News Archives
News 2006

December 2006

The Advocate has published an article highlighting the research of Kalliat Valsaraj and his research team: Researching the foggiest idea.

November 2006

The LSU Board of Supervisors has approved a recommendation to confer an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degree on Ronald C. Cambre (B.S., 1960). Mr. Cambre is the retired CEO of Newmont Mining Corporation, located in Denver, Colorado. He also served as the CEO of Freeport-McMoRan Resource Partners. He was inducted into the College of Engineering’s Hall of Distinction in 1995. He is active on a number of University committees associated with the LSU Foundation, the College of Engineering, and the Department. Most recently Mr. Cambre was named as a member of the Forever LSU Campaign Cabinet and head of the chemical engineering Campaign Steering Committee.

October 2006

The Department would like to congratulate Judith Udeke, who is currently a senior in our undergraduate program. Ms. Udeke has been awarded the John J. McKetta undergraduate scholarship award by the national chapter of AIChE. The McKetta award is given by AIChE to one Chemical engineering junior or senior who is planning a career in the chemical process industries. The student would have demonstrated leadership or activity in either the school's AIChE Student Chapter or other university sponsored campus activity. Students are nominated by their school's AIChE advisor. Only one nomination is accepted per school annually. Ms. Udeke will receive a certificate and a $5,000 scholarship. The scholarship will be formally presented during the Student Awards Brunch at the Annual Student Conference at the 2006 AIChE National Meeting in San Francisco in November.

September 2006

Maoshi Guan has received a $750 travel grant to attend the 2006 Joint International Meeting of The Electrochemical Society to be held in Cancun, Mexico this fall; he was selected for this award by the Electrodeposition Division of The Electrochemical Society. At the conference Guan will be giving an oral presentation entitled, “Electrodeposition and Electrochemical Etching of Au/CoAu Multilayered Nanowires.”

In this study, a two-step process was developed for the fabrication of Au/CoAu Nanoscale bamboo-like structures and disk-shaped nanoparticles. These structures and nanoparticles can be useful in the field of biomedical and biotechnological applications. The process is controllable, high-yielding, and simple to carry out. In addition, it uses a non-toxic, benign solution. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first time a demonstration of nanowire etching process has been precisely controlled by electrochemical etching.

Guan received his M.S. in Chemical Engineering in May 2005 and is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Engineering Science. He is a member of Elizabeth Murphy-Podlaha’s research team. We would like to congratulate him on receiving this honor.

The Department has received an award for a project totaling roughly $2.9 million to study the synthesis of ethanol. The project, supported by DOE and cost-sharing partner Conoco-Phillips, will focus on catalysts to produce ethanol from coal-derived syngas. Project PI *Jerry Spivey* and Prof. *Doug Harrison* will team with Jim Goodwin (Clemson University), Steve Overbury (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), and engineers from Conoco-Phillips to develop catalysts for this process.

August 2006

The Department will benefit from a newly established scholarship – Leo Broering Memorial Scholarship in Chemical Engineering. Leo Raymond “Dutch” Broering was a native of Ohio who received his chemical engineering degree in 1978 from the University of Cincinnati.

Upon graduation, he began working as a process engineer at the Shell Deer Park refinery in Houston. Over the years, he held many positions within Shell. In 1990 he transferred to the Shell Geismar Plant as an expansion superintendent and became site manager of the Shell Chemical facility in Geismar in 1999.

Broering was very active in the community as well. He served on the board of directors for the Capital Area United Way and was also active in the Louisiana Alliance for Education Reform and the Louisiana Chemical Association. Broering died on January 13, 2004 from an automobile accident at the age of 48. The scholarship was created in his name by his family and friends to honor his memory.

The scholarship will be awarded to a full-time undergraduate student majoring in chemical engineering. A preference shall be given to interns or dependents of employees at Shell’s Geismar plant. The recipient must have a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or higher. Financial need may also be a consideration.

Students who are interested in being considered for this scholarship or one of our other chemical engineering undergraduate scholarships must complete a scholarship application and deliver it to Darla Dao (room 116). The application can be found on our website or students may pick it up outside of our main office (room 110).

James Henry will be chairing a session at Biochemical Engineering XV, which will be held in Quebec City, Canada, July 15-19, 2007. The proposed theme of the conference is “Biochemical Engineering XV: Engineering Biology from Biomolecules to Complex Systems.” Each session will be chaired by one researcher from academia and at least one researcher from industry. Henry will be serving as the academic chair for the session entitled, “The Biology-Chemistry Interface: Materials and Bionanotechnology.”

