Chemical and Environmental Science Archive Newsletters

From new faculty and research to grants and awards, hear what's happening in the Chemical and Environmental Engineering department at UC. 

Anastasios Headshot

Greetings! I begin this address as we anticipate the start of our 2023- 2024 academic year. I look forward to sharing with you some of our outstanding accomplishments of the last year. Recently, our university was ranked 33rd among public universities nationwide and according to the National Science Foundation, UC is 51st in the nation in research spending. As an indication of our own Department's commitment to discovery and innovation; I am pleased to let you know that we reached $5 million in research expenditures at the end of fiscal year 2023, a more than 50% increase relative to 2019. In addition to this excellent research effort, our faculty and students continue to excel in innovative teaching and learning. We celebrated 147 undergraduate degrees in Spring 2023! We look forward to carrying our momentum into the 23-24 academic year.

Faculty News

ChEE welcomes three new faculty members 

Headshot of Professor Zhi Niu
Headshot of Professor Jonathan Pham
Headshot of Professor Ben Yavitt

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!

Professor Aashish Priye receives NSF Career Award

Headshot of Aashish Priye

Dr. Aashish Priye, an assistant professor in chemical engineering, received the Faculty Early Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation. This award is one of the most prestigious awards for up-and-coming researchers and his award was given for his proposal entitled, “Simultaneous sample preparation and thermal cycling for rapid and inexpensive molecular diagnostics at the point-of-care.” Dr. Priye’s research is in the area of microfluidics and involves understanding and harnessing the behavior of fluids on a small scale with the goal of improving medical diagnostic devices.

Read more:

What if PCR testing could be done at home? | University of Cincinnati (uc.edu)

Symposium held to honor the late Professor Stephen Clarson at ACS annual meeting 

Guests sitting at the Clarson Symposium

A symposium honoring the late Professor Stephen Clarson was held at the ACS annual meeting in Indianapolis this past April.  The symposium was organized by Professor Siddharth Patwardhan (ChE, University of Sheffield), Dr. Steve Pollack (Carbon Inc.) and Professor Greg Beaucage (ChE, University of Cincinnati).  Dr. Clarson was faculty in materials and chemical engineering for 32 years at UC and also served as Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Affairs. He was very active in the American Chemical Society, organizing a number of symposia and editing several books on silicone elastomers, silica and silanes. He was also editor of the journal Silicon. Our department and the University of Sheffield, ChE Department co-sponsored a dinner at the Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse in Indianapolis, attended by Professor Clarson’s wife and daughters.

4 ChEE professors receive Michelman Award

Headshot of Professor Dionysios Dionysiou
Headshot of Professor Maobing Tu
Headshot of Professor Drew McAvoy
Headshot of Professor Jonathan Nickels

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 

5 ChEE Faculty take awards in Spring Ceremony

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! 

Dr. Dionysios Dionysiou receives 3 prestigious awards 

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In May of this year, Professor Dionysiou was one of three professors globally chosen as an Honorary Member of the association of Chinese American Professors in Environmental Engineering and Science (CAPEES).  The recognition is based on international prominence and this year was the inaugural award for this category. The award was presented during the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP) 2023 Conference in a special CAPEES Workshop and Awards event.  

In June of this year, Professor Dionysiou also received the CIPOA (Congresso Iberoamericano de Processos Oxidativos Avançados) Senior Researcher Award in the category of Distinguished Career/Excellence in Implementation and Practice in the Fields of CIPOA.  The Iberoamerican research community includes the Americas, Spain and Portugal and meets biannually. Dr. Dionysiou will give the award plenary presentation at the next CIPOA conference in Florianopolis Brazil in 2024. 

In addition to these two international awards, Professor Dionysiou was named as a highly cited researcher for the fifth year in a row. Each year, Clarivate identifies the world’s most influential researchers and this exclusive distinction is based on those who have been most frequently cited by their peers over the last decade.  Specifically, Dr. Dionysiou was recognized for his exceptional research influence, demonstrated by highly cited papers that rank in the top 1%.  Dr. Dionysiou has more than 600 papers (over 68,00 citations in other manuscripts) in his research area of drinking water quality, supply treatment and purification. This year, Clarivate recognized his outstanding contributions in three categories: engineering, environment/ecology and chemistry.  

Read more: UC environmental engineering professor named highly cited researcher by Clarivate | University of Cincinnati 

DAAP, CEAS and COM secure second round of funding to keep the firefighters safe and cool 

Picture of firefighter equipment

A team from the Colleges of DAAP, CEAS and Medicine successfully completed a $1.2 million Round 1 project funded by the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (OBWC). This summer of 2023, OBWC funded with a $1.5 million Round 2 of the same project. During this second phase, the team will commercialize the created cooled prototype of firefighters’ jackets with a carbon nanotube sheet as an inset, as well as conduct multiple live burn testing of the gear. This advanced equipment will keep firefighters cool during their mission, thus preventing the risk of overheating and heart attack. The funded project is led by DAAP, and Profs. Vesselin Shanov and Mark Schulz from CEAS are directly involved in it. Dr. Shanov`s team, which includes postdoctoral fellow Dr. Qichen Fang and graduate students Vamsi Kondapalli, is in charge of miniaturization of the cooling system, making it more efficient and easily integrated into the firefighter`s coat, along with acquisition of infrared temperature imaging from the gear during cooling. A picture of the cooling device is shown (left) along with the preparation of the cooled coat for the live burn test and entry into the fire with the cooled garment (right).

News outlets turn to Professor Patrick Ray regarding the recent Ohio train derailment 

Headshot of Professor Patrick Ray

On Friday, Feb. 3, 2023, 38 Norfolk Southern freight train cars derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, igniting a large fire that damaged 12 other cars. Eleven of the train cars that derailed were carrying hazardous materials, including the toxic chemical vinyl chloride.  Officials were concerned about the potential of the spilled toxins to spread to the Ohio River water supply and many news agencies turned to environmental engineering professor Dr. Patrick Ray for insight.  Dr. Ray, whose research focuses on the Ohio, stated, “It's a big concern up near East Palestine, but the level of concern has been decreasing as it goes down the river.  There is a little stream [near East Palestine], it might have been quite intense in its concentration that it could have hurt animals and plants and things in this area, but by the time it entered the Ohio River, which is huge, it's diluted a lot," Ray said.  He also added that Cincinnati has two reservoirs right next to the river that crews could pull water from if needed. 

Read more: 

UC environmental engineer explains how officials track pollution in the Ohio River after a train derailment caused a chemical spill | University of Cincinnati 

Local 12: https://local12.com/news/local/local-professor-explains-concentration-of-contaminants-in-ohio-river-assistant-university-water-treatment-facility-elk-river-chemical-spill-train-precaution-billion-human-health-risks-measure-dilutes-disperses-environment-cincinnati-ohio

WLWT: https://www.wlwt.com/article/tracking-chemical-plume-from-east-palestine-spill-through-ohio-river-cincinnati-water/42901809

AP: https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-Ohio-contamination-map-411989877238

 

The ChEE External Advisory Board Met April 21, 2023 

Image of the ChEE External Advisory Board
Image of the ChEE External Advisory Board

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.

In Memory of Professor Sun-Tak Hwang 

Image of Professor Sun-Tak Hwang

Professor Sun-Tak Hwang, a pioneer in the field of membrane science, passed away in March of 2022.  Professor Hwang joined the ChE faculty at the University of Cincinnati in 1966 and began serving as chair of the department in 1982. He left an extensive research legacy spanning a broad spectrum that included both gas and liquid separations, membrane formation and characterization, and the application of membranes to industrial processes. His work led to 87 papers, 38 of which were research papers, review articles, and guest editorials in the Journal of Membrane Science. Noteworthy is his paper entitled, “Hollow Fiber Membrane Contactors”, coauthored with Dr. Alan Gabelman and published in 1999 in the Journal of Membrane Science.  This paper has been cited 1066 times. In 1983 he received a $2 million grant from BP Ohio to establish the Center of Excellence for Membrane Technology. In 2001 he and Professors William Krantz and Jerry Lin established a site of the NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Membrane Applied Science and Technology (MAST) at the University of Cincinnati.

Dr. Junhang Dong Appointed as University of Cincinnati’s George Rieveschl Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair in Membrane Science and Technology  

Headshot of Professor Junhang Dong

Dr. Junhang Dong was appointed as the Rieveschl Eminent Scholar in Spring 2023 in recognition of his long-standing achievements and international stature in the areas of nanostructured inorganic membranes for gas and liquid separations, chemical sensing, catalytic reactions, and flow batteries for energy storage.  This endowed chair was established August 20th, 2002, by Dr. George J. Rieveschl, Jr. to promote research in the areas of membrane science and technology. Initial funds were provided by the Ohio Board of Regents in 1986 to establish such an endowment.  Dr. Dong's appointment is part of a department-wide initiative to stimulate collaborative research in the broad area of membranes. 

