News
by Melanie McCandless

May 2008

The Department has just signed a new $750k/3-yr contract with Chevron for research on catalysts for conversion of synthesis gas to higher value oxygenates. Working with Jim Goodwin (Clemson Univ.), and George Roberts (NC State Univ. and Adjunct Professor at LSU). PI Jerry Spivey and a team of students will focus on improving the yield of the desired products using advanced computational and catalyst synthesis methods.

The LSU Student Chapter of AIChE Wins Big at Regional Conference

The LSU Student Chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) entered two cars in this year’s Chem-E car competition and both cars placed. The 2008 Southern Regional Conference of AIChE was held April 4-6, 2008, and was hosted by Auburn University. The cars and awards earned by each are as follows:

The “Take it to the Limit” car was awarded third place overall and Most Creative Vehicle Design. Matthew Stephens served as the principal designer of the car. The rest of his team consisted of chemical engineering undergraduates Blake Kliebert, Josh Wiggins, David Orth, Long Huynh, Kirk Rollins, and Matthew Daniel. This is the second year this car has been run in the competition and it will be its final year as well since the chapter generally retires a car after two showings in the regional competition. The “Take it to the Limit” team will automatically proceed to the national competition to be held at the Annual Meeting in November 2008 in Philadelphia.

This car has performed exceeding well in all of the competitions it has appeared in thus far. It won second place overall at the 2007 Southern Regional Conference in South Carolina as well as Most Creative Car Design and Most Spirited. It went on to earn LSU more awards than any other university at the 2007 Annual Meeting of AIChE in Salt Lake City, Utah. It won the Golden Tire Award, the Most Creative Drive System, the Most Consistent Performance, the Inherent Safety in Design, and Fourth Overall One Run Accuracy. The 2007 team was again led by Matthew Stephens and the other members were: Charlton Combs, Tracie Ferguson, Timmy Leblanc, Zachary Scheibel, Stephanie Peterson, Whitney Amato, and Omkar Namjoshi. A video of their performance at the 2007 national conference can be viewed on YouTube.com at, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4HVI0KbZhE.

"The Black Box Project" car team was headed by Charlton Combs and won fourth place overall at the Southern Regional Conference. The other members of this team are Long Huynh, Brendan Flynn, and Arpan Seth. This car will also proceed to the national competition in Philadelphia. Charlton and his team plan to work on improving the car from now until then in hopes of an even stronger performance at the national conference and, then, at the 2009 regional conference.

The department congratulates both car teams on their stellar performance thus far. We wish both the best of luck at the national competition this November.

Michael Benton and Francisco Hung are both recipients of Pfunds from the Louisiana Board of Regents for 2008. These funds will greatly assist both Benton and Hung as each continues to build up their labs and research programs at LSU. Both Benton and Hung joined the department as assistant professors in August 2007.

Benton’s Pfund project is entitled, "Synthesizing Novel Yeast Strains for Biofuel Production." In the project, Benton and his research team will engineer S. cerevisiae strains to optimize ethanol production from biomass. By monitoring gene expression patterns, they will identify the yeast genes most important in the fermentation of xylose or glucose under typical industrial reaction conditions. Once these genes are known, they can vary their expression level in novel yeast strains, conferring the ability to simultaneously utilize both 5-carbon and 6-carbon sugars in biomass streams. These enhanced cell lines will greatly increase the industrial utility of yeasts, making ethanol production much more economically and environmentally feasible and greatly reducing dependence on fossil fuels.

The title of Hung’s Pfund project is “Molecular modeling of adsorption of small biological molecules on ordered mesoporous carbons.” The aim of this project is to understand how certain properties of the carbons (e.g., pore size and morphology, surface chemistry) affect the adsorption of biomolecules. Hung’s working hypothesis is that carbons with specific properties will strongly physisorb a given protein without inducting large structural changes, which would eventually lead to the denaturation of the protein. To test this hypothesis, Hung and his team will perform Molecular Dynamics simulations of a small protein and carbons with different features to estimate the protein-substrate interactions and establish how the structural properties of the biomolecules are affected upon adsorption. Such a fundamental knowledge is relevant for potential applications of these systems in protein separations, delivery of peptide-based drugs, and controlled immobilization of enzymes for biocatalysis and biosensors.

Louis Thibodeaux Wins Coates Award

Louis Thibodeaux (B.S. 1962, M.S. 1966, Ph.D. 1968), the Jesse Coates Professor in Chemical Engineering, is the 2008 awardee of the Charles E. Coates Memorial Award. He will be honored at the annual Coates Banquet to be held on May 8, 2008, at Boudreaux’s in Baton Rouge. At the banquest, Thibodeaux will give a lecture entitled, “Environmental Chemodynamics-The last chemical design element”.

