Note: both talks are in FRNY G140. Purdue University School of Chemical Engineering Graduate seminar series Prof. Michael Doherty Department of Chemical Engineering University of California, Santa Barbara "Rapid Process Design: Sorting the Wheat from the Chaff" Tuesday, April 16, 2013 9:00-10:20 a.m. FRNY G140 Reception at 8:30 a.m. in Henson Atrium Abstract: In the last two decades revolutionary changes have occurred in the field of process design. Methods are now in place for rapid process development using process synthesis techniques that replace evolutionary techniques of the past. While process synthesis is a high-risk high-reward framework, it has a proven track record of generating better processes with lower carbon footprints and lower manufacturing costs. A brief non-technical survey of new design methods will be given, along with a brief history of their troubled birth. I will present two quite interesting applications of the concepts to (1) assessing the viability of some biofuels options and investments, (2) new strategies for carbon capture and utilization via carbonate mineralization. "Crystals are Like People: Growth and Defects are What Make Them Interesting" Wednesday, April 17, 2013 11:30 a.m. - 12:20 p.m. FRNY G140 Abstract: There is a growing interest in predicting and controlling the size and shape of crystalline particles. Multidimensional population balances have been developed to accomplish this task but they suffer from the drawback of needing the absolute growth rate for every family of faces that may appear on the crystal surface. Such growth rates are known for only a handful of crystalline materials and prospects are bleak for extending the library of growth rate data. This raises the question of where the surface growth rates for all the families of faces will come from to drive multidimensional population balance engineering technology. One answer is "from first principles." In this lecture it will be shown how to reformulate multidimensional population balances in terms of relative growth rates and how to create first principles mechanistic models to calculate these quantities for real molecular crystals as a function of super-saturation. Bio: Michael F. Doherty is Professor of Chemical Engineering and Department Chair at the University of California Santa Barbara. He received his B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College, University of London in 1973, and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Trinity College, University of Cambridge in 1977. His research interests include process systems engineering with particular emphasis on crystal engineering, and separation with chemical reaction. He is the holder of four patents, has published over 200 technical papers and given over 250 invited lectures. He has received numerous honors and awards for his teaching and research, including the Alpha Chi Sigma Award for Chemical Engineering Research (2004) from the AIChE and the E. V. Murphree Award (2012) for Research in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry from the ACS. In 2008 he was named one of the "One Hundred Chemical Engineers of the Modern Era (post 1945) by the AIChE.