The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering invites prospective graduate students to write to us regarding opportunities to do a Ph.D at Tulane. Please write to chemeng@tulane.edu, giving us your name, undergraduate institution, GPA, GRE Aptitude Scores, and research interests, and we will write back to you promptly.
Ashbaugh, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, was chosen for the award because of his potential as a researcher and because he has already made significant contributions to the study of “natively unfolded proteins” and how they interact with each other.
Ashbaugh is the fourth recipient of the Early Career Development Award. Nominations for the award are made by departmental chairs and must be supported by a dean — in Ashbaugh’s case, Nick Altiero, dean of the School of Science and Engineering. Tulane President Scott Cowen makes the final selection.
Tulane’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering led an inter-institutional team that was successful in obtaining a 3.9 M grant from the State Board of Regents through the Research Commercialization and Educational Enhancement Program (RCEEP). Other members of the team were Xavier University’s Department of Chemistry and Department of Mathematics and Nunez Community College’s Process Technology Program. The overall objective of the State’s RCEEP initiative is to revitalize the region’s economy through research commercialization and a highly-skilled workforce.
The proposal to the State was written based on the following guiding principles (a) that Chemical Engineering and the Chemical Sciences are intrinsic to the economic development of the region, which has a strong base in the chemical industry. The fields are inherently interdisciplinary encompassing research and education in health, energy, and the environment (b) Providing high quality programs that integrate research and education in chemical engineering and the chemical sciences will help recruit students to the affected universities (c) that providing enhanced educational opportunities to students from underrepresented minority groups and low/middle income communities will enable them to excel academically and transition to rewarding careers in the chemical industry.
There are several components to this collaborative effort. Doctoral level research that fosters collaborations between Chemical Engineeering and the Chemical Sciences will be enhanced. Research will be integrated with training on technology development and entrepreneurship, so that discoveries can be translated efficiently to commercialization. At Tulane and Xavier, the grant will provide research opportunities to undergraduates that will allow them to transition to careers in advanced technologies, and will provide educational opportunities for students in chemical engineering and the chemical sciences to gain hands-on industrial experience. At Nunez, the grant will be used to train process technology students in technical communication, conceptual understanding of chemical processes and process software. A stand-alone program at Xavier will focus on developmental mathematics to enhance retention of students in science and math disciplines.
At Tulane, the grant will significantly improve our research and educational infrastructure, allowing us to position ourselves as a distinguished program in chemical and biomolecular engineering.
The team of Kim O'Connor, Vijay John, Kyriakos Papadopolos, and Darryl Overby (Biomedical Engioneering), headed up by WT Godbey as principal investigator, was successful in obtaining funds from the Louisiana Board of Regents in the form of an Enhancement Grant to purchase a Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorter (FACS).
Among other things, the machine will allow the investigators to:
Brian S. Mitchell and Hank Ashbaugh, along with Mark Fink of the Chemistry Department, were recently awarded a three-year grant by the Materials Processing and Manufacturing division of NSF to study the formation of functionalized silicon nanoparticles for optoelectronic applications.
Professor O'Connor Receives NIH Grant
Professor Kim O’Connor has received a R03 grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop strategies to enrich the content of adult stem cells in cultures of human bone marrow stromal cells (hMSCs). Preserving the stem cell content during ex vivo amplification is necessary for the use of hMSCs as cell therapies in regenerative medicine. Prof. O’Connor will design enrichment strategies using both a experimental and computational approach based on the population dynamics of stem cells and mature cells in hMSC cultures.
Tulane ChemE is a recipient of a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship (see article)
(Photo by Paula Burch-Celentano) |
Harold (Wick) Hatch is one of eight chemical engineering undergraduates nationwide who are recipients of the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. (http://www.act.org/goldwater/). As excerpted from the Website "The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program was established by Congress in 1986 to honor Senator Barry M. Goldwater, who served his country for 56 years as a soldier and statesman, including 30 years of service in the U.S. Senate. The purpose of the Foundation is to provide a continuing source of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians, and engineers by awarding scholarships to college students who intend to pursue careers in these fields." Wick is the second Tulane ChemE student in two years (Jonathan Bakke, who won it in 2005, is now at Stanford) who has won the Scholarship. Wick is doing research with Professor Ashbaugh on molecular simulations. The Department is proud of him.
