid fuels or other value-added chemicals. The process they have developed could help address multiple global challenges: it has the potential to reduce society’s dependency on fossil fuels, to reduce climate change, and to increase the fraction of power produced from intermittent renewable sources such as wind and solar.

For example, at times when solar or wind energy production exceeds demand, a common occurrence with these intermittent sources, the excess electrical power can be used to drive the electrochemical conversion of CO2 into useful chemicals. These include carbon monoxide (CO), methanol, or formic acid. CO is a key component of syngas, which is used for the production of liquid fuels and other chemicals via the well-known Fisher-Tropsch process.

In a recent article in Science (vol. 334, 643-4), Kenis, graduate stu-dents Brian Rosen and Devin Whipple, and collaborators at Dioxide Materials reported that using ionic liquids in the electrolyte drasti-cally lowered the onset potential for the conversion of CO2 into CO.

The positive ion of the ionic liquid is believed to act as a co-catalyst by stabilizing the negatively charged radical intermediate that is formed at an electrode, thereby facilitating its subsequent conversion to CO. The co-catalytic effect improves the energetic efficiency of this process to more than 90% (from 40% to 50%), which increases its potential for commercialization.

This project is a DOE-sponsored collaboration between the Kenis group and researchers at Dioxide Materials, a startup company led by now-retired Professor Richard Masel.

Professor Kong Develops Patch to Treat Cardiovascular Disease

Re-energizing Carbon Dioxide to Address Global Energy Challenges

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Design Presentation Competition Winners Honored and New Distillation Column Dedicated

The Department honored student winners of the Design Presentation Competition and dedicat-ed the department’s newly renovated distillation column to BP at a reception in late November at Roger Adams Laboratory.

For their projects, students from ChBE 221: Principles of Chemical Engineering investigated the mass balance of an ethanol production plant to maximize profit, while students in ChBE 421: Momentum and Heat Transfer designed an economic pumping and piping system to supply cooling water to the condenser of a distillation column. These design projects are part of a cur-ricular innovation started in spring 2011 to integrate design projects into all core classes.

Jenny Thakkar, a process engineer, and Lindsay Miller, a shift optimization specialist, both from the BP plant in Whiting, Ind., chose the winners based on an afternoon of group presentations.

Undergraduate Education

ChBE 421: Momentum and Heat Transfer 1st Place Christopher Massie, Karl Siil, Christian Stachura, Justin Thiems

2nd Place Alexander Delgado, Ryan McGowan, Nihal Varkey, Qing Yang

3rd Place Sara Benekohal, Sarah Leung, Camille Simon, Sooyoun Yu

ChBE 221: Principles of Chemical Engineering 1st Place Erica Peterson, Thomas Parkinson, Patricia Bonaguro, Febrian Hillman

2nd Place Alexandra Thomas, Yangfan Xu, Rachel Lesorgen, Theodore Papadopoulos

3rd Place Lee Donelson, Renato Yutuc, Jakub Zajac, Gregory Gosciniak

Following the student award announcements, the newly refurbished distillation column in the unit operations laboratory was dedicated to BP, who funded its refurbishment with a generous gift. The redesign includes modifying the process from manually-fed batch process to a continu-ous flow process, enabling the students to choose their feed tray location. The sampling system features a push-bottom panel for students to take samples. “This new column will allow our students to gain valuable experience with a key industrial separation process,” according to Professor Paul Kenis, Head of the Department.

From left to right: Lindsay Miller, a shift optimization specialist from BP, Lecturer Jerrod Henderson, Department Head Paul Kenis, Professor Edmund Seebauer, Jenny Thakkar, a process engineer from BP and Lecturer Troy Vogel attend the dedication of the distillation column. Its renovation was sponsored by a generous gift from BP. MassTransfer 5

The chemical engineering biomolecular concentration is becoming a popular and fascinating research area for our undergraduates. Three students share their experiences conducting research in the groups of Profes-sors Charles Schroeder, Hyun Joon Kong, and Mary Kraft.Under-

graduates Advance Science in Individual Research

Undergraduate Research

Dean Ferracane

Michelle Jang

Sean Park

Dean Ferracane Initially, I had a singular reason for joining a research group within the department: undergraduate research aligned well with my desire to attend graduate school. However, in hindsight, I can confidently say that inde-pendent studies can be an enriching experience for anyone, regardless of their desired career path.

Prior to working with Assistant Professor Charles Schroeder, I had very little biology background. Now I feel comfortable working with relatively complex syn-thetic gene expression systems for a variety of applica-tions. Often within the real world, an employee will be thrown into an unfamiliar situation—a new department, team, or location—and be expected to cope while still producing results. I now have the self-confidence to dive into a new project without the constant assistance provided in an academic environment.

Research helped me to effectively construct an experi-mental design, convince superiors of my decisions, and

Michelle Jang I am a chemical engineering senior, graduating in May 2012. In the fall of 2010, I started working with Assis-tant Professor Hyun Joon Kong on a research project focused on encapsulating cultured human dermal fibroblast cells into a collagen hydrogel to observe cell viability in different environments.

