Attached is a copy of an article written by the Faculty relating Katrina Experiences in Survival, Recovery and Renewal. The article is to be published in Chemical Engineering Education (Spring, '06). The Department is grateful to the Editors of CEE for giving us this opportunity to describe our experiences.
Dear Members and Friends of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Community at Tulane.
We are back to full operation. Being in New Orleans is quite an experience and we work with a heightened sense of purpose.
What is the future of the Department? The University is expected to return to financial stability within a couple of years, with the bond market expressing confidence in the strong management team at Tulane. Our student body has returned and we are back to high intensity in both research and education. Our informal merger with Chemistry is a seamless fit. Over the years, the two departments have formed strong bonds, with research collaborations and an environment of mutual support. The atmosphere of mutual cooperation has led to the establishment of superb instrumentation facilities in advanced spectroscopy, electron microscopy and organic and inorganic analysis. We are especially proud of our high resolution electron microscopy and confocal microscopy facilities wherein we are instituting a full range of cryoimaging techniques for biological imaging. Collaborations with the Medical School have been set up and we are considered a vital player in Tulane's objective to become world class in health sciences research. Such collaborations are in stem cell culture, gene delivery to cancer cells, and in vaccine development and delivery technologies. The department has significant strengths in the areas of computational chemistry, self-assembly, nanostructured materials, colloid science, and polymer and ceramics processing. The university has clearly stated its intent to bring every Ph.D-granting department up to national prominence, and we expect significant investments to our department as the university returns to financial viability.
The next couple of years will be difficult. In addition to their intellectual lives, faculty and students will worry about rebuilding their personal lives, which must come first. Kindness and compassion will be the order of the day in the department in dealing with such issues. It will also be terribly exciting to witness and participate in the rebuilding of the city. It is tremendously heartening to see students mobilizing on all kinds of public service projects, from involvement in public school education to gutting destroyed houses so that residents can return to rebuild and establish communities, to providing meals to the thousands of laborers who are working to rebuild the city.
We are determined to persevere. Please wish us well...and come visit.
Vijay John
Professor and Chair
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Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Tulane University. All Rights Reserved.