Dr. Hank Ashbaugh won the Honorable Mention Award for the prestigious Leon Heller Postdoctoral Publication Prize given by Los Alamos National Laboratory. His paper titled "Scaling-particle theory and the length scales of hydrophobicity" was published in "Reviews of Modern Physics" in January, 2006. He has been invited to present his research at a special colloquium at Los Alamos this Fall.
The Department announces the resumption of its seminar series after hurricane Katrina. The seminars are sponsored through generous gifts from members of the Departmental Board of Advisors.
The Department has begun a wonderful collaboration with the Department of Microbiology and Immunology (Drs. John Clements, Lucy Freytag and Louise Lawson) and the Department of Chemistry (Dr. Scott Grayson) to develop nanotechnology solutions to the effective delivery of vaccines. A proposal to the NIH spearheaded by Dr. Clements and involving three of our faculty (Kyriakos Papadopoulos, Yunfeng Lu and Vijay John) titled "Nanocarriers for Vaccine Delivery" has been approved for 5-year funding from the NIH. This will be a significant boost to our efforts in Biomolecular Engineering and Nanotechnology. With leveraged funding from other sources, we will also involve Xavier University (Dr. Tarun Mandal) and other faculty from CBE (Hank Ashbaugh and W. Godbey) to fully develop a major research theme and help solve a truly important problem.
Doctoral students Donghai Wang and Tom Fu won the first and third place awards at the Chemical Engineering Graduate Symposium held at West Virginia University, Sept 17-18, 2005. This is a tremendous achievement given the fact that Tulane had shut down due to hurricane Katrina and all the students and faculty were in evacuation mode. Donghai traveled from Albuquerque, New Mexico and Tom from San Antonio to Morgantown, West Virginia to present their research. They have truly upheld the research excellence of the department and are to be commended for their dedication. Many thanks to their advisors, Yunfeng Lu and Kyriakos Papadopoulos respectively, for their commitment to sending them to the conference during this difficult time.
Hank Ashbaugh, Vijay John and Gary McPherson (Chemistry) are Principal Investigators in a grant from the Department of Energy titled "The Molecular Design Basis for Hydrogen Storage in Clathrate Hydrates". This is a wonderful collaboration between Tulane, Hamilton College (Dr. Camille Jones) and Los Alamos National Laboratories (Drs. Robert Currier and Steve Obrey). http://www.sc.doe.gov/bes/hydrogen.html
Yunfeng Lu and Vijay John are principal investigators of a three year grant from the EPA Nanotechnology program. The grant is to develop novel nanostructured materials for the environmental remediation of chlorinated compounds. http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/recipients.display/rfa_id/389
Professor Kim O'Connor has received a 3-year grant from the National Science Foundation to study plasticity in stem cells. Stem cells hold great promise in the field of tissue engineering as a cell source for tissue repair and replacement as a result of trauma, disease and aging. Recent reports indicate that adult stem cells possess a much wider differentiation potential than previously thought. While it is generally recognized that adult stem cells differentiate into mature cells within the embryonic germ layer of their origin, there is growing evidence that they exhibit plasticity across this boundary. Plasticity will significantly increase the therapeutic applications of adult stem cells originating from one germ layer to repair tissue from the remaining two germ layers. Dr. O'Connor's research will help identify factors within the microenvironment of injured tissue that affect stem-cell plasticity. This is a wonderful new area that will expose our students to state-of-the art research in Biomolecular Engineering.
Dr. Ashbaugh is the recipient of a 2005 Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award, sponsored by the Department of Energy. http://www.orau.org/academic/financial/Powe.htm. The Department is very proud of Dr. Ashbaugh's achievements and his early promise. We look forward to his establishing a very successful academic career at Tulane.
Recognizing the need to honor deserving scholars and to increase the visibility of the school’s research activity, the Outstanding Researcher Award was established in 2001 by the faculty of the School of Engineering upon the recommendation of the School of Engineering Research and Graduate Studies Committee. The Award is given according to the following criteria:
Faculty from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering have won the award three years in a row.
2005 Award Recipient - Dr. Vijay John
2004 Award Recipient - Dr. Yunfeng Lu
2003 Award Recipient - Dr. Daniel C. R. De Kee
One of just 317 students nationally to receive a Goldwater Scholarship this year, Harold Wick Hatch is a chemical and biomolecular engineering major at Tulane.