I am currently working under the Emergent Behav-ior of Integrated Cellular Systems (EBICS) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. EBICS is a center funded by the National Science Foundation for collaborating universities (Illinois, MIT, and Geor-gia Tech) that combines engineering and biology to

Sean Park I always had a dream of pursuing a career in a biomedi-cal research to improve the field of medicine. My first research experience started in the Molecular and Cellular Biology lab, which allowed me to grasp many molecular techniques.

As I approached my senior year in college, I wanted to seek new opportunities within engineering to broaden my perspective on biomedical research. Knowing that chemical engineering research would have signifi-cant impact on biological studies, I joined Assistant Professor Mary Kraft’s lab at the beginning of the fall semester. The lab combines imaging technologies with molecular biology techniques to visualize the distri-bution of membrane proteins and to compare them among different physiological states.

The cell membranes play critical roles in our biologi-cal processes, and my project focuses on studying relationships between cell membrane organization and disease states. The study is very exciting due to

present my findings during an internship at Unilever, an international consumer products corporation. When I left, my supervisors were seriously considering altering one of their base formulations.

Additionally, I feel the best way to learn is “hands on.” Research gave me this opportunity, normally reserved for senior-level coursework, such as Unit Operations.

Finally, working in a research group can help extend your personal network. The individuals I work with have a wide range of past experiences and future aspira-tions. This opportunity has afforded me access to a unique set of perspectives now as well as promising connections for the future. Talking with them helped me better understand what I wanted to do after gradu-ation, a question almost every undergraduate struggles with at some point or another.

build multicellular biological machines. I have gained hands-on experience, applied my learning outside of the classroom setting, and could even contribute to a journal column.

Also, I experienced great mentorship during my un-dergraduate research. The postdoctoral student that I worked under was very helpful in teaching research techniques as well as explaining the biology behind all of the experiments. I think that doing undergraduate research is a great way to learn more about the lifestyle of a researcher and further develop your career as an engineer.

its practical applications, which has great potential to suggest and reveal molecular strategies for treating diseases in the future.

The research has encouraged me to search for pub-lished journals, understand other scientists’ work, and design an experiment. The scientific ideas, as well as practical applications of research, kept me truly moti-vated and provided me with an excellent foundation for graduate school.

I feel that participating in individual study is an excel-lent opportunity for undergraduate students to obtain hands-on experience and to build a solid research foundation by working with professionals who have the same interests. Also, earning college credits and fulfill-ing technical electives while preparing for graduate school are great benefits of Individual Study. I strongly feel that research has provided me with very productive and prestigious experiences.

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AIChE Chapter, Students HonoredOur student chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) was recognized with the Outstanding Student Chapter Award at the 2011 AIChE Annual Student Conference. The award is presented annually to student chapters that show an exceptional level of participation, enthusiasm, program quality, professionalism, and involvement in the university community.

Presidents of the Illinois chapter this year are seniors Andrew Cuthbertson (left) and Nicholas Ziech.

“This award is a really nice acknowledgement of the hard work the members of our AIChE chapter have put in to provide expanded and improved services to the undergraduates in our department,” said Assistant Professor Brendan Harley, who serves as faculty advisor for the chapter. “Their social

activities as well as mentoring and professional development programs have had a very positive impact on our student population.”

University of Illinois student Manasi Dave received a Freshman Recognition Award at the AIChE Conference. The award recognizes the member in each student chapter who has been the most active in their chapter during their freshman year.

In an essay competition among the top five most active AIChE members, Isabel K. Ahrendt and Anooj Avashia were selected to receive the AIChE Chapter Scholarship Awards.

Jacob Becraft the Recipient of Two National Scholarships First, Jacob, who is a junior in our program, won a 2012 Udall Scholarship, which recognizes outstanding achievement by any sophomore or junior committed to an environmental career and also American Indian students committed to careers in tribal policy and healthcare. Jacob, who has been involved in clean water projects in Guatemala and on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, was recognized in the environmental category. Only 80 or so students are selected each year from across the US. He has been a leader in Engineers Without Borders on campus and has maintained a very high GPA in the midst of a heavy load of service work.

Second, he also has been awarded a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. This highly competitive and prestigious award was given to 282 recipients for the 2012-13 academic year, to foster and encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences, and engineering. The Goldwater Scholarship is the premier undergraduate award of its type in these fields.

Jacob plans to pursue a Ph.D. in bioengineering, with the goal to conduct research in medical and bioengineering applications, as well as teach at the university level. He has been researching gene and drug delivery in the lab of Professor Daniel Pack and also tissue engineering in the lab of Professor Brendan Harley.

Undergraduate Awards

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Knights of St. Patrick Recognizes LeadersChemical and Biomolecular Engineering’s Alia Khan and Christopher Massie were among nine engineering students named 2012 Knights of St. Patrick at the annual Knights of St. Patrick Ball. The ball marked the 62nd year for the Illinois chapter. Students nominated for the prestigious honor must demonstrate strong leadership in their department, the College of Engineering, and their profession. An engraved plaque of each Knight’s class hangs in Engineering Hall.

