Medlin

Chemical and Biological Engineering announces Professor Ryan Hayward as new chair

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 20:12:26 +0000

Chemical and Biological Engineering announces Professor Ryan Hayward as new chair Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 06/25/2024 - 14:12 Susan Glairon

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Professor Ryan Hayward with his dogs, Violet (left) and Maggie, at Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada.

Professor Ryan Hayward has witnessed the continued advancement of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering since he joined CU �鶹ӰԺ four years ago. Now he’s looking forward to stepping into his new role as department chair.

Hayward, who holds the James and Catherine Patten Endowed Professorship of Chemical and Biological Engineering, was elected chair by the department’s faculty. His term begins on July 1.

“Our department is among the top chemical and biological engineering departments in the country,” Hayward said. “Our faculty has never been more vibrant in research and in contributions to the department’s culture. Over the past several years, we’ve hired fantastic junior faculty and made a number of excellent senior-level hires. In addition, our graduate students are more qualified and more diverse than ever before.

“It thrills me to be part of this,” he added.

Hayward replaces Professor Will Medlin, who led the department as chair for four years. Medlin is credited with deftly piloting the department through the challenges of COVID and overseeing a period of strong growth in faculty, funded research and the graduate program.

As chair, Hayward plans to hire several faculty in key areas, including sustainability, biological engineering, computational engineering and materials.

He also aims to increase undergraduate enrollment and improve communication with undergraduate students about the value and versatility of the department’s biological engineering and chemical engineering degrees, which not only prepare students for careers in traditional fields, like petrochemicals and oil and gas, but also in materials science, microelectronics, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, renewable energy, sustainability and medicine, among others.

Leadership path

Over the past three years, Hayward received two major departmental awards, including the department’s Overall Achievement Award (2023) and the Engineering Service Award (2021).

“It’s truly flattering to be recognized in this way, especially considering the many faculty in the department who excel in research, teaching and service,” Hayward said of his receiving the Overall Achievement Award. “This year was particularly balanced for me, with several positive developments for my research team, including the publication of a few high-impact papers. While my graduate students and postdocs deserve most of the credit for these achievements, I am honored to receive this award on their behalf.”

Hayward added that he has taught the polymer engineering class for the past several years. Each year, he tries to make improvements to the course.

“This year, those changes resonated well with the class, contributing to a great semester,” he said.

Hayward’s service award was based on his role as a faculty associate chair, where he oversaw faculty promotion, tenure, hiring and mentoring as well as social and scientific events, fostering community and scientific engagement between faculty. Externally, he is also a member of the leadership team in the Division of Polymer Physics for the American Physical Society.

Hayward’s research focuses on responsive materials, which change their properties when a parameter is adjusted. Light-responsive materials use light to control and power materials wirelessly, with potential applications in robotics, autonomous vehicles and small submersible aircraft. Electrically responsive materials have potential uses in virtual reality devices, such as simulating a touch sensation by controlling the stiffness of a glove, and in medical devices with an exoskeleton that stiffens or softens as a person moves. They also have applications in industrial processing for handling objects or substrates.

“I am truly honored that my colleagues have asked me to take on this role," Hayward said. "I look forward to contributing to the continued development of a collaborative, innovative and inclusive culture in the department."

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Will Medlin receives $500,000 NSF award for converting biomass into renewable fuels

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Oct 2022 16:20:04 +0000

Will Medlin receives $500,000 NSF award for converting biomass into renewable fuels Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 10/24/2022 - 10:20 Susan Glairon

Professor Will Medlin, department chair of chemical and biological engineering, received a four-year, $500,000 National Science Foundation award to study new routes for converting biomass into renewable fuels and chemicals. The project, “Collaborative Research: ECO-CBET: Coupled Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Processes for an Environmentally Sustainable Lignin-first Biorefinery," involves a collaborative team of scientists from CU �鶹ӰԺ, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the University of South Carolina and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The researchers, who include experts in biomass processing, novel catalysts, reaction modeling, machine learning and life cycle assessment, will study how lignin, a natural recalcitrant polymer, can be broken down into individual molecules and how these molecules are converted by catalysts into stable fuels and materials precursors.

Medlin says the specific chemical route the team is studying involves a "so-called lignin first strategy," in which lignin, one of the most potentially valuable but least utilized components of biomass, is dissolved and processed to useful chemical compounds.

