Mentions

2024

December

ChemE’s Gabe Gomes was quoted in Nature about how large language models like ChatGPT can help overcome language barriers in scientific writing. “It democratizes writing and it helps folks that have English as a second language,” said Gomes.

Niepa honored as Rising Star of Mechanical Engineering

ChemE/BME’s Tagbo Niepa received a Rising Star of Mechanical Engineering award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). The award honors early-career researchers recognized through prestigious awards such as NSF CAREER, ONR YIP, AFOSR YIP, DARPA YFA, and NIH New Innovator Awards. Niepa has received the NSF CAREER award and the NIH New Innovator Award to support unconventional approaches to major challenges in biomedical and behavioral research.

November

Gomes quoted on large language models
Chemistry World

ChemE’s Gabe Gomes spoke to Chemistry World about the potential of using large language models instead of humans to answer chemistry questions. “This is incredibly well thought out and well-done work,” said Gomes. “I believe strongly that the way forward for making the models more powerful and capable is by having proper reasoning in them. But if we cannot measure that, we will keep seeing mirages that they seem to be improving when they are not.”

Foong poster in the top 10 at ACS CERM

Undergraduate student Yansi Foong was recognized for presenting one of the Top 10 Posters at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Central Regional Meeting (CERM) 2024 Undergraduate Research Poster Session. Foong presented "Pre- and post-processing effects of protein structure in dynamic thermosets," for which she worked with ChemE's Daphne Chan. She was previously recognized as a 2024 Berg Scholar by the Department of Chemical Engineering.

Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. student receives $49k grant award
National Institutes of Health

BME’s Dhruv Bhattaram, a second-year Ph.D. student, received $49k from the National Institutes of Health to advance his research, which centers around the development and application of lung epithelial organoids called apical-out airway organoids (AoAOs). Bhattaram has been part of BME’s Charlie Ren’s Engineered Morphogenesis Group since spring 2023. As principal investigator on the NIH project, he will partner with ChemE’s Coty Jen, MechE’s Amir Barati Farimani, and University of Pittsburgh’s Kong Chen to present AoAOs as a next-generation theragnostic platform targeted towards airway health and cilia pathophysiology.

McKenzie earns fluid mechanics award at AIChE

ChemE Ph.D. student Brian McKenzie received an Excellence in Fluid Mechanics Research and Oral Presentation Award from the 2024 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Annual Meeting. McKenzie, who works with ChemE's Aditya Khair and Bob Tilton and Physics' Steve Garoff, presented "Convective Instability Driven By the Interfacial Reaction of Oppositely Charged Surfactants Meeting at an Oil-Water Interface."

October

Cho earns Computing & Systems Technology presentation award at AIChE

ChemE Ph.D. student Seolhee Cho received the 2nd place Computing and Systems Technology Division (CAST) Director's Student Presentation Award for her talk "Two-Stage Stochastic Generalized Disjunctive Programming (GDP) Model and Algorithm for Proactive Planning and Operations of Resilient Power Systems Under Disruptions." The awards were presented at the 2024 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Annual Meeting. Cho works with ChemE's Ignacio Grossmann.

Usman earns bionanotechnology student award at AIChE

ChemE Ph.D. student Huda Usman won 2nd place in the 2024 Bionanotechnology Graduate Student Awards with her talk titled "Designing Magnetically Responsive Polymeric Nanocultures." The awards were presented by the Nanoscale Science & Engineering Forum at the 2024 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Annual Meeting. Usman works with ChemE/BME's Tagbo Niepa.

Two undergraduates honored at AIChE research poster competition

ChemE Fifth Year Scholar Gabriel Mendez-Sanders (BS '24) and ChemE student Juhee Park won awards in the undergraduate research poster competition at the 2024 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Annual Student Conference. Mendez-Sanders won 1st place in the General Engineering and Engineering Education section with his poster, "Assessing the Impact of 'People-Oriented Recitation Problems' on the Interest of First-Year Intro Chemical Engineering Students." Mendez-Sanders works with ChemE's Joanne Beckwith Maddock. Park won 1st place in the Computing, Simulation, and Process Controls II section and in the Computing & Systems Technology (CAST) division overall. Her poster was titled "Machine Learning Driven Quantitation of Viable Capsids for Gene Therapy Applications." Park was previously recognized as a 2024 Berg Scholar by the Department of Chemical Engineering. She works in the lab of ChemE's Anne Skaja Robinson.