2011-2012 Scholarships

Awards and Scholarship Committee, Troy J. Vogel, Paul J.A. Kenis, Jerrod A. Henderson, and Hyun Joon Kong (left to right) honored undergraduate students with awards and scholarships on April 20, 2012.

Every year through gifts and endowments from alumni and friends, we are able to recognize several of our undergraduates with scholarships and awards:

Franklin A. Boyle Scholarship Min Hao Wong

Chester W. Hannum Scholarship Mark A. Taylor, Nicholas A. Connolly, Matthew J. Fischer, Brett M. Llewellyn, Joshua J. Moller, Dean A. Ferracane, Thomas O. Schulz

CITGO Petroleum Corp. Scholarship Callie S. Rahe, Braden B. Christian

Don Eisele Memorial Scholarship Robert Y. Wu

R. S. Frye Scholarship Majid Ahmed A. Alhilali, Claire Gibbons, Fengyu Ren, Rujia Wang

Kimberly-Clark Chemical Engineering Award Sherrie Xuan Lu Lim, Melanie N. Golden

Thomas R. and Yolanda S. Stein Scholarships Richard Shin, John P. Gewargis, Katherine Hasan

Glenn E. and Barbara R. Ullyot Scholarships Christine L. Rovani, Brendon A. Knaizer, Morgan M. Bakies, Carol A. Grzych

Chemical Engineering Alumni/Phi Lambda Upsilon Award Fengyu Ren, James McCommas

Worth H. Rodebush Award Paul A. Jenkins

Dr. Miletic Scholarship Award Anthony W. Abbonato

John W. Latchum, Jr. Scholarship Jacob R. Becraft, Connie J. Wong

Dr. Joseph and Donna Glas Scholarship in Memory of Professor James Westwater Thomas J. Smith, Enem Martin, Samantha J. Fuchs

Donald B. Keyes Award Pedro F. Ribeiro

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Graduate Student Gains International Recognition

Graduate student Sudipto Guha (advisor Paul Kenis) is a recipient of the 2012 International Centre Diffraction Data–Ludo Frevel Crystallography Scholarship Program Award. He is one of 13 graduate researchers from around the world to be selected from a competitive solicitation that drew 52 applications.

The award supports the education and research program of promising graduate students in crystallography-related fields. Guha’s proposed research was entitled, “X-ray Compatible Microfluidic Platforms for Protein Crystallization Screening and De Novo Structure Determinations.”

Schroeder Group Postdoc Excels in Modeling Contest

Dr. Melikhan Tanyeri, a postdoctoral researcher in Professor Charles Schroeder’s group, was awarded the third-place prize in the Fall 2011 Modeling and Simulation of Nano/Microsystems Contest, hosted by the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN/C) at the University of Michigan.

This NNIN/C modeling contest is an international competition open to all researchers in the field of nano-science. Tanyeri was recognized for developing a quantitative model to simulate the confinement of single nanoparticles in free solution using a new “microfluidic trap” that incorporates active feedback control of fluid flow in a microfluidic device to trap particles or molecules.

His results directly show that fine-scale confinement of single molecules, such as globular proteins (~ 5 nm in diam-eter) or small nucleic acids, will be possible for the first time using the microfluidic trap. His work is the first to apply fluidic-based trapping to the nanoscale, thereby enabling trapping for a new size range of particles and allowing for non-perturbative analysis of single macromolecules without the need for surface immobilization.

Graduate Awards and Fellowships

Eitan Barlaz (Edmund Seebauer) Synthesis and testing of defect-engineered TiO2 for improved photocatalysts and catalyst supports

Mayank Behl (Prashant Jain) Super-resolution imaging of single-site catalytic activity in heterogeneous systems

Byung-chan Choi (Deborah Leckband) Nanoparticle interactions with polymer brushes

Carl Denard (Huimin Zhao) Development of a novel tandem catalytic reaction system for successive olefin isomerization and enantioselective epoxidation

Prashun Gorai (Edmund Seebauer) Modeling of reaction and diffusion of point defects in metal oxides for heterogeneous catalysis

Yujie Xia (Daniel Pack) Degradable polymer double-wall microcapsules for controlled release applications

Tianying Jiang (Charles Zukoski) The mechanical properties of mixtures of particles in polymer melts

Yuki Kimura (Christopher Rao) Multi-scale framework for simulating interacting particles in diffusive and convective flows

Folarin Latinwo (Charles Schroeder) Calculating materials properties from nonequilibrium polymer dynamics; a new theoretical framework

Matt Naughton (Paul Kenis) Design and characterization of novel catalysts and electrodes for energy conversion applications

Moulik Ranka (Charles Zukoski) The role of particle softness in controlling dispensability in polymer melts and the mechanical properties of the resulting composites

Christopher Brockman (Charles Schroeder) Single molecule dynamics of flexible polymer chains

First Class of Dow Chemical Company Graduate FellowsIn 2011, Dow Chemical pledged a gift to establish the Dow Chemical Company Graduate Fellows in Chemical Engineering. The inaugural class of Fellows and their projects are:

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2012 Graduate Fellowships

American Heart Association Fellowship Mihael Lazebnik

National Institutes of Health (NIH) - Chemistry Biology Interface Training Grant Steven Caliari Kathryn Trenshaw

Department of Energy Graduate Fellowship Brian Rosen

Diffenbaugh Fellowship Joseph Whittenberg

FMC Technologies Fellowship Sachit Goyal

Illinois Distinguished Fellowship Kejia Chen Danielle Mai

Konkuk University, Korea Research Foundation Yunzi Luo

Ministry of Education of Taiwan Mei-Hsiu Lai Yung-Tin Pan

NIH NRSA Kirschstein Fellowship Mark Hwang

National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Fellowship Eric Johnson Shuyi Ma

NSF Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) Program on Cellular and Molecular Mechanics and BioNanotechnology Hamid Tabdili Laura Mozdzen

Sandia National Laboratories Graduate Research Fellowship Steven Chen

Tsinghua-Illinois Corporate Fellowship (BP and Kraft Foods) Lu Shi Qidi Sun Wanwan Yang

Drickamer Fellows

The Harry G. Drickamer fund was established in 1995 by former students and friends of Professor Harry Drickamer. Each year, the proceeds of this endowment provide stipends for one or two of our most accom-plished graduate students

in the department. This year’s Drickamer Research Fellows were:

Navaneeth Nandakumar is a fourth-year graduate student work-ing in the research group of Professor Edmund Seebauer. His PhD thesis is focused on band engineering of semiconducting oxides to enable the rational design of catalysts and related devices such as sensors. One aim of the research is to controllably

modify the surface electronic properties of supported catalysts by changing the electronic properties of the support and the physical properties of the overlayer. The other aim is to link the surface electronic prop-erties of such “designed” catalysts to their catalytic activity. Navaneeth has developed models for these parts, using vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) supported on titanium dioxide (TiO2) as a model catalyst. His research includes experimental verification of the models. After obtaining his PhD, he plans to pursue a career in re-search on advanced functional materials.

Mike Thorson is a fifth-year gradu-ate student working with Profes-sor Paul Kenis to study a means to convert CO2, a major greenhouse gas, into value-added chemicals via elec-trochemistry. His project focuses on improving reactions in terms of both reaction rate and energetic efficiency. He has worked on reactor design

and electrode development to improve mass transport of reactant species, studied the influence of reaction parameters, such as pH and electrolyte composition, and developed novel catalysts. Following graduation in August 2012, Mike will join Dow Chemical’s reac-tion engineering research group, where he anticipates using many of the skills he learned while working with Professor Kenis.

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2012 Graduate Fellowships

American Heart Association Fellowship Mihael Lazebnik

National Institutes of Health (NIH) - Chemistry Biology Interface Training Grant Steven Caliari Kathryn Trenshaw

Department of Energy Graduate Fellowship Brian Rosen

Diffenbaugh Fellowship Joseph Whittenberg

FMC Technologies Fellowship Sachit Goyal

Illinois Distinguished Fellowship Kejia Chen Danielle Mai

Konkuk University, Korea Research Foundation Yunzi Luo

Ministry of Education of Taiwan Mei-Hsiu Lai Yung-Tin Pan

NIH NRSA Kirschstein Fellowship Mark Hwang

National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Fellowship Eric Johnson Shuyi Ma

NSF Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) Program on Cellular and Molecular Mechanics and BioNanotechnology Hamid Tabdili Laura Mozdzen

Sandia National Laboratories Graduate Research Fellowship Steven Chen

Tsinghua-Illinois Corporate Fellowship (BP and Kraft Foods) Lu Shi Qidi Sun Wanwan Yang

A. T. Widiger Chemical Engineering Fellowship Robert Wensing

Drickamer Fellows

The Harry G. Drickamer fund was established in 1995 by former students and friends of Professor Harry Drickamer. Each year, the proceeds of this endowment provide stipends for one or two of our most accom-plished graduate students

in the department. This year’s Drickamer Research Fellows were:

Navaneeth Nandakumar is a fourth-year graduate student work-ing in the research group of Professor Edmund Seebauer. His PhD thesis is focused on band engineering of semiconducting oxides to enable the rational design of catalysts and related devices such as sensors. One aim of the research is to controllably

modify the surface electronic properties of supported catalysts by changing the electronic properties of the support and the physical properties of the overlayer. The other aim is to link the surface electronic prop-erties of such “designed” catalysts to their catalytic activity. Navaneeth has developed models for these parts, using vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) supported on titanium dioxide (TiO2) as a model catalyst. His research includes experimental verification of the models. After obtaining his PhD, he plans to pursue a career in re-search on advanced functional materials.

Mike Thorson is a fifth-year gradu-ate student working with Profes-sor Paul Kenis to study a means to convert CO2, a major greenhouse gas, into value-added chemicals via elec-trochemistry. His project focuses on improving reactions in terms of both reaction rate and energetic efficiency. He has worked on reactor design

and electrode development to improve mass transport of reactant species, studied the influence of reaction parameters, such as pH and electrolyte composition, and developed novel catalysts. Following graduation in August 2012, Mike will join Dow Chemical’s reac-tion engineering research group, where he anticipates using many of the skills he learned while working with Professor Kenis.

