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11/18/2022
The Penn State College of Engineering community is mourning the sudden loss of Janna Maranas, professor of chemical engineering, who died on Nov. 3 at the age of 57.
11/15/2022
A Penn State-led multidisciplinary collaboration may have found a solution for antibiotic resistance in cholestyramine, an oral drug already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to reduce cholesterol levels and remove bile acids associated with liver diseases.
10/19/2022
Amir Sheikhi, assistant professor of chemical engineering at the Penn State College of Engineering, and co-principal investigator Dino Ravnic, associate professor of surgery at Penn State College of Medicine and Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Regenerative Medicine and Surgical Sciences, were awarded a one-year, $801,134 NIH grant to advance biomaterial-surgical applications.
10/14/2022
Chemical engineering alumnus Michael Griffin and his wife, Nikki, established a $400,000 endowment to establish the Michael and Nikki Griffin Early Career Professorship in Chemical Engineering to support a faculty member in the first years of their academic career. The endowment includes a $100,000 matching gift from Penn State.
9/26/2022
Researchers at Penn State and the University of Arizona will use a four-year, $3.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to employ a synthetic version of these bacteria in a system for capturing and converting methane at its source.
9/19/2022
Penn State was named a collaborating institution in a $66 million U.S. Department of Energy Urban Integrated Field Program designed to study the impacts of climate change on American cities. Bruce Logan, Evan Pugh University Professor and Kappe Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is one of 21 Penn State faculty members working on the grant.
9/12/2022
Penn State ranked 22 out of 212 schools in "Best Engineering Programs" at schools whose highest degree is a doctorate. The University also ranked well in a number of engineering specialties.
9/8/2022
Engineering researchers have received a $570,000 grant from the Office of Naval Research to improve upon membrane capacitive deionization, a portable, lightweight, and easy to operate water purification method that has the potential to desalinate seawater.
9/7/2022
Amir Sheikhi, assistant professor of chemical engineering and biomedical engineering, and his team's research were recently featured in a BioTechniques article.
9/2/2022
Seong Kim, Distinguished Professor in Chemical Engineering and associate head of the department at Penn State, was named this year’s recipient of the Hayashi Jisuke Prize from the Cellulose Society of Japan. The award is given to “up-and-coming researchers from Japan and overseas who are making significant contributions to the development of cellulose science and technology” and who also promote “efforts in international exchange activities,” according to the Cellulose Society’s website. Kim was the only researcher recognized this year.
8/24/2022
Penn State researchers have developed a novel nanoengineered granular hydrogel bioink that could be used to to develop biomaterials that can be three-dimensionally (3D) printed as complex organ shapes, capable of hosting cells and forming tissues.
8/23/2022
The “I Engineer” campaign highlights excellence across Penn State’s College of Engineering and how the college is made stronger by the diversity of perspectives, experiences and backgrounds of those in the engineering community. Featured here is chemical engineering alumna Paula Garcia Todd, global strategic manager of pharma solutions for International Flavors & Fragrances.
8/18/2022
Penn State chemical engineering researchers used micro- and nanoparticles created from the organic materials like corncobs and tomato peels to capture rare earth elements from aqueous solutions.
8/12/2022
Motif FoodWorks connected with Penn State Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering Rui Shi after learning that chemical engineering senior students completed preliminary designs for heme protein production during their capstone design course. Motif awarded Shi a $125,000 grant to explore the environmental impacts of two of Motif’s products: HEMAMITM protein, used in the company’s plant-based burgers, and APPETEXTM, which mimics the texture of animal tissue.
7/28/2022
Penn State ranks in the top 50 in 16 subject area rankings — two of which are from the College of Engineering — and in the top 100 in the world in an additional 14 subjects — including three related to the College of Engineering — according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities.
7/26/2022
Phillip Savage, currently the head of Penn State Department of Chemical Engineering in the College of Engineering, has been named interim associate vice president for research and director of strategic initiatives in the Penn State Office of the Senior Vice President for Research (OSVPR), effective Aug. 22.
7/18/2022
Hee Jeung Oh, assistant professor of chemical engineering at Penn State, is one of 84 early-career engineers selected to take part in the National Academy of Engineering (NAE)’s Grainger Foundation Frontiers of Engineering 2022 U.S.-based symposium.
