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Chemical Engineering
Research Highlights
biom o l e c u l a r RESEARCH
Chemical Engineering
Professor Abraham Lenhoff, Gore Professor
of Chemical Engineering, is the principal
investigator of a five-year, $10.4 million
grant awarded by The National Institutes
of Health (NIH) to study membrane protein
production and characterization, a field that
is of growing importance in biomolecular
research. This interdisciplinary grant
was awarded through the NIH Center for
Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) program and
will fund research motivated by the disparity between
the critical role of membrane proteins in biology and the
well-recognized deficiencies in production and structural
characterization of these molecules.
refine CATALYSTS
Mark Barteau is the principal investigator for a $1.6
million award from The U.S. Department of
Energy. This award is for three years to
fund a research project to refine the
design of catalysts while also developing
new technologies that could lead to
the development of alternative fuels,
the improvement of fuel cells and a
decrease in pollutants.
new investigator GRANT
Christopher Roberts was selected
as the recipient of the 2005 New
Investigator Grant in Pharmaceutics
and Pharmaceutical Technology
sponsored by Pfizer Global Research
& Development. This $25,000 award
was presented at the 2005 AAPS
Annual Meeting.
f a c u l t y ARRIVALS
Thomas Epps, from the
University of Minnesota and
postdoc at NIST. His work will
contribute to polymer science:
synthesis, structure, phase
behavior and applications of
block copolymers.
Millie Sullivan, doctorate
from Carnegie Mellon with her
postdoctoral work at Hope
Heart Program at the Benaroya
Research Institute, will study
nanoparticle formulations for
gene delivery.
facult y LINE-UP
8 of our faculty are University Named Professors
• Mark A. Barteau - Robert L. Pigford Chair
• Antony N. Beris - Arthur B. Metzner Professor
• Eric W. Kaler - Elizabeth Inez Kelley Professor
• Abraham M. Lenhoff - Gore Professor
> INNOVATIVE RESEARCH
> LEADERSHIP in EDUCATION &
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
• Babatunde Ogunnaike - William L. Friend Professor
• T. W. Fraser Russell - Allan P. Colburn Professor
• Stanley I. Sandler - H. B. duPont Chair
• Norman J. Wagner - Alvin B. and Julia O. Stiles Professor
3 Members of the National Academy of Engineering
11 Presidential/NSF Young Investigators/CAREER Award titles.
Department of Chemical Engineering : : 150 Academy Street : : COLBURN LABORATORY : : Newark, DE 19716 : : 302.831.2543
W W W.CHE.UDEL.EDU
Jan 2007
Research wealth
Our diverse research is shown through the many dynamic Research Centers that are part of our Department.
resea rc h CENTERS
CCST > The Center for Catalytic
Science & Technology has pioneered
multidisciplinary research in the scientific
and engineering principles of catalysis.
Over the last 3 decades, the Center has
provided research opportunities in all
aspects of catalysis to more than 300
students and postdoctoral fellows in
the academic departments, Chemical
Engineering and Chemistry & Biochemistry,
and Materials Science, which it spans.
CMET > The Center for Molecular
Engineering & Thermodynamics
includes multiple departments and
produces research spanning fields from
computational chemistry to biological
separations. The Center provides stateof-the-art laboratory and computational
facilities and fosters collaborative research
that combines traditional thermodynamics
with cutting edge experimental and
theoretical techniques.
COBRE > The Center of Biomedical
Research Excellence in Structural and
Functional Genomics was established in
2000 around a core group of faculty in
the Departments of Biological Sciences,
Chemical Engineering and Chemistry
and Biochemistry. Scientific goals of the
COBRE are to contribute to improving
the structural basis for the fundamental
biological link between genotype and
phenotype.
IGERT > Integrative Graduate
Education & Research Traineeship
provides education across traditional
academic boundaries in life sciences,
physical sciences, engineering,
business administration, and scientific
communication.
IMMBI > Institute in Multi-scale
Modeling of Biological Interactions is
a DOE-funded program in computational
biology and is collaborative with Johns
Hopkins and Los Alamos National Lab.
tra inin g PROGRAMS
CBI > Chemistry-Biology Interface
program involves faculty from six academic
units and allows students to obtain a
Ph.D. degree in either Chemistry and
Biochemistry, in Chemical Engineering or
in Biological Sciences. Research disciplines
include: biochemistry, biochemical
engineering, bio-organic chemistry,
molecular biology, cell biology, virology,
bio-analytical chemistry, structural biology,
bio-inorganic chemistry, materials science
and plant biochemistry.
teachin g FELLOWS
Each year we select 2-4 senior graduate
students to serve as teaching fellows. These are
chosen from our most outstanding students
who have what it takes to become faculty. As
teaching fellows, they serve as co-instructors
under the mentorship of an experienced
faculty member. The teaching fellow typically
delivers one third of the lectures, and
participates in all of the other activities of a
faculty instructor, from leading recitations
to writing and grading examinations. This
provides outstanding opportunities for our
top students to experience teaching “from the
other side of the desk”. Over the past decade,
many of our teaching fellows have gone on
to faculty positions across the U.S., and this
program has helped to make Delaware one
of the top producers of chemical engineering
faculty. Graduate study is about so much more
than research, and our aim is to develop our
students on many fronts.
winter SESSION
An experiment on teaching
the Senior Laboratory class
was performed during the
2006 Winter Session. The
class was taught in the
undergraduate laboratories
of the University of Melbourne in
Australia. Twenty seniors, about 40% of
the class, made the trip. Stan Sandler
had coordinated the arrangements and
Dave Short accompanied the students
on their travels. Stan taught the Senior
Lab class while Dave taught a class
on Advanced Flowsheet Modeling. All
the students thoroughly enjoyed the
experience. The two classes
were taught during the
three weeks in Melbourne.
The remaining time
was spent in Cairns
and Sydney. In Cairns,
trips were made to
the Great Barrier Reef
and the Kuranda Rain
Forest. In Sydney, the
students engaged in
a variety of activities ranging from
tours of an oil refinery and a specialty
chemical plant to swimming at Bondi
and Manley beaches to attending a
performance of ‘Madame Butterfly’ in
the Sydney Opera House.
Check it out!
www.che.udel.edu/CHEG/
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