The Charles E. Coates Memorial Award is given annual to a member of the American Chemical Society (ACS) or American Institute of Chemical Engineering (AIChE) who has made outstanding contributions to: 1) the professions of chemistry or chemical engineering; 2) the ACS or AIChE; and, 3) the Baton Rouge community. The award was founded in 1957 by the Baton Rouge chapters of ACS and AIChE to honor the memory of Dr. Charles E. Coates.

As many of you know, Dr. Charles Coates was one of Louisiana’s most prominent figures in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. He was the head of the Chemistry Department at LSU from 1893-1937 and Dean of the Audubon Sugar School from 1908-1931. He spearheaded the creation of the Department of Chemical Engineering at LSU and served as its first department chair from 1908-1936.

April 2008

Two ChE Students and Two ChE Professors Recipients of Donald C. Clayton Awards

Two of the recipients of the Donald C. Clayton supplement award are chemical engineering Ph.D. graduate research assistants and their respective faculty advisors are recipients of the Donald C. Clayton Mentor award. Both awards are governed by the College of Engineering. Andrew Campos is conducting research in the group of James J. Spivey. Andrew’s research focuses on X-ray absorption spectroscopy to characterize transition-metal promoted iron-based Fischer-Tropsch catalysts, a collaboration with Clemson University. David Widenski conducts research in the group of Jose Romagnoli and his research lies in the areas of modeling and optimization as those relate to process systems. Both Andrew and David have been honored separately with other awards in recent months. Both are progressing exceedingly well in their research programs and are very deserving of receiving the Clayton supplements.

The Clayton supplement awards are presented to engineering students who are pursuing a Ph.D. and who also intend to enter academia upon graduation. It is a 3-year award, which usually provides a supplement to a graduate student’s annual stipend as follows: $10,000 the first year, $15,000 the second year, and $20,000 the third year. Their faculty advisors receive the mentoring awards for the leadership roles they play in the professional and academic development of their students.

Qingzhong Yuan, a 2007 PhD recipient in chemical engineering, is the winner of the Best PhD Dissertation Award from the Baton Rouge Section of AIChE. He will be honored at the annual Coates Award Banquet that will be held in May. Yuan studied under Kalliat Valsaraj and the title of his dissertation was “Experimental and Modeling Studies of Contaminant Transport in Capped Sediments during Gas Bubble Ebullition.”

Michael Parent, recent recipient of a Goldwater Scholarship, is also the winner of the Outstanding Junior Undergraduate Award from the Baton Rouge Section of AIChE for 2008. He will receive a one-time award of $500 and will be honored at the upcoming Coates Award Banquet.

The department congratulates Michael for his many achievements both locally and nationally.

Noelle McBride, a senior undergraduate student in chemical engineering, has been awarded the Undergraduate Student Award in Environmental Chemistry from the American Chemical Society (ACS). The award consists of a one year membership in the ACS Division of Environmental Chemistry and a certificate. Noelle will also be featured in the EnvirofACS, the Division website, and C&E News.

The Division of Environmental Chemistry is one of the largest divisions of ACS. Members range from industry and consulting professionals to government employees to academia. The Division focuses on a broad spectrum of environmental issues related to air, water, and soil. Membership allows individuals to participate in programs and activities within the Division as well as build professional ties with other environmental chemists while also expanding one’s professional development.

The department wishes to congratulate Noelle on this outstanding achievement.

Department of Chemical Engineering and Honeywell Process Solutions Partnership Agreement

As part of the continuous upgrade of the facilities for teaching, training and research, the Cain Department of Chemical Engineering at LSU and Honeywell Process Solutions has signed an agreement towards the development of a state of the art Process Control Laboratory. Professor Jose A Romagnoli, Cain Chair Professor in Chemical Engineering at LSU has negotiated a partnership agreement with Honeywell Process Solutions to provide LSU with an upgrade to existing Laboratory Control System (upgrade and installation support) valued at over $287,505. Within this agreement, an Experion industrial control system is to be used in the control systems lab at LSU. The Experion is part of the new generation of “open” systems and will include capabilities for connecting up to 40 operator stations. The system will have C200 controllers with modules supporting LSU’s existing system, a Fieldbus Interface Module, and HART input and output modules. Other capabilities include OPC interfacing, Excel Data Exchange, Network API, and e-Server.

Future support in the amount of $91,062 has been committed, from Honeywell Process Solutions, as industrial contribution towards the joint research and development project entitled “Component Based Multi-Agent Framework for Intelligent Monitoring”. They will provide this support in the form of software products and labor hours for set-up and consulting.

The Department is deeply grateful for the support of our educational programs shown by its industrial partners, like Honeywell. This partnership agreement is in large part thanks to the efforts of Professor Romagnoli and David Toups of Honeywell’s Automation & Control Solutions division. Toups is also a current member of the Chemical Engineering Industrial Advisory Committee.

