February 2015 - Che-student-staff-list

Sad News
by Varma, Arvind 14 Jun '16

14 Jun '16

Dear Colleagues, I am very sorry to inform that Julie Kim's mother passed away recently after a lengthy illness. Sang will leave for her memorial services in California early tomorrow morning. Our thoughts and prayers are with Julie, Sang and their family. Arvind

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2015 ChE Excellence in Safety Award - nominations accepted
by Nagy, Gabriela 23 Mar '15

23 Mar '15

Hello Everyone, The Chemical Engineering Safety Committee is happy to invite nominations for the 2015 ChE Excellence in Safety Award. Please find attached the nomination form, award description and details on eligibility and selection criteria. Nomination Process: Any ChE faculty member, staff, graduate or undergraduate student performing research can nominate any eligible ChE graduate student. A nominator can support only one candidate. Please submit your nominations to Gabriela Nagy at nagyg(a)purdue.edu<mailto:nagyg@purdue.edu>, by March 25, 2015. Nominations should not exceed 250 words and should include specific examples. Due Date for nominations: March 25, 2015, with the award to be presented at the May appreciation reception. Thank you for your commitment to safety! Sincerely, Gabriela On behalf of the ChE Safety Committee __________________ Gabriela Nagy, PhD Industrial Education Director ChE Safety Committee Chair School of Chemical Engineering Room FRNY G051 Purdue University Tel: (765)-496-1710 E-mail: nagyg(a)purdue.edu<mailto:nagyg@purdue.edu>

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FW: REMINDER – Exchange Maintenance on Feb 28th starting at 12:00pm
by Harrington, Michael P 27 Feb '15

27 Feb '15

Please note this and expect intermittent connectivity issues tomorrow if you have an Exchange account. This applies to many (not all) ChE Faculty and most ChE Staff. -Mike Harrington From: ITaP Messaging Sent: Friday, February 27, 2015 4:45 PM To: Exchange Users Subject: REMINDER – Exchange Maintenance on Feb 28th starting at 12:00pm All, This is a reminder that on Saturday February 28th, the Exchange Administrators will be performing a scheduled upgrade starting at 12:00pm. During this upgrade, customers will see intermittent connectivity with their email clients as the servers are being worked on. Clients include Outlook, OWA, Thunderbird, Mobile Devices, etc. The Exchange Administrators will be finished with their upgrades by 6:00pm, however, there is additional Windows Server updates that will be taking place afterwards. This patching takes place monthly, so the service interruptions will be no different than our customers normally see each month. If there are any questions, please let us know. Thanks. Aaron Sprout ITaP Messaging Administrator

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Truth and Beauty Seminar: Dr. W. Nicholas Delgass, March 12
by Field, Catherine A 25 Feb '15

25 Feb '15

Please see the announcement from Arthur Shih (CHE Graduate Student Organization Representative) below. Best, Katie Dear All, Truth and Beauty seminars invite professors to present their perspectives on their careers and the principles that motivated them through graduate school. Professor W. Nicholas Delgass will be presenting his "Lessons from 50 Years of Research". When: Thursday, March 12, 2015 @ 5:30 PM Where: Physics 110 Free pizza and refreshments will be served! Please RSVP so we can gauge how much food to order: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1GpI43abwcM9xCMZLnh1D7Di2KUPT1AsVC_P2JU4cPw… Thanks! -Arthur Shih

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FW: Truth and Beauty Seminar: Dr. Doraiswami Ramkrishna, April 9
by Field, Catherine A 25 Feb '15

25 Feb '15

Dear Faculty and Staff, Please see the announcement from Arthur Shih (CHE Graduate Student Organization Representative) below. Best, Katie Dear All, Truth and Beauty seminars invite professors to present their perspectives on their careers and the principles that motivated them through graduate school. When: Thursday, April 9, 2015 @ 5:30 PM Where: Physics 112 Free pizza and refreshments will be served! Please RSVP so we can gauge how much food to order: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1SQWa2hU-Wfno2PM4z7hQzjkfURLwWnkkf5qN70rchG… Thanks! -Arthur Shih

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32nd H.C. Brown Lectures in Organic Chemistry
by Murray, Chris L 25 Feb '15