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We’re engineers. We take science and use it to fix things, and often important things: most of us work on projects relevant to the standard of human living. We identify the genes that char-acterize disease to enable early treatment. We simulate rivers to learn to prevent the erosion of the marshlands that protect us from coastal surges like Katrina. We play with solar panels and biofuels and cancer treatments. Though we’re often too engaged with the nuances of our research to notice, we’re involved in some of the most pressing, heavily politicized issues of our time.

We’re engineers. We’re bad at communication and we’re notorious for that. It’s a shame, be-cause we’re becoming experts in our fields. And if anyone should have a say in science policy,

it’s us. At the very least, we should be able to commu-nicate the significance of what we do. Our engineering education hasn’t exactly nurtured that in us. Early this fall, Professor Paul Kenis gave us some funding to play with. Make soft skills happen, he told us. And so we did. This is how it went.

We started by bringing in two organizations that we’re quite in love with. We brought in the American Asso-ciation for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), which is the organization that produces Science Magazine. Joanne Carney is the director for Science, Technol-ogy, and Congress, and spends her time educating Congress about science and trying to get scientists and politicians to make sense of one another. The AAAS has internships that put engineer and scientist PhDs on the Hill so they can help inform policy mak-ers’ decisions. She delimited many of the career and noncareer paths that would make use of our educa-tion and lead to heavy involvement in science policy.

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), the science-based nonprofit that seeks to segregate politics and scientific reason, came next. Lucinda Hohmann and Steven Frenkel single-handed-ly run the UCS’s Midwest office, and both came. Their tactics were more specific: They trained us to call our Congress representatives and to give public testimony. They gave us sample dialogues and practiced with us (and brought us fabulous UCS squishy toys). Two politically active emeritus physics faculty members attended the workshop, and they gave us insight into the political process.

Graduate Education

True Leadership Combines Science Expertise with Soft Skills

By Shuyi Ma and Samantha Weiss

“We’re burgeoning experts in fields that will affect the standard of human living for decades to come, and the issues we deal in aren’t just scientific.”

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And we worked on soft skills. We brought in the most expert communicator we could find: J. W. Mor-rissette, chair of the Theater Studies Program. He taught us about poise and body language, and about assessing our audience. We also arranged four sessions with the campus’s Illinois Leadership Center. We learned to sell good ideas, to be more self-aware, and to cultivate in ourselves the traits that typify effective leaders.

We took a field trip to the Argonne National Laboratory. We visited the synchrotron and learned about protein crystallization. We conversed with postdocs and scientists in their labs and over lunch. We net-worked, and we hope that the visit opened the door for future exchanges of ideas.

Assistant Professor Brendan Harley produced one of the most packed and appreciated of our events. He gave a workshop on grant writing. Let’s face it: if we can’t communicate well enough to fund ourselves, we can’t do science. He gave insight into the grant process, from the perspective of both the writer and the reviewer, and he taught us about the characteristics of a successful grant.

We’re burgeoning experts in fields that will affect the standard of human living for decades to come, and the issues we deal in aren’t just scientific. They’re emotional and political, and we need to know how to navigate in those arenas. We like to think that in some small but significant way, we’ve empowered our students to affect change. At the very least, we hope that we’ve planted this thought: as members of the scientific community, we have some responsibility for communicating what we have learned and for pay-ing back the investment of our educations.

Over the next few months, we’ll be evaluating the feedback we received from students and putting to-gether recommendations for how to proceed with this program.

Schaefer’s $1M Gift to Support Faculty

Upon graduation from Illinois, Robert W. Schaefer (BS ’56) served in the U.S. Navy aboard a minesweeper and destroyer in the At-lantic Fleet. Following his service, Bob worked briefly at Shell in Houston before beginning a 28-year career at Monsanto Company in St. Louis where he worked in Food and Fine Chemicals, Rubber Chemicals, and Roundup. He was also an instrumental member of the team that introduced L-Dopa, the breakthrough Parkinson’s disease drug, to the marketplace.

Throughout his lifetime, so many here at Illinois had the good fortune of knowing Bob, and the tremendous value he saw in sup-porting the work of top faculty. To this end, it was our pleasure to work with Bob in making a provision via his estate plan to support this critical element of the University’s mission.

Though Bob passed away in June 2011, the recent distribution of his estate gift seemed an appropriate time to honor the generosity of a dear friend and to highlight the impactful nature of testamentary gifts to Illinois. In accordance with his wishes, Bob’s gift of $1 million will support faculty on a number of levels, most importantly through a professorship named after Bob.

Through our work with Bob and so many others, we know the experience of exploring, identifying, documenting, and ultimately achieving the philanthropic goals of our alumni as they consider their ultimate gifts to the University is truly a humbling and joyful exercise. Whether you are interested in exploring the possibilities associated with a deferred gift, or you have already made a provision in your estate plans and would like to share your desires for your gift, we would welcome your contact and be pleased to visit with you.