Walsh earns Pharmaceutical Discovery, Development, and Manufacturing award

ChemE Ph.D. student Megan Walsh was selected as a 2024 Student Award winner by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Pharmaceutical Discovery, Development, and Manufacturing (PD2M) Forum. The award was presented at the 2024 AIChE Annual Meeting. Walsh works with ChemE's Carl Laird and Chrysanthos Gounaris.

Two AIChE student leaders honored at annual conference

ChemE students Zeynep Örücü and Calvin Wang were recognized at the 2024 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Annual Student Conference. Both are leaders of Carnegie Mellon's AIChE student chapter. Örücü received the 2023-2024 Donald F. Othmer Second Year Student Academic Excellence Award. Wang received the 2023-2024 First Year Student Recognition Award.

Spotte-Smith quoted on AI ethics
Nature

ChemE’s Evan Spotte-Smith spoke with Nature regarding the ethics of AI, specifically pertaining to intellectual property. “Removing peoples’ names from their work can be really damaging, especially for early-career scientists or people working in places in the global south,” Spotte-Smith explained.

Donahue discusses chemical detectors in regards to 2023 train derailment
Associated Press

ChemE and EPP’s Neil Donahue spoke with the Associated Press about last year’s East Palestine train derailment in Ohio. He discussed how it is customary to report chemical levels that exceed chemical detectors and their reliability.

Inaugural Dennis C. Prieve Endowed Lecture

John Y. Walz ('92), president, Milwaukee School of Engineering, will give the inaugural Dennis C. Prieve Endowed Lecture on October 8, 2024. Walz's talk is titled "Enough is Enough and Too Much is Just Right: The Many Things I Learned from Dennis Prieve." The lecture series was created to honor the memory of Dennis Prieve, Gulf Professor of Chemical Engineering Emeritus.

September

Niepa comments on synthetic polymer that mimics barnacles
Chemical & Engineering News

ChemE’s Tagbo Niepa was quoted by Chemical & Engineering News about a recent study that developed a synthetic polymer that can mimic the ways in which barnacles clean surfaces. Niepa explained the potential benefits this development could provide, explaining, “you can think about a way of cleaning a catheter, for instance, that is fully infected with bacteria.”

Gomes work featured in The New Yorker
The New Yorker

ChemE’s Gabe Gomes’ work with large language model Coscientist was mentioned in a The New Yorker story about how scientists discover and develop new medicines to combat antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, along with how these scientists integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into this process.

Congratulations to our Andy Award Nominees
Carnegie Mellon University

Congratulations to the following College of Engineering Andy Award Nominees. Cheer them on at the event on Tuesday, October 15 in McConomy Auditorium.

Commitment to Excellence: Rookie

Amber Dworek (INI)
Eric Mrock (MechE)
Patricia Musiime (CMU-Africa)
Geena Provenzano (CEE)
Lauren Smith (College Offices)

Commitment to Excellent: Veteran

Melissa Brown (MechE)
Andrea Cohen (College Offices)
Allison McLachlan (CEE)
Kristyn Williams (MechE)
Emma Zink (III)

Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Jessica Tomko (ECE)

Commitment to Students

Jeannette Daly (ECE)
Mika Inamahoro (CMU-Africa)
Jennifer Spirer (College Offices)
Ed Wojciechowski (MechE)

Innovative and Creative Contributions

Brian Belowich (CEE)
Monica Submit (CMU-Africa)
Anthony Talotta (MSE)

Spirit

Abraham Darriel (CMU-Africa)
Christa Jones (INI)
Melissa Ritchie (CEE)

Teamwork and Collaboration (Standing Teams)

CMU-Africa Student Induction Program: Jacqueline Bangirana, Nancy Biwott, Gikundiro Buki, Nick Carney, Abraham Darriel, Reginald Donkor, Gisele Gihozo, Mika Inamahoro, Rosine Kamahoro, Lucy-Anna Kelly, Sandra Malaika, Ines Manzi, Mugire Flavia Mugwaneza, Irene Munene, Johnson Nziza, Marie-Ange Rukundo, and Monica Sumbi.
Chemical Engineering Academic Team: Maria Barnes, Heather Costello, Chelsea Lee, Nora Sieworiek

August

Jen interviewed on particle research
Department of Energy

ChemE’s Coty Jen spoke with the Department of Energy about her research on atmospheric nucleation driven by sulfuric acid. Jen specifically covers the recent testing her research team conducted on a device they built that measures the precursor gasses in seed-particle formation.

