Chemical and Environmental Science Archive Newsletters

2016: Dr. Dion Dionysiou Elected as an ACS Fellow

Thirty-one Councilors were selected to the 2015 class of ACS Fellows, one of which is ENVE professor Dr. Dion Dionysiou. The Fellow of the American Chemical Society (ACSF) designation is awarded to a member who has made “exceptional contributions to the science or profession and has provided excellent volunteer service to the ACS community”. This was quite an honor for Dr. Dionysiou to be recognized for his outstanding achievements in and contributions to Science, the Profession, and the Society.

2017: Environmental Engineering Professor Dionysios Dionysiou was Admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry on 7^th April 2017

Dr. Dionysios Dionysiou was a renowned expert in the area of advanced oxidation processes. He was the author or co-author of more than 310 refereed journal publications, over 86 conference proceedings, 29 book chapter publications, 24 editorials, and more than 550 presentations. These impressive numbers, along with many other attributes, made him a prime candidate for selection as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) and he was admitted to this highly prestigious group in April of 2017. Achieving Fellow status signifies to the wider scientific community a high level of accomplishment as a professional chemist. In addition, nominees must have made outstanding and distinguished contributions to their field of science, as well as adhere to an established set of high standards of ethical and professional behavior.   

2018: ChEE Faculty Continue to Reach International Acclaim

Professor Dionysious Dionysiou was given the Sustainable Water Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry. His research was recognized as being in a critical field when considering that approximately 97% of the earth’s water is in the oceans and of the remaining approximately 3% of fresh water, 2/3 is tied up in glaciers and ice caps. This makes proper treatment of our water supply a dire necessity. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) estimates that by 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population may face water shortages, demonstrating that there is a need for sustainable management in all areas of the water cycle. The Dionysiou group looked to alter these predictions in their development and application of advanced oxidation processes with the goal of a sustainable water supply. The RSC Sustainable Water Award was established in 2008 and nominees are evaluated in such categories of esteem as originality and impact of research, quality of publications, innovation, professional standing, and collaborations and teamwork. One award is made annually world-wide. 

In a second award, Dr. Dionysiou was chosen as one of four 2018 AEESP (Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors) Fellows nationally. Fellowship is based on accomplishments in environmental engineering and science research, teaching and professional service.

2020: Professor Dionysios Dionysiou led team to develop biosensor to detect toxins in water sources

Dr. Dionysiou, a Professor in the Environmental Engineering Program, led a team of University of Cincinnati environmental engineers and chemists in the development of a biosensor to detect toxins in surface water such as streams, rivers and lakes. This research, funded by the National Science Foundation, specifically addressed the importance of detecting toxic products of cyanobacteria algal blooms, which are formed mainly by agricultural runoff. The group developed a sensor to identify and measure microcystins, toxins produced from algal blooms which can cause skin irritation, nausea or vomiting if swallowed, and liver damage if large amounts are ingested. 

Dr. Minghao Kong, Dionysiou PhD student

“It was both shocking and painful to learn of the passing of my PhD advisor, Dr. Dion. I still find it hard to believe that this is real.  I wish this were just a dream, and I could wake up, still anticipating our next meeting with Dr. Dion, waiting for him to ask me, “Minghao, what’s the status of the project?” or “Minghao, how is the manuscript progressing?”. He was like a father figure to us, caring about our career development, concerned about our research and sharing our joys, always providing support and guidance whenever we needed it. Dr. Dion served as a bright role model for me, I will never live up to his expectations. Dr. Dion, may you rest in peace.”

Dr. Michael J. Bentel, Postdoctoral Fellow

“I became a part of Dr. Dionysios D. Dionysiou's research group at the University of Cincinnati in August 2022, serving as a postdoctoral scholar. Working closely with him for over 15 months on various research endeavors has been an invaluable experience.

Beyond the research that initially drew me to Dion's group, his dedication to professional development has left a lasting impression. Particularly noteworthy is his emphasis on supporting graduate students, with a special focus on women and underrepresented individuals. This commitment underscores his legacy, ensuring that his impact will endure for years to come.”

Quinn Birch, Dionysiou PhD student

“Dr. Dion was always there for me. As my advisor, he was an intelligent and understanding person. I felt a friendship with him even before I joined his research group, and he became a father figure to me as we worked closer together over the past few years. I feel honored having been a part of his research group. I had the opportunity to meet and work with such wonderful and remarkable people. Dr. Dion left behind an incredible legacy and made a beautiful impact on so many lives."

Katie Weitzel, Dionysiou PhD student

“Dr. Dion was always able to make people laugh and he genuinely cared for the people around him. Dr. Dion dedicated his life to his work and his students. He was an advisor that was always available for his students. Even if I sent him an email at 11:30pm, he would respond within 15 minutes. Dr. Dion challenged me and pushed me harder than anyone had before and showed me that I was capable of great things. I’ll always remember how good it felt to hear him compliment my work and tell me that I was doing a good job. One time he told me to “keep up the good work” and I talked about it for the rest of the week. It was such an accomplishment to get praise from Dr. Dion because everyone held him in such high esteem. I would not be the person or scientist I am today without him.”

Evangelia Anna Passa, Dionysiou PhD student

“Dr. Dion was more than an advisor to me. He was an incredibly clever, generous, and kind person, who always saw the good in people. He believed in me and pushed me so much to be excellent in my PhD research. I remember the first time I sent him an email with my CV for the Ph.D. position here, and he responded to me in 2 minutes. This is how passionate he was about his work, always eager to find and support new people by giving them opportunities to succeed. I loved our conversations outside of research topics, as he was very thoughtful about our life beyond the Ph.D. He would support his students even after their graduation and he cared about our career development. I would share with him every joy of my life, as I would go to his office and ask for advice even about the car that I was planning to buy. He would sit in front of me listening to me despite how silly where my concerns were.
It is difficult to say a few words about him. I am sure that his loss is deeply felt by those who had the privilege of meeting him and being mentored by him and his legacy will live on through the many lives he has touched positively.
Dr. Dion, I hope I can make you proud.”