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Letter from the Chair: Spring 2022

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 18:38:03 +0000

Letter from the Chair: Spring 2022 Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/13/2022 - 12:38

Will Medlin

Student award winners

Silver Medal Award, Academic Engagement Award: Jenna Nielson
Outstanding Undergraduate of the College, Research Award: Cyrus Moezzi Haas
Academic Engagement Award: Taylor Buechel and Braden Carroll
Community Impact Award: Carrie Taylor Bishop and Katelynn Thammavong
Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (JEDI) Award: Jacqueline Rodriguez Mora
Research Award: Julia Bendorf, Isabella Horton and Jackson Peoples

With the spring semester ending soon, I am grateful for our students, faculty and staff who helped make our return to campus this past academic year a success. All throughout the fall and spring, we found success and fellowship in our classrooms and research labs, returning to safe and productive in-person experiences that we will never take for granted again.

Our students’ achievements speak to the strengths of our department community. Our graduating seniors earned several honors from the College of Engineering and Applied Science, including the coveted Silver Medal Award won by Jenna Nielson and the Outstanding Undergraduate of the College recognition going to Cyrus Haas.

We also recognized the invaluable service of our graduate student teaching assistants through the David T. Spalding Graduate Teaching Fund Fellowship, whose contributions during periods of remote learning ensured our undergraduate students’ success.

Speaking of graduate students making an impact, students from the Toney and Shields groups have been bringing science and engineering education outreach to students in public schools in the �鶹ӰԺ and Denver metro areas, serving as advocates and ambassadors for STEM among the next generation.

Assistant Professor Wyatt Shields IV also won two prestigious awards this past year: an NSF CAREER Award and Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program Award. His achievement reflects the department’s success in hiring top-tier early career researchers and educators.

Professor Will Medlin

Our department marked a significant milestone this semester. Professor Al Weimer’s senior capstone design course is 25 years old — 25 years of industry partnerships, alumni success and our students learning how to solve real-world problems. Congratulations to Professor Weimer and to all our students — and industry alumni — who have made that course into such a success.

It is with great excitement that we are hosting our first in-person graduation ceremony since the pandemic began on Thursday, May 5 from noon to 3 p.m. on the west lawn of the Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building here on CU �鶹ӰԺ’s East Campus. We are inviting alumni who graduated in the last two years to walk the stage. I cannot wait to see all the students, alumni, graduates and families coming together to celebrate for the first time in two years.

On behalf of the faculty and staff of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, thank you for being part of our department’s success this academic year. Have a great summer!

Denver Business Challenge Endowed Professor Will Medlin
Chair

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High-Sensitivity Low-Energy Ion Scattering Spectrometer will be a transformative resource for materials research at CU �鶹ӰԺ

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Apr 2022 15:52:48 +0000

High-Sensitivity Low-Energy Ion Scattering Spectrometer will be a transformative resource for materials research at CU �鶹ӰԺ Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/01/2022 - 09:52

Jonathan Raab

CU �鶹ӰԺ’s East Campus is now home to the High-Sensitivity Low-Energy Ion Scattering (HS-LEIS) Spectrometer, a tool researchers from across the Rocky Mountain region will use for advanced materials characterization and analysis.

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Letter from the Chair: Fall 2021

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 19:22:25 +0000

Letter from the Chair: Fall 2021 Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/15/2021 - 12:22

Professor Will Medlin

We had a good fall semester.

That seems like a simple statement, but it means a lot, considering the events of the past year and a half. It is worth remarking upon as CU �鶹ӰԺ returned to full-time, on-campus operations.

Our students, faculty and staff did the hard work necessary to ensure that we had a safe, smooth and successful transition back to something approaching normalcy. There was strong, positive energy on campus that began as students returned and that continued all the way through to finals.

All of us were glad to return to the important education and research work of the department.

Amidst this transition, our department continued to succeed and grow in meaningful ways. We hired three fantastic new faculty members—Assistant Professor R. Kōnane Bay, Bowman Endowed Professor (and department alumnus) Jason A. Burdick and Teaching Assistant Professor Ehsan Keyvani.

Our veteran faculty continued to win recognition for themselves and the department, from Distinguished Professor Kristi Anseth earning AIChE’s Founders Award, Professor Christine Hrenya’s recognition as a Fellow of the American Physical Society, to Professor Theodore Randolph’s recognition in the National Academy of Inventors.

We also launched major research initiatives, including Professor Seth Marder and Professor Michael Toney’s Center for Integration of Modern Optoelectronic Materials on Demand and a multi-faculty collaboration on a $2M NSF award for post-consumer plastic waste research.

Our students and alumni continued to shine, with our undergraduates performing well at a national Future Leaders in Chemical Engineering symposium, alumnus Tunkie Saunders being named in the Forbes Under 30 Leading the Green Energy Transition, Chern-Hooi Lim’s C&EN Talented 12 recognition and more.

The news stories of this past summer and fall demonstrate the incredible research, education and industry accomplishments of our department community. Take the time to see what your fellow Buffs have been up to.

