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Events

May
12
33rd Annual Hugh M. Hulburt Memorial Lecture: Grace E. Colón, InCarda Therapeutics
McCormick-Chemical and Biological Engineering
1:00 PM Tech M345, Technological Institute
EVENT DETAILS
Thursday, May 12th at 1:00pm
Tech M345 and Zoom
The Chemical and Biological Engineering Department is proud to present the 33rd Annual Hugh M. Hulburt Memorial Lecture with CEO and President of InCarda Therapeutics, Grace E. Colón.
Dr. Colón will present a lecture, titled "Disruptive Innovation: Engineering Improved Outcomes in Healthcare."
ABSTRACT: Chemical engineers are uniquely positioned to solve the world’s most challenging and complex problems. The field attracts and develops people who are deeply analytical, think holistically about how to define a problem through a systems approach, and use a combination of ingenuity, creativity, problem-solving skills, and cross-disciplinary collaboration. Nowhere is this more evident than in healthcare, and in biotech applications in general. From computational biology approaches to drug discovery, to metabolic engineering applied to small molecule manufacturing, to improved modeling with organs on chips, to novel vaccine development, to cancer and infectious disease diagnostics…the list of disruptive innovations is endless. In addition, the confluence of rapid innovations in sensors, wearables, mobile apps, and AI creates opportunities to provide solutions for prevention, early diagnosis, behavioral health, treatment, ongoing monitoring and timely interventions, saving significant costs and improving outcomes. Importantly, these solutions can provide patients with more control over their own health, something that today’s highly informed and connected patients want. The systems-level approach that is a fundamental tenet of chemical engineering is a particular advantage when integrating available tools and technologies to solve grand challenges in healthcare. This talk will also cover the broader topics of career paths and entrepreneurship in biotech, as well as examples of unique opportunities for chemical engineers to impact the health of people, planet and society.
Dr. Grace E. Colón brings over 25 years of experience in biopharma, genomics, healthcare and industrial biotechnology. Currently, she is CEO and President of InCarda Therapeutics, a venture backed company which is developing novel inhalation therapies for cardiac conditions. She also serves on the boards of CareDx (NASDAQ:CDNA), the MIT Corporation (MIT’s Board of Trustees) and the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), and is Executive Chairman (formerly CEO) of ProterixBio. At MIT, she also serves on the Visiting Committees for Chemical Engineering, Biological Engineering and Social Sciences. Formerly, she was a partner at New Science Ventures, a New York based venture capital firm with over $700M under management, and served on the boards of Paradigm Diagnostics, PerceptiMed and Cocoon Biotech and on the Advisory Board of the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University.
Previously, she was founding President of the Industrial Products Division at Intrexon Corporation, where she established a new division focused on leveraging synthetic biology for bioindustrial applications such as biofuels and renewable chemicals. She also co-founded Pyranose Biotherapeutics, a biologics discovery platform company. Before that she was head of Clinical Operations for Gilead Sciences, where she was responsible for global execution of clinical trials. She also created and led both the Alliance Management and Commercial Strategic Planning groups. Prior to Gilead, she was VP, Corporate Planning at Affymetrix, where she was responsible for strategic planning and project management and where she also served as COO for the International Genomics Consortium, a non-profit medical research organization focused on cancer genomics. Earlier in her career she was a consultant with McKinsey & Co., where she served clients in healthcare, biotech, high tech and venture capital. She was also an engineer with Merck & Co. in France and in Rahway, NJ.
Dr. Colón received her Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she was an NSF Fellow. She also holds a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was a Benjamin Franklin Scholar. She is originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
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TIME Thursday, May 12, 2022 at 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
LOCATION Tech M345, Technological Institute    map it
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CONTACT Jennifer Young    jennifer.young@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick-Chemical and Biological Engineering
Sep
8
Welcome & Breakfast for New McCormick PhD Students
McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science
9:00 AM LR2 & Tech East Plaza, Technological Institute
EVENT DETAILS
Enjoy a welcome from Dean Christopher A. Schuh and other McCormick leaders, and receive a Northwestern Engineering T-shirt. A free light breakfast on the Tech East Plaza will follow.