Dr. Vadim Guliants Appointed as University of Cincinnati’s inaugural Chair of the George Rieveschl Advanced Membranes and Materials (AM2) Group  

Headshot of Professor Vadim Guliants

Dr. Vadim Guliants was appointed as the chair of the newly constituted Advanced Membranes and Materials (AM2) Group in Spring 2023 in recognition of his long-standing achievements and international stature in the areas of nanostructured inorganic, metal-organic, and polymer membranes and catalysts for energy-related, chemical conversion, and separations applications.  The objective of AM2 is to foster collaborative research in areas of mutual interest among faculty at UC.  The group is modeled after the HARP group founded by Dr. George Rieveschl while at UC.  The following link contains some interesting information from the UC library archives about the HARP group.

Read more: https://drc.libraries.uc.edu/items/7c95315c-f257-4f9d-a1ca-3135c0a48e06 

Other ChEE Awards

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. 

ChEE Student News

Headshot of Raphael Hicks

Raphael Hicks, a 2023 UC graduate in chemical engineering, was awarded the Student Trailblazer Award at the 2023 Onyx and Ruby Gala.  This award recognizes current UC students who embody leadership qualities, are extremely involved in the campus community, inspire their fellow students, and blaze the trail for ongoing progress. In addition to a Bachelor’s in Science in ChE, Raphael also was granted an MBA as part of the ACCEND program.  He has accepted a position with Procter & Gamble in their Supply Network Operations division.

Read more: Onyx & Ruby Gala will recognize excellence within UC's Black community | University of Cincinnati

Headshot of Gaurav Atreya

Gaurav Atreya, a graduate student working under the guidance of Professor Patrick Ray in environmental engineering, has been awarded an ORISE fellowship. ORISE is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) institute managed by Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) through a contract between ORAU and DOE. The appointment falls under the Research Participation Program at the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and was awarded in recognition of his past achievements, academic and career objectives, and interest in the program sponsor’s mission.  

Headshot of Asphota Wasti

Asphota Wasti, a graduate student in the lab of Dr. Patrick Ray, has been elected to the International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD) Technical Committee on Climate Change. She is co-leading the writing of a chapter entitled "Basis of Potential Effects of Climate Change on Key Hydrological Processes That Could Result in an Evolution of Extreme Floods” in an upcoming ICOLD bulletin. ICOLD bulletins are major publications in this field that serve to set the standard of practice in the design and management of dams globally. 

Read more: https://www.icold-cigb.org/GB/icold/technical_committees.asp 

Picture of Art Fusaro

Veteran and ChE grad Art Fusaro celebrated his 102nd birthday this year.  Mr. Fusaro started at UC, studying chemical engineering, during the 1940’s. His studies were interrupted when he was called to serve in our military in World War II.  He was first deployed to New Jersey to study wireless communications, and later was sent to Hawaii to train other personnel stationed there.  He was in Hawaii on August 14, 1945, when Japan surrendered, signifying the end of the war.  Afterward, he returned to UC to complete his degree in chemical engineering.  Happy 102nd, Mr. Fusaro and thank you for your service to our country! 

Read more: WCPO profiles UC graduate and WWII veteran on 102nd birthday | University of Cincinnati 

Headshot of Salar Balou

Salar Balou, a graduate student working under the guidance of Professor Aashish Priye, received the URC Graduate Student Stipend and Research Award for 2023.  Salar is working on his PhD in chemical engineering on biomass-derived carbon dots for photothermal polymerase chain reaction. His research aims to develop a light-based thermal cycler for PCR devices that reduces energy consumption and time for heat transfer, expanding the application of PCR machines. The successful completion of the project would accelerate the detection of viral infectious diseases, potentially saving millions of lives.

Read more: Congratulations URC Graduate Student Stipend and Research Cost Program for Faculty-Student Collaboration Awardees! 

Image of Orthodoxia Zervaki

UC graduate Dr. Orthodoxia (Soula) Zervaki, who studied under Dr. Dionysios Dionysiou, won First Place for the Air & Waste Management Association (AWMA) Dissertation Award. Dr. Zervaki is currently continuing as a postdoctoral scholar at the National Institute of Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH) where she performed most of her experimental work on the development of novel devices to measure aerosol particles. The title of her dissertation was “Development of Sample Collection and Concentration Techniques for Aerosol Measurement using Optical Spectroscopy and Microscopy”. 

Headshot of Dillon Patel

Dillon Patel, a chemical engineering major, has been named a University Innovation Fellow (UIF). Patel was one of 4 UC students of a total of 242 selected for this program, run by Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design.  As part of the program, they will serve as advocates for institutional change. The fellowship also provides opportunities for students to create student innovation spaces, start entrepreneurship organizations, facilitate experiential workshops and work with faculty and administrators to develop new courses. 

Read more:  UC names new Innovation Fellows

Image of UC students in Ghana

Beth Wilson and Temple Corbett, both chemical engineering majors, traveled to Ghana as part of UC’s Global Technical Workforce course.  The group was hosted by the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), which has one of Ghana’s leading engineering programs. The Ghana group’s industry visits ranged from a multinational corporation to a manufacturing startup. Additionally, in Accra, they visited Air Liquide, which supplies industrial, medical and domestic as well as Zeal Environmental in Takoradi to observe waste management operations. 

Read more: Students visit Ghana and learn how engineering crosses cultures

Photo of CHE Expo winners

The second annual CEAS EXPO was held on Thursday, April 6, 2023, at the Duke Energy Convention Center. Over 220 capstone groups from CEAS showcased the projects they had been working on over the past year. ChE Team 5046-2321 received third place at the EXPO as well as first place by both the external judges from the Ohio Valley Section of Chemical Engineers and by the capstone teaching team.  It was a student-proposed project entitled, “Corn Stover Biomass and Zymomonas mobilis: An Environmentally Conscious Alternative to the Production of Ethanol Biofuel”.  The student group included graduating ChE seniors Shannon Batliner, Hannah Hitchings, Taylor Hudson, Rachel Muny, and Jenna Schniegenberg.  In their project, a scalable, efficient process to produce fuel-grade bioethanol from corn stover, a lignocellulosic biomass, was designed. The design of this process included pretreatment, detoxification, neutralization, and hydrolysis prior to fermentation.  Fermentation was to be carried out using the Zymomonas mobilis bacteria strain to convert sugars to ethanol. The ethanol was to be recovered through several continuous separation steps, using a beer column and two absorption columns. The economic analysis showed this process to be profitable, with $21.9 MM of annual raw material costs and $53.44 MM in annual revenue. The total capital investment for the process was $19.22 MM.  The projected return on investment was therefore about 40% with a payback period of 1.5 years based on the current ethanol price of $585/MT. Additional process development was recommended to optimize the process, thereby allowing it to run more efficiently, including further investigation to optimize the energy efficiency to save utility costs and understand more completely the growth of Z. mobilis.  The results of this design demonstrate that production of ethanol from corn stover can be commercially attractive.

Photo of Environmental Engineering Capstone project winners

A group of environmental engineers took Judges’ Favorite at the CEAS EXPO as well as first place for their Environmental Engineering Capstone Project. Their team, Forefront Consulting, was composed of seniors Isabella Altier, Nabil Djafi, Rachel Hardtke and Josh McLelland.  Their work was entitled, “PFAS Removal Technology for the GCWW Charles M. Bolton Plant (CMBP)” and was sponsored by the Greater Cincinnati Water Works (GCWW).  Their project specifically entailed a literature review of possible treatment technologies for PFAS removal including granular activated carbon (GAC), anion exchange, reverse osmosis, and advanced oxidation. The four technologies were analyzed based on seven alternative analysis criteria including effectiveness, site feasibility, impact on the current treatment process, impact on necessary plant additions to meet the EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule Revisions, waste stream produced, overall cost, and industry acceptance. From the alternative analysis, GAC was determined to be the best technology for CMBP. Once the technology was determined, the team designed a new separate GAC facility to remove PFOA and PFOS compounds to below 2 ppt. The facility included five GAC contactors, four operational and one for storage, and a backwash system. The new process at CMBP will intercept flow at the sand filter effluent and the water will be pumped to the new GAC building. Pumps were designed to meet the maximum flow capacity. After GAC treatment, the water would flow by gravity to the clearwell where chlorine and fluoride are dosed before distribution. The backwash process of the GAC filters would occur approximately every 10 days, with the backwash water going to the onsite sludge lagoon. Once the carbon in the GAC contactors becomes spent, it will be transported to the Richard Miller Treatment Plant (RMTP) on the Ohio River for reactivated with their incinerator. The total cost for this new design was estimated to be $25.7 million, which includes process materials, reactivation, earthwork, and labor and subcontracts. 