Kalliat Valsaraj is featured in the Summer 2006 issue LSU Research. The article, The Air we Breathe, highlights Valsaraj's ongoing NSF-funded project concerning the possible chemical dangers of fog in the Gulf Coast Region.

Alumnus Bequeaths Funds to the department and the college

Malcolm C. Lowe, Jr., a 1942 chemical engineering graduate and former member of the LSU Tiger Band, gave a $450,000 bequest to the College of Engineering. The funds from the bequest will be allocated in four ways: to name a new major lab in the new Chemical Engineering Building for Malcolm C. and Gene Perdue Lowe Jr.; toward the completion of a $200,000 Distinguished Professorship of Engineering named for the Lowes; toward the establishment of a $300,000 professorship dedicated to graduate student assistantships; and, to the College of Engineering’s Endowed Alumni Fellowship Fund.

Mr. Lowe, who passed away in 2005, was always a generous supporter of the department and the university. We are deeply grateful for his many gifts as well as his commitment to LSU.

July 2006

Daira Aragon will be presenting a paper at the upcoming AIChE annual meeting to be held in San Franciso, California, from November 12-17, 2006. Her paper is entitled, "Integrated Operation Support System (IOpSS): the Data Pre-processing and Data Reconciliation Modules" and she will be presenting it in the session of Computers in Operations and Information Processing. The paper is co-authored by Pablo Rolandi (from PSE Enterprises) and Daira's research advisor, Jose Romagnoli. A brief abstract follows.

This paper discusses the current developments within a novel environment to performed related model-based activities such as simulation, parameter estimation, data reconciliation, and optimization using a single model representation. In particular, the paper focuses in the modules corresponding to data pre-processing and dynamic data reconciliation. In terms of the former module, this work discusses the implementation of an approach based on the minimum median distance (MMD) for the detection of outliers, and median replacement for their rectification. Furthermore, an extension of this method applied to individual variables was considered. Regarding the data reconciliation module, the error-in-variable method (EVM) was implemented as an important contribution to the environment. Finally, the pre-processed data was used to evaluate the performance of the different outlier detection/cleaning methods in the dynamic EVM data reconciliation.

On Friday, July 14, Elizabeth Podlaha-Murphy and her research team hosted a group of Girl Scouts, who were attending the Science Adventure Day Camp. The girls were shown five different experiments, some of which were hands-on. Please visit our photo album to find out more.

Yogesh Waghmare, a Ph.D. student of Carl Knopf, will present a paper at the AIChE Annual meeting in San Francisco in the Fundamental Research in Transport Phenomena III Session. The paper was co-authored with Dr. Knopf and Emeritus Professor Richard G.Rice. They also recently published two papers in the March Issue of AIChE Journal, and Knopf and Rice also presented this work at the Orlando AIChE Meeting in April. The threesome has also submitted for publication in the AIChE Journal the paper: "A new theory< to explain transport in pulsed-flow bubble columns: the Bjerknes effect", which is also the title of the San Francisco presentation.

Unit Operations Laboratory (ChE 4162) is a core course offering in the department and now it has its own web presence. The new UOLab website is designed primarily to provide students with online access to key course materials but also to provide prospective students and others a window into one of our department's model instructional settings. Stocked with a good set of starter material, we envision a continuing growth of website content to facilitate student success in this important area of instruction. When you have a chance, drop on in and take a look. Constructive criticism is welcome as well.

The Department has received an award from the Dept. of Energy to study the synthesis of ultra-clean fuels. Working with Hampton University, Jerry Spivey and graduate student Andrew Campos will investigate how used FCC catalysts, which are currently discarded as waste, can be used as supports for Fischer-Tropsch catalysts. The 3-year award is for $200k, with $45k for the Department.

June 2006

The department is pleased to announce that John Flake will be joining the department as an Associate Professor in August 2006. He received his Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology and worked in the semiconductor industry (IBM and Motorola) for several years prior to returning to academia. His areas of research are semiconductor processing and microelectric device fabrication.

Mr. Ram N. Bhatia, a retiree from the ExxonMobil Corporation, has donated funds to establish the Ram N. Bhatia Scholarship in Chemical Engineering at Louisiana State University. First preference will be given to undergraduate students who are citizens of India.

Mr. Bhatia’s contribution, along with the ExxonMobil matching funds, will total $20,000 initially. He may contribute additional funds and can opt to convert this fund to a professorship in the future.