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TIME Monday, September 8, 2025 at 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM
LOCATION LR2 & Tech East Plaza, Technological Institute    map it
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CONTACT Andi Joppie    andi.joppie@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science
Sep
12
New Undergraduate Fall 2025 Registration
University Academic Calendar
All Day
EVENT DETAILS
New Undergraduate Fall 2025 Registration
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TIME Friday, September 12, 2025
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CONTACT Office of the Registrar    nu-registrar@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR University Academic Calendar
Sep
15
Welcome & Luncheon for New Full-time Graduate Students
McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science
11:00 AM Ryan Auditorium & Tech East Plaza, Technological Institute
EVENT DETAILS
Enjoy a welcome from Dean Christopher A. Schuh and other McCormick leaders, and receive a Northwestern Engineering T-shirt. A free lunch on the Tech East Plaza will follow.
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TIME Monday, September 15, 2025 at 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
LOCATION Ryan Auditorium & Tech East Plaza, Technological Institute    map it
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CONTACT Andi Joppie    andi.joppie@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science
Sep
16
Fall Classes Begin. Change of Registration (Drop/Add) Late registration for returning students begins
University Academic Calendar
All Day
EVENT DETAILS
Fall Classes Begin. Change of Registration (Drop/Add) Late registration for returning students begins
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TIME Tuesday, September 16, 2025
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CONTACT Office of the Registrar    nu-registrar@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR University Academic Calendar
Sep
18
ChBE Seminar series: Yash Chainani and Beth Dibiase, students seminars
McCormick-Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE)
9:30 AM L361, Technological Institute
EVENT DETAILS
More details to come.
Bagels served at 9:30am, seminar to start at 9:40am.
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TIME Thursday, September 18, 2025 at 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
LOCATION L361, Technological Institute    map it
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CONTACT Olivia Wise    olivia.wise@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick-Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE)
Sep
25
Annual Alumni Lecture: Sara Yacob, ExxonMobil
McCormick-Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE)
9:30 AM L361, Technological Institute
EVENT DETAILS
More details to come.
Bagels served at 9:30am, seminar to start at 9:40am.
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TIME Thursday, September 25, 2025 at 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
LOCATION L361, Technological Institute    map it
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CONTACT Olivia Wise    olivia.wise@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick-Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE)
Oct
2
ChBE Seminar Series: Shirley Meng, University of Chicago
McCormick-Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE)
9:30 AM L361, Technological Institute
EVENT DETAILS
More details to come.
Bagels served at 9:30am, seminar to start at 9:40am.
Dr. Y. Shirley Meng is a Professor at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago. She serves as the Chief Scientist of the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science (ACCESS) Argonne National Laboratory. Dr. Meng is the director of Energy Storage Research Alliance (ESRA), an innovation hub funded by US Department of Energy, Office of Science.
She is the principal investigator of the research group - Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversion (LESC), that was established at University of California San Diego since 2009. She held the Zable Chair Professor in Energy Technologies at UC San Diego from 2017-2022 and founded the Sustainable Power and Energy Center (SPEC) in 2016. Dr. Meng received several prestigious awards, including ACS Research Excellence in Electrochemistry (2024), ECS Battery Division Research Award (2023), the C3E technology and innovation award (2022), the Faraday Medal of Royal Chemistry Society (2020), International Battery Association IBA Research Award (2019), Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists Finalist (2018), C.W. Tobias Young Investigator Award of the Electrochemical Society (2016) and NSF CAREER Award (2011). Dr. Meng is elected Fellow of Electrochemical Society (FECS), Fellow of Materials Research Society (FMRS) and Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She is the author and co-author of more than 320 peer-reviewed journal articles, two book chapters and eight issued patents. Dr. Meng received her Ph.D. in Advance Materials for Micro & Nano Systems from the Singapore-MIT Alliance in 2005. She received her bachelor’s degree in Materials Science with first class honor from Nanyang Technological University of Singapore in 2000.
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TIME Thursday, October 2, 2025 at 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
LOCATION L361, Technological Institute    map it
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CONTACT Olivia Wise    olivia.wise@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick-Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE)
Oct
9
ChBE Seminar Series: TBA
McCormick-Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE)
9:30 AM L361, Technological Institute
EVENT DETAILS
More details to come.
Bagels served at 9:30am, seminar to start at 9:40am.