Read more: CEAS Expo showcases engineering capstone projects | University of Cincinnati (uc.edu) 

Photo of Garima Mandavya
Photo of Tolu Odunola

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. 

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Capstone Design Awards

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!

Photo of ChE capstone design award winners

First Place: 

Project 5046-2321: “Corn Stover Biomass and Zymomonas mobilis: An Environmentally Conscious Alternative to the Production of Ethanol Biofuel” 

Shannon Batliner, Hannah Hitchings, Taylor Hudson, Rachel Muny, Jenna Schniegenberg 

Second Place: 

Project 5046-2320: “Continuous Fermentation and Distillation of Rum Using Immobilized Yeast” 

Bradley Skaja, Patrick Bissmeyer, Owen Assink, Nathan Hanzlick, Andrew Dwyer 

 

Third Place: 

Project 5046-2316: “Investigation of Non-Alcoholic Beer Production Using Saccharomycodes Ludwigii or the Cold-Contact Process” 

Payton Bonifas, Herbie Meyer, Emily Moore, Rachel Mowad, Lahari Pallerla 

Graduate Students Awards  

This award is awarded to 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. 

PhD:  Zhengyuan Li  (advisor: Jingjie Wu) 

MS:  Natalie Wehrle (advisor:  Yoonjee Park) 

 

Chemical Engineering Gift Fund Awards 

R.S. Tour Award for Outstanding Chemical Engineering Senior  

Matt Demangeont 

Bunin Scholarship  

Joseph Collins 

Brems Scholarship for Best Academic Achievement  

Jaclyn Bashore 

Audrey Davis 

Catherine Gottsacker 

Elizabeth Soper 

Lubrizol Foundation Scholarship  

Vincent Copeland 

Mary Alexis Katubig 

Abbey Kramer 

Melanie Zammarelli 

Environmental Engineering and Science Undergraduate Capstone Design Awards

Image of Environmental Engineering capstone design award winners

First Place: 

Team: Forefront Consulting 

Title:  PFAS Removal Technology for the GCWW Charles M. Bolton Plant 

Team Members: Isabella Altier, Nabil Djafi, Rachel Hardtke, Josh McLelland 

Sponsor: Greater Cincinnati Water Works (GCWW) 

 

Second Place:

Team: Fritz Consulting 

Title:  Stormwater Reuse at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden 

Team Members:  Sydney Cleverly, Jase Headings, Connor O’Keefe, Joel Steimle, Kate Shaughnessy

Sponsor: Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden

 

Third Place:

Team: Edge Energy Consultants 

Title: Hydrogen Co-firing at the UC Central Utility Plant 

Team Members: Haitham Alsubhi, Emma Eickert, Coulton Korosec, Bridgette Stegman 

Sponsor: University of Cincinnati Utilities (UCU) 

 

Graduate Student Awards  

Pat Scarpino Award PhD Dissertation Award  

Orthodoxia Zervaki (Advisor: Dion Dionysiou) 

Pat Scarpino Award MS Thesis Award  

Montine Swikert (Advisor: Margaret Kupferle) 

Headshot of Vamsi Kondapilli

University of Cincinnati doctoral student Vamsi Krishna Reddy Kondapalli was named Graduate Student Engineer of the Month by UC's College of Engineering and Applied Science.  Vamsi works under the guidance of Dr. Vesselin Shanov and studies nanomaterials, specifically graphene. His research focus at UC is developing new techniques to enhance and modify the properties of 3D graphene for various advanced applications using the advancements in science and technology, At present, he is trying to overcome a few of these challenges for several graphene applications such as electrochemical energy storage, hydrogen storage, thermoelectric use, carbon dioxide conversion and others. He also has served as principal investigator on two UC research projects with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health as well as participated in two invention disclosures, and one patent application along with his advisor as a co-inventor, co-authored eight publications and was a summer intern at Micron Technology Inc.

Headshot of Anastasios Angelopoulos

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

joo-youp lee headshot

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

UC College of Engineering and Applied Science professor Dionysios Dionysiou was recognized by Saudi Arabia for his nanotechnology water research. Shown here with UC College of Engineering and Applied Science graduate Abdulaziz Al Anazi, who will be honored as part of Dr. Dionysiou's team.

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.

Dr. Soryong Chae accepts Executive Editor post

Soryong Chae headshot

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

NASA Glenn continues support for Professor Vesselin Shanov's research

headshot of Professor Vesselin Shanov

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

headshot Mingming Lu

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

Lili Yeghiazarian headshot

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. 

Read the full report on the Open Knowledge Network.

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

an engineering student poses in front of a sign that reads Nanoworld

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.

headshot Ethan Harper

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.

headshot Isaac Smitherman

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.

headshot Anna Chen

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.

Anastasios Headshot

Greetings!  As our 2021-2022 academic year reached a successful conclusion, I’d like to share with you some of the outstanding accomplishments of our faculty and students over the past spring semester.  Recently, our dean announced that our College received $29.3 million in externally sponsored research funding during the 2021 fiscal year and many of these awards were granted to our chemical and environmental engineering faculty. Publications, awards and recognition followed suit, as you will read below.  Our faculty continue to shine in both research and teaching, and we see their excellence mirrored in the accomplishments of both our undergrad and graduate students.  For those who graduated in April, both undergrads and graduate students, I’d like to offer my greatest congratulations and wish them well in their future paths!! 

We very much look forward to a restful summer and a continuation of our excellent momentum next fall!

Faculty News

Students working together in a classroom

Dr. Dongmei Feng Joins UC Environmental Engineering Faculty as Assistant Professor

Dr. Dongmei Feng comes to UC from UMass and brings with her a three-year NASA grant, in which $530,266 is to be funded by NASA for 2022-2024.  This work will entail the study of river water quality in the Mississippi River Basin using satellites, land surface models, surface water quality models, and data assimilation techniques.  She also recently had a prominent paper published in Nature Communications; the manuscript represents a significant advance in hydrology and investigates the Arctic River discharge via hydrologic modeling and remote sensing. Recent changes to Arctic river discharge | Nature Communications Congratulations and welcome, Professor Feng!!

Professors Aashish Priye and Greg Harris receive URC Faculty Scholar Awards

Dr. Aashish Priye
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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

Dr. Patrick Ray and team continue their critical work in Zimbabwe with UNESCO

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

People working in a field
Man speaks to a class

6 DCEE Faculty take University and College Awards in Spring Ceremony

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!!!

Professor Dionysios Dionysiou receives University’s Distinguished Research Professor Award

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

Other DCEE Awards

  • 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.

Dr. Harris’ lab receives CEAS Gold Star Award!

Park's headshot

The Gold Star Lab Award is a newly created annual award given by the College of Engineering and Applied Science to research-active faculty who exemplify the merging of safe practices, positive safety culture, and productive research. It is the belief of the College that a positive safety culture and good safety practices are not only critical to world-class research, but also integral to our mission. The Harris Lab (harris-lab.com) was one of five CEAS research labs given this award in 2022.  Congratulations!!

DCEE Student News

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)

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Vishnu Sriram

Katie Weitzel headshot
Salar Balou headshot
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Li headshot

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”. 

Spring Senior Design Exhibition Held Online

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. 

college students pose in front of poster

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

a group of 20 faculty and college students pose
Students pose at the capstone presentation event

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!!

Students holding paper awards pose with faculty

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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Anastasios Headshot

Bearcats Return to Campus!

Greetings!  I’m very excited to share with you some of the outstanding accomplishments of our faculty and students over the past months.  This fall, we saw a return of campus life and both faculty and students heartily welcomed the transition back to in-person learning. I have observed our faculty continue to excel in both research and teaching, serving as excellent role models for our students.  I am continually impressed by the leadership and innovation shown by our students, both at the undergraduate level and the graduate level and hope you will see this too as you read of their many accomplishments.  We very much look forward to continuing our positive momentum in the spring semester!

Faculty News

Students working together in a classroom

Professor and Program Chair of Environmental Engineering and Science, Dr. Margaret Kupferle, recently accepted the position of faculty mentor of the Society of Environmental Engineers (SEE)

This group recently hosted a Water Filtration Competition that incorporated water treatment concepts in a hands-on activity. The competition challenged teams of 4-5 students to construct a water filter using simple materials. Teams were given a budget in which they could purchase filter materials such as sand, coffee filters, or rocks at different costs. Each team was given a half liter of “dirty” water and were given 20 minutes to construct a filter and 10 minutes to filter their water. Scoring was based on the quality of the filtered water, the amount of filtered water obtained, and the amount of money spent. As water scarcity is becoming a more pressing issue, engineers must also be mindful of water conservation. This competition offered students the opportunity to find solutions to these concepts on a small scale while interacting with others in a fun and engaging activity.

Three Environmental Engineering Professors Receive Promotions

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!

