Dear All, On behalf of Purdue University's Davidson School of Chemical Engineering, we are glad to announce our upcoming Graduate Seminar Series Lecturer Dr. Reid Van Lehn from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, at University of Wisconsin-Madison. He will be visiting Purdue University on March 24th, 2022. You will find further detail regarding the lecture at the end of this email. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Sincerely, Jason Thorp Administrative Assistant Office: FRNY 2043 Purdue University Charles D. Davidson School of Chemical Engineering 480 Stadium Mall Drive West Lafayette, IN 47907 Phone: 765-494-7134 jthorp@purdue.edu [https://marketing.purdue.edu/Email/TemplateSets/ChE/Templates/Template04/Images/DSCE-BG-PU_White_RM.png]<https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChE> Graduate Seminar Series [http://marketing.purdue.edu/Email/TemplateSets/ChE/Archive/Email00025/van-le...] Dr. Reid C. Van Lehn Conway Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison Website<https://directory.engr.wisc.edu/che/Faculty/Van-lehn_Reid/> Bio: Reid is the Conway Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from MIT under the supervision of Prof. Alfredo Alexander-Katz, then performed research as a NIH Ruth-Kirshstein postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Tom F. Miller III at Caltech before joining UW-Madison in May 2016. He has recently been recognized with the AIChE CoMSEF Young Investigator Award, 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award, the UW-Madison Vilas Associate Award, and an NSF CAREER award. ******* ******* "Molecular Modeling of Solvent Effects for Biomass Conversion and Plastic Recycling" Thursday, March 24, 2022 3:00 p.m. - 4:15 p.m. FRNY G140 Abstract: Liquid-phase chemical and physical processes for the deconstruction, separation, and recovery of natural and synthetic polymers depend critically upon the solvent environment. In this talk, I will discuss our efforts to combine molecular-scale simulations and data-centric modeling to understand and predict the influence of solvent composition on processes relevant to biomass conversion and plastic recycling. I will first discuss computational methods to predict reaction rates for the acid-catalyzed hydrolysis and dehydration of biomass-derived oxygenates using classical molecular dynamics simulations. By characterizing solvent structure at the nanoscale, we quantitatively predict experimental reaction rates without modeling reaction mechanisms. I will then discuss a computational approach to select solvents for the selective dissolution of polymers from plastic waste. We demonstrate that effective solvent selection permits the recovery of nearly 100 wt% of the components of commercial multilayer plastic films. These computational models thus permit the rational design of solvent systems based on molecular-scale insight. ******* ******* Davidson School of Chemical Engineering<https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChE> Purdue University West Lafayette, IN 47907 (765) 494-4050<tel:+17654944050> (c) 2022 Purdue University<http://www.purdue.edu/purdue/disclaimer.html> All rights reserved An equal access/equal opportunity university<http://www.purdue.edu/purdue/ea_eou_statement.html>