We extend the highest of congratulations to our colleagues on their new tenured appointments effective August 15, 2023:

• Dr. Greg Harris, Tenured Associate Professor in ChE
• Dr. Jonathan Nickels, Tenured Associate Professor, ChE
• Dr. Yoonjee Park, Tenured Associate Professor, ChE
• Dr. Patrick Ray, Tenured Associate Professor in ENVE
• Dr. Jingjie Wu, Tenured Associate Professor in ChE

In addition, Janet Pope was promoted to Senior Business Administrator effective 12/1/23 and Ashley Barefoot was promoted from Financial Administrator 2, to Grants Administrator 2, effective October 1, 2023.

Congratulations to all!

We are very happy to announce the arrival of three new faculty members to our department.  Assistant Professor Xi-Zhi Niu joins our environmental faculty and his research focuses on environmental organic chemistry, environmental analytical chemistry, emerging organic contaminants, photochemistry, and environmentally benign semiconductor fabrication. Dr. Jonathan Pham joins our department as an associate professor and his research interests lie in the area of soft matter and polymers, interfacial science, mechanics, adhesion and wetting, tribology and gels/elastomers. Dr. Ben Yavitt joins the faculty as an assistant professor and his research lies in the area of rheology, polymer processing, advanced materials, X-ray scattering and polymer physics.  Welcome to ChEE!

The Michelman Green, Clean, and Sustainable Technology Research Innovation Program supports applied research & development (R&D) and use-inspired research with the potential to meaningfully contribute to improvements in environmental health, environmental stewardship, and sustainability by demonstrating new and marketable scientific and technical (S&T) innovations intended to address real-world problems in the Green-tech and Clean-tech fields. Grantees were selected based on the quality, novelty, and creativity of their proposed applied research topic which demonstrated a clear potential to make tangible contributions that improve societal outcomes.  Four faculty in our department were chosen as awardees.  Dr. Dionysios Dionysiou collaborated with Dr. Kelly Cohen of the Department of Aerospace Engineering & Engineering Mechanics and their winning proposal was entitled, “Uncrewed Aerial Systems for Water Collection and Quality Monitoring for Predictive AI Modeling of Harmful Algal Blooms Risk”. A second award was made to a team of ChEE professors, Dr. Maobing Tu, Dr. Drew McAvoy and Dr. Jonathan Nickels, for their proposal entitled, “Green and sustainable production of hydrogen and volatile fatty acid from organic waste”. Congratulations to them! 

Read more: https://research.uc.edu/news/2023/05/05/michelman-green-clean-and-sustainable-technology-research-innovation-program-grantees 

Five ChEE faculty were recognized by the College of Engineering and Applied Science as they honored exceptional faculty and staff members with college awards this past spring.  Each of these recipients has demonstrated the legacy of excellence, scholarship and innovation that defines the college.  Professor Jonathan Nickels received the CEAS Research Award for Early Career Faculty. Professor Stephen Thiel received the 2023 Neil Wanamacher Teaching Award.  Professor Maobing Tu received the CEAS Distinguished Researcher Award and Professors Aashish Priye and Mingming Lu received the CEAS Master Educator Award. Congratulations to all! 

Each year, our department hosts a one-day meeting with our External Advisory Board in which the two programs present accomplishments and future vision to a group of disciplinary experts.  This year, we invited the members to the Student Award Ceremony on Thursday, April 20th, and followed with a dinner at the Graduate Hotel. During the dinner, Dr. Taso Angelopoulos, the ChEE department head, gave introductions and a brief overview of the department.  The next day, the meeting commenced in full swing, with various faculty presenting updates on both the undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as updates on our COOP program and ABET.  Also included were specific highlights on new faculty members.  The board consists of experts from all areas of government, industry and academia and at the end of the day, they delivered assessment and recommendations on undergraduate, graduate, faculty, and strategic planning issues for each program.

Anastasios Angelopoulos, Safran Landing Systems Facilities Use Agreement, $39,000. 

Soryong R. Chae, Environmental Protection Agency, Risk Management and Ecological Exposure Research Support Services (RMEERS), $61,000. 

Simone Balachandran, Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation, Enhance Performance and Applications of Exposure-Protection Integrated Communicator (EPIC), $147,000 

Junhang Dong, Department of Energy, Novel Membrane System for Lithium Recovery from Brines, $172,000. 

Dongmei Feng, NASA, Integration of in-situ and SWOT data to regionally improve SWOT data accessibility and accuracy, $120,000. 

Mingming Lu, Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation, Enhance Performance and Applications of Exposure-Protection Integrated Communicator (EPIC), $147,000 

Jonathan Nickels, Department of Energy, Visualization of Solvent Disruption of Biomass and Biomembrane Structures in the Production of Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts, $20,000. 

Jonathan Nickels, Department of Energy, Subcontract for Renewal of Visualization of Solvent Disruption of Biomass and Biomembrane Structures in the Production of Advanced Biofuels, $278,000. 

Yoonjee Park, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, Injectable, Tunable Therapeutic Implant to Reduce Vocal Fold Scar, $121,000 

Yoonjee Park, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, Co-Delivery Dose-Controllable Implants for Advanced Chronic Eye Disease Treatment, $80,000 

Jonathan Pham, American Chemical Society - National Chapter, Relating local capillary suspension morphology to deformation response, $47,000. 

Vesco Shanov, General Nano LLC dba Veelo Technologies, Product Analytical Service, $5,000. 

Maobing Tu, Department of Energy, Metabolic and process engineering of solventogenic clostridia for stable, continuous n-butanol production from lignocellulosic biomass hydrolysates, $348,000. 

David Wendell, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Campus Wastewater Monitoring, University of Cincinnati Campus, $178,000. 

Jingjie Wu, Department of Energy, Modular Reactors for Capture and Electrohydro-Conversion of CO2 in Various Industrial Processes to Value-Added Chemicals, $150,000 

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. 

Graduate student Garima Mandavya, studying under Professor Patrick Ray, was offered a position in the inaugural IRiS Graduate Fellows Program for the 2023-2024 academic year. IRiS is an interdisciplinary research institute focused on novel routes to innovation in sensing research and sensor technology development through purposeful integration of STEM and non-STEM perspectives, including basic and applied research, medicine, engineering, the humanities, social sciences, and the fine and performing arts. This fellowship was awarded in recognition of her commitment to interdisciplinary sensing-related research and interest in cutting edge teamwork and training in the sensing life cycle. Garima will receive a fellowship award of $3,500 for the year and an additional $2,000 per quarter for research purposes related to the grand challenge on which she will be working.  In addition, she and Tolulope Odunola, also working in the group of Dr. Ray, received a $3000 scholarship from the Ohio Section of the American Water Works Association for the 2023-2024 school year. These scholarships will provide payment for tuition associated with their advanced degrees. 

The Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering held their annual Student Award Ceremony on Thursday, April 20th.  Awards and scholarship recipients are listed below.  CONGRATULATIONS to our students on these outstanding accomplishments!

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.

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

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.

• 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

The Office of Research announced Drs. Aashish Priye and Greg Harris as winners of the 2021-2022 University Research Council award and each will receive $25,000 for their two-year projects.  Awardees were selected based on the quality, novelty and impact of their research, scholarship and creative activities, along with a clear potential to make further, sustainable contributions to knowledge creation and improved societal outcomes.  Professor Priye’s project was entitled, “Developing portable and inexpensive molecular diagnostic platform for rapid testing” and Professor Harris’ project was entitled, “Unlocking the Roles of the ECM in Schwann Cell Plasticity”.

https://www.research.uc.edu/news/2022/03/23/congratulations-to-our-urc-awarded-faculty-scholars-and-graduate-students

Professor Ray recently won a larger contract to continue and expand his work into South Africa with UNESCO.  Specifically, the peoples of Chimanimani, Zimbabwe are facing multiple weather threats such as droughts, floods and landslides due to climate change.  Further, a cyclone in 2019 caused major destruction, leaving many areas barren of the vegetation that helps naturally alleviate flood waters. Adaption to climate change is therefore critical and this group uses a process he helped to develop called the Climate Risk Informed Decision Analysis (CRIDA) process, not only to evaluate the climate resilience in this area, but worldwide. The video link below is a quick visual synopsis of their fascinating, important work in this area!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovc3n3zTk-U

Six DCEE faculty were recognized by the College of Engineering and Applied Science as they honor exceptional faculty and staff members with college awards each year.  Each of these recipients has demonstrated the legacy of excellence, scholarship and innovation that defines the college.  Professor Jingjie Wu received the CEAS Research Award for Early Career Faculty. Professors Yoonjee Park and Greg Harris received the CEAS Distinguished Researcher Award and Professors Soryong Chae and Stephen Thiel received the CEAS Master Educator Award.  And finally, CEAS Dean Weidner selected Dr. Anastasios Angelopoulos as a recipient of the Faculty to Faculty Research Mentoring Award. This award, co-sponsored by the Office of the Provost and the Office of Research, honors faculty who have demonstrated excellence in teaching, research, and/or service. Congratulations to all!!!

This prestigious award is given to a faculty member in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics or Medicine (STEMM) and represents the highest level of recognition for achievements and contributions in STEMM research at the University of Cincinnati. 

https://www.uc.edu/about/provost/awards/facultyawards.html

In addition, the Web of Science, Clarivate Analytics Group chose Professor Dionysiou as one of their Highly Cited Researchers in 2021.  This selection signifies their recognition of Professor Dionysiou’s exceptional research performance as demonstrated by his multiple papers ranking in the top 1% by citations for their field and year of publication.  https://www.uc.edu/news/articles/2019/11/n20876653.html

Dionysiou was awarded in two categories in 2021: (1) Engineering and (2) Environment and Ecology. He also made the list in the engineering category in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

UC engineer named highly cited researcher for fourth consecutive year | University Of Cincinnati

• Anastasios Angelopoulos, Safran Landing Systems, Facility Usage Agreement, $35,000
• Soryong R. Chae, State of Ohio, Developing fast responding solutions for removing cyanobacteria, cyanotoxins, and nutrients with coagulation/flocculation/sedimentation by characterizing site-specific bloom-related environmental fact, $84,000.
• Soryong R. Chae, USEPA, Technical Support for PFAS Treatment Technologies and Nutrient Recovery, $31,000.
• Dion Dionysiou, State of Ohio, Management of harmful algal blooms by clay-biopolymer composite through flocculation of cyanobacterial cells and adsorption of phosphorus, $97,000.
• Junhang Dong, DOE, Novel Membrane System for Lithium Recovery from Brines A1, $173,000.
• Drew McAvoy, USEPA, Unregulated Organic Chemicals in Biosolids: Prioritization, Fate and Risk Evaluation for Land Application, $271,000.
• Jonathon Nickels, ACS, The role of static and dynamic structure factors in the viscosity scaling of n-alkanes, $110,000
• Jonathon Nickels, NSF, CAREER: Standing Out in a Crowd, Neutron Based Methods to Study Molecular Transport in Crowded Environments., $194,000
• Vesco Shanov, NASA Headquarters, Prepare Copper Coated Carbon Nanotube Materials for NASA Glenn, $35,000.

ChE graduate student, Vishnu Sriram, was named CEAS graduate student of the month during the spring semester!  Vishnu completed his Master’s degree in chemical engineering and then decided to continue working under Dr. Joo-Youp Lee in the field of nanomedicine focusing on gene and drug delivery to treat cancer. They work to make biodegradable and biocompatible delivery systems including polymeric and lipid nanoparticles which are used to carry chemotherapeutic drugs or genetic material such as mRNA.

Chemical engineering student researches nanoparticle drug delivery | University Of Cincinnati (uc.edu)

Katie Weitzel, a Ph.D. student studying under Professor Dion Dionysiou, was awarded the 2021 Graduate Student Award in Environmental Chemistry by the ACS division of environmental chemistry. This award recognizes graduate students who are working in areas related to environmental chemistry.  The award is based on student transcripts and records of research productivity, a brief discussion of their future goals, and a letter of recommendation from the faculty advisor.  The awardees receive cash and membership in the Environmental Division for one year and are also publicized in EnvirofACS and Environmental Science and Technology.  

PhD student Salar Balou received the Digital Futures Fellowship from the Office of Research.  The Office of Research created this new support program, part of Research2030, and specifically recognized Salar not only for his past accomplishments but also for the exciting work he will be doing over the next 12 months Salar is a student studying under Professor Aashish Priye and he will receive $17,500 for the academic year 2022 – 2023.