Tu Headshot
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Professors Soryong R. Chae and Dion Dionysiou receive funding to study produced water reclamation

Diagram of water study research

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.

Professor Joo-Youp Lee to lead project striving to capture CO2 from the atmosphere in an effort to mitigate climate change

Lee headshot

Dr. Joo-Youp Lee will lead one of four projects sponsored by the DOE to investigate carbon capture.  The ultimate goal is to reduce the amount of carbon emissions and as a result, mitigate climate change.  The research group will investigate ways to make the extraction of carbon from the atmosphere both more economical and more energy efficient.  Their proposal entails the employment of a direct air capture system that utilizes a material to adsorb carbon dioxide gas from the atmosphere.  This process would then allow the use of the collected CO2 for other industrial purposes.

Other DCEE Awards

  • 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.  

Professor Yoonjee Park’s invents and patents her work in on-demand drug delivery for eye diseases

Park's headshot

Conventional treatment for back-of-the-eye diseases can be costly and painful. Dr. Yoonjee Park has developed and patented an approach based on use of nanoparticles for necessary drug delivery. After implantation, focused light by a laser causes the opening of the nanoporous coating, allowing the release of drug.  Once the light is removed, the coating re-closes.

Professor Dionysiou receives Outstanding Publication Award

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Professor Dion Dionysios and his former student George Anipsitakis were selected to receive the 2021 Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors Outstanding Publication Award for their work entitled “Radical generation by the interaction of transition metals with common oxidants.” Their manuscript was published in Environmental Science & Technology (Vol. 38, Issue 13 (2004), pp. 3705-3712). This prestigious award recognizes landmark environmental engineering and science papers that have withstood the test of time and significantly influenced the practice of environmental engineering and science. The award was presented online during the AEESP Annual Awards Ceremony on July 14, 2021. 

Professor Vesselin Shanov investigates the fabrication of lightweight electrically conductive wires based on Carbon Nanotubes (CNT) and copper for NASA vehicles

Shanov headshot

Professor Vesselin Shanov and his group are fabricating and characterizing lightweight electrically conductive wires based on Carbon Nanotubes (CNT) and copper, an effort that was recently funded by NASA Glenn. Combining CNTs and Cu enables lowering the gravimetric density of the resulting wire without reducing its electrical conductivity. In general, copper does not wet carbon-based materials thus making it very difficult for this metal to be integrated into CNT wires. Shanov`s group is resolving this problem by a proprietary pre-treatment of the CNT wires produced in his lab. Such wires are needed for electric power distribution on the NASA vehicles used in their long-term missions, where any reduction of the weight significantly matters. 

DCEE Student News

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!! 

Water treatment plant in Northern Kentucky
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Haque Rahat

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Tolulope Odunola

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Asphota Wasti

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Mary Beth Kappler

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Chase Neville

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Leah Dickerson

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Sean Clapp

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.  

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Priya Modgil

Fourth year ChE undergrad Priya Modgil worked with two other students to establish a new student organization, the “Association for Women of Color in Engineering”. The organization’s mission is to support the diverse population of UC women in engineering and enhance the overall growth of its members through mentorship and provision of a safe, inclusive space to discuss the engineering experience through the lens of a woman of color. Their goals include the establishment of a network, greater retention and assurance of equitable opportunities for women of color. 

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Spring sees successful completion of year of hybrid learning

Welcome! I hope our spring newsletter finds you in good health and spirits under these unusual circumstances.  Our spring semester continued in the path of a hybrid model.  Like fall, lectures were primarily offered online and student populations in laboratories were reduced to one-third to maintain social distancing by expanding the number of sections offered.  These challenges continued to be surmounted by our majors and we will soon watch our senior class leave us to pursue their various career paths.  During the coming 2021-22 academic year, we anticipate being able to offer expanded opportunities for in-person classes and campus life while keeping the safety and health of our students, faculty, staff and visitors at the forefront.  Department faculty and staff as well as our students look forward to seeing once again the bustling movement within the walls of ERC, Rhodes and Baldwin.

Professor Peter Smirniotis receives the University’s 2021 George Rieveschl Jr. Award for Distinguished Scientific Research

Professor assisting student in a lab

This spring, the University’s highest award for research was bestowed upon chemical engineering professor, Dr. Peter Smirniotis. This award is based on research merit and its impact on the field as well as the attainment of national and international recognition for superior scholarship through publication, continued and sustained creativity, professional activities, and academic awards. Dr. Smirniotis has demonstrated excellence in all. He works in the area of heterogeneous catalysis, advanced materials, energy, and environmental restoration and his work is internationally recognized. He has received funding from sources such as the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, NASA and the American Chemical Society’s Petroleum Research Fund. He also serves as editor for many international journals, including a recent appointment as a member of the editorial board of Journal of Catalysis. Congratulations on this highest award!

Dr. Lilit Yeghiazarian joins Ohio Environmental Advisory Council

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Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering, Dr. Lilit Yeghiazarian, was invited to join Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s scientific advisory council. The aim of the council is to connect environmental scientists with policymakers to better anticipate challenges as well as propose solutions. The 13-member council includes leading researchers representing nine Ohio universities who will advise the attorney general and his team on current environmental issues and pinpoint areas of potential future impact in Ohio

8 DCEE Faculty take University and College Awards in Spring Ceremony

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!

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Professor Greg Beaucage elected as ACS Fellow.

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Dr. Greg Beaucage was elected an ACS Division of Polymeric Materials: Science & Engineering (PMSE) Fellow for 2021.  His election to this honor reflects the recognition by his peers of the many impactful contributions he has made to the field of polymer science and engineering, and, most specifically, “for development of the Unified Scattering Function, enabling the quantitative study of heterogeneous and hierarchical polymeric materials.”  He will be inducted at the 2021 San Antonio Spring ACS National Meeting, during the PMSE/Poly Awards Reception. 

Other DCEE Awards

  • 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 Sorial and Kao to retire at the end of summer

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!

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Professor Carlos Co chosen as Professor of the Year

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The University of Cincinnati Engineering & Applied Science Tribunal, founded in 1908, is one of the largest and most active student organizations on campus and serves as the student government entity for the college. Each year, they honor faculty for their hard work and dedication and the Professor of the Year Award is chosen by the students in the College.  This year’s recipient was DCEE professor, Dr. Carlos Co.  Congratulations Dr. Co on becoming a 2020-2021 Professor of the Year!

Professor Ray receives University Research Council Faculty Scholars Research Award

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Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering, Dr. Patrick Ray, was recently chosen to receive the URC Faculty Scholars Research Award.  He was one of eight UC faculty chosen to receive $25,000 to support his reseasrch.  The URC Faculty Scholars Research Awards are UC’s oldest and most prestigious internal funding program and are meant to recognize promising UC junior faculty who are proposing transformative ideas that will shape our future. Congratulations!

Professor Dionysios Dionysiou is interviewed in his role as Editor of JEE

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Dr. Dion Dionysiou, a Professor in the Environmental Engineering Program, was recently interviewed in his role as Editor of the Journal of Environmental Engineering. He has been serving JEE since 2001, first as Associate Editor, then as Editor of Special Collections, and more recently as Editor. In the interview, Professor Dionysiou delineates his vision for the journal and discusses the areas that he feels most need to be addressed in the field of environmental engineering.  He further reviews what he sees as top priorities for research, including elimination/minimization of input and treatment of contaminants of emerging concern (pathogens including SARS-CoV-2, PFAS, microplastics, nanoplastics, pharmaceutical and personal care products, PPCPs, etc.) as well as issues with water scarcity and the need for development of technologies to treat non-traditional source waters at a lower cost such as seawater, brackish water and municipal wastewater.

Adjunct Professor in ChE takes Dolly A.B. Cohen Award

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Professor Anne Vonderheide received the University’s Dolly A.B. Cohen Award for excellence in teaching. Her primary appointment is in the Chemistry Department and she has mentored several ChE majors in her undergraduate research course there.  In her role as undergraduate director, she is also working closely with Dr. Stephen Thiel of ChE to establish a joint BS-MS degree between the two departments.  Students will receive a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and take 3 ChE courses as part of their first four years, after which they will transfer to CEAS to complete their Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering.  Professors Thiel and Vonderheide hope to have this degree path approved and in place for the 2021-22 academic year.

Student News

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Undergraduate Environmental Engineering Major, Leah Dickerson, was chosen as Undergraduate Engineer of the Month during this academic year. Leah has done her co-op rotations at Pixelle Specialty Solutions in Chillicothe and Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities Energy and will be graduating this April.  Congratulations, Leah!!

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Graduate student Yu Zhang is studying chemical engineering to earn her PhD under Professor Maobing Tu.  She was chosen as Graduate Engineer of the Month this academic year.  Yu previously received a MS in environmental engineering at UC and now studies in the field of energy sustainability under Dr. Tu. Specifically, her work focuses on producing biofuels, such as ethanol and fatty acids, through the microbial fermentation of wastewater sludges and wood biomass. 