Donahue quoted on air purifiers for pets
U.S. News

ChemE and EPP’s Neil Donahue was quoted by U.S. News on the benefits of HEPA air purifiers for pets. “HEPA air filters are extremely effective at removing fine particles. This includes pet dander, viruses like COVID, smoke particles from cooking, and dust of all sorts,” he says.

Pettersen wins Colorado Protein Stability Conference poster competition

ChemE Ph.D. student John Pettersen was selected as the winner of the Student Poster Competition at the 2024 Colorado Protein Stability Conference. Pettersen works with ChemE's Anne Skaja Robinson.

July

Faculty award winners announced

Congratulations to the 2024 faculty award winners who represent six departments across the College of Engineering. The recipients were recognized for their achievements as researchers and educators. The winners include: Benjamin Richard Teare Teaching Award: Jon Peha (EPP); David P. Casasent Outstanding Research Award: Gregory Lowry (CEE); Distinguished Professor of Engineering: Lorenz Biegler (ChemE); George Tallman Ladd Research Award: Amanda Krause (MSE) and Akshitha Sriraman (ECE); Outstanding Mentoring Award: Alan McGaughey (MechE); Outstanding Service Award: Jonathan Malen (MechE); and Steven J. Fenves Award for Systems Research: Carl Laird (ChemE).

Seven Engineering faculty awarded grants from Scott Institute
Carnegie Mellon University

Seven faculty from the College of Engineering received funding from this year’s Scott Institute Seed Grants to pursue projects advancing dacarbonization research and energy equity. This year’s winners include: CEE’s Gerald Wang, researching plastics decarbonization; MSE’s Paul Salvador and Mohammad Islam, researching carbon dioxide air capture with aerogels; EPP’s Ramteen Sioshansi and Granger Morgan, researching mitigating electric supply disruptions; ChemE/EPP’s Neil Donahue, upgrading an equipment’s ability to detect particles at low temperatures; and MSE’s Mohadeseh Taheri-Mousavi, repairing an induction furnace melter to study the effects of hydrogen on metal alloys.

Grossmann receives honorary doctorate from Argentina’s Universidad Nacional del Sur
Universidad Nacional del Sur (in Spanish)

ChemE’s Ignacio Grossmann was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Universidad Nacional del Sur in recognition of his 30-plus years of collaboration with that institution. “It is a privilege to receive this title, I am deeply grateful for it but above all for having a close relationship with groups in this country since 1982,” he said. “The reason for the success of this very fruitful relationship in the last 30 years has undoubtedly been the great talent that are the professors, researchers and scholarship holders of the Universidad Nacional del Sur. And not only talent, but also motivation, technical preparation and high scientific quality. It has truly been a huge pleasure for me to work together.” This is his ninth honorary doctorate.

May

Khair and Tilton gave invited lectures at the Howard Brenner Memorial Symposium

ChemE’s Aditya Khair and Robert Tilton were invited to speak at the Howard Brenner Memorial Symposium, held May 19–21 at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC. The symposium was held to commemorate 10 years since the passing of Dr. Howard Brenner, a renowned expert on fluid mechanics and former faculty member at CMU’s Department of Chemical Engineering from 1966–1977. Khair spoke about the dynamics of emulsions made of fluids with low electric conductivities, and Tilton spoke about surface tension synergy in mixtures of surfactants. The conference also included a keynote address by National Academy of Engineering President John Anderson, former department head of ChemE and former dean of the College of Engineering at CMU.

Donahue ranked on ScholarGPS
ScholarGPS

ChemE/EPP’s Neil Donahue ranked #20 in the aerosol specialty on ScholarGPS. Highly Ranked Scholars™ are identified by career productivity levels (number of publications), as well as the quality and impact of their work.

April

Johnson, Kim, and Stinchfield honored in NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program

ChemE undergraduates Sanjay Johnson and Julie Shin Kim were selected as 2024 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellows. Ph.D. student Ali Stinchfield received an honorable mention.

March

Coscientist mentioned in article about LLMs for research
Chemical & Engineering News

Research by ChemE’s Gabe Gomes was referenced in a Chemical & Engineering News article about large language models being applied to chemistry and materials research. Gomes’ research team debuted Coscientist, a model that can contribute to the experiment process by answering queries, this past December.

Cue and Usman earn Emerging Researchers National Conference awards

ChemE Ph.D. students Camila Cue and Huda Usman gave oral presentations at the 2024 Emerging Researchers National (ERN) Conference in STEM. Cue won 1st place in the Technology and Engineering - Biomedical Engineering track of the graduate oral presentations. Cue and Usman received travel awards from conference hosts the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Inclusive STEM Ecosystems for Equity & Diversity (ISEED) Programs, and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Grossmann selected as John M. Prausnitz AIChE Institute Lecturer for 2024 AIChE Annual Meeting

ChemE’s Ignacio Grossmann was selected as the John M. Prausnitz AIChE Institute Lecturer for the 2024 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Annual Meeting. During the lecture, Grossmann discussed a wide variety of applications for emerging models and algorithms such as mixed-integer linear/nonlinear programming (MILP/MINLP), Generalized Disjunctive Programming (GDP) and global optimization techniques. The review committee was impressed with Grossmann’s extensive technical contributions to the field of process systems engineering, and noted his remarkable accomplishments as a pioneer in the field as both an educator and researcher.

Grossmann receives INFORMS award for paper on hybrid MILP/CP models

ChemE’s Ignacio Grossmann received the INFORMS Journal of Computing Test of Time Paper Award for 1997-2001 for his work on solving problems through hybrid MILP/CP models. His paper, “Algorithms for Hybrid MILP/CP Models for a Class of Optimization Problems,” is an early application of logic-based Benders decomposition, where the master problem is solved by a mixed-integer program and the subproblems by constraint programming. In addition to its contributions to the considered application, the paper has been instrumental in stimulating significant and substantial research in Benders decomposition, branch and check, and branch and price and check, with applications in many domains including routing and scheduling.

February

Sanchez earns presentation award from AMS

ChemE Ph.D. student Victor Sanchez was the 2nd place winner of the Oral Student Presentation Award at the Conference on Probability and Statistics during the American Meteorological Society (AMS) annual meeting. Sanchez, who works with ChemE's Hamish Gordon, presented "Constraining the Simulated Radiative Effects of Biomass Burning in Southern Africa."

Gomes’ AI tool featured in multiple outlets
Chemical & Engineering News

ChemE’s Gabe Gomes’ new AI tool with complex chemistry capabilities was featured in Chemistry & Engineering News. The program uses the internet and relevant literature to learn about a reaction and, within minutes, produces an outline for the procedure needed to complete the reaction. “We are converting bits to atoms,” Gomes says. “Taking a natural language prompt, the bits, and converting it into an actual chemical reaction.” This work was also featured in Axios, Ars Technica, Psychology Today, and Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News.

Miller reflects on Iris rover mission
WPXI

ChemE student Lance Miller speaks with WPXI about his experience as telemetry operator on the Iris lunar rover team. CMU students had to adapt their mission when the moon landing was aborted due to an anomaly with the lander carrying Iris.

2024 Covestro Lecture

Claire Adjiman, professor of chemical engineering, Imperial College London, will give the Covestro Lecture in Process Systems Engineering on February 27, 2024. Dr. Adjiman's talk is titled "Molecular systems engineering for process and product design." The Covestro Lecture Series in Process Systems Engineering recognizes the contributions of the Covestro Corporation in establishing and endowing the Covestro Chair for Chemical Engineering. Lectures are given by internationally recognized speakers who have made significant impact in the field of process systems.

Grossmann on Subject to podcast
Subject to

ChemE’s Ignacio Grossmann appeared on the Subject to podcast to talk about his life and career. The show features leading researchers in the fields of operations research, combinatorial optimization, and logistics.

Whitehead organizes symposium
Keystone Symposia

ChemE’s Katie Whitehead co-organized the Keystone Symposium on Delivery of Nucleic Acid Therapeutics in Banff, Alberta, Canada in late January. Ph.D. alum Khalid Hajj (2019), postdoc Sai Yerneni, and Ph.D. student Mariah Arral also attended.

2023

December

Grossmann delivers 2023 Distinguished Schiesser Lecture at Lehigh University
Lehigh University

ChemE’s Ignacio Grossmann delivered the 2023 Distinguished Schiesser Lecture at Lehigh University on December 6th, 2023 as part of the university’s Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering’s Fall 2023 Colloquium Seminar Series. His presentation was titled “Optimal Synthesis and Planning of Sustainable Chemical Process and Energy Systems.”

November

Donahue comments on Kentucky train derailment fire
AP News

ChemE/EPP’s Neil Donahue comments on a Kentucky train derailment fire in AP News. Sulfur dioxide was thought to be released during the crash, prompting the residents of Rockcastle County to be evacuated. “It is just nasty, caustic, and acidic stuff that hurts. It’s unpleasant to be in,” Donahue says. “Once the fire was put out, the threat from the chemicals was expected to diminish quickly.” Donahue was also featured in The Washington Post on the topic.