6/30/2022
Five College of Engineering graduate students have received 2022 NASA Pennsylvania Space Grant awards and been named graduate fellows.
6/24/2022
Eight Penn State engineering graduate students received the Diefenderfer Graduate Fellowship in Entrepreneurship for the 2022-2023 academic year.
6/16/2022
Emeritus Ron Danner has departed Penn State after 55 years as teacher, mentor and researcher in the chemical engineering field.
6/6/2022
A research team led by Penn State and the University of California, Los Angeles, developed a novel surface treatment for medical devices such as catheters to help prevent hospital infections from bacterial films that can form on these devices.
5/23/2022
Amir Sheikhi, assistant professor of chemical engineering and biomedical engineering, discusses nanomaterials research to combat the severe side-effects of chemotherapy drugs.
5/18/2022
Three Penn State engineering students have received Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation scholarships from the U.S. Department of Defense.
5/10/2022
Penn State’s Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS) has awarded eight new seed grants to bolster computational and data science research projects throughout the University. The support will benefit researchers from five Penn State campuses studying topics ranging from weather prediction, to forecasting mortgage loan closures, to exploring engineering approaches for battery materials.
5/9/2022
Penn State University Libraries and the Schreyer Honors College recognized the 11th annual finalist presentations and winner of the recently endowed Robert F. Guentter Jr. Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis Award on Thursday, May 5, immediately following the three finalists’ presentations:
5/9/2022
Amir Sheikhi, assistant professor of chemical engineering at Penn State, was selected to receive the American Chemical Society’s 2022 Unilever Award for Outstanding Young Investigator in Colloid & Surfactant Science.
5/2/2022
The National Science Foundation has selected five current Penn State College of Engineering students as 2022 awardees for the Graduate Research Fellowship Program and one College of Engineering student for an honorable mention.
4/26/2022
Efficient, customizable catalytic reactions — where two metals are combined using a catalyst, or molecule that remains unchanged during a reaction — are an attractive alternative to fossil fuels when manufacturing plastics. Researchers have found a way to make catalytic reactions less wasteful by controlling the placement of each atom on the catalyst surface.
4/21/2022
Penn State recently honored five Penn State engineering undergraduate students in recognition of their academic excellence, outstanding leadership and meritorious service. The University’s 2022 student award recipients exemplify best practices and achievements among students, reflecting the University's mission of teaching, research and service.
4/20/2022
Christian Pester, Thomas K. Hepler Early Career Professor in Chemical Engineering, was named to the 2022 class of the American Chemistry Society's Polymeric Materials Science and Engineering Young Investigators.
4/20/2022
The first round of projects to receive seed funding from the Patricia and Stephen Benkovic Research Initiative has been announced.
4/20/2022
The Penn State Materials Research Institute has announced the 2022 recipients of seed grants that will enable University faculty to establish new collaborations with partners outside their own units for the exploration of transformative ideas for high-impact materials science and engineering.
4/18/2022
Brandon Perdue has been named the spring 2022 student marshal for chemical engineering.
4/15/2022
Paula Garcia Todd, Penn State chemical engineering alumna, was featured in #IfThenSheCan – The Exhibit, presented by Lyda Hill Philanthropies’ IF/THEN Initiative. This exhibit comprises 120 life-size, 3D-printed statues of women innovators in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), making it the most statues of real women ever assembled together.
3/30/2022
The Penn State College of Engineering has added 15 faculty members this semester, with 11 tenured or tenure-line members and four non-tenure-line members.
3/30/2022
Eleven Penn State engineering graduates will be honored on April 4 at the College of Engineering’s Outstanding Engineering Alumni Awards ceremony at Hyatt Place State College. Charlie Blenko, an undergraduate student majoring in civil engineering, will serve as the event’s emcee.
3/28/2022
Sienna Helfrich, a 2014 chemical engineering graduate, was selected to receive the Alumni Achievement Award from the Penn State Alumni Association. Awardees are nominated by an academic college or campus and invited by the president of the University to share their expertise with students and the Penn State community, according to the press release.
3/28/2022
Many industrial processes require purified hydrogen, but separating that hydrogen from a mix of other gases can be difficult. Penn State researchers propose using an electrochemical hydrogen pump to separate the hydrogen quickly and cost-effectively.