In Memoriam: Robert W. Schaefer, BS ’56

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A River Runs Through Modeling Research by Jonathan Higdon

As rivers flow across open plains, they follow an ever-changing course that alters the landscape and composition of the land they traverse. Professor Jonathan Higdon is studying the dynamics of meandering rivers with the goal of predicting the path of the river channels and the composi-tion of sediment deposited by the evolving channel system. Higdon and his graduate student, Samantha Weiss, are working in collaboration with researchers at ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company to develop ad-vanced computational approaches for predicting the geological evolution.

The simulation of meandering rivers is part of a broader modeling effort known as forward process based modeling. In principle, one would start with a known geological configuration and predict the future evolution of

the geological formations based on sound physical models and known process conditions. In practice, this is impossible owing to the great number of unknown variables, the uncertainties in the physical models, and the unknown starting configuration. Nonetheless, forward process based models may be used to build a knowledge base of plausible scenarios. Those scenarios then may be combined with limited geological observations to provide the best estimates of the detailed structure of geological strata that are critical to the petroleum industry.

To understand the physical basis of river meandering, it is instructive to begin with a simple model. One writes the full equations of fluid dynamics for the river flow and applies averaging processes and turbulent flow approximations to predict the average fluid velocity in the river channel. The most significant result of this model is prediction of the difference in fluid velocity near the inside bank and near the outside bank in a bend of the river. This velocity difference depends on the local curvature of the river bend, as well as the geometry of the river channel upstream of the bend. When the river velocity is higher near the outer bank, that bank erodes more rapidly and the curving of the river channel is increased.

Over timescales ranging from decades up to a hundred years or so, an initially straight stretch of river will develop an exaggerated meandering course as it flows downstream. As the meanders become more extreme, seasonal floods may cause the river to jump its banks, shortening the channel, creat-ing a detached isolated section, and forming an oxbow lake. At each stage of the meandering pro-cess, the eroding bank material as well as sediment carried by the river flow is deposited on the river bottom and on the newly formed inner bank of the river. The detailed composition and distribution of these sediments determines the future geological structure of the evolving river plain.

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Corporate Research Project

“[It] will provide better predictions yielding more refined descriptions of the geologic structure in petroleum reservoirs. Ultimately, this will lead to greater oil production at lower cost and reduced environmental impact.”

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While the initial timescale of the river migration is typically of an order of one hundred years, the pattern of the river channel belt is preserved as successive generations of river evolution bury the original river plain beneath hundreds or thousands of meters of sedimentary deposits. On geologic

timescales of 105 to 106 years, pressure and high tempera-tures convert the organic materials into petroleum and natural gas, while sand and other materials are converted into sedimentary rock. To appreciate the economic relevance of these geologic formations, one may note that a petroleum reservoir arising from a single bend in an ancient river may contain recoverable oil deposits valued at up to one billion dollars.

In the petroleum recovery process, a drilled exploratory well provides a record of the sediment structure along a single vertical bore. The prohibitive cost of such wells allows only a limited number to characterize the full structure of a reser-voir with horizontal dimensions measured in kilometers. The individual wells give a record of the environment of deposition at sparse, isolated points in the reservoir. A detailed computer prediction of the migration of the river channel during the meandering phase provides critical assistance in expand-ing the limited data set into a full model of the geological structure.

The characterization of the simple meandering river mecha-nisms described above represents the first stage in the com-putational models being developed by Higdon and Weiss in collaboration with engineers and geoscientists at ExxonMobil. In addition to channel curvature, more sophisticated models consider the profiles of the river banks, the varying channel width and depth along the river course, and the influence of point bars and other features of the bottom topography. The successful completion of this computational modeling effort will provide better predictions yielding more refined descriptions of the geologic structure in petroleum reservoirs. Ultimately, this will lead to greater oil production at lower cost and reduced environmental impact.

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“To appreciate the economic relevance of these geologic formations, one may note that a pe-troleum reservoir arising from a single bend in an ancient river may contain recoverable oil deposits valued at up to one billion dollars.”

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Tasha Desai, PhD ’09 Henkel Consumer Goods

Someone once told me that nothing prepares you for the real world, but there are definitely experiences that help. When I chose to attend graduate school, I was a naïve college graduate, who knew nothing about the foreign “real world” but I knew that I needed more education to do what I wanted to do in life—research.

Attending the University of Illinois not only gave me more time to grow as an individual but also gave me such unique experiences. I worked with Associate Professor Christopher Rao and learned how a labora-tory was actually run. I practiced problem solving, which cannot be taught in a classroom but only learned through repetition. Taking that finely tuned skill, I got a job in a field I knew nothing about—but I did know how to systematically tackle a problem and perform experimental design.

With this knowledge in hand, I moved to Arizona and started working as a senior scientist at Henkel Consumer Goods. In my job, I use the greatest tools I earned in graduate school—logical thinking and problem solving—to make products that are used in thousands of households on a regular basis.