Mr. Bhatia previously established a scholarship in the LSU Department of Kinesiology in the name of Judy Bhatia, his late wife. He also made a building donation to the LSU Lod Cook Alumni Center in Mrs. Bhatia’s name.

The Remal Das and Lachmi Devi Bhatia Memorial Professorship was funded in 1997 by Mr. Bhatia in the LSU Manship School of Mass Communication in memory of his parents.

Mr. Bhatia was born in India and came to the United States in 1966. He is a chemical engineer who retired from ExxonMobil in 2002 after working in several positions worldwide over 34 years. He is a co-inventor for six patented chemical processes.

The department would like to congratulate James Michiels, a chemical engineering senior. James is one of the winners of the 2006 Southwest Chemical Association Scholarship. He will receive a one-time amount of $5,000, to be presented at the association’s annual banquet in August.

The department would also like to congratulate John Bundrick, who is the recipient of the National AIChE Othmer Award. The Othmer Award is given to the person completing the sophomore years with the highest GPA. He will receive a copy of Perry’s Handbook along with a certificate.

A $622 k grant funded by Albemarle Corporation and the LSU Board of Regents will support research in the Department on the oligomerization of methane to gasoline-range liquids. Jerry Spivey will work with Albemarle scientists to develop catalysts that can activate methane and selectively produce these compounds.

May 2006

The Department would like to congratulate Michelle Somers, a Ph.D. student under the direction of Mary Wornat. Michelle has received two travel awards to attend the 31st Combustion Symposium which will be held in Heidelberg, Germany in August 2006. As previously report, Michelle will be presenting a paper entitled “The Formation of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons from the Supercritical Pyrolysis of 1-Methylnaphthalene” at the symposium.

The first travel award is from the Combustion Institute, itself, in the amount of $700. The second, larger award is the James E. Peters Fellowship, from the Central States Section of the Combustion Institute. The fellowship is a competition for students who will be presenting work at the 31st Combustion Symposium. In order to apply for the fellowship, a student submits his/her paper, along with reviews and rebuttal as well as a letter of recommendation from the student’s research advisor. Only one student is selected for the fellowship, which is in the amount of $1,500 (the other applicants receive any leftover funding.) The winner of the fellowship was announced at the Central States meeting, which was held in Cleveland, Ohio in May 2006.

The Department would like to congratulate both Alan Bussard and Rohit Mishra as both are recipients of the 2006-2008 Coates Research Grant. The Coates Research Grant is a two-year award of $5,000 per year, with second year funding contingent upon successful progress, documented in an annual report. Only four of these awards can be active at any one time.

Alan’s research focuses on understanding the relationship between the structure and composition of heterogeneous catalysts and their performance in novel reactors for the purposes of macromolecular hydrogenations. He is pursuing his Ph.D. under the direction of Kerry Dooley.

The objective of Rohit’s research is to electrodeposit rare earth-transition metal alloy thin films and nanostructures. These alloys have unique magnetic properties and find application in magnetic, magneto-optical, and sensing devices. For the first time, these alloys were deposited as nanowires and nanotubes and his continued study will address the electrodeposition mechanism and properties of this. Rohit is pursuing his Ph.D. under the direction of Elizabeth Podlaha-Murphy.

The research grant is funded by the Charles E. Coates Memorial Fund, which was set up to support promising doctoral research by superior graduate students in the disciplines of chemical engineering, chemistry, or physics. Four types of awards are given through the Coates Memorial Fund: outstanding dissertation awards, conference travel awards, research travel grants, and the scholar research grants (described above).

A paper authored by Michelle L. Somers (a Ph.D. student of Mary J. Wornat), Jennifer W. McClaine, and Mary J. Wornat has been accepted by the 31st International Combustion Symposium. The title is "THE FORMATION OF POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS FROM THE SUPERCRITICAL PYROLYSIS OF 1-METHYLNAPHTHALENE." Michelle Somers will present the paper in Heidelberg, Germany, this August, and afterwards it will be published in Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 31 (2006).

Unlike most scientific research conferences, the International Combustion Symposium requires submission of a full journal-style article 8 months prior to the meeting, and these papers are fully peer-reviewed, with acceptance rates lower than most journals. This year only 42 % of the 1000 papers submitted were accepted, and only a minority of these are from graduate students.

Congratulations are thus in order to Ms. Somers for this stellar achievement.