Two DCEE graduate students received $7500 summer stipends awarded by the Office of Research.  Zhe Zhang is studying under Professor Dion Dionysiou and his proposal was entitled, “"Simultaneous removal of phosphate and algal-derived organic matter (AOM) using magnetite: Role of AOM”.  Zhengyuan Li is a chemical engineering graduate student in Professor Jingjie Wu’s group and his proposal was entitled, “Copper Defects Driven Carbon Dioxide-to-Ethylene Conversion”. 

Seniors from both Chemical Engineering and Environmental Engineering programs presented their senior design projects at the end of the spring semester.  Each team prepared a poster, and groups were judged by both internal and external experts and the following awards were announced at the end of the semester departmental awards ceremony held on April 21, 2022:

Departmental ChE Awards

Best Capstone: First Place ($320 to each student)

2210: Conversion of Glycerol to Lactic Acid Using a Pt/ZnO Catalyst

Sidney Sutton, Hallie Malsam, Tim Good, Vaughn Richter, and Maverick Dziadkowiec.

Best Capstone Second Place ($240 to each student)

2213: Production Of Biodegradeable Poly (Lactic Acid) from Microalgae and Biowaste

Jarod Rausch, Celine Schmitt, Pablo Lemus, Leah Fletcher, Chloe Siewe.

Best Capstone Third Place  ($160 to each student)

2203: Renewable Diesel Formation

Meaghan LaBarre, Oliver Struger, Vanessa Manrique, Caitlyn Cusick, Robert Marshall. 

Departmental Environmental Engineering Awards

Best Capstone First Place  ($320 to each student)

Team: Bluegrass Water Consultants

Title:  Reservoir Sedimentation Control at the Fort Thomas Treatment Plant North Reservoir

Team Members: Cameron Atha, Claire DeForest, David Grigger, Aaron Organiscak, David Orth

Sponsor: Northern Kentucky Water District (NKWD)

Best Capstone Second Place  ($240 to each student)

Team: Environmental Overflow Consultants

Title:  Analysis of MSD Float Control to Prevent Sewer Surcharge in Combined Sewers

Team Members:  Ian Cummings, Patrick Kurtz, Nicole Lods, Kathryn Loehr, and Zoe Maldonado

Sponsor: Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati (MSDGC)

Best Capstone Third Place  ($133 to each student)

Team:  Draft Engineering

Title:  Rhinegeist Spent Yeast Alternatives

Team Members:  Eathan Baumgartner, Donnie Combs, Hannah Halsey, Lucas Jividen, Hunter Lyons, Blake Melling

Sponsor: Rhinegeist Brewery

Best Environmental and Chemical Engineering Capstone and 8th place overall at the CEAS Expo.

Team: Daybreak Design

Title: Solar Panel Multi-Phase Implementation Plan for the University of Cincinnati Uptown Campuses

Team Members: Allison Gouge, Samuel Burt, Evan DeMars, Ester Hughes, Allie Mullinger

AIChE - Ohio Valley Section recognized the following projects at the CHE Design Exhibition

First Place:

2210: Conversion of Glycerol to Lactic Acid Using a Pt/ZnO Catalyst

Sidney Sutton, Hallie Malsam, Tim Good, Vaughn Richter, and Maverick Dziadkowiec.

Second Place:

2203: Renewable Diesel Formation

Meaghan LaBarre, Oliver Struger, Vanessa Manrique, Caitlyn Cusick, Robert Marshall.

Third Place (2-way tie):

2213: Production of Biodegradeable Poly (Lactic Acid) from Microalgae and Biowaste

Jarod Rausch, Celine Schmitt, Pablo Lemus, Leah Fletcher, Chloe Siewe. 

2218:  Enzymatic Recycling of Polyethylene Terephthalate

Miread Brandes, Chelsea Ker, Margaret McCluskey, Amanda Sauls, Robert Newman. 

Congratulations to these project teams, and thanks to all of our seniors and judges on an excellent event!!

Several ENVE and ChE graduate and undergraduate students also received departmental honors and scholarships at the DCEE Annual Award Ceremony:

Pat  Scarpino Award PhD Dissertation Award was given to Vasileia Vogiazi (Advisor: Dr. Dion Dionysiou) and Yoontaek Oh (Advisor: Dr. Soryong Chae).

Pat  Scarpino Award MS Thesis Award was given to Casey Formal (Advisor: Dr. Dion Dionysiou) 

Tianyu Zhang (adviser: Dr. Jingjie Wu) was given an award as a deserving graduate ChE student at the doctoral level who excelled in his/her performance during his/her tenure in the department, prior to graduation.

R.S. Tour Award for Outstanding Chemical Engineering Senior was awarded to Chelsea Elizabeth Ker. 

Brems Scholarship for Best Academic Achievement ($1500 each)

• Matt James Olson
• Vu Van Pham
• Hunter Jacob Dewey Kasparian
• Alex M. Elegeer
• Neelah Suwal
• Ashay J. Shah

Lubrizol Foundation Scholarship ($2,000 each)

• Chelsea Elizabeth Ker
• Qyunh Thi Nhu Nguyen
• Hallie Caitlen Malsam
• Cathryn Caldwell

Congratulations to all on these outstanding awards!!

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Effective in early August of 2021, both Associate Professors of Environmental Engineering, Dr. Lilit Yeghiazarian and Dr. Maobing Tu, were promoted to full professor. Dr. Soryong R. Chae was promoted from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor with tenure. CONGRATULATIONS!

The Bureau of Reclamation awarded $3.6 million to 10 projects for advanced water treatment research and development. Of this total, Professors Soryong R. Chae and Dion Dionysiou were awarded $250K for their proposed laboratory-scale project.  This Desalination and Water Purification Research Program funding seeks to improve technologies for water supply development from nontraditional waters, including seawater, brackish groundwater, and municipal wastewater. The UC research team envisions an innovative ceramic membrane and ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diode (LED)/H₂O₂ system targeting over 99% removal of TDS and VOCs at low energy demand to treat produced water, water that is considered a waste stream associated with oil and gas activities.