David Widenski, a Ph.D. student in the research group of Jose Romagnoli, has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) EAPSI Award for summer 2008. The East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes (EAPSI) provide U.S. graduate students in science and engineering: 1) first-hand research experience in Australia, China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore or Taiwan; 2) an introduction to the science and science policy infrastructure of the respective location; and 3) orientation to the society, culture, and language. The primary goals of EAPSI are to introduce students to East Asia and Pacific science and engineering in the context of a research setting, and to help students initiate scientific relationships that will better enable future collaboration with foreign counterparts. The institutes last approximately eight weeks.

David’s proposal was entitled, “Modeling and Optimization of Cooling & Antisolvent Crystallization.” His award will bring him to the University of Sydney in Australia from late April to late August 2008. He will be conducting research with Prof. Ali Abbas (who is a former student of Prof. Romagnoli) in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. The award provides a one-time payment of $5,000 as well as a round-trip ticket to Australia.

In addition, David had the opportunity to participate in an EAPSI pre-departure orientation weekend in Washington, D.C. The orientation occurred March 31-April 1, with all expenses paid by NSF.

Andrew Campos, a Ph.D. student in the research group of James Spivey, is a recipient of a $1,500 Office of Strategic Initiatives Supplement Award for the spring 2008 semester. The award is made possible through the Graduate Alliance for Education in Louisiana, funded by the National Science Foundation under the Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (NSF/AGEP) program. The goal of the NSF/AGEP initiative is to establish a minority doctoral training alliance in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The ultimate aim is to significantly increase the minority STEM doctoral degree production at Louisiana’s top research universities. To do this the project serves to bolster: 1) graduate recruitment and 2) early undergraduate exposure of minority students to research and academic career opportunities.

Congratulations to Professors James Henry and Karsten Thompson as their joint proposal, “Intelligent Design of Tissue Scaffolds,” has been awarded the Fund for Innovation in Engineering Research by the College of Engineering. The award is in the amount of $20,000.

The project plans to test possible new protein polymers that may be used as scaffold to help regenerate damaged bones. The award will allow the researchers to quantify the scaffold structure as a function of preparation methods. According to Henry and Thompson, the natural polymer could be more cost effective and benign than the ceramic and metal bone supplements used currently.

In the 2009 edition of U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best Graduate Schools", the LSU Chemical Engineering graduate program jumped from 59th in 2008 to 53rd in this year's rankings. To learn more about how LSU fared in these newest rankings please read the full article at LSU News.

Marathon Oil Corporation Donates $2.5 Million to LSU Including a Portion Earmarked for the New Chemical Engineering Building.

For more information, please view the LSU News article: Marathon Oil Corporation Donates $2.5 Million to LSU.

The department congratulates Chemical Engineering undergraduate, Michael Parent, who is one of four awardees from LSU of the nationally-competitive Goldwater Scholarship. Michael is a native of Mandeville, LA, who plans on pursuing a PhD in a nanoscience or related field in the hopes of one day conducting research at a national lab or in industry. Michael is also a scholar of the LA-STEM research scholars program (which is funded by NSF and managed by the Office of Strategic Initiatives). The Goldwater Scholarship will cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500 per year. For more information, please view the LSU Highlights article: A First: Four Awarded Goldwater Scholarships at LSU.

March 2008

The Department hosted its First Annual Scholarship Donor and Recipient Dinner on March 27, 2008. The dinner was held to honor both the scholarship donors as well as to congratulate the undergraduate students who received those scholarships during the academic year. The dinner was held at Boudreaux’s on Government Street. The guest speaker was Vernon Fabre (B.S. 1973) who is currently the Director of Site Services at the BASF facility in Geismar. Mr. Fabre is also active in department and university activities. He is the president of Chemical Engineering’s Industrial Advisory Committee and is also a member of the ChE Campaign Steering Committee. Please view some pictures from the event.

The most recent meeting of the Industrial Advisory Committee took place on March 14, 2008.

Pictured (front row, left to right): Rich Bedell, Claire Cagnolatti, David Toups, Wyndham Cook, Sharon Hulgan, Ed McGinnis (Back row, left to right): Karl Anderson, Vernon Fabre, Dustin Beebe, Larry Schwartz, Ronald Rousseau, Marvin Borgmeyer (Not pictured: Ronald Cambre, Jack Hopper, Les Jensen)

Congratulations to Joel E. LeDay, a first-year student in the ChE undergraduate program. He is another ChE recipient of a 2007-2008 academic year scholarship from the American Chemical Society (ACS) Scholars Program. The scholarship provides him with a monetary award as well as both academic and industrial mentors to assist him in his studies as he strives to meet his educational and professional goals. Joel’s academic mentor at LSU will be Karsten Thompson.