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Jacob Orkwis, a chemical engineering graduate student in the research group of Dr. Greg Harris, was awarded the Sigma Xi Grant in Aid of Research Award this spring. This highly prestigious award comes with a $2500 stipend that may be used for travel expenses to and from a research site, to present research results at a national science or engineering meeting, or for purchase of consumables research materials and supplies or non-standard laboratory equipment necessary to complete a specific research project.  Jacob’s winning proposal was entitled, “Design and Fabrication of a Piezoelectric Biomaterial for Nerve Repair”.

Tianyu in a lab

Jacob also received a 2020-2021 University Research Council Graduate Student Stipend for his proposal entitled, “Development of Novel, Piezoelectric Device for PNS Repair”.  Tianyu Zhang, a graduate student in the Chemical Engineering program studying under Professor Jingjie Wu was also a winner of the summer stipend.  Tianyu’s proposal was entitled, “Regulation of Nitrogen Dopants Configuration on Graphene Quantum Dots Electrocatalysts for Carbon Dioxide to Ethylene Conversion”.

Congratulations on these outstanding accomplishments!

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.

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Spring Senior Design Exhibition Held Online

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:

Departmental ChE Awards

  • 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

Departmental Environmental Engineering Awards

  • 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

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

  • 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

2021 North Central American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Regional Conference

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UC’s Chem-E-Car Team is is composed of members from diverse programs and graduating classes in CEAS: Evan Penrod, ChE, 4th yr, Liz Salai, ME, 4th yr, Faith Oleksy, CE, 4th yr, Nhat Phan, ChE, 4th yr, Camryn Theado, ChE, 3rd yr, Jacob Kasik, ChE, 5th yr, Mikhayla Henry, ChE, 3rd yr.

The University of Cincinnati's Chem-E-Car team won fourth place at the 2021 North Central American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Regional Conference held on Saturday, April 17th.  This placement secured a spot for the team to compete at the National AIChE Conference in Boston in Fall 2021.   The team achieved this success in the face of fierce competition from Purdue University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Michigan, University of Notre Dame, among a total of 7 entrants.  The competition was held remotely in UC's Baldwin Hall and both Dr. Stephen Thiel (Safety Advisor) and Dr. Anastasios Angelopoulos (Faculty Mentor) were present. 

Chem-E-Car program consists of regional and national competitions sponsored by the Chemical Engineering professional society, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), to foster understanding of engineering principles during the design and construction of self-propelled vehicles of about shoe-box size.  The competition is intended to teach and foster safe and optimum design of the propulsion system that the students at UC choose at any given year.  Students must address all aspects of car operation and are assessed on the basis of formal safety and design reports, oral presentations, as well as poster presentations at regional and national competitions.  The UC team was founded by Professor Angelopoulos in 2007, who continues to serve as faculty mentor.  The team has been historically successful at competition and receives yearly funding from the University of Cincinnati’s Funding Board (UFB).

UC successfully comes to last weeks of our hybrid fall semester

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Due to the uncertainty of the path of COVID-19, UC transitioned to a hybrid model for our fall semester.  Lectures were primarily offered online and student populations in laboratories were halved to maintain social distancing requirements.  We accomplished this with more laboratory sections as well as the extraordinary effort of many of our faculty and staff.  For these in-person courses, we sought to spread out the students while at the same time, ensuring they had the requisite hands-on experience to be successful in their future careers.  Our faculty continues to investigate optimal methods of instruction during the pandemic restrictions and we continue to publish not only in top research journals, of which you will read of many accomplishments in this newsletter, but in the educational arena as well.  For example, Dr. Norm Loney, a professor educator in the Chemical Engineering Program, continues to present and publish in his investigation of the relationship between spatial skills problem solving in ChE.  Together, we will continue to work diligently in these areas for our upcoming spring term, and hold fast to our educational ideals as well as to the hope that a vaccine will allow us to come together once again in 2021.

Dr. Aashish Priye works to develop Covid tests using a smart phone

Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, Dr. Aashish Priye is working to develop an ultra-portable test for infectious diseases, such as coronavirus, using a heating plate, a light-emitting diode and a smartphone. The smartphone camera can also be used to detect how much virus is present in the sample. Such a development would allow testing everywhere and would most benefit peoples in areas remote from medical facilities.

Professor Dionysios Dionysiou leads team to develop biosensor to detect toxins in water sources

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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 addresses 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.  Professor Dionysiou was also recently named as a Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers of 2020.  This group includes the world’s most influential researchers as identified by the production of multiple highly-cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in the Web of Science.

Dr. Yoonjee Park is awarded Lois Hagleberger Huebner Young Investigator Award

Congratulations to Dr. Yoonjee Park, an Assistant Professor in the Chemical Engineering Program, who recently received a Lois Hagelberger Huebner Young Investigator Award from the Ohio Lions Eye Research Foundation. This foundation supports research on numerous eye diseases at a variety of Ohio Institutions. Dr. Park’s proposal is titled, “Dose-Controlled Co-Delivery Implant for Chronic AMD Treatment” and the award is $214,000 (direct cost) for two years. Dr. Park is also among UC’s KL2 Research Scholars.  The objective of the KL2 Scholars Program is to successfully train diverse, multidisciplinary junior faculty members to conduct innovative, team-based, community-engaged clinical and translational research, develop sustainable careers in clinical and translational research and disseminate, and implement research findings that improve health outcomes and reduce disparities.  Congratulations Dr. Park!

NSF Awards Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) grant to Dr. Vesselin Shanov-PI (ChE) and Dr. Noe Alvarez-CO-PI (Chemistry)

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.

12th Annual ‘Evening with Industry’ held virtually in September, great success reported.

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This year’s event was sponsored by Society of Women Engineers and hosted 12 virtual break-out rooms with professionals from various companies.  The event not only allowed DCEE students the opportunity to learn about various career pathways and gain a clearer vision of future job responsibilities, but also allowed them to obtain valuable experience in virtual networking.

Professor Jingjie Wu joins team of researchers at the University of Louisiana

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Their joint project is entitled “High-Efficiency Electrochemical Conversion of CO2 to Ethylene” and the team was recently awarded 1.25 million dollars by the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Fuel, of which $450,000 will designated to fund work in Dr. Wu’s lab.  The group will develop and test technologies that can utilize carbon dioxide (CO2) from power systems or other industrial sources as the primary feedstock, with the overall goal to reduce emissions and transform waste carbon streams into value-added products.

Other Awards

  • 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

Student News

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  • ChE student Maria Novak was awarded the May CEAS Engineer of the Month.  During her tenure at UC, Maria took the opportunity to gain research experience in both the Nanoworld lab at UC, led by ChE Professor Vesselin Shanov, as well in work with Dr. Mingming Lu as part of a grant from the National Science Foundation.  As part of the ACCEND program, she was just awarded both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in ChE and will now pursue a career at Proctor & Gamble. MS graduate Quinn Birch, working under Professor Dionysios Dionysiou, won the First Place Master Thesis national award from The Air & Waste Management Association. The title of the Thesis is “Sources, Transport, Measurement and Impact of Nano and Microplastics in Urban Watersheds” and the work was supported by and carried out in collaboration with researchers from US EPA. Quinn is currently working with EPA through a collaborative project and already published two journal articles.
  • Chemical engineering students Emily Weidner and Catherine Gottsacker participated in the summer Protégé Program, a program with offers outstanding undergraduate students in CEAS a paid summer position working with faculty researchers or industry partners.  Emily was awarded “best presentation” and a $300 prize at the final symposium. Her research presentation on tissue engineering was entitled “Alignment and Proliferation of Schwann Cells in PDVF-TrFE Scaffolding” and she worked with Greg Harris, assistant professor of chemical engineering.  Catherine tied for third place and received a $100 prize. She presented on “Lasers and Liposomes: A Literary Analysis of Controlled Drug Release” and worked with Yoonjee Park, assistant professor of chemical engineering.

Undergraduate students join Department of Energy research project on treatment and reuse of non-traditional water sources

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.

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Hannah Leibman, a first-year student, wanted to get involved with research in order to gain experience and knowledge to help her achieve her goal of pursuing a PhD with a focus on green biotechnology. Hannah was a Goldwater nominee for her previous biology research at Western Kentucky University. Due to her interest in environmental remediation through natural systems, Hannah has been focusing on the optimization of constructed wetlands to increase contaminant removal.