25 Feb '15

It is once again our pleasure to extend a warm invitation to the 32nd Herbert C. Brown Lectures in Organic Chemistry at Purdue University. Date: Friday, April 3, 2015 Time: 9:30 AM - 6:00 PM (EST) Location: Stewart Center (STEW) 214 This year's event promises to be an exciting day celebrating and honoring the career of Professor H. C. Brown. The program includes a diverse array of topics from the fields of synthetic and physical Organic Chemistry by a distinguished group of plenary speakers: Phil Baran, Scripps Research Institute: "Studies in Natural Product Synthesis" Peter Chen, ETH Zurich: "Catalytic Electrophilic Cyclopropanation without Diazo Compounds: De Novo Mechanistic Design and a Historical Twist" Paul Knochel, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich: "Functionalized Heterocyclic Li, Mg and Zn Organometallics in Organic Synthesis" JoAnne Stubbe, MIT: "Radicals and Drugs" All interested students, faculty, and scientists are welcome to attend. Registration is free, and includes lunch for all participants who register by Friday, March 27. We also encourage student participants to present their recent works at our poster session and competition, with prizes awarded for the best posters. For more information about the H.C. Brown Lectures, please visit our website at: http://www.chem.purdue.edu/hcbrownlectures/. We look forward to seeing you in April. With best regards, Paul Wenthold, Chairman 765-494-0475 pgw(a)purdue.edu<mailto:pgw@purdue.edu> Chengde Mao, Chair-elect 765-494-0498 mao(a)purdue.edu<mailto:mao@purdue.edu>

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Graduate Seminar Series ChE- Prof Perla Balbuena- March 10
by McDaniel, Emily M 25 Feb '15

25 Feb '15

[blackwelder] School of Chemical Engineering Graduate seminar series Prof. Perla Balbuena Dept. of Chemical Engineering Texas A&M Univeristy "Modeling Interfacial Phenomena in Lithium-Ion and Lithium-Sulfur Batteries" March 10, 2015 9:00-10:15 a.m. FRNY G140 Reception at 8:30 a.m. in Henson Atrium Abstract: Interfacial phenomena are present in many chemical engineering problems. Here we focus on solid-electrolyte interfaces where not only mass and heat transfer but also chemical reactions may occur. To understand the details, we will use a "theoretical microscope" based on first-principles (density functional theory) analyses. We will discuss electron transfer reactions occurring from electrodes of lithium-ion and lithium-sulfur batteries causing the reduction of organic solvents and salts used as electrolytes. The impact of these phenomena on battery performance will be addressed. Bio: Prof. Balbuena received a BS degree at Universidad Tecnologica Nacional Argentina, MS from University of Pennsylvania, and PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, all in Chemical Engineering. She has been Assistant and Associate Professor at the University of South Carolina and since 2004 she is a Professor of Chemical Engineering and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University. Her work focuses on first principles analysis and design of materials. Recent research includes applications to fuel cell electrocatalysis, interfacial phenomena in batteries, shale gas thermodynamics, and separation of gas mixtures.

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Graduate Seminar Series- Dr Jeffrey Varner -March 5
by Ewing, Virginia G 24 Feb '15

24 Feb '15

[blackwelder] School of Chemical Engineering Graduate seminar series Prof. Jeffrey D. Varner Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Cornell University "Modeling and Analysis of Intracellular Biochemical Network Architectures" Thursday, March 5, 2015 9:00-10:15 a.m. FRNY G140 Reception at 8:30 a.m. in Henson Atrium Abstract: Biochemical networks frequently contain a large number of coupled chemical reactions and complex architectural features such as redundancy, feedback and crosstalk. While this complexity ensures robustness, it also complicates the reprogramming of network function. The objective of our research is to develop mathematical modeling tools to rationally reprogram intracellular carbon, energy and information flows. Toward our objective, we developed computational tools to automate model generation, identification and analysis. These tools, together with our growing database of network components, have allowed us to construct and test several large-scale human signaling models (200 - 1000 molecular components) on a rapid time-scale. In this study, we'll discuss examples which demonstrate these tools. First, we'll discuss a model of the signaling program driving All-Trans Retinoic Acid (ATRA) induced differentiation in HL-60 cells. HL-60 is a well established albeit simplified model of hematopoietic differentiation that we have used to understand the basic architecture of this important program. From our modeling studies, we identified a minimal memory circuit potentially responsible for the pre-commitment memory observed in RA-induced HL-60 differentiation. Second, we'll discuss another important differentiation program, the epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). Decades of work has identified the critical signaling pathways controlling EMT. However, each of these pathways is responsive to multiple ligands and display a high degree of crosstalk. We showed, using a combined computational and experimental strategy, that pathway crosstalk between VEGFA and TGF-B1/2 signaling is responsible for modulating the phenotypic balance between the epithelial and mesenchymal state for a variety of cell types. Interestingly, the EMT program, although different in function, shares many common architectural features with the HL-60 program, suggesting conserved but highly adaptable motifs. Lastly, we'll discuss on-going work in the lab exploring the behavior of both whole cell and cell free metabolic networks, and present strategies for building genome scale cell free metabolic models. Bio: Jeffrey Varner holds a Ph.D degree in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University where he explored modeling and analysis of metabolic networks in the lab of Prof. Ramkrishna. After a postdoc in the Department of Biology at the ETH-Zurich under the direction of Jay Bailey and a research position at Genencor International Inc, Palo Alto, CA, Prof. Varner joined the faculty of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering department at Cornell University as an Assistant Professor in 2006. In the fall of 2011, Prof. Varner was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. The Varnerlab is interested in modeling and analysis of signal transduction and metabolic networks.

