News

Distinguished ChE Alumna Lectures on Campus

Chemical Engineering (ChE) alumna Rena Bizios ’68 recently lectured here on “Strategies to Promote Mammalian Cell Functions Pertinent to New Tissue Formation for Biomedical Applications.” It was a great opportunity for the ChE department to renew old and warm acquaintances with a former student who has excelled in her field. The highly accomplished Dr. Bizios is currently the Peter T. Flawn Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Dr. Bizios is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering, the Biomedical Engineering Society, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Read more »
Engineering Students Score a Host of Honors

Talented and accomplished students from all four departments at the College of Engineering have won numerous awards, scholarships, fellowships, and other distinctions this semester on the national, regional, and campus level. They range from the prestigious National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship, competing against the best undergraduates in the nation, to a host of awards presented by the chancellor. Chemical engineering undergraduates Kathryn Geldart and Sarena Horava have both received one of the country’s most highly sought-after fellowships, the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship, worth more than $40,000 annually for three years.

Read more »
Dauenhauer Team Discovers High-Yield Method for Producing Plastics from Biomass

A team led by Paul Dauenhauer of the Chemical Engineering Department has discovered a new, high-yield method of producing the key ingredient used to make recyclable plastic bottles from biomass. The process is inexpensive and currently creates the chemical p-xylene with an efficient yield of 75-percent, using most of the biomass feedstock, Dauenhauer says. The research is published in the journal ACS Catalysis. Dauenhauer says the new discovery shows that there is an efficient, renewable way to produce a chemical that has immediate and recognizable use for consumers. The breakthrough has already been covered in Biofuels Digest, Green Car Congress, Science Daily, Red Orbit, Bio-Medicine, e! Science News, Chemisch2Weekblad [Netherlands], R&D magazine, Renewable Energy magazine, Laboratory Equipment, Omnexus.com, Bioportfolio.com, Azom.com and Science Codex.

Read more »