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Gianna Cantor, a second-year student, is interested in exploring different environmental engineering topics in her research to help her determine her future career goals. Gianna previously worked with NASA’s photovoltaic department on the Mars Dust project. She is now researching membrane treatments and plant species that can selectively remove contaminants from agricultural drainage water

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Sophia Pedigo, also a second-year student, wanted to get more involved with research after her previous work at UC on addressing food waste management via anaerobic digestion. Her interest in land restoration and sustainability has led her to focus on optimizing the productivity of hydroponic systems through the reuse of agricultural wastewater. Sophia plans to obtain a Masters in Environmental Engineering.

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Connor O'Keefe, a third-year student, wanted to pursue research after his experience with monitoring water quality in the Little Miami River Watershed. Connor is interested in water treatment and air pollution and now focuses on ion-exchange and biological treatment technologies for the removal of constituents from agricultural drainage water. Connor plans on pursuing a Masters degree in Environmental Engineering.

UC's ChemECar team and its president, Jacob Kasik, placed third in the Northcentral Regional Conference

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."

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Student working on a car

Elvis Ajuazum Eghombi, a graduate student in Environmental Engineering won the Ohio Section of the American Water Works Association

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Elvis Ajuazum Eghombi, a graduate student in Environmental Engineering working under the guidance of Dr. Ryan Chae, won the Ohio Section of the American Water Works Association $2,000.00 scholarship for the 2020 – 2021 school year. The scholarship will provide payment for costs associated with his degree.

UC students won second place in the Environmental Challenge International Competition

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.

UC Successfully Transitions to Online During Remainder of Spring Semester

On March 10, 2020, UC leaders announced that the institution would suspend face-to-face instruction on March 14th.  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.

Five DCEE Faculty Take University and College Awards in Spring

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. 

The Web of Science Group chose Professor of Environmental Engineering and Science, Dr. Dionysios Dionysiou, as one of their Highly Cited Researchers in 2019.

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.

DCEE held first Departmental Workshop on Collaborative Research, Saturday March 7

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.   

Environmental Engineering Alumnus Dr. Carol Clinton is honored with the Herman Schneider Alumni Award.

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Dr. Clinton serves as president of E3 Strategic Partners, a certified woman-owned company that helps companies around the world navigate regulatory compliance in chemical product safety, among other consulting services. The Herman Schneider Award honors graduates whose personal stature have reflected exceptional acclaim on the college's academic departments and the disciplines they represent.

In May of 2020, NSF awarded a RAPID grant to Dr. Vesselin Shanov-PI and Dr. Soryong Chae-Co-PI to create a prototype and test a face mask with thermal inactivation of pathogens, including the virus causing COVID-19

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.

Dr. Patrick Ray Continues to Extend His Group’s Water Research to the Globe

Dr. Ray headshot

This has been an exciting semester for the Water Systems Analysis Research Group led by Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering, Dr. Patrick Ray.  They won a contract with the Millennium Challenge Corporation to develop something called “Robust Cost-Benefit-Analysis”. The Millennium Challenge Corporation (and most any agency that builds or manages large water infrastructure) uses benefit cost analysis to choose a project among a portfolio of investment options. Unfortunately, benefit cost analysis tends to be inadequately responsive to uncertainties in the future such as climate change. Ray and his group will be developing a new approach that uses models (e.g., climate, hydrologic) to run many simulations of possible futures, and uses advanced statistical approaches (e.g., data mining, machine learning) to estimate likelihoods and inform risks and opportunities. Case studies are Tunisia and Niger.  In a second avenue, Dr. Ray was contracted by the US Army Corps’ Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) to improve their capabilities in water quality risk assessment. That means developing new models and tailoring existing models to evolving water contamination problems. They will likely test their models on the Ohio River, and develop multi-objective optimization approaches to better operate Ohio River infrastructure.  And finally, they are just starting to work with P&G’s Global Water Stewardship Lead on water issues in Mexico City of interest to P&G, as well as evaluations of the suitability of two potential basins for P&G involvement – one in Turkey and one in Spain.

In Memory of Henry T. Brown

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.

Environmental engineering associate professor Dr. Lilit Yeghiazarian recently received a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation

Lilit headshot

Environmental engineering associate professor Dr. Lilit Yeghiazarian recently received a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The grant will fund the development of an Urban Flood Open Knowledge Network which will anticipate, plan for, avoid and respond to flooding. Her team is made up of specialists in many different disciplines, including the fields of water-related engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, systems analysis, controls, machine learning, epidemiology, socioeconomics and transportation.  Their collective task will be to connect all the data produced by urban systems like power grids, stormwater and transportation networks, and drinking water infrastructure to help in flood response and minimization of damage.

Professor Ryan Chae received an Ohio Water Resources Center USGS Award

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!!

DCEE develops BS-MS Program with College of Pharmacy

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,

ChE Hosts Process Boot Camp this Spring

Students standing in front of Baldwin hall

Lubrizol Sponsored a CCPS Process Safety Boot Camp at UC in February of this year and it was a huge success with many ChE majors attending.  The fast-paced two day course was organized by Dr. Stephen Thiel and guest instructors included Frank Renshaw, a certified safety professional and certified industrial hygienist currently serving as an EHS consultant after 35 years with Dow Advanced Materials (formerly the Rohm and Haas Company) and John Herber, a safety professional with a 33-year career at 3M Company that included positions in process and project engineering, production operations and corporate safety.  In addition, Lubrizol participants included Jonathan Gordon, Griff Allen, and Alex Fogle along with CEAS Dean John Weidner.

DCEE Student News

Pat Morand Scholarship

Sean Weddell headshot

Sean Weddell and Linh Do, ChE seniors, were awarded the $500 Pat Morand Scholarship for this academic year. Eligibility requirements were having worked at least one COOP semester at Dow in Michigan and being of good academic standing.Replace with your text

Linh Do headshot

Two of our majors were recognized for achievement in their co-ops.  Madison Alvarez will graduate this spring with her degree in Environmental Engineering.  She was recognized taking initiative, challenging the status quo and creating lasting contributions at Kroger and GE Aviation.  Patrick Beers is a student in chemical engineering and he was recognized for completing five outstanding co-op terms at Patheon Pharmaceuticals Inc., part of Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Cameron Beck Recognition

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

In the Media

Teja headshot

In response to the COVID-19 nationwide shutdown, Teja Bollimunta, a chemical engineering student at the University of Cincinnati, developed a free online tutoring platform called Brainwave. Students  from across the county were able to sign up for help in a host of subjects.  It was the hope of the developers that their help would alleviate some of the burden placed on grade school and high school teachers as they worked fervently to convert their lesson plans to an online format.  The outstanding success of this effort was reported by Channel19.

Graduate Student Government Award

Yoontaek Oh headshot

Yoontaek Oh, a PhD student working with Dr. Ryan Chae in Environmental Engineering, was recently awarded the Graduate Student Government (GSG) Research Fellowship which monetarily ($1,200) supports my research.  The award monies may be used to fund research related expenses including, but not limited to, research related travel, workshops, conferences, field trips, performances, exhibitions, and/or lab equipment.

Sigma Xi Grant

Zheng Yuan headshot

Yuan Zhang, a chemical engineering graduate student in the research group of Dr. Yoonjee Park, was recently awarded the Sigma Xi Grant in Aid of Research Award.  This is highly prestigious award comes with a $2500 stipend that may be used for travel expenses to and from a research site, to present research results at a national science or engineering meeting, or for purchase of consumables research materials and supplies or non-standard laboratory equipment necessary to complete a specific research project.  Yuan’s winning proposal was entitled, “Biodegradable Implants for Subcutaneous On-demand Dose-controlled Drug Delivery”.

Graduate Engineer of the Month

A student using a pipet in a lab

Wael Abdelraheem, a Ph.D. student in environmental engineering, earned the Graduate Engineer of the Month award for September 2019.  Wael researches water quality under Dr. Dionysios Dionysiou and specifically, he works in advanced oxidation/reduction processes to eliminate contaminants – such as pharmaceuticals, ingredients in personal care products, pesticides, and plasticizers – in water. He has also developed a new iron-based catalyst that breaks down the extremely stable per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

Other News

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  

Departmental Chemical Engineering Awards

Spring Senior Design Exhibition Held Online

  • 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

Departmental Environmental Engineering and Science Awards

  • 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

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

  • 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

Congratulations to these students on their outstanding accomplishments! And congratulations to all our graduates!

New Leadership for Both the College and Department

Headshot of Dr. John Weidner

The beginning of the 2019-20 academic year brought changes in leadership to both our college and department.  Dr. John W. Weidner joined UC in August as the Dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science.  He previously served as department chair and professor of chemical engineering at the University of South Carolina. Dean Weidner's research encompasses renewable-energy applications, including the synthesis and characterization of electrocatalysts and electrochemically active materials.

