Chemical and Environmental Engineering Newsletter
Greetings! As we begin the spring semester, our faculty and students continue to push the boundaries in cutting edge research in the fields of nanotechnology, water quality and medicine.
I have been honored to see many outstanding awards and accomplishments by our faculty and students and I’m excited to share them with you here. I look forward to watching the semester unfold and witnessing our continued momentum and growth, individually and as a department.
Faculty News
Professor Joo-Youp Lee secures collaboration with Yuhan Corporation in researching mRNA delivery
Their project is entitled “Novel LNP-based mRNA delivery system for cancer immunotherapy” and the group will be studying its patented lipid nanoparticles that may be used in the delivery of mRNA for fighting against cancer, other infectious diseases and genetic disorders.
The groups intend to investigate the targeting of specific tissues with greater precision and more potency, thus allowing mRNA therapies to be applied to a greater number of diseases and disorders. Professor Lee has made research and license agreements with Yuhan in this endeavour.
Dr. Dionysios Dionysiou and his students awarded International Prize
The 10th Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water (PSIPW) will be awarded to Environmental Engineering Professor Dionysios Dionysiou and his student research team.
PSIPW is a leading, global scientific award focusing on cutting-edge innovation in water research and it gives recognition to scientists, researchers and inventors around the world for pioneering work that addresses the problem of water scarcity in creative and effective ways. The Dionysiou group will receive the Creativity Prize for their work developing advanced oxidation technologies and nanotechnologies to monitor and treat emerging toxins and other contaminants of concern in water.
$1.2 million grant for DAAP, CEAS and COM to make the firefighter`s job safer
In the fall of 2022, the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation funded two teams from CEAS. Dr. Vesco Shanov is part of the first team, along with others from the Colleges of DAAP, CEAS and Medicine and this group was awarded a $1.2 million grant. The funding is for a project to create cooling technology inside firefighters’ jackets. One of the major factors contributing to the firefighter`s death is body overheating which can cause a heart attack. The proposed advanced garment, which is currently in development, will cool the firefighters’ bodies down before they enter a fire, thus better protecting them in their work environment. The funded project is led by DAAP, and Profs. Vesselin Shanov and Mark Schulz from CEAS are directly involved. Dr. Shanov and his team, which includes postdoctoral fellow Dr. Qichen Fang and graduate students Vamsi Kondapalli and Kyle Brittingham, are working on a cooling system and visualization of the cooled firefighter`s coat using infrared imaging, as shown.
Profs. Simone Balachandran and Mingming Lu are part of the second team, which was awarded $1 million to develop a PPE indicator for Ohio the workforce. Their project is entitled “Exposure-Protection Integrated Communicator (EPIC) to improve and promote PPE usage in Ohio Workforce”. It is led by Jun Wang, Associate Professor in the College of Medicine and participants include NIOSH, and faculty and students from Electrical, Chemical and Environmental Engineering.
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Dr. Soryong Chae accepts Executive Editor post
Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, Professor Soryong Chae, recently accepted the position of executive editor of the Green and Sustainable Science and Engineering (GSSE) Section of the Chemical Engineering Journal. The journal’s impact factor currently resides at 16.744. The GSSE Section specifically targets papers focusing on innovative scientific and engineering solutions for the sustainable future of human beings and nature. Topics in this section include, but are not limited to, the following: 1) Emerging materials and processes for green conversion of resources (including oil, gas, coal, biomass, plastics, and synthesis gas); 2) Green processes and system integration for renewable and clean energy production (including biofuels and H2), advanced treatment of air/water/solids, resource recovery (including nutrients, heavy metals, rare earth elements, and energy), energy-food-water nexus, and minimization of environmental pollution and hazardous materials (including environmental and economic impact assessment); and 3) Innovative separation, purification, and storage technologies for renewable and clean energy, greenhouse gases (e.g., CO2 and CH4), and intermediates/by-products.