As a scientist, there is nothing more rewarding than seeing a product you have worked on sitting on a shelf in the store. But it was not the science that I learned at the University of Illinois that allowed me to grow at my job at Henkel; it was the caring faculty, the access to equipment and resources around the University, and an advisor who motivated me through his passion for research.

Almost three years later, I continue to work at Henkel as a scientist in the laundry care product development group. I have not only grown as a researcher, but I was also lucky enough to meet my soul mate, whom I married this year. We have an 8-month-old Belgian shepherd and are happy to call Phoenix, Arizona home. On second thought, maybe the real world is not so scary.

Alice Hollister, PhD ’10 Novellus Systems, Inc.

This spring I had the opportunity to visit the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus to conduct interviews for new graduates. Meeting with the candidates and current students caused me to reflect on how much my time at Illinois has impacted my career.

Two years ago, I graduated with my PhD in chemical engineering. I went from working with Professor Edmund Seebauer’s research group to working with the Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) group at Novellus Systems, Inc. as a process development engineer. At Novellus, I have had the opportunity to develop new materials to help pattern the ever-shrinking features on integrated circuits.

My background on semiconductor materials helped me to be successful in this field. More important, the skills I learned in solving a research problem at Illinois have translated well into my career. The modeling background I received at Illinois helped me think about the process more theoretically. The ability to not see anything as a “black box” was a key takeaway from my time at Illinois. Building a vacuum apparatus for my experiments while working closely with the electrical and machine shops helped me learn to look at the whole system, instead of just the chemical process.

At Illinois, I also had the opportunity to take on several leadership roles both in and out of the department. In my current position, I communicate frequently with customers and teams from all over the world, relying heavily on the communica-tion skills I gained from those extracurricular activities. My best advice for current students at Illinois is to take advantage of all of the opportunities at Illinois. Get to know experts at the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory. Utilize career services. Participate in symposia and other graduate events. Seek out leadership roles that help build soft skills.

Our Alumni: Where are they now?

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Dear Alumni and Friends,

A couple weeks ago 89 of our students received their BS degrees in Chemical Engineering. Another 25 or so will graduate in December, bringing us to a total of 114, the expected steady-state number for the next years. Despite the recession and a larger number of graduates, the demand for our graduates has only increased over the last five years. This is a further attest to the value of a Chemical Engineering degree from Illinois!

Dr. Hong Yang joined our program in January and is rapidly unfolding his research program in nanomaterials for energy and catalysis. This spring we are working hard to recruit additional faculty to help us educate our growing number of students and to strengthen the more traditional areas of the discipline, such as catalysis, energy, and computation. It is at times like these when a loyal alumni base is crucial so we have the resources to successfully compete for the most talented candidates. Also, I can tell you that Dr. David Flaherty, whose research is in the area of catalysis, will join us as an Assistant Professor in January 2013 after completing his postdoc at Berkeley. Look for more information on David in a future newsletter!

Beyond the confines of Roger Adams Laboratory, our students are looking ahead to the fall of 2012 when they will be able to return to a renovated Lincoln Hall for many of their classes. This 80-million dollar project led to structural rejuvenation, central air, state-of-the-art classrooms, computer labs, conference rooms, and offices for graduate students, faculty and staff. Similarly, a few years ago many classrooms in Noyes Laboratory were updated, and over the next two years Chemistry Annex, including all teaching labs, will be renovated and expanded. In all, these updated facilities will provide our undergraduate and graduate students the quality lecture rooms and labs they deserve while receiving their education at Illinois.

Over the years you, our alumni, have indicated the importance of training in non-technical skills. In this newsletter two of our graduate students, Samantha Weiss and Shuyi Ma, report on a series of lectures they organized on topics ranging from leadership to communication between scientists and politicians. Also, Jon Higdon tells us about his collaborative research on ‘meandering rivers’ with Exxon-Mobil, and Nick Jaeger reports on his visits with some of you. In addition to faculty awards, this issue also lists some of the awards, scholarships, fellowships (including our inaugural class of Dow Chemical Graduate Fellows), and prizes bestowed to our undergraduate and graduate students. For example, you will find a story about one of our juniors, Jacob Becraft, who is the recipient of two national awards: an Udall Scholarship and a Goldwater Scholarship!

I hope you will enjoy reading this newsletter, and don’t hesitate to contact me with your feedback and ideas (your story?!) for future newsletters.

Best Regards,

Paul J.A. Kenis Professor and Head kenis@illinois.edu (217) 244-9214

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Contents

Faculty Research 3

Undergraduate Research 5

Undergraduate Awards 6

Graduate Awards 8-9 and Fellowship

Graduate Education 10

Corporate Research Project 12

Alumni 14

Faculty Awards 16

www.chbe.illinois.edu email: ChemEng@illinois.edu

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Paul. J. A. Kenis Department Head

Mass Transfer Editors:

Kay Moran Assistant to the Head

Paul Kenis Department Head

Tina Prow Director of Engineering Publications

Greta Weiderman Assistant Director of Communications

Graphic Design:

Nivens Design

From the Department Head’s Desk

From the Road Nicholas Jaeger

Our alumni are remarkable in any number of ways, and it is my pleasure to travel throughout the country to visit with so many of you about the successes of your careers, the excitement in your lives, and all of the ways that your time at Illinois has shaped those experiences.