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REMINDER: School of Chemical Engineering DEA Reception on February 20th -- You are Invited!
by Williams, David M. 20 Feb '15

20 Feb '15

All: On behalf of Dr. Arvind Varma, Jay & Cynthia Ihlenfeld Head of Chemical Engineering, it is my honor to invite you to a special reception scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on Friday, February 20th, in the Henson Atrium where we will celebrate this year's Distinguished Engineering Alumnus award winner from the School of Chemical Engineering: [cid:image002.jpg@01D04C55.67F07F50]Rohit Khanna (BSChE '79) Vice President Worldwide Marketing and Informatics Waters Corporation There is no RSVP required for this event and cake and punch will be served. Thanks, David ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ David M. Williams Purdue Research Foundation Senior Director of Development School of Chemical Engineering Forney Hall of Chemical Engineering, Room 1060B 480 Stadium Mall Drive West Lafayette, IN 47907-2100 Office (765) 494-4065 Cell (765) 427-0527 dmwilliams(a)prf.org<mailto:dmwilliams@prf.org> www.engineering.purdue.edu/ChE<http://www.engineering.purdue.edu/ChE>

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Recent safety incidents in FRNY
by Nagy, Gabriela 16 Feb '15

16 Feb '15

Hello Everyone, I would like to share with you two recent safety incidents in our School: 1. January 6, 2015: While a researcher tried to loosen a water fitting on a piece of equipment, his hand slipped and touched a metal sheet that served as protection for a Turbo pump controller. This incident caused lacerations to one of his hands. The laceration was treated at the IU Health Arnett Occupational Health facility and the researcher returned to work the same day. Actions taken: (i) the fitting near this sharp metal sheet was taken out of service, (ii) the incident was discussed in the safety group meeting and the group members were reminded of the procedures to be followed in case of an injury in the lab. It was also recommended to wear cut resistant work gloves when working near sharp objects. 2. February 10, 2015: This incident involved an undergraduate researcher. While placing down a previously used syringe with unsheathed needle in his right hand, the needle brushed against his left hand, causing the needle to puncture his left thumb through the protective nitrile glove used as PPE. This led to minor bleeding of the left thumb. The syringe needle was possibly contaminated with acrylonitrile. After washing the wound with water for 10 minutes and placing a Band-Aid on the thumb, the student was seen by a trained medical professional at PUSH Center on Campus. No additional treatment was needed and the student was released to return to class. Actions taken: The incident was discussed in the group safety meeting and the SOP for this activity will be reviewed. It was identified that the needle on the syringe was not really necessary for the task performed, as the student was actually transferring fluid from one container to the other and none of the containers was sealed. It was stressed that a syringe with needle should only be used when transferring fluids through containers that have a seal that needs to be punctured. When transferring fluids between unsealed containers, a pipette or a needles syringe should be used. I hope that sharing this information with you will prevent similar situations from occurring in our labs. Sincerely, Gabriela On behalf of the ChE Safety Committee __________________ Gabriela Nagy, PhD Industrial Education Director ChE Safety Committee Chair School of Chemical Engineering Room FRNY G051 Purdue University Tel: (765)-496-1710 E-mail: nagyg(a)purdue.edu<mailto:nagyg@purdue.edu>

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