The scholarship program is designed to encourage African-American, Hispanic, and American Indian students to pursue undergraduate college degrees in the chemical sciences and chemical technology. The scholarships are awarded on the basis of merit and financial need. Students must have strong academic records and show an interest in and potential for careers in chemical sciences.

February 2008

Audubon Sugar Institute offers a short course June 26-27, 2008, "Practical Aspects of Ion Exchange, Adsorption and Industrial Chromatographic Technologies."

January 2008

The department would like to congratulate Assistant Professors James Henry and Francisco Hung. They have been named Council on Research Summer Stipend Grant Recipients for 2008. The Council on Research (CoR) Summer Stipend Program provides financial support to junior researchers at the rank of assistant professor seeking to contribute to scholarly knowledge in their discipline. This enables them to spend a portion of the summer term in research activity without the disruption of other employment obligations. Each proposal is evaluated for the impact the project will have on the indicated discipline, broader impacts, and the effect on the researcher’s career.

The department would like to thank alumnus Al Lopez (B.S. 1963, M.S. 1965, Ph.D. 1968) and his wife, Maria for their most recent donation to the department, through the FOREVER LSU campaign. Their gift of $790,000 was made to the Chemical Engineering New Building fund and will assist the department greatly in meeting its goals for securing funding for a new facility. We are deeply grateful for their generosity and their continued support of the department.

Generous Alumnus Leaves Donation to Engineering
(by Mimi LaValle, LSU College of Engineering, 225-578-5706, mlavall@lsu.edu)

Recently, the Gordon A. & Mary Cain Department of Chemical Engineering (ChE) received a donation of more than $730,000 from the will of alumnus Clements Helblings, Jr. Mr. Helblings left this money to the Department through his estate and it will be designated toward the new ChE building fund. This generous donation came unannounced, prior to the settlement of his estate. His niece, Barbara A. Forschler, was able to give us a glimpse of Mr. Helbling, stating “He was a very private person,” she said. “Not braggadocious.”

Helbling was a Lake Charles native, which was the only place his death was announced at his direction. He never married nor did he have any children. He was the youngest of five and had four sisters. “He took care of his mother,” Forschler said. “That was ‘kind of his job.’”

Helbling graduated from LSU with a Bachelor’s degree in ChE in 1949 and a Master’s degree in ChE in 1950. He served in the U.S. Navy and spent his entire career with Texaco, retiring in 1983. Experiencing many travel opportunities, he lived in New York for a short time before his final stop in Houston. According to his niece, “his hobby was earning the best interest on his money.” She also stated that all the members of the family are “great believers in education.”

Harriett Pooler, Associate Director of Development in the College of Engineering says she regrets that Mr. Helblings’ gift was unknown until after his death, stating “If we had known about his plans for his estate, we could have thanked him and shown him how this gift will grow and benefit the College and the students of tomorrow.”

In this picture from Sports Illustrated, ChE student Joe Maltempi (number 30 to the right of the picture), cheers on Chevis Jackson after his interception during the BCS Championship Game. Joe is a junior from Chester, VA, and is a walk-on on LSU’s National Championship team.

The department congratulates alumnus, Sakhalin Finnie (B.S. 1991), a 2007 recipient of a Milken National Educator Award. Finnie teaches at the Harbor Teacher Preparation Academy in Wilmington, California.

The Milken National Educator Award is funded by the Milken Family Foundation, established by Lowell and Michael Milken in 1982 with the mission to discover and advance inventive and effective ways of helping people help themselves and those around them lead productive and satisfying lives. The Milken National Educator Award provides public recognition and an unrestricted financial award of $25,000 to elementary and secondary school teachers, principals, and other education professionals who are furthering excellence in education. The recipients are chosen by an independent blue-ribbon committee established by each state’s department of education. Criteria for selection includes: exceptional educational talent as evidenced by effective instructional practices and student learning results in the classroom and school; exemplary educational accomplishments beyond the classroom that promote excellence for the profession; strong long-range potential for professional and policy leadership; and, engaging and inspiring presence that motivates and impacts students, colleagues, and the community.

Congratulations to Breeana Baker, a first-year student in the ChE undergraduate program. Breeana is a recipient of a 2007-2008 academic year scholarship from the American Chemical Society (ACS) Scholars Program. The scholarship provides her with a monetary award as well as both academic and industrial mentors to assist her in her studies as she strives to meet her educational and professional goals. Breeana’s academic mentor at LSU will be department chair, Kalliat Valsaraj. Her industrial mentor is a R&D project engineer with PPG Industries. Breeana was chosen as one of 10 students sponsored by PPG Industries and PPG secures industrial mentors for these scholars.

The scholarship program is designed to encourage African-American, Hispanic, and American Indian students to pursue undergraduate college degrees in the chemical sciences and chemical technology. The scholarships are awarded on the basis of merit and financial need. Students have strong academic records and show an interest in and potential for careers in chemical sciences.

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This page was last modified on May 6, 2008