Research by Professor Jingjie Wu Highlighted by DOE
Work by Dr. Jingjie Wu, Professor of Chemical Engineering, was recently highlighted by the Department of Energy’s Office of Science. The research of his group entails the examination of a new approach utilizing a tandem catalyst to effect the conversion of CO2 to more valuable, multi-carbon molecules that may function as fuel precursors
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NASA Glenn continues support for Professor Vesselin Shanov's research
NASA Glenn continues its support for Prof. Vesselin Shanov's team to fabricate and characterize lightweight electrically conductive wires based on Carbon Nanotubes (CNT) and copper and recently, this government agency announced additional funding for his research.
The topic of the funded efforts is to combine CNTs and Cu thus enabling lower gravimetric density of the resulting wire without reducing its electrical conductivity. Such wires are needed for electric power distribution on the NASA vehicles used in their long-term missions, where any reduction of weight significantly matters.
Professor Mingming Lu receives University’s Forward Faculty Award for Transformational Experiential Learning
Environmental Engineering Professor Mingming Lu received this award for her 3000 level course entitled, “Borrowing the Earth from Our Children: Climate Change”, which she co-taught with Professor Teri Jacobs of the Environmental Science Program. This UHP course epitomizes cross disciplinary and experiential learning and they introduced students to ten diverse local leaders who drive climate action, whether in policymaking, city planning, or product development, and who fight for climate justice in communities. Throughout the semester, their students engaged in small group work and the activities ranged from reading discussions to team debates to their course project identifying an at-need community organization and strategizing an action plan to build climate resilience within the organization to meet community needs. Individually, students created infographics to promote individual climate action. Overall, they learned they can personally make a significant contribution to developing sustainable solutions to large, complex problems, such as climate change, by implementing changes at the local level with far-reaching impacts.
Dr. Soryong Chae Awarded for Groundwater Desalination Research
Together, Dr. Soryong Chae, Associate Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, along with his collaborator, Dr. Taeyoung Kim, an Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Clarkson University, have received a $250,000 award from the Department of the Interior for their research project titled, “Low Energy and High Water Recovery Desalination of Brackish Groundwater Using a Compact and Redox-Driven Electrochemical System”. Drs. Chae and Kim’s goal for the project is to develop an electrochemical separation process driven by a redox couple, called redox flow desalination (RFD), for low energy (< 0.5 kWh/m3) and high water recovery (> 80%) desalination of brackish groundwater (BGW) at a practical productivity range (~ 45 L/m2/hr). The team will use actual groundwater sources, pretreatment, and multiple cell pairs for long-term operation. Their goal is to reduce energy consumption and lower the cost of desalination by the use of a compact and modular desalination system that will achieve low energy desalination at high water recovery as well as minimized pretreatment costs, thereby offering a sustainable avenue for future water supply.
NSF releases report co-authored by Professor Lilit Yeghiazarian
In September of this year, the National Science Foundation published their report entitled, “Open Knowledge Network Roadmap – Powering the next data revolution report”, which was co-authored by Environmental Engineering Professor Lilit Yeghiazarian. This work augments critical effort to establish open access to shared information.
This open access is essential for the development and evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-powered solutions needed to address the complex challenges facing the nation and the world.
Other DCEE Awards
- Soryong R. Chae, Department of the Interior, Low Energy and High Water Recovery Desalination of Brackish Groundwater Using a Compact and Redox-Driven Electrochemical System, $100,000
- Junhang Dong, Department of Energy, Test and Validate Distributed Coaxial Cable Sensors for in situ Condition Monitoring of Coal-Fired Boiler Tubes, $100,000
- Dongmei Feng, NASA Headquarters, VIC-SNiP: Assimilating Remotely sensed Data to Model Water, Sediment, Nitrogen, and Phosphorous Transport at Continental Scales, $170,000
- Greg Harris, Department of the Army Medical Research, Next-Generation Smart Scaffolds for Regenerative Peripheral Nerve Therapeutics, $192,000
- Greg Harris, National Cancer Institute, Reprogramming of the stromal microenvironment in melanoma progression and therapeutic escape, $18,000.