Headshot of Dr. Anastasios Angelopoulos

The department also welcomed new leadership as Dr. Anastasios Angelopoulos replaced Dr. George Sorial, who excellently served as department head for the past 6 years.  Dr. Angelopoulos most recently served as Associate Head of the department and Chairman of the Chemical Engineering Program prior to that. His research interests include inorganic nanoparticle synthesis and assembly for electronics, fuel cells and batteries, as well as polymer membrane catalysts for next-generation optical sensors and the separation of toxic agents.  Welcome Dean Weidner and Dr. Angelopoulos!!

6 DCEE Faculty Take CEAS Awards in Spring

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.  

Dr. Aashish Priye Receives Digital Futures Anchor Development Award

Dr. Aashish Priye, assistant professor in the Chemical Engineering Program, was recently awarded the Digital Futures Anchor Development Award as part of the University of Cincinnati Next Lives Here initiative. He will be the Principal Investigator on this project leading a team of interdisciplinary faculty members from both Cincinnati Children’s Hospital (Dr. Surya Prasath) and Department of Environmental Engineering, UC (Dr. Soryang Chae). The project aims to address inefficiencies in our current infectious disease management system by developing the next generation of ultra-portable microfluidic DNA analysis platforms.

Congratulations, Professor Priye!

Shanov Group Breaks Publication Record in 2019

Dr. Shanov's group standing in front of the main entrance of the Baldwin Hall.

Dr. Vesselin Shanov and his group achieved a record number of publications during the first 10 months of this year. These include 14 papers in peer reviewed journals and 8 book chapters. Dr. Shanov pointed out that this was possible thanks to the dedicated efforts of his undergraduate and graduate students who are following the spirit of the UC Nanoworld Lab, which he co-directs, to “work, write and publish”. More papers are expected to be published by the end of 2019.

Professor Stephen Thiel was elected to be a Director in the Separations Division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.  His term starts at the beginning of 2020.  He has previously served as the Vice Chair and Chair of the Bioseparations area in the Separations Division.  Congratulations Dr.Thiel!!  

DChEE Student News

Wael in the lab

Wael Abdelraheem, a Ph.D. student studying under Dr. Dion Dionysiou, was recently awarded the Ohio Section - American Water Works Association Advanced Degree/Continuing Education 2019 Scholarship.  This award is given to students and for professionals who have graduated or will be graduating within a year and the purpose of the award is to encourage water industry related education through scholarship. The scholarship program was created in an effort to give back to the individuals who support the water industry and the Ohio Section of the American Water Works Association. The top abstracts are selected for either an Oral or Poster Presentation at the 2019 Ohio Section Annual Conference September 10-13 in Cleveland, Ohio. Wael was the first place winner and received a stipend for $ 4,000.

Potrait picture of Mehak

Each month, UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science chooses an Engineer of the Month. This student must demonstrate “excellence in the classroom, success in their co-op assignments and leadership through extracurricular activities on campus and/or in the community.”  September’s pick was chemical engineering major, Mehak Chawla.  Mehak is in pre-med and also pursuing an MBA. Her co-op experiences include rotations at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Research Center and in the lab of chemical engineering faculty member Joo-Youp Lee, where she gained experience in imaging and pharmacokinetics of nanoparticles for cancer therapeutics. Link to the news article.

Potrait picture of Zishu Cao.

This year, the college has expanded the Engineer of the Month Award to the graduate students as well.  Zishu Cao, a Ph.D. student in chemical engineering, earned the Graduate Engineer of the Month award for September 2019.  Zishu researches membrane separation under Dr. Junhang Dong.  The process of membrane separation is used in environmental protection, energy recovery and medicine. She has a very impressive publication record, having published 11 papers, many of which are in prestigious journals in the field of membrane science and technology, such as Science Advances and Journal of Membrane Science. Link to the article.

Potrait picture of Ryan

Ryan Muir, a ChE senior, took first place in the First SimCentral Academic Competition.  SimCentral is a simulation program and Ryan mastered the use of this program working independently and applied it to a challenging design problem which addressed both the steady-state and dynamic behavior of the process.  He received a $3,000 cash prize and an additional $1000 for the video contest.

Spring Brings Another Successful Senior Design Exhibition

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!  

Departmental ChE Awards

A group of students standing in front of their poster presentation.

Best Capstone: First Place

Title: Conversion of Plastic Waste to Liquid Fuels

Team: Hannah Carson, Rachel Hautman, Karen Hildebrant, Ryan Muir, Nhu Hao Tran

Best Capstone: Second Place

Title: Production of Triacetin by Reactive Distillation 

Team: Annie Dolphin, Alyssa Fulks, John Miller, Colleen Platten, Heidi Van Valkenburgh

Best Capstone: Third Place

Title: Production of Biodiesel from Palm Oil by Reactive Distillation

Team: Maddie Bell, Ben Harnen, Emma Mullins, Ray Recchia, Brennan Schilling

A group of students standing beside their poster presentation.

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

First Place: Production of Biodiesel from Palm Oil by Reactive Distillation

Team: Maddie Bell, Ben Harnen, Emma Mullins, Ray Recchia, Brennan Schilling

Second Place: Carbon Dioxide Capture from Ambient Air Utilizing Cooling Towers

Team: Joshua Dietrich, Levi Ping, Nicholas Keil, Nicholas Kiser

Third Place (Tie):

Crude Glycerol Fermentation by Oleaginous Red Yeast To Sunflower Oil And Beta-Carotenes

Team: Mitchell Beerse, Christopher Bunder, Andrew Cornelius, Adam Kluesener, Ryan Lohbeck

Production of Syngas from Ohio Coals Using Chemical Looping

Team: Nicholette Guy, Marek Johnson, Kyle Petitjean, Amani Russell, Jonah Stepaniak, Patrick Sullivan

Production of Oxygenates from Syngas Generated from Ohio Coal

Team: Robert Naber, Josh McCarty, John Lang, Parker Bozman, Cody Harris, Bennett Herbert

Departmental Environmental Engineering and Science Award

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!!

It is with great pleasure that I present to you the second newsletter of the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering for the 2018-2019 academic year. It has been a year of change for our college as we thank our interim Dean Paul Orkwis for his outstanding service and ready ourselves to welcome new leadership. It has also been a year of great strides from both our faculty and our students. I see many of my colleagues, including our new faculty, take their ideas and research to international acclaim. And I watch with pride as many of the students they mentor and teach follow in their magnificent footsteps. We have much to be thankful for and proud of and I share of few of these outstanding stories below as we continue to work determinedly to complete another successful academic year.

George Sorial, PhD, Department Head, DChEE

Nickels Group Takes Cover of The Journal of Physical Chemistry B

The Journal of Physical Chemistry

Professor Jonathan Nickels, along with his students and colleagues, recently published their manuscript entitled “Lipid Rafts: Buffers of Cell Membrane Physical Properties” in The Journal of Physical Chemistry B and were awarded the cover of the issue. This paper explores “lipid rafts”, or structures rich in cholesterol and sphingolipids, found in both eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells. They are located in distinct domains in the cell membrane with the function of facilitating the organization, assembly, and regulation of multimolecular protein complexes. The work of Dr. Nickels and his group takes their function a step farther, proposing that evidence suggests that these entities play a critical role in stabilizing the membrane’s physical properties over varying the temperature and other environmental conditions. Congratulations!!

ChE Graduate Students Publish in Science Advances

Headshot of Junhang Dong

Chemical Engineering graduate students, Zishu Cao, Shixuan Zeng, Zhi Xu, Antonios Arvanitis, and Shaowei Yang in Dr. Junhang Dong’s research group, recently published their work entitled, “Ultrathin ZSM-5 zeolite nanosheet laminated membrane for high-flux desalination of concentrated brines”. This prominent work considers our world’s critical issue of a diminishing fresh water supply by addressing the brines produced in many industrial processes. The ability to clean these industrial waters of their salt content allows a much safer release. Desalination, although theoretically the golden answer, presents a host of practical hurdles. Zeolites have recently shown the proper qualities to separate water molecules from salt solutions by molecule/ion sieving effects and the work of Dr. Dong and his graduate students took this favorable property and engineered a new type of membrane that is laminated with highly hydrophilic zeolite nanosheets. In their work, the addition of alumina into the silica framework of the zeolite structure produced the desirable ionic and hydrophilic surface necessary to enhance desalination and they successfully tested their material on waters with 24% salt content. Congratulations on this tremendous contribution!! http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/11/eaau8634

Dr. Teri Reed Receives University of Oklahoma Distinguished Service Award

Dr. Teri Reed is the assistant vice president of research development for the Office of Research as well as a professor of chemical engineering in our department. She received her bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Oklahoma. The Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy at the University of Oklahoma recently awarded her a 2019 Distinguished Alumni and Service Award. She will be recognized at the Student and Alumni Awards Banquet on April 11 at the University of Oklahoma. This prestigious award is the highest form of recognition given to alumni or friends of the college and it is presented to individuals whose accomplishments, affiliations and careers have honored the legacy of excellence at the University of Oklahoma. At UC, Dr. Reed continues to make significant contributions in the area of student and recruitment and retention efforts as well as in the area of research-based education and curriculum in engineering. Congratulations Dr. Reed on such outstanding service to us and others!!