• Soryong R. Chae and Vesselin Shanov, NSF, RAPID: Design, Fabrication, and Testing a Prototype of Heatable Face Mask for Preventing Respiratory Diseases Contracted through Airborne Pathogens, $40,000.
• Soryong R. Chae, Ohio Water Development Authority, Efficient removal of emerging per- and poly-fluoroalkyl contaminants using electrically heatable carbon nanotube hollow fiber membrane distillation, $28,000.
• Soryong R. Chae and Dion Dionysiou, OSU/ODHE, Management of harmful algal blooms by clay-biopolymer composite through flocculation of cyanobacterial cells and adsorption of phosphorus, $195,000.
• Soryong R. Chae and Dion Dionysiou, OSU/ODHE, Developing fast responding solutions for removing cyanobacteria, cyanotoxins, and nutrients with coagulation/flocculation/sedimentation by characterizing site-specific bloom-related environmental factors, $210,000.
• Dion Dionysiou, NSF, Collaborative Research: Treatment of Cyanotoxins by UV/Chlorine:   Removal While Developing Strategies to Minimize Disinfection Byproducts and Toxicity, $140,000.
• Junhang Dong, DOE, Test and Validate Distributed Coaxial Cable Sensors for in situ Condition Monitoring of Coal-Fired Boiler Tubes, $100,000.
• Junhang Dong, DOE, A Highly Sensitive Real-time Subsurface Sensor for CO2 Leakage Monitoring, $35,000.
• Greg Harris, UC CRA Pilot Grant, Developing Piezoelectric Biomaterials for Nerve Repair, $20,000.
• Greg Harris, NIH, Bioactive, piezoelectric materials for real time monitoring and stimulation of neural networks, $225,000.
•  
• Greg Harris, NSF, Reprogramming of the stromal microenvironment in melanoma progression and therapeutic escape, $20,000. 
• Mingming Lu, NSF, Evaluation to Convert Waste Oil (Supp#1 w/1015372), $40,000. 
  
• Mingming Lu, NSF, 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, $60,000. 
  
• Drew McAvoy, Hamilton Casework Services, Evaluation of Maumee Scientific Composter Technology, $140,000. 
  
• Jonathon Nickels, DOE, Visualization of Solvent Disruption of Biomass and Biomembrane Structures in the Production of Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts, $35,000 
  
• Yoonjee Park, Ohio Lions Eye Research Foundation, Dose-Controlled Co-Delivery Implant For Chronic AMD Treatment, $455,000 
  
• Yoonjee Park, National Eye Institute, Undergraduate Research for Doses-Controllable Drug Delivery Implants, $380,000 
  
• Patrick Ray, Millennium Challenge Corporation, Partnership to Address Climate and Other Deep Uncertainties in Environmental Economic Analysis, $75,000 
• Vesco Shanov, NSF, NSF IIP-2016484 - Supplement, $55,000. 
• Vesco Shanov, NSF, Partnership for Innovation in Developing and Commercializing of a Sensors for Heavy Metals in Water, $30,000. 
  
• David Wendell, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dormitory wastewater monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 at Universities and Colleges in the State of Ohio – subaward, $160,000. 
  
• David Wendell, Ohio Department of Health, Dormitory wastewater monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 at Universities and Colleges in the State of Ohio - subaward, $110,000. 
  
• Jingjie Wu, NSF, Selective Ethylene Production from Carbon Dioxide Electroreduction via Gas Diffusion Electrode Engineering, $140,000.  
  
• Jingjie Wu, DoE, Modular Reactors for Capture and Electrohydro-Conversion of CO2 in Various Industrial Processes to Value-Added Chemicals, $150,000.  

The winners for the Environmental Engineering Best Capstone First Place in the spring senior capstone symposium -- Sean Clapp, Leah Dickerson, Mary Beth Kappler, and Chase Neville -- recently published their work in the August 2021 issue of The Magazine for Environmental Managers.  Their manuscript was entitled, “The Feasibility of Floating Solar Arrays at Northern Kentucky Water District”.  Congratulations on this outstanding accomplishment!! 

Toluloe Odunola, a graduate student in Environmental Engineering working under Professor Patrick Ray won a $3,000 scholarship from the Ohio Section of the American Water Works Association.  Graduate students Asphota Wasti and Saiful Haque Rahat, also working under Professor Ray, won invitations to participate in the National Water Center Innovators Program Summer Institute.  Asphota worked in the area of hydroinformatics related to generation, visualization and dissemination of flood inundation information and Saiful worked in the area of novel water prediction applications of machine learning.

Jiong Gao, a recent Ph.D. grad who worked under the guidance of Professor Dion Dionysios, received the W. Wesley Eckenfelder Graduate Research Award from the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors. The award was named in honor of W. Wesley Eckenfelder, a legend in Environmental Engineering. It is given annually to recognize an environmental engineering or environmental science graduate student whose research contributes to the knowledge pool of wastewater management and selection is based on original, innovative research of publishable quality. 

The Bearcat Enviro. Solutions Team (B.E.S.T.) won 1st place in the Environmental Challenge International (ECI) design competition during the Annual Conference of the Air and Waste Management Association (AWMA) this summer. The BEST team consisted of five students working under the guidance of faculty advisor and Environmental Engineering Professor Mingming Lu.  Rachel Tumbleson, a graduate student in ENVE advised by Dr. Siv Balachandran was the team leader and the other members were undergraduates Kevin Johnson (ChE), Esther Hughes (ENVE), Sophia Pedigo (ENVE) and Jackson (“Jagger”) Vetter (ENVE).  This year's challenge focused on developing a resource plan for the regional Florida utility industry to support the path to reduce GHG emissions and achieve zero carbon by 2050.  The UC team proposed a combination of modular nuclear and solar energy paired with lithium-ion battery storage, biomass and offshore wind.  

Eight DCEE faculty were recognized by the College of Engineering and Applied Science as they honor exceptional faculty and staff members with college awards each year.  Each of these recipients has demonstrated the legacy of excellence, scholarship and innovation that defines the college.  Dr. Peter Smirniotis was honored with the CEAS Research Award.  Professors Maobing Tu, Patrick Ray, Dion Dionysiou and Jingjie Wu received the CEAS Distinguished Researcher Award and Professors Greg Harris, Mingming Lu and Margaret Kupferle received the CEAS Master Educator Award. Congratulations to all!