- Joo-Youp Lee, Yuhan Corporation, mRNA Delivery System for Cancer Immunotherapy, $310,000
- Mingming Lu, US Environmental Protection Agency, Practical PFAS Treatment with Functionalized Sawdust, $40,000
- Mingming Lu, National Science Foundation, PFI-TT: Evaluation of a Pilot Process to Convert Waste Oil and Grease from Waste Water Treatment Plants into Yellow Grease, Water and Solids for Reuse, $50,000
- Drew McAvoy, Environmental Protection Agency, High Precision Sorting, Fractionation, and Formulation of Municipal Solid Waste for Biochemical Conversion, $50,000
- Jonathon Nickels, Department of Energy, Visualization of Solvent Disruption of Biomass and Biomembrane Structures in the Production of Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts, $32,000
- Aashish Priye, Department of the Army Medical Research, Disposable porous membranes to enable rapid and inexpensive nucleic acid amplification based viral diagnostic toolkit at the point of need, $320,000
- Patrick Ray, Millennium Challenge Corporation, Partnership to Address Climate and Other Deep Uncertainties in Environmental Economic Analysis, $61,000
- Patrick Ray, US Army Corps of Engineers, Evaluating the Economic Implications of Low Flow Augmentation on the Ohio River, $45,000
- Vesco Shanov, Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation, Integration of Carbon Nanotube Hybrid Active Textile Systems in PPE for the Ohio Fire Service, $178,000
- Vesco Shanov, National Science Foundation, Partnership for Innovation in Developing and Commercializing of a Sensors for Heavy Metals in Water, $55,000
- Maobing Tu, US Environmental Protection Agency, Practical PFAS Treatment with Functionalized Sawdust, $60,000
- Maobing Tu, Department of Energy, High Precision Sorting, Fractionation, and Formulation of Municipal Solid Waste for Biochemical Conversion, $150,000
- Jingjie Wu, Ohio Department of Higher Education, Vale Technologies, $15,000
- Lilit Yeghiazarian, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, An integrated framework to quantify and improve the climate change resiliency of combined sewer overflow systems in the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, $80,000
- Lilit Yeghiazarian, National Science Foundation, A1: Urban Flooding Open Knowledge Network (UF-OKN): Delivering Flood Impact Information to AnyOne, AnyTime, AnyWhere, $290,000
DCEE Student News
Vamsi Kondapalli, a Ph.D. student in Professor Vesselin Shanov's group at Nanoworld Laboratories, received the CEAS Graduate Student Engineer of the Month award for January 2023. His multiple accomplishment brought him this high academic achievement. Some of these include two years of teaching experience at UC, a summer internship at Micron Technology, along with active involvement in various projects funded by NASA Glenn, LAM Research/Silfex, UC Funded Collaborative Grant, two UC ERC Pilot Research Projects as a PI and GSGA. Vamsi is an author and co-author of 8 publications and co-inventor of two invention disclosures and one patent application along with Dr. Shanov.
Ethan Harper, a master’s student in environmental engineering studying under Professor Maobing Tu, was one of the winners of the Floyd Hasselriis Scholarship this year.
He will receive $3,000 cash through this award (with $1,000 allocated to the faculty advisor) and he will work on solid waste management and waste-to-energy development. The award was sponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Materials and Energy Recovery Division.
Issac Smitherman, environmental engineering major, is leading the UC student body for the 22-23 academic year as president.
He and his running mate, computer science major Yulia Martinez, and their team of student leaders are busy trying to make progress on campaign pledges such as increasing student use of public transportation by working with Cincinnati’s Metro bus service and making headway in advancing diversity, equity and inclusion on the UC campus.
Anna Chen was awarded the “Herman Schneider Best Protégé Paper Award” for her presentation at the 2022 UC Protégé Symposium.
She worked under the guidance of Dr. Maobing Tu on his EPA project and her paper was entitled, “Innovative Ways to Remove PFAS from the Environment.”
The Protégé Undergraduate Research Program gives exceptional first-year students an early opportunity to explore research by working in on-campus and industry labs.