We should all be proud that we had a good fall semester. I know I am.

Happy holidays to you and yours.

Denver Business Challenge Endowed Professor Will Medlin
Chair

We had a good fall semester.

That seems like a simple statement, but it means a lot, considering the events of the past year and a half. It is worth remarking upon as CU �鶹ӰԺ returned to full-time, on-campus operations.

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Thankful for our community: Giving Tuesday a success for ChBE

Anonymous — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 21:52:31 +0000

Thankful for our community: Giving Tuesday a success for ChBE Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 12/10/2021 - 14:52

Jonathan Raab

Alumni and friends of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering generously made contributions to the department excellence fund in honor of Giving Tuesday. Nineteen donors provided $3,018 during the giving period, which ran throughout the latter half of November.

“We are grateful for the continued support of our community, especially in our recent fundraising campaigns for Giving Tuesday and our scholarship drive in honor of Janet deGrazia earlier this year,” said Denver Business Challenge Endowed Professor Will Medlin, department chair. “Alumni and friends of our department continually make investments in the future education and research success of our students and faculty. The money raised will go toward supporting our initiatives to recruit and retain promising students and top faculty, and to making the department a more equitable and collaboratively successful place for our engineers.”

Over 280 alumni and supporters donated more than $125,000 across the College of Engineering and Applied Science during this campaign, far exceeding the initial goal of $30,000. John Mollenkopf provided a matching $25,000 donation to encourage donors.

Interested in supporting ChBE?

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Faculty collaboration earns $2M NSF award for post-consumer plastic waste research

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 16:09:19 +0000

Faculty collaboration earns $2M NSF award for post-consumer plastic waste research Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 10/25/2021 - 10:09

Jonathan Raab

Single use plastics represent an environmental challenge that researchers at the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering hope to address.

The proliferation of plastic products has created an environmental challenge: what should be done with unusable, discarded plastic waste that can harm the environment? Faculty from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering are working on a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded project, Hydrogenolysis for Upcycling of Polyesters and Mixed Plastics, to address this serious environmental issue.

Denver Business Challenge Endowed Professor Will Medlin, James and Catherine Patten Endowed Professor Ryan Hayward, Assistant Professor Kayla Sprenger, Professor Michael Toney and their respective groups are collaborating on this project, which the NSF is funding through a $2 million grant.

“Figuring out how to deal with post-consumer plastic waste is a major societal problem,” Medlin said. “We were all independently interested in working on this problem, but were approaching it from different angles. Ryan is an expert on how plastics are formed and could be degraded, Mike is an expert on developing experimental tools to understand the interfaces between materials that arise in chemical upcycling of plastics, Kayla is an expert on computational modeling studies of similar interfaces and my group works on catalysts for depolymerization.”

Given the complexity of the problem, the researchers decided to combine their diverse yet complementary approaches to address problems in chemical upcycling. The Medlin group has been working on the conversion of biomass-derived polymers to renewable products for the last several years.

“Although plant-made polymers are certainly different from man-made plastics, some of the essential catalyst processes are quite similar,” Medlin said. “You’re trying to break apart a macromolecule into specific units that can be made into useful products. Extending our work to plastics upcycling made sense based on the group's general focus, and students are highly motivated to work on this critical environmental problem.”

The Hayward group will work on characterizing how the polymers in question are catalytically deconstructed — specifically how the polymers interact with the catalyst support surfaces and how the polymer chain lengths evolve as the reactions proceed.

“Enabling a shift to a more sustainable use of polymers, where the vast majority are recycled or converted to higher value products rather than being discarded after a single use is one of the most important challenges facing materials scientists today,” Hayward said. “We were very excited about the opportunity to join this team and to be able to work towards a very promising route toward deconstructing polymers into high value products.”

Toney said that his group will contribute research that focuses on the interfacial interactions between the catalyst, support and polymers as they react. This will require the development of new 'operando' experimental tools to observe the reactions in real-time.

“My research is largely motivated by helping to solve the sustainability challenges facing humanity by helping to develop new materials and processes,” Toney said. “Eliminating plastic waste is one such challenge perhaps most popularly seen by reports of ‘The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.’ This is my first research effort aimed at helping the team develop more effective methods to eliminate plastic waste.”

Medlin also credited Adjoint Professor Gregg Beckham as being a key part of the team. Beckham, who also works at NREL, will be contributing his expertise in plastics upcycling and conducting technoeconomic analyses of the processes the collaboration develops. Professor Andreas Heyden from the University of South Carolina will also conduct quantum mechanical simulations to understand the atomic-scale interactions between plastics and active catalysts, which will complement the Sprenger group’s efforts.

This grant was funded through the NSF Directorate for Engineering’s Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation program.

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