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TIME Thursday, October 9, 2025 at 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
LOCATION L361, Technological Institute    map it
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CONTACT Olivia Wise    olivia.wise@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick-Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE)
Oct
16
ChBE Seminar Series: Matt Gebbie, University of Wisconsin-Madison
McCormick-Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE)
9:30 AM L361, Technological Institute
EVENT DETAILS
More details to come.
Bagels served at 9:30am, seminar to start at 9:40am.
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TIME Thursday, October 16, 2025 at 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
LOCATION L361, Technological Institute    map it
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CONTACT Olivia Wise    olivia.wise@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick-Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE)
Oct
22
19th Annual Mah General Lecture: David Sholl, Oak Ridge National Laboratory | "How Reliable is the Chemical Engineering and Materials Chemistry Literature?"
McCormick-Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE)
4:00 PM Technological Institute
EVENT DETAILS
The Chemical and Biological Engineering Department is pleased to present the 19th Annual Richard S.H. Mah Lectures on Modeling and Computation in Chemical and Biological Engineering with David Sholl from The University of Tennessee Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
How Reliable is the Chemical Engineering and Materials Chemistry Literature?
Reliability and reproducibility are bedrock principles of quantitative research in engineering and the physical sciences. Systematic efforts testing reproducibility of findings from the peer-reviewed literature in fields including biomedicine and psychology have given striking examples with high failure rates. How relevant are these observations to the chemical engineering and materials chemistry literature? This question has always been important for researchers basing their work on earlier reports, but has even more resonance when considering AI methods that are trained on large collections of published data. I will describe systematic efforts to assess reproducibility in studies of porous adsorbents, and argue that the characteristics of this specific topic are relevant to many areas in chemical engineering and materials chemistry. I will also describe approaches available to individual researchers, reviewers, and journals to improve reproducibility.
David Sholl is the Executive Director and Vice Provost of the University of Tennessee Oak Ridge Innovation Institute (UT-ORII), Director of the Transformational Decarbonization Initiative at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Editor-in-Chief of AIChE Journal. From 2022-2023 he was a Strategic Policy Advisor for DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations. From 2013-2021 David was the School Chair of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech. He has published over 400 papers and several books. David was on the Board of Directors of AIChE from 2019-2021 and in 2020 chaired the inaugural Gordon Research Conference on Chemical Separations. In 2024 he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
A reception will be held after the general lecture. More details to come.
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TIME Wednesday, October 22, 2025 at 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
LOCATION Technological Institute    map it
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CONTACT Olivia Wise    olivia.wise@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick-Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE)
Oct
23
19th Annual Mah Departmental Lecture: David Sholl, Oak Ridge National Laboratory | "When Do I Get My Flying Car? Assessing The Potential Of AI To Revolutionize Separations Science"
McCormick-Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE)
9:30 AM L361, Technological Institute
EVENT DETAILS
The Chemical and Biological Engineering Department is pleased to present the 19th Annual Richard S.H. Mah Lectures on Modeling and Computation in Chemical and Biological Engineering with David Sholl from The University of Tennessee Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
When Do I Get My Flying Car? Assessing The Potential Of AI To Revolutionize Separations Science
Artificial intelligence and machine learning have been suggested as tools that will revolutionize many areas of science and society. I will discuss the potential and pitfalls for these methods in a key field within chemical engineering, namely separations science. Examples will include scanning collections of thousands of porous materials for adsorption-based separations of complex molecular mixtures, searching for high performance materials for Direct Air Capture of carbon dioxide, and developing mixed matrix membranes for gas separations.
David Sholl is the Executive Director and Vice Provost of the University of Tennessee Oak Ridge Innovation Institute (UT-ORII), Director of the Transformational Decarbonization Initiative at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Editor-in-Chief of AIChE Journal. From 2022-2023 he was a Strategic Policy Advisor for DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations. From 2013-2021 David was the School Chair of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech. He has published over 400 papers and several books. David was on the Board of Directors of AIChE from 2019-2021 and in 2020 chaired the inaugural Gordon Research Conference on Chemical Separations. In 2024 he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
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!
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TIME Thursday, October 23, 2025 at 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
LOCATION L361, Technological Institute    map it
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CONTACT Olivia Wise    olivia.wise@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick-Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE)
 
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