• Teri Reed, National Science Foundation, Towards Civility: A Workshop to Evaluate and Inspire Collection and Analysis of Data on Harassing Behaviors in Engineering and Engineering Technology, $50,000.
• Greg Harris, Department of the Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, Next-Generation Smart Scaffolds for Regenerative Peripheral Nerve Therapeutics, $115,000.
• Dion Dionysiou, Environmental Protection Agency, Removal and Treatment of PFAS Using Highly Innovative, Efficient and Cost-effective Technologies and Resource Recovery from Wastewater, $13,000.
• Mingming Lu, National Science Foundation, Evaluation of a Pilot Process to Convert Waste Oil and Grease from Waste Water Treatment Plants into Yellow Grease, Water and Solids for Reuse, $8000.
• Vesco Shanov, Department of the Army, Thermal Imaging of the Li-ion Battery during Cycling, $50,000.
• Jingjie Wu, Department of Energy, High-Efficiency Electrochemical Conversion of CO₂ to Ethylene, $450,000.

Professors George Sorial and Yuen Koh Kao will both be retiring in August, 2021. Dr. Sorial held several positions of leadership throughout his tenure here, including the Program Chair of Environmental Engineering as well as the Department Head of Chemical and Environmental Engineering. His research interests were supported by numerous grants from the Environmental Protection Agency and included a range of environmental topics including micropollutant removal as well as fate and transport and the development of supportive analytical methods.  He designed the curriculum for the undergraduate program in Environmental Engineering and taught both graduate and undergraduate courses in the field of environmental chemistry.  Dr. Kao’s research interests were in the areas of membrane separations, transport phenomena and process dynamics and optimization.  He served as mentor and teacher in the Chemical Engineering Program for more than four decades and has taught a range of courses to both undergraduate and graduate students, including Transport Phenomena, Computational Methods of Chemical Engineering, Thermodynamics, Principles of Heat Transfer, Principles of Mass Transfer, and Equilibrium Processes-Stage Operations. They will be greatly missed for their tremendous contributions and we wish them the best in their retirements!

Chemical engineering major Jenna Averbeck and environmental engineering major Taylor Batz were both recognized for their achievements in cooperative education.  Jenna completed four outstanding co-ops with Marathon Petroleum and one with L’Oréal. Taylor completed her rotations with the Ohio Department of Transportation as well as within the area of environmental consulting.

Seniors from both Chemical Engineering and Environmental Engineering programs presented their senior design projects at the end of the spring semester. Each team prepared a poster, and a prerecorded presentation (20-25 minutes).  Judges reviewed the posters and presentations, then had WebEx meetings with the teams. There were many outstanding projects representing a great deal of effort on the part of the students. Groups were judged by both internal and external experts and the following awards were announced at the end of the semester:

• Best Capstone: First Place ($250 to each student) Manufacture of Long-Chain Unsaturated Dimethyl Esters from Naturally-Sourced Materials Eric Brangers, Michael Henry, David Horten, William Kamphaus, Mark Rupert
• Best Capstone Second Place ($175 to each student) Production of Ethanol and Hydrocarbon Commodity Chemicals from Biomass Kyle T. Brittingham, Hallie J. Grant, Bryan J. Keller, John M. Lehman, Megan E. Moyer, Sarah K. Sloan
• Best Capstone Third Place  ($125 to each student) Synthesis of Glycerol Carbonate from Glycerol Produced from Biodiesel Manufacturing Faeze F. Abdulrahman, Daniel F. Abimosleh, Daniel B. Blodgett, Jacob K. Kasik, Zachary S. Lamb, Meghan C. Stapleton

• Best Capstone First Place  ($250 to each student) Light Flow Solutions – Analyzing the Feasibility of Floating Solar Power Generation Sean Clapp, Leah Dickerson, Mary Beth Kappler, Chase Neville
• Best Capstone Second Place  ($150 to each student) HydroSynergistic Solutions- Riverbank Filtration at Greater Cincinnati Water Works Amy Cristiano, Jared Crosby, Megan Ginn, Catherine Straus, Matthew Marotta
• Best Capstone Third Place  ($100 to each student) Storm Delta Engineering Solutions – Stormwater Reuse at the University of Cincinnati Main Campus Taylor Batz, Grace Brethel, Graci Doll, Anthony Marazzi, Matthew Mueller

• First Place: Manufacture of Long-Chain Unsaturated Dimethyl Esters from Naturally-Sourced Materials Eric Brangers, Michael Henry, David Horten, William Kamphaus, Mark Rupert
• Second Place: Synthesis of Glycerol Carbonate from Glycerol Produced from Biodiesel Manufacturing Faeze F. Abdulrahman, Daniel F. Abimosleh, Daniel B. Blodgett, Jacob K. Kasik, Zachary S. Lamb, Meghan C. Stapleton
• Third Place (3-way Tie): Production of Ethanol and Hydrocarbon Commodity Chemicals from Biomass Kyle T. Brittingham, Hallie J. Grant, Bryan J. Keller, John M. Lehman, Megan E. Moyer, Sarah K. Sloan Production of Oxygenate Products from Agro-Industrial Residues Jenna Averbeck, Ashley Sullivan, Tyler Noonchester, Craig Conkle, Branton Cummins Production of Aromatics from Methanol Abbey Keuper, Brian Chu, Brooke Smith, Matt Shepherd, Teagan Gosnell

This $550,000 project is focused on creating a sensor and related technology for measuring of lead concentration in drinking water. Reliable detecting and quantifying low concentrations of lead in water is a challenging task, given the negative health impact of this heavy metal particularly on children. Currently, there is a lack of continuously monitoring lead devices on the market. To address this, a new sensing element is proposed based on carbon nanotube fibers, which lowers the limit of detection and allows the sensor electrode to be miniaturized. The sensor is using an electrochemical analytical technique to trace lead in water. This approach offers simultaneous multielement detection for lead, copper, cadmium and mercury with 3.5 parts per trillion limit of detection for lead, thus outperforming any similar devices. Thanks to its simplicity and compactness, the sensor allows deployment in industrial facilities processing water and in households. Factors that control the reliability and robustness of the involved electrochemistry and the sensor itself, will be determined in preparation of the device for mass production by a leading national water processing industry. The main goal is to provide for the first time to the water consumers a simple and inexpensive tool for lead quantification. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project lies in addressing a sensitive to the society problem related to lead poisoning through drinking water and its prevention.