April 2006

The department would like to congratulate Hongfei Lin, a 2005 Ph.D. graduate of Professor Kalliat Valsaraj, who was awarded the 2006 AIChE Best Dissertation Award by the Baton Rouge chapter of AIChE. His dissertation was titled, Photocatalysis in a Novel Semiconducting Optical Fiber Monolithic Reactor for Wastewater Treatment. The award, a certificate and a $100 check, will be presented at the Coates Award Banquet on Thursday, May 18, at Oak Lodge.

Nicholas Ashley is a 2006 recipient of a Donald W. Clayton Award from the College of Engineering. This award is presented to engineering students who are pursuing a Ph.D. and also intend to enter academia upon graduation. It is a 3-year award, which provides a supplement of $10,000 the first year, $15,000 the second year, and $20,000 the third year. Nicholas is a 2005 B.S. graduate of the department who is conducting his Ph.D. research under the direction of Professors Kalliat Valsaraj and Louis Thibodeaux. We wholeheartedly congratulate him on this award.

Matt Coenen, a senior in chemical engineering, captured the 200-meter breaststroke at the U.S. Spring National Championships this past weekend. Read more in the LSUsports.net article Swimming's Coenen Wins National Championship.

The 3rd Annual Chemical Engineering Alumni Reunion was held on Saturday, April 1. All who attended had a wonderful time, with good friends, great food, and perfect spring weather. Please see all the pictures from the reunion. The faculty and staff had a great time visiting with those of you who were able to attend. For those of you who weren't, we missed you and hope to see you next year when we will be celebrating our 100th anniversary.

March 2006

Alan Bussard, a Ph.D. student under the supervision of Kerry Dooley, won a poster prize at the 2006 Spring Symposium of the Southwest Catalysis Society, which was held recently in Houston. The title of his poster was "Heterogeneous catalyzed polymer hydrogenation in an extruding reactor." The prize was given as a $300 cash award and is sponsored by ExxonMobil Process Research.

One of the most accessed articles from 2005 in the American Chemical Society premier journal Environmental Science and Technology happens to be one co-authored by professors Louis Thibodeaux and Kalliat Valsaraj and concerns the quality of the floodwaters following Hurricane Katrina.

Chemical and Microbiological Parameters in New Orleans Floodwater Following Hurricane Katrina, Pardue, J. H.; Moe, W. M.; McInnis, D.; Thibodeaux, L. J.; Valsaraj, K. T.; Maciasz, E.; van Heerden, I.; Korevec, N.; Yuan, Q. Z., Environ. Sci. Technol. 2005, 39(22), pp 8591-8599. DOI: 10.1021/es0518631

Don Morris, a ChE senior undergraduate and President of the LSU AIChE Student Chapter, won 1st place in his session and 2nd place overall for his research presentation presented at the AIChE Southern Regional Conference. The awards were given in the form of $600 and $450, respectively. The conference was held in Starkville, Mississippi, March 10-12.

The title of Morris’ presentation was “Modeling Fluid Flow in Fractured Porous Media.” His research deals with the building of a computer algorithm, which can simulate on the pore scale low Reynolds number flow through a fractured media such as a packed oil well fracture using basic fluid mechanics. Morris states that this kind of algorithm is noteworthy because it can do this with uneven boundary conditions and heterogeneity in packing. This is important because once it is completed it can give an actual picture of the fluid dynamics in any porous media or packed system; it has not been done before and may go a long way in determining the important factors in flow in these systems. Morris has been conducting his research under Associate Professor Karsten Thompson, as part of his senior research project.

ChE Alum, Jim Huff (B.S. 1977) and his wife Nan were the 2005 winners of the 2nd annual “New Venture Business Plan Competition”. The Huffs are the founders and owners of Hurricane Chemical. Together they have created a patented process of applying a preservative agent to sugarcane immediately after it is cut, rather than applying the preservatives at the sugar mill, which is the method currently used. According to the Huffs, the process of applying the chemical agent in the field decreases the rate of spoilage by more than 50 percent, therefore increasing sugar yield for farmers. The product has been field tested and product demand has already been generated among numerous Louisiana mills.

The competition is sponsored by the E.J. Ourso College and the Business Report and the winners are announced at the annual Top 100 Private Companies Luncheon of the Baton Rouge Business Report’s Louisiana Business and Technology Expo.

Assistant Professor James Henry was the highlighted faculty member in LSU Today's biweekly column "Flagship Faculty" (March 10, 2006, Vol 22, NO. 13).

Cain Chair Professor Jose Romagnoli has been awarded the John Broadie Medal for contributions to Chemical Engineering by the Institute of Chemical Engineers, Australia for 2005.