3/25/2022
Colleen S. Pritchett, president of Hexcel Corporation, Americas Aerospace, has been named one of 11 recipients of the 2022 Outstanding Engineering Alumni Award by the Penn State College of Engineering.
3/25/2022
Ezra Clark joined Penn State as an assistant professor of chemical engineering on Jan. 1. He earned his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Louisville and a doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
3/25/2022
Gina Noh joined Penn State as an assistant professor of chemical engineering on Jan. 1. She came to Penn State from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich where she worked as a postdoctoral research fellow.
3/21/2022
An international collaboration led by Penn State researchers has developed a new tool to reduce the time and resources involved in determining which materials can be best applied in wearable technology, including biomedical devices.
3/9/2022
Xueyi Zhang, assistant professor of chemical engineering, and his doctoral student, Xinyang Yin, contributed to a study led by researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology and Stockholm University that revealed crystalline porous materials widely used to produce chemicals, fuels and more can exist in one-dimensional nanotubular shapes. Called zeolites, the materials were previously only produced in two or three dimensions.
3/2/2022
Penn State alumnus Adam Mayernick is the recipient of the Department of Chemical Engineering’s 2021 Early Career Alumni Recognition Award.
2/28/2022
Chris Arges, associate professor of chemical engineering at Penn State, earned a five-year, $570,030 NSF CAREER Award for a project titled, “Electrochemical pumping with high-temperature ionomers for challenging gas separations.”
2/28/2022
Christian Pester, Thomas K. Hepler Early Career Professor in Chemical Engineering at Penn State, earned a five-year, $500,000 NSF CAREER Award for a project titled “Photocatalytic optical fibers.”
2/28/2022
The North American Membrane Society recently named Andrew Zydney, Penn State professor of chemical engineering, a fellow. He is being honored for his contributions to the society over a span of 30 years.
2/28/2022
Nine faculty members in Penn State’s College of Engineering earned National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Awards. Each project funded ranges in duration from three and a half to five years, with grants from roughly $500,000 to more than $800,000.
2/27/2022
Michael Janik, associate department head and professor of chemical engineering, and Robert Roiux, Friedrich G. Helfferich Professor of Chemical Engineering, were quoted in an article on c&en, "Customizing alloy catalysts for hydrogenation."
2/24/2022
Amir Sheiki, Penn State assistant professor of chemical and biomedical engineering and principal investigator for the Bio-Soft Materials Laboratory, and Juliana Dominick, former undergraduate research assistant at Penn State, were quoted in an article published by the Daily Collegian on Feb. 18.
2/22/2022
The College of Engineering Bernard M. Gordon Learning Factory showcases for the fall 2021 semester took place virtually from Dec. 10 – 17 and in-person on Dec. 7. Students in the senior capstone design courses presented the culmination of their semester-long projects at the events.
2/15/2022
Chao-Yang Wang, professor and Diefenderfer Chair in the Penn State Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Chemical Engineering, was quoted in an article published by Wired on Feb. 9. Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/can-super-fast-battery-charging-fix-the-electric-car/
2/10/2022
The Patricia and Stephen Benkovic Research Initiative is a University-wide funding mechanism designed to directly support fresh, bold research projects at the interface of chemistry and the life sciences. Nikki Crowley, assistant professor of biology and biomedical engineering, Scott Medina, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, and Amir Sheikhi, assistant professor of chemical engineering, were funded in the first awarding cohort.
2/2/2022
Now, researchers at Penn State and The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation and the University of California Los Angeles are developing novel biomaterials to target post-stroke immune response and promote new blood vessel and axon — the part of the neuron that carries nerve impulses away from the cell’s processing center — formation at the site of the stroke.
1/18/2022
Penn State has been awarded a $3.4 million contract from the REMADE Institute, a public-private partnership established by the United States Department of Energy, to fund research targeting the inefficient methods currently used to process and upcycle mixed plastic waste.
1/6/2022
Standard chemotherapies may efficiently kill cancer cells, but they also pose significant risks to healthy cells, resulting in secondary illness and a diminished quality of life for patients.
12/9/2021
Fuel cells running on hydrogen gas could serve as a gasoline alternative in cars of the future.
12/9/2021
Two new faculty members will join the Penn State Department of Chemical Engineering. Gina Noh and Ezra Clark will start in their new roles on Jan. 1, 2022.