• Dionysios Dionysiou - University of California, Berkeley - National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) Department of Energy -  $170,420.00
• Jonathan Nickels - Oak Ridge National Laboratory - Visualization of Solvent Disruption of Biomass and Biomembrane Structures in the Production of Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts - Department of Energy - $98,670.00
• Yoonjee Park - Ohio Lions Eye Research Foundation - Biodegradable “On-demand” Drug Implant for Age-Related Macular Degeneration Treatment - $10,000.00
• Patrick Ray - U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - Institute for Water  Resources (NCR) - $50,000.00
• Patrick Ray - Procter & Gamble Company - P&G Water Security: Spain and Turkey - $50,000.00
• Jingjie Wu – National Science Foundation - Selective Ethylene Production from Carbon Dioxide Electroreduction via Gas Diffusion Electrode Engineering - $449,003.00

Four Environmental Engineering undergraduate students joined the UC Agro DOE NAWI team in Professor Dionysiou’s group in Fall 2020. The undergraduate students have been assisting with literature review for the treatment and reuse of agricultural drainage water to help develop a Baseline Report of current water reuse in the agricultural sector.

UC's ChemECar team and its president, Jacob Kasik, placed third in the Northcentral Regional Conference hosted by Notre Dame on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2020.   This qualified the team to participate in the National Conference that occurred on Sunday, Nov. 15, 2020.  Both events took place remotely as each team broadcast their participation live.  Teams participating at the National level included Virginia Tech, Cornell University, and University of Colorado Boulder, among many others.  After an exciting finish, the team placed 11th overall with Virginia Tech coming in first. Drs. Taso Angelopoulos and Stephen Thiel were present as Faculty Advisor and Onsite Safety Judge, respectively.  The team consisted not only of students from Chemical Engineering but also from Departments across the College.  The team used and assembly line process for preparing their own custom-made aluminum-air battery! The name of their car was “A-Salt and Battery."

This past summer, University of Cincinnati students won second place in the Environmental Challenge International Competition hosted by the Air and Waste Management Association (AWMA). The UC Bearcat Environmental Solutions Team (BEST) comprised Andres Mata, chemical engineering graduate student who served as team lead, Sophia Pedigo, environmental engineering undergraduate student, and Kevin Johnson, chemical engineering undergraduate student.  Their challenge was to develop an organic waste management program that would divert and recycle organic materials to reduce methane emissions.  Advised by Professor of Environmental Engineering, Dr. Mingming Lu, the group decided to propose using anaerobic digestion of food waste at wastewater treatment plants.

On March 10, 2020, UC leaders announced that the institution would suspend face-to-face instruction on March 14^th.  This is an historic effort to move our entire academic effort to remote learning in response to COVID-19 and I am proud of the work our faculty have put into this transition.  They responded with excellent creativity and kept student success at the forefront.  Spring semester is generally students’ time to present their capstones and showcase their work.  This year, our poster symposia were successfully held in an online forum in which students were able to make and post a video presentation outlining their projects and we will report on some of the outstanding work of our students in this newsletter.  At the end of the semester, our 2020 graduating class in Chemical Engineering Program exceeded 100 students for the second year in a row.  Both Chemical and Environmental Engineering Programs have experienced continued growth in enrollment for a number of years and I wish all of our graduating seniors a happy and prosperous future.

Dr. Vadim Guliants was honored by The Office of  Research as one of the university’s top externally sponsored UC researchers for this past fiscal year.  Four other DCEE faculty were recognized by the College of Engineering and Applied Science as they honor exceptional faculty and staff members with college awards each year.  Each of these recipients has demonstrated the legacy of excellence, scholarship and innovation that defines the college. Professors Vadim Guliants, George Sorial and Lilit Yeghiazarian received the CEAS Distinguished Researcher Award and Dr. Patrick Ray received the CEAS Master Educator Award. 

This selection signifies their recognition of Professor Dionysiou’s exception research performance as demonstrated by his multiple papers ranking in the top 1% by citations for their field and year of publication.

40 faculty from both the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Chemistry were in attendance along with Dean Weidner.  The goals set forth were to achieve awareness among participants of individual areas of research expertise in the respective Departments and secondly, to get to know one another as colleagues among the two departments.  Each faculty gave brief 3-4 minute presentations (in any format) describing their research interests and acknowledging sources of funding.  The event was extremely successful and there were many discussions regarding potential areas of collaboration which may allow pursuit of new research directions and sources of funding.   

Currently, there is a significant shortage of Personal Protective Equipment, particularly face masks, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The statistic shows that one COVID-19 patient consumes on average 17 face masks per day worn by the medical personnel. The post COVID-19 forecast describes that the face masks will be required long after the infection and death toll curve is flattened and declines. This project is targeting the design and fabrication of a prototype of heatable and reusable face mask that can kill viruses caught on the mask surfaces thus preventing their penetration within the human respiratory system. This is achieved through resistive heating above the virus lethal temperature. A thin and breathable heater film made of  engineered carbon nanomaterials will be used, which is porous and can be retrofitted or placed on the outer surface of any commercial face mask. This heatable filter is powered by a portable  battery or a cell phone and is thermally insulated from facial skin. The mask can be energized when worn by the user or in storage to disinfect it. PhD student Yanbo Fang (MME) and undergraduate student Hung Nguyen (ChE) have been very instrumental and innovative in making the first version of the heatable mask prototype.

In February of this year, our department received news that one of our distinguished Herschede Society members, Henry T. Brown, passed away at the age of 87. Henry graduated from Walnut Hills High School, moving on to become the first African American to earn a B.S. degree in chemical engineering in 1955 from the UC College of Engineering. Brown then attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a National Science Foundation Scholar, and there he received his M.S. degree in chemical engineering in 1956. He moved on to industry, eventually retiring from Polaroid, and had an exceptional record as civil rights activist, community leader and family man. Henry received the Herman Schneider Distinguished Alumni Award from the college in 1983.  He joined the Foundation Board in 1992 and was inducted into the Herschede Society in 2015. He received an honorary doctorate of science degree from UC in 2001.