He will also be the Invited Keynote Speaker at two upcoming international conferences:

ADCHEM-2006 “International Symposium on Advanced Control of Chemical Processes,” April 2-6, 2006, Granados, Brazil. Title of Presentation: On Data Processing and Reconciliation: Trends and the impact of technology.

PSE 2006-Escape 16, July 9-14, 2006, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Title of Presentation: Model-centric technologies for support of manufacturing operations.

February 2006

Chemical engineering is tops in salary offers for graduating seniors. According to a quarterly survey published by the National Association of Colleges & Employers’ (NACE), the average starting salaries for most majors has increased with chemical engineering topping the list at $55,900. For chemical engineering, this represents a 4.2% increase over academic year 2004-05. The survey also notes that employers are planning to hire more college grads this year compared to last academic year. (The preceding is from an article titled, “Most lucrative college degrees”, posted on CNNMoney.com on February 13, 2006.)

On February 1, 2006, the Chairman of the Division on Earth & Life Studies of the National Academies has invited Professor Louis Thibodeaux to accept appointment as a member of the Committee on Sediment Dredging at Superfund Megasites. The National Research Council Committee will conduct an independent evaluation of dredging projects that will look at the expected effectiveness of dredging contaminated sediments assessing EPA’s estimated risk benefits considering sites where information is available and develop recommendations that will facilitate scientifically based and timely decision making for megasites in the future.

Prof. Thibodeaux’s current research efforts have been focused on several aspects of the environmental chemodynamics of bed-sediment contaminants in rivers, lakes, and estuaries. These have included the chemical release process associated with the mud-clouds produced during dredging. Prof. Thibodeaux’s previous work for the National Research Council has been to Chair one committee and serve as a member of four others. The current appointment will end January 2007.

Prof. Louis Thibodeaux has been selected by the USEPA Science Advisory Board to be a member of the review panel for the, so called, Estimation Program Interface (EPI) Suite. It is a set of 13 Windows® based models used to estimate the physical and chemical properties as well as the environmental fate of commercial chemical substances that are or will be released. It is the mission of the USEPA’s Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) to evaluate potential risk of these substances. The EPI Suite is being used for implementing the Agency policy on pollution prevention (P2) as well as evaluating new chemicals under EPAs premanufacture notices (PMNs). The EPI Suite is also widely used for predicting physical/chemical properties and environmental fate and transport for chemicals already in commerce.

The Panel will conduct a review of the EPI Suite providing advice regarding the comprehensiveness and soundness of the supporting science including methods of validation, alternative estimation methods, completeness of software, documentation, and preparation of its current applications. The panel consists of 14 members and its work will continue until the review is complete. The process has started and the first meeting is planned for the second week in March in Washington, D.C.

Prof. Thibodeaux was selected as a member because of his record of research in the field of environmental chemodynamics. His textbook by the same name was published in 1996 by John Wiley, N.Y., and has been adopted worldwide by engineering and science departments for use in courses on chemical fate and transport in the natural environment.

The Department congratulates Elizabeth Podlaha-Murphy, as she is a recipient of the 2006 Alumni Association Faculty Excellence Award. This award recognizes faculty members for outstanding teaching, research, and/or service. It consists of a one-time cash award of $1,000, funded by the LSU Alumni Association. Podlaha, along with other faculty award winners, will be honored by the University at a reception on May 9 at the Lod Cook Alumni Center.

January 2006

Kalliat Valsaraj was an invited speaker at the University of California, Irvine, NSF Environmental Molecular Sciences Institute (EMSI) on atmospheric research on January 21-24, 2006. His presentation was entitled "The interactions of gas-phase organic species at the environmental air-water interface".

Elizabeth Podlaha-Murphy and members of her research team have co-authored a chapter in a newly released book, “Nanomaterials Handbook” (edited by Yury Gogotsi). The chapter is entitled, "Electrochemical Deposition of Nanostructured Metals." Her co-authors include current graduate research assistants—Yutong Li, Alonso Lozano Morales, and Despina Davis; recent Ph.D. graduates— Qiang Huang, Amrit Panda, and Zhanhu Guo; and former post-doc, Jianqi Zhang.

James Henry and Elizabeth Podlaha-Murphy submitted a proposal to the LSU Graduate School that was selected for an Economic Development Assistantship (EDA). Their proposal entitled, "Cellular Activity on Nanoscaled Hydroxyapitate Composites," was one of only 11 selected for an EDA out of a pool of 30 proposals from various disciplines across campus. The EDA is designed to assist departments in recruitment of exceptional graduate students.

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This page was last modified on December 4, 2006