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Department Events

Events

May
8
ChBE Seminar Series: Michael Charles, Cornell University
McCormick-Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE)
9:30 AM LR5, Technological Institute
EVENT DETAILS
The Chemical and Biological Engineering Department is pleased to present a seminar by Michael Charles, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University.
Michael Charles will present a seminar titled "Sustainable Engineering for Equitable Futures: Empowering Indigenous Sovereignty.”
ABSTRACT
Climate change poses threats to all life on our planet but the consequences do not impact all communities equally. With the complexity of the technological, political, and economic systems that humankind has built around ourselves, even our solutions to address climate change redistribute risks disproportionately. In this seminar, we will dive into how sustainable and systems engineering methodologies can assess the trade-offs that must be considered to make “sustainable” decisions. Further, we will explore the role that data analysis and localized information can play in advocating for the empowerment and safety of vulnerable communities, and in particular, Indigenous communities. These themes will be demonstrated through a variety of projects focused on renewable energy transitions, health-centered design, sustainable food systems, and just data and research governance.
BIO
Michael Charles (he/him/his) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University, an Affiliate Faculty of the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program, and a Faculty Fellow of the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. He received his B.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE) from Cornell University and his M.S. and Ph.D. in CBE from The Ohio State University. His expertise involves developing computational sustainability frameworks that integrate dynamic ecological models and data-driven storytelling to advocate for underrepresented communities. As a Diné (Navajo) scholar, he’s committed to fostering mutually respectful partnerships with Indigenous communities. His vision is to combine computational methods with community-centered relationships to translate research into action. At Cornell University, the Charles Research Group focuses on nature-responsive design, frameworks for sustainable systems development, and utilizing data to empower communities to navigate complex sustainability challenges. Along with his research, he works with the International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change to advocate for Indigenous rights, leadership, and self-determination within UN Climate Negotiations.
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.
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TIME Thursday, May 8, 2025 at 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
LOCATION LR5, Technological Institute    map it
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CONTACT Olivia Wise    olivia.wise@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick-Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE)
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
ADD TO CALENDAR
CONTACT Olivia Wise    olivia.wise@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick-Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE)
 
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