The family is asking that in lieu of flowers, donations may be made to either of the two scholarship funds Henry was instrumental in creating. The first of these was established through the Foundation and benefits underrepresented students in the College of Engineering and Applied Science.

• The Pioneers’ Scholarship Fund of the University of Cincinnati Foundation
• The Henry T. and Melinda C. Brown Endowment for the Education of Underrepresented Minority Chemical Engineers (sponsored by AIChE, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers)

Professor Ryan Chae received an Ohio Water Resources Center USGS Award. His proposal entailed investigating the removal of PFAS from drinking water.  This is a critically important area of research as per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) are ubiquitous.  They are used to make fluoropolymer coatings and products that resist heat, oil, stains, grease, and water, however, they do not break down in the environment, can move through soils and contaminate drinking water sources, and bioaccumulate in fish and wildlife.

Congratulations Dr. Chae!!

Students pursuing their bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering now have another track open to them.  This spring, DCEE, in partnership with the College of Pharmacy launched a new degree path in the field of cosmetic science. Students following this path will obtain their bachelor’s in chemical engineering while simultaneously taking some graduate level courses in the College of Pharmacy.  After graduation, they will spend one more year to obtain their MS in cosmetic science, a multidisciplinary degree that requires expertise in a wide range of disciplines such as chemistry, chemical engineering, biological sciences, human studies, formulation science, toxicology and human and environmental safety,

Cameron Beck, graduating senior in the Chemical Engineering program was recognized by the Bearcat Promise Career Studio for his work as a peer career coach.  These coaches help fellow students in the Bearcat Promise Career Studio with job and co-op search questions, job applications, resumes, CVs, cover letters, references, interviews, and more

Seniors from both Chemical Engineering and Environmental Engineering and Science programs presented their senior design projects at the end of the spring semester.  There were many outstanding projects representing a great deal of effort on the part of the students.  Groups were judged by both internal and external experts and the following awards were announced at the end of the semester  

• Best Capstone: First Place. “Byproduct Formaldehyde Processing into Novolac Resin” Cory Chisholm, Linh Do, William Hobart, Alex Holton, Madison Summers
• Best Capstone: Second Place “Synthesizing and Purifying Dimethylacetamide from Dimethylamine​” Tyler Cowans, Jeremy Daum,​Victoria Detcher, Leah Pickner​
• Best Capstone: Third Place (Tie) “Spent Coffee Grounds Recyclery to Marketable BioChar and Coffee Oil” Lillian Ashworth, Cassie Packis, Zach Spoelstra, Matthew Stockman, Sean Weddell
• Best Capstone: Third Place (Tie) “Acetic Acid Production from Pyrolyzed Medical Waste” Cameron Beck, Dominick Forlenza, Grant Gallagher, Anya Jolicoeur, Dan Matthews

• Best Capstone First Place Title:  Impacts of Largescale Electric Vehicle Deployment on Cincinnati Ambient Air Quality Team: Urban Charge, Team Members: Kristen Belisario, Chris Stone, Rachel Tumbleson Sponsor: Duke Energy/Hamilton County
• Best Capstone Second Place Title:  Improving Morocco's Municipal Solid Waste Management Facilities Team: Solid Solutions, Team Members:  Madi Alverez, Shae Caruso, Sincerrai GentrySponsor: Resilient Communities Best Capstone Third Place (Tie) Title:  Literary Analysis of In-Home Water Pollutant Removal Technologies Team:  H₂Home Water Solutions, Team Members:  Madison Duke, Nate Jung, Julie McCormick Sponsor: Water Prosper Inc.
• Best Capstone Third Place (Tie) Title:  Stormwater Reuse at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden Team:  Umbrella Water Solutions, Team Members:  Chris Bowers, Michale Bump, Cara Hall, Taylor Webster Sponsor: Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden

• First Place “Synthesizing and Purifying Dimethylacetamide from Dimethylamine​” Tyler Cowans, Jeremy Daum,​Victoria Detcher, Leah Pickner
• Second Place “Spent Coffee Grounds Recyclery to Marketable BioChar and Coffee Oil” Lillian Ashworth, Cassie Packis, Zach Spoelstra, Matthew Stockman, Sean Weddell
• Third Place (Tie) “Byproduct Formaldehyde Processing into Novolac Resin” Cory Chisholm, Linh Do, William Hobart, Alex Holton, Madison Summers 
• Third Place (Tie) “Acetic Acid Production from Pyrolyzed Medical Waste” Cameron Beck, Dominick Forlenza, Grant Gallagher, Anya Jolicoeur, Dan Matthews

Every year, the College of Engineering and Applied Science honors exceptional faculty and staff members with college awards and each of these recipients has demonstrated the legacy of excellence, scholarship and innovation that defines the college.  Professors Dion Dionysiou, Junhang Dong, Vesselin Shanov, and Panagiotis Smirniotis received the CEAS Distinguished Researcher Award.  Dr. Drew McAvoy received the CEAS Master Educator Award and Dr. Soryong (Ryan) Chae was presented with the CEAS Research Award for Early-Career Faculty.  

Seniors from both Chemical Engineering and Environmental Engineering and Science programs presented their senior design projects at the end of the spring semester.  There were many outstanding projects representing a great deal of effort on the part of the students.  Groups were judged by both internal and external experts and the following awards were announced afterward in conjunction with a celebratory pizza party!  

Best Capstone: First Place

Title: Simulation of a Hazardous Waste Spill on the Ohio River

Team: Precision Point

Team Members: Bethany Caspersz, Matthew Cummings, Dexter Adams, Qianhui Xia

Sponsor: Greater Cincinnati Water Works

Best Capstone: Second Place

Title:  Beneficial Reuse of Sludge Incinerator Ash

Team: GROW, Team Members:  Frances Sparer, Emily Koschmeder, Ezequiel Mazzeo Larrosa, Katie-Grace Sawka

Sponsor: Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati

Best Capstone: Third Place

Title:  Biogas Capture and Utilization from an Anaerobic Lagoon

Team:  BioPower, Team Members:  Abby Miller, Andrew Francis, Grace Aldredge, Marc Bargerstock

Sponsor: Resilient Communities

Congratulations to these students on their outstanding accomplishments!!

Congratulations to these students on their outstanding accomplishments!!