Category: News

Championing Excellence: Kirk Ziegler, Ph.D. Honored for Transformative Mentorship in Chemical Engineering  Kirk Ziegler, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, has been selected as a Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering Doctoral Dissertation Advisor/Mentoring Awardee for the academic year 2023-2024 in recognition of his excellence, innovation, and effectiveness in doctoral student advising and mentoring. […]

ChemE Ph.D. student attends NextProf Nexus Conference and prevails at UF despite multiple challenges.  Victor Rivera-Llabres, a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemical Engineering, was nominated to be part of an elite group of scientific and academic leaders. On the surface, that’s impressive, but if you dig a little deeper, his rocky path […]

Summer 2024 Dear alumni, friends and members of the UF ChE community,  I hope that this note finds you all well and in good spirits. I have several exciting things to share that have occurred since our last newsletter.   As you know, the University of Florida’s Department of Chemical Engineering has some of the best […]

  We are thrilled that you are considering studying Chemical Engineering. As a Chemical Engineer, you can help solve some of the most pressing challenges that face our society today. This includes sustainable and efficient energy production and storage, design and manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and biologics, developing technologies for climate change mitigation, and production of […]

2023

It’s 1967. Lyndon B. Johnson is president of the United States, Steve Spurrier just won the Heisman trophy, Library West recently opened its doors, and following the retirement of J. Wayne Reitz, Stephen C. O’Connell has become president of the university. In the College of Engineering, Shirley Kelly has just taken a position among the […]

Piyush K. Jain, Ph.D., an assistant professor and Shah Rising Star Professor in the University of Florida Department of Chemical Engineering, has received the UF Provost’s Excellence Award for Assistant Professors for 2023. The awards are focused on junior faculty and recognize excellence in research. