News & EventsDepartment Events
Events
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Oct5
EVENT DETAILS
lessThe Chemical and Biological Engineering Department is pleased to present a seminar by Oni Basu from the University of Chicago as part of our ChBE Seminar Series.
Oni Basu will present a seminar titled "Our efforts towards creating the Human Cell Atlas: Lessons and future directions.”
ABSTRACT: As part of the global Human Cell Atlas consortium, we are performing matched single-cell gene expression and chromatin accessibility assays in three organs: heart, gut and the female reproductive system, using surgical tissues and pinch biopsies. These studies allow us to examine gene expression patterns and their regulatory elements across cell-types, as well as tissue-specific functions and pathways between shared cell-types. We are able to connect our single cell profiling results with different disease loci, genes and risk variants identified by previous genome wide association studies. The analysis framework developed for these projects are used to connect disease genetics to specific organs and their constituent cell-types. We compare our findings from healthy tissues to diseases and patients: in inflammatory bowel disease (in the gut) and ovarian cancer (in the female reproductive system). Additionally, the data and knowledge gained from our single-cell studies on primary tissues provide the benchmark for the next stage: modeling complex, tunable and patient-specific disease features in vitro to help stratify disease phenotypes and tailor treatments.
Anindita Basu, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Section of Genetic Medicine, in the Department of Medicine at the University of Chicago. Basu trained in soft condensed matter Physics during her PhD, followed by post-doctoral studies in Applied Physics and Systems Biology. She works at the intersection of genomics, medicine, microfluidics and nano/bio materials to bring new tools to aid in diagnosis, understanding and treatment of disease. Her lab develops and uses different high throughput single-cell genomics and associated techniques to map cell types and functions indifferent organs and organisms, including human heart, gut and female reproductive system in health and disease, development of fish fins and drug resistance in fungal pathogens. Other efforts in her group include developing new microfluidic and genomic tools to perform on-chip microbial -omics, host-pathogen interaction profiling and combining 3D printing, programmed flow and imaging to model thrombosis in dialysis patients.
Bagels and coffee will be provided at 9:30am, and the seminar will start at 9:40am. Please plan to arrive on time to grab a bagel and mingle!
*Please note that there will be no Zoom option for seminars this year.
TIME Thursday, October 5, 2023 at 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
LOCATION 1421, Frances Searle Building map it
CONTACT Olivia Wise olivia.wise@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick-Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE)
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Oct12
EVENT DETAILS
lessThe Chemical and Biological Engineering Department is pleased to present an Alumni Lecture by Rodney Priestley from Princeton University as part of our ChBE Seminar Series.
Rodney D. Priestley will present a seminar titled "Hydrogels for Solar-Driven Water Purification.”
ABSTRACT: Providing access to safe water is a major global challenge due to expansion of industrialization, growth of the global population, and contamination of freshwater resources. According to the United Nations, in the last century, global water requirements grew at a rate more than twice that of the population growth rate. In the United State alone, the Environmental Protection Agency has identified over 70,000 water bodies in the United States alone that are impaired by pollution. The health issues associated with consuming contaminated water are well-known: waterborne disease outbreaks, leading to gastrointestinal illness, reproductive complications, and neurological disorders, amongst others. More than 1.5 million people die each year from diarrhea caused by the intake of unsafe drinking water. Therefore, developing advanced water purification technologies that provide access to safe water to more of the global population remains an enduring challenge.
Hydrogels have emerged as promising soft materials for sustainable and off-grid water purification and harvesting. However, the low water production rate well below daily human demand is a current impediment to technology translation. To make progress towards addressing this challenge, we present work on the development of a rapid-response solar absorber gel membrane capable of producing potable water from various contaminated sources at a rate of ~ 26 kg m-2 h-1, which is sufficient to meet daily water demand. The membrane—produced at room temperature via aqueous-based processing using an ethylene glycol (EG)-water mixture—uniquely integrates the attributes of poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) (PNIPAm), polydopamine, and poly (sulfobetaine methacrylate) to enable off-grid water purification with enhanced photothermal response and the capacity to prevent oil- and bio-fouling. The use of the EG-water mixture was critical to forming the loofah-like structure with enhanced water transport. Remarkably, under various sunlight irradiations of 1 and 0.5 sun, LSAG required only 10 to 20 min to release ~ 70 % of its stored liquid water, respectively. Equally important, we demonstrate the ability of the membrane to purify water from various harmful sources, including those containing small molecules, oils, metals, and microplastics.
Rodney D. Priestley is the Dean of the Graduate School at Princeton University. He is the Pomeroy Betty Perry Smith Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and the Co-Director of the NSF I-Corps Hub. He is the former inaugural Vice Dean for Innovation at Princeton. He obtained his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University in 2008. His research involves describing and developing complex materials, especially nanoparticles, thin polymer films, and nanocomposites, focusing on material properties at small length scales. From designing next-generation biocompatible surfactants to creating ultra-stable polymer films resistant to properties changes upon heating, his work impacts industries ranging from personal care to aerospace. His recent interests include the use of polymers in sustainability and their implications on the environment. He has been recognized with several awards for his research and commitment to teaching and mentorship.
Bagels and coffee will be provided at 9:30am, and the seminar will start at 9:40am. Please plan to arrive on time to grab a bagel and mingle!
*Please note that there will be no Zoom option for seminars this year.
TIME Thursday, October 12, 2023 at 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
LOCATION 1421, Frances Searle Building map it
CONTACT Olivia Wise olivia.wise@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick-Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE)
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Oct19
EVENT DETAILS
lessThe Chemical and Biological Engineering Department is pleased to present a seminar by Lauren Valentino from Argonne National Laboratory as part of our ChBE Seminar Series.
Lauren Valentino will present a seminar titled "Advancing Sustainable Energy Through Electrochemical and Membrane Separations Technologies.”
Dr. Lauren Valentino is an Environmental Engineer in the Applied Materials Division at Argonne National Laboratory. She leads the Bioprocessing Separations Consortium, a multi-national laboratory collaborative effort that is supported by U.S. Department of Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office and aims to address technical challenges associated with cost-effective production of biofuels and bioproducts. At Argonne, Lauren is working to address the challenges associated with clean and sustainable water and energy supplies. More specifically, her research focuses on material and technology development for various separation applications, including desalination, product/resource recovery, and carbon dioxide capture. Lauren completed her B.S. degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering with a minor in Chemistry in 2011, M.S. degree in Environmental Engineering in 2013, and Ph.D. degree in Environmental Engineering in 2017, all at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Bagels and coffee will be provided at 9:30am, and the seminar will start at 9:40am. Please plan to arrive on time to grab a bagel and mingle!
*Please note that there will be no Zoom option for seminars this year.
TIME Thursday, October 19, 2023 at 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
LOCATION 1421, Frances Searle Building map it
CONTACT Olivia Wise olivia.wise@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick-Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE)
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Oct20
EVENT DETAILS
lessApplication for degree due to The Graduate School to receive a degree in Fall Quarter
TIME Friday, October 20, 2023
CONTACT Office of the Registrar nu-registrar@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR University Academic Calendar
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Oct26
EVENT DETAILS
lessThe Chemical and Biological Engineering Department is pleased to present the 18th Annual Richard S.H. Mah Lectures on Modeling and Computation in Chemical and Biological Engineering with Dr. Perla B. Balbuena from Texas A&M University.
General Lecture: Wednesday, October 25 at 5:00pm in Tech L211
*Reception to precede lecture in Pancoe Commons at 4:00pmPerla B. Balbuena will present her first lecture titled "Materials Evolution and the Irreversible Nature of Engineered Processes.”
ABSTRACT: Materials design has become a key step in device engineering, and it involves numerous considerations: from effectiveness of the materials for a given task, to their abundance and cost, and very importantly to the lifetime and safety of the desired application. In this talk, I would like to discuss aspects related to the natural or imposed evolution of materials during device operation. To illustrate this idea, I will use two examples that share a class of materials: transition metal oxides. The first example involves vanadium-oxide materials used for electrochemical random-access memories in neuromorphic computing applications. The second example uses ruthenium oxide catalysts employed in electrolyzers to promote the oxygen evolution reaction. In both cases, these materials are expected to last for sufficiently long times to perform their specific functions, thus overcoming the irreversible nature of their underlying driving processes. I will discuss the physical and chemical factors that may favor or oppose to this expected behavior, and conclude about possible guideline formulations based on computational and experimental analysis prior to materials design.
Departmental Lecture: Thursday, October 26 at 9:30am in Frances Searle 1421
Perla B. Balbuena will present her second lecture titled "Theoretical and Computational Analyses of Battery Materials and Interfaces.”
ABSTRACT: Rechargeable batteries are complex electrochemical devices with performances dominated by interfacial behavior. Theory and computation at various length and time scales starting from first principles atomistic models have shown success to elucidate multiscale phenomena observed at the cell level. Here we will discuss our current understanding of the overall cell performance of lithium metal batteries based on analysis of interfacial phenomena including ion and electron transport, and passivation layers. Specifically, we will focus on the critical role that the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) formed on highly reactive Li metal anodes may play on battery performance and cycle life. I will discuss first-principles based methodologies that allow for a rapid and accurate determination of the SEI nucleation morphologies and compositions for a given electrolyte and how these SEI structures and compositions may determine passivation behavior for a given electrolyte. Finally, I will introduce coarse-grained models to analyze the impact that these SEI characteristics may have on longer times SEI growth and the interplay of these phenomena with Li metal deposition and growth.
Prof. Balbuena joined the chemical engineering department at Texas A&M University as a full professor in 2004. She currently holds the Mike O’Connor Chair I in Chemical Engineering and is an affiliated faculty in Materials Science and Engineering since 2006, and joint professor of Chemistry since 2016. In 2023 she was elected University Distinguished Professor at Texas A&M University. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the Electrochemical Society. She has published 348 peer-reviewed articles in her fields of specialization.
Bagels and coffee will be provided at 9:30am, and the seminar will start at 9:40am. Please plan to arrive on time to grab a bagel and mingle!
*Please note that there will be no Zoom option for seminars this year.
TIME Thursday, October 26, 2023 at 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
LOCATION 1421, Frances Searle Building map it
CONTACT Olivia Wise olivia.wise@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick-Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE)
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Nov2
EVENT DETAILS
lessThe Chemical and Biological Engineering Department is pleased to present a seminar by Yelena Gorlin from Bosch Research as part of our ChBE Seminar Series.
Yelena Gorlin will present a seminar titled "Energy Technologies Research at Bosch North America: Putting Low Carbon Options on the Global Energy Menu.”
ABSTRACT: Bosch’s Research and Technology Center in North America is home to research in diverse areas, including Intelligent, Connected Sensors and Systems, Energy Technologies, Systems and Materials, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, as well as Secure and Intelligent IoT. Under a motto of “Putting Low Carb(on) Options on the Global Energy Menu,” the Department of Energy Technologies, Systems and Materials is pursuing exciting research topics focusing on performance and aging models of electrochemical devices, advanced characterization methods, material discovery and predictive diagnostics. In this presentation, our past work on next generation battery management systems (BMS) will be discussed and research efforts to improve the quality of electrochemical parameters inside the BMS will be presented.
Yelena Gorlin, Ph.D, is a Lead Engineer in Energy Technologies, Systems and Materials Department of Robert Bosch’s Research and Technology Center located in Sunnyvale, California. Her research training includes completing a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at Stanford University, developing manganese oxide electrocatalysts, and a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Technical University of Munich, applying synchrotron characterization to operating batteries and fuel cells. As a Bosch Associate, she has contributed to projects targeting electrification and decarbonization, including work on advanced battery management systems, next generation fuel cells, and sustainability solutions. She is a co-author of 25 peer-reviewed publications, 8 patents, and a winner of multiple awards, including Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellowship and Electrochemical Society Postdoctoral Research Award.
Bagels and coffee will be provided at 9:30am, and the seminar will start at 9:40am. Please plan to arrive on time to grab a bagel and mingle!
*Please note that there will be no Zoom option for seminars this year.
TIME Thursday, November 2, 2023 at 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
LOCATION 1421, Frances Searle Building map it
CONTACT Olivia Wise olivia.wise@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick-Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE)
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Nov6
EVENT DETAILS
lessPre-registration for Winter Quarter begins
TIME Monday, November 6, 2023
CONTACT Office of the Registrar nu-registrar@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR University Academic Calendar
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Nov13
EVENT DETAILS
lessRegistration for Winter 2024 begins
TIME Monday, November 13, 2023
CONTACT Office of the Registrar nu-registrar@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR University Academic Calendar
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Nov16
EVENT DETAILS
lessThe Chemical and Biological Engineering Department is pleased to present student seminars by Tracey Dinh and Holly Ekas as part of our ChBE Seminar Series.
More details to come.
Bagels and coffee will be provided at 9:30am, and the seminar will start at 9:40am. Please plan to arrive on time to grab a bagel and mingle!
*Please note that there will be no Zoom option for seminars this year.
TIME Thursday, November 16, 2023 at 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
LOCATION 1421, Frances Searle Building map it
CONTACT Olivia Wise olivia.wise@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick-Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE)
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Nov22
EVENT DETAILS
lessThanksgiving vacation begins 6:00 pm
TIME Wednesday, November 22, 2023
CONTACT Office of the Registrar nu-registrar@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR University Academic Calendar
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Nov27
EVENT DETAILS
lessFall classes resume
TIME Monday, November 27, 2023
CONTACT Office of the Registrar nu-registrar@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR University Academic Calendar
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Nov30
EVENT DETAILS
lessThe Chemical and Biological Engineering Department is pleased to present student seminars by Harrison Landfield and Roxi Mitrut as part of our ChBE Seminar Series.
More details to come.
Bagels and coffee will be provided at 9:30am, and the seminar will start at 9:40am. Please plan to arrive on time to grab a bagel and mingle!
*Please note that there will be no Zoom option for seminars this year.
TIME Thursday, November 30, 2023 at 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
LOCATION 1421, Frances Searle Building map it
CONTACT Olivia Wise olivia.wise@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick-Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE)
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Dec2
EVENT DETAILS
lessFall Classes End
TIME Saturday, December 2, 2023
CONTACT Office of the Registrar nu-registrar@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR University Academic Calendar