Recent travel destinations have included Dallas, Houston, Albuquerque, Los Alamos, Chicago, Boston, and Minneapolis. Department Head Paul Kenis joined me on a few of these occasions, which was a treat. Some of you may know that he did his postdoctoral work at Harvard, and he knows the Boston area quite well; so his navigation skills were put to the test as we travelled between appointments. I can share with you that this trip illustrated a rare instance when the “short-cuts” were, in fact, “shorter” and more efficient.

During our recent trip to the Boston area, we had dinner with Ted Houvouras (PhD ’53), who shared impressions about his experiences in the department during the early 1950s. The following day, Richard Alkire, the Charles and Dorothy Prizer Chair Emeritus Professor, joined us for lunch with Alex Vogel (BS ’63). As with so many of our alumni, Ted and Alex have each made very real and meaningful differences in the future of our great department through their engagement and generous support.

Although traveling the country to connect with alumni is important work for the department, the occasions when we are able to host alumni on campus are particularly special. Reconnecting with faculty, interacting with students, and learning about the direction of the department are among the interactions we enjoy facilitating whenever alumni are back on campus.

The University of Illinois is, indeed, a special place. The work of our talented students and outstanding faculty is a daily perpetuation of the department’s rich history. On occasions when we are able to link the contemporary work of the department with the passions and interests of our alumni, we take an important step forward in the advancement of our mission. So whether it is in your hometown, or during a return trip to campus, please know that your personal relationship with the department is important to us in so many ways, and we look forward to the next time we are in touch.

Alumni Interactions/Development

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Nick Jaeger Assistant Director of Development 217-244-9418 (office) 217-552-4399 (cell) njaeger@illinois.edu

Charles (Chip) Zukoski Named Tarika Chair

Charles Zukoski has been named the inaugural “Elio Eliakim Tarika En-dowed Chair in Chemical Engineering”, in short the Tarika Chair.

Elio Tarika, a native of Cairo, Egypt, arrived in the United States on the first Liberty ship that sailed from Alexandria, Egypt, after World War II. Elio ob-tained his BS in chemical engineering at Illinois in 1949. He had a long and successful career as a researcher and executive in the chemical industry, mostly with Union Carbide. In 1990 he retired as chairman of the board of the Viskase Corporation. Elio Tarika currently lives in Naples, FL.

Nancy Tarika, Elio Tarika’s late wife, endowed the chair in honor of her hus-band. Nancy was a graduate of the University of Arizona and obtained her M.B.A. at Northwestern University. She began her career with Union Carbide as a chemist in research and development. She became the Director of Mar-keting and Sales in the Films Packaging Division and then the first and only woman President of a Union Carbide Division. She continued as President of the Viskase Corporation.

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Departm

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Professor Bill Hammack Received the University of Illinois Branding Leadership Award

Assistant Professor Brendan Harley Received the Presidential Award for Contributions to Research

Professor Bill Hammack received the University of Illinois Branding Leadership Award for Communications and Marketing Excellence in recognition that he is “doing an amazing job as a one-man Illinois Brand machine” through his videos and other social media.

A pioneer in new and novel approaches to engineering outreach, Hammack uses social media, public-radio spots, books, magazines, and speeches to tell the human story behind engineering. Hits on his ongoing “Engineer Guy (The engineering details of all the stuff you wanna know about)” video series have exceeded three million. Make called him a “brilliant science-and-technology documentarian,” whose “videos should be held up as models of how to present complex technical information visually.” Wired called them “dazzling.” Scientific American’s blog called him a “smart, easygoing everyman with a firm understanding of the science.”

Hammack’s earlier radio commentaries were featured on programs with audiences of 6.5 million and continue to be accessed at engineerguy.com. The radio commentaries are collected in “How Engineers Create the World,” available in electronic and print formats.

To encourage others in public outreach and engineering literacy, Hammack wrote, “Why Engineers Need to Grow a Long Tail,” a short primer on how engineers can think about using new media to convey the excitement and importance of engineering—especially to the next generation of innovative engineers.

Assistant Professor Brendan Harley received the Presidential Award for Volunteer Contributions to Research from the American Cancer Society (ACS). The award honors the state’s top volunteers who lead the fight against cancer. A leukemia survivor, Harley speaks at events, works to interest high school students in biology and science careers, and focuses some of his research on how cancer cells behave.

The ACS funds biomaterials system research in his laboratory. His team’s success in engineering a functioning bone-marrow mimic could lead to a better understanding of blood and immune disorders and development of new anti-cancer and regenerative tissue therapies.

“Our findings will have an immediate impact by providing insight into how hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells use extrinsic cues,” Harley said, “but more significantly will offer the potential to improve our understanding of the etiology and progression of hematopoietic diseases and lead to new, more effective therapies that will benefit future generations.”

His research interests include developing biomaterials that act as analogs of the native extracellular matrix for orthopedic and soft tissue engineering applications, using 3-D.

Faculty Awards