Vesselin Shanov Inducted into Medical and Biological Engineering Elite

Headshot of Dr. Vesselin Shanov

The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) has announced the induction of Vesselin Shanov, Ph.D., Professor and Co-Director of the Nanoworld Laboratories, to its College of Fellows. This is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to a medical and biological engineer. The College of Fellows is comprised of the top two percent of medical and biological engineers. College membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering and medicine research, practice, or education” and to "the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of medical and biological engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to bioengineering education." Dr. Shanov was nominated, reviewed, and elected by peers and members of the College of Fellows for “developing biodegradable Mg implants that will improve patient outcomes and make implantations more accessible to people around the world.” A formal induction ceremony was held during the AIMBE Annual Meeting at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC on March 25, 2019. Dr. Shanov was inducted along with 156 colleagues who make up the AIMBE College of Fellows Class of 2019. Congratulations Dr. Shanov on this high honor!!

Park’s Group Continues to Publish High Profile Manuscripts in the Area of Drug Delivery

Dr. Yoonjee Park, a professor in the chemical engineering program, works to better facilitate drug delivery through nanoscale options. Her group recently published a paper in the journal “Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology” entitled, “Multiple-Exposure Drug Release from Stable Nanodroplets by High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound for a Potential Degenerative Disc Disease Treatment.” This particular manuscript targets degenerative disc disease (DDD), a condition that is forecast to affect almost 80% of the population. This published work explores the delivery of a potential drug treatment via encapsulated stable nanodroplets as a drug delivery carrier followed by multiple exposures of the nanodroplets to high-intensity focused ultrasound. This method induces the release of the therapeutic substance, providing a sustained and targeted delivery and thereby increasing the efficacy of the drug. Congratulations, Dr. Park!

Professor Dion Dionysiou Pulls in More National Awards

Image of Dr. Dion teaching in a classroom

Dr. Dion Dionysiou, a professor in the environmental engineering and sciences program is world-renowned for his work in several areas of water research and he often tours internationally speaking on his research expertise and outcomes. He was recently invited to give a lecture at the Pregl Colloquium at the Kemijski Institut in Slovenia where he spoke on the topic of “Treatment of Contaminants of Emerging Concern in Water Using Advanced Oxidation Processes”. Dr. Dionysiou was also recently awarded as a distinguished scientist under the Chinese Academy of Sciences President’s International Fellowship Initiative in January of this year. Congratulations on your growing successes, Dr. Dionysiou!!

Dr. Stephen Thiel Takes University Teaching Award

The Office of the Provost’s review committee selected Dr. Stephen Thiel, a Professor in our Chemical Engineering Program, as the winner of the 2019 Distinguished Teaching Professor Award and noted that they were most impressed by his accomplishments and experience. Dr. Thiel teaches the Chemical Engineering Design Project class along with several others and is well-respected by his students. This award will be given during at the 2019 All-University Faculty Award Celebration, which is scheduled for April 25, 2019, at 3:00 pm in the TUC Great Hall. Congratulations, Dr. Thiel!!

UC International Awards Visiting Scholar Grants to Three DChEE Professors

Professors George Sorial, Dion Dionysiou and Mingming Lu of the environmental engineering program were awarded grants from the Visiting Scholar Program.  The goal of these grants is to strengthen the partnerships we have established with UC Strategic Partner Institutions by supporting collaborations between our faculty and staff. 

Headshot of Dr. Dion

Specifically, the Visiting Scholar program funds airfare and accommodation for teaching and research faculty from UC partners to travel to UC for 7-10 days in order to form relationships with UC colleagues, discover UC’s campus, and develop joint training or research projects in their disciplines.  Drs. Sorial and Dionysoiu will be hosting Venecio Ultra Jr. from Earth and Environmental Sciences at Botswana International University of Science & Technology, Botswana. 

They will be working collaboratively to develop rhizofiltration systems of wastewater treatment for arid and semiarid environments.  Dr. Mingming Lu will be working with Rui Chen from Municipal and Environmental Waste at Beijing Jiaotong University, China to research the use of biomass charcoal for environmental remediation. They will also work on the development of a water and soil remediation engineering project.  Congratulations!!

Environmental Engineering Professor Patrick Ray and His Research Group Participate in Water Projects Across the Globe

Patrick Ray Group of students in front of the Bearcat statue

The reseasrch group of Dr. Patrick Ray is working hard to solve the world’s water problems.  Funded by the World Bank, they are looking at the water distribution network in Mexico City, as well as the drainage network with the goal of water reclamation and reuse, or stormwater capture and aquifer augmentation to solve some of Mexico City’s water problems.  In addition, they have started a small project in Peru, but also address similar issues closer to home.   In California, they are studying the flooding and drought in the Hetch Hetchy, with ramifications for San Francisco. This work is funded by the Army Corps and partnered with the California Department of Water Resources. And even in our own city Ray recently won his first water quality risk assessment project (funded by the Ohio Water Research Center). As part of this work, the group will be evaluating the risks to Cincinnati of a spill upstream on the Ohio River. To do so, they are developing a novel 2 dimensional contaminant transport model.  Congratulations on your most impressive work!!

DChEE Student News

Wael Abdelraheem using a computer in a lab

Wael Abdelraheem, a Ph.D. student studying under Dr. Dion Dionysiou, was recently awarded the 2019 C. Ellen Gonter Environmental Chemistry Award given by the Division of Environmental Chemistry of the American Chemical Society.  This award is presented to graduate students at U.S. and international universities who submit the highest quality research papers. Wael will be presenting his winning research paper, entitled, “Treatment of Domestic Wastewater by Simulated Solar-Light Mediated N- and B-codoped TiO2 AOP for Reuse: Mechanistic Aspects and Implications of Inorganic Species" at the Fall ACS Meeting in San Diego at the special C. Ellen Gonter Environmental Chemistry Awards Symposium. He will also receive a check for $1000 to cover travel costs for attending the meeting.   Wael additionally received the 2019 Graduate Student Awards in Environmental Chemistry.  This award recognizes graduate students who are working in areas related to environmental chemistry. The award is based on student transcripts and record of research productivity, and a letter of recommendation from the faculty advisor. The Award is given to students by the Division of Environmental Chemistry of by the American Chemical Society. As part of the award, he will receive a monetary amount of $125 and a one-year annual membership in the Environmental Division of the American Chemical Society. 

Intel logo

Recently six MS and PhD graduates, who had obtained their degrees under the supervision of Professor Vesselin Shanov, accepted positions with Intel Corporation. These students are Ge Lucy Li, Tarannum Tiasha, Rachit Malik, Seyram Gbordzoe, Adusei Paa Kwasi and Sid Mishra. The core of this success is the special training these graduate students received in Nanoworld Lab, co-directed by Dr. Shanov, especially in the field of Chemical Vapor Deposition, Plasma Processing, Physical Vapor Deposition, and other wafer handling techniques, which are widely used by Intel Corporation for the fabricating of their electronic chips. The exposure of Shanov’s students to advanced characterization techniques such as Scanning Electron Microscopy, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy, Raman Spectroscopy, electrical and mechanical property measurements and others, has been an additional credit for these students when applying for employment at the company. The next time we see a little blue label on our computers that reads “Intel InsideTM” we can say that UC graduates have also contributed to these advanced semiconductor devices.

Headshot of Ryan Muir

Each month, UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science chooses an Engineer of the Month. This student must demonstrate “excellence in the classroom, success in their co-op assignments and leadership through extracurricular activities on campus and/or in the community.”  January’s pick was chemical engineering major, Ryan Muir.  Ryan is also working on his Master’s degree in environmental engineering through the Accelerated Engineering Degree (ACCEND) program.  He has spent all of his co-op terms with BASF in addition to serving as an undergraduate teaching assistant in the Department of Engineering Education.

Yu Zhang using a computer in a lab

Yu Zhang, a PhD student studying under Dr. Maobing Tu, earned Second Place in the Sustainable Engineering Forum Graduate Student Poster Competition at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) 2018 annual meeting in Pittsburgh, PA, an award that carried a $150 stipend.  Her poster was entitled, “Effects of Overliming and Activated Carbon on Carbonyl Inhibitors Removal and Butanol Fermentation in Biomass Hydrolysates". In a second competition, Yu received the University Research Council (URC) Graduate Student Stipend and Research Cost Award for her proposal entitled, “Carbonyl Inhibition of Butanol Production from Biomass Prehydrolysates by Clostridium".  This award will offer her $5,000.00 to be used for stipend and/ or research costs.

Congratulations to these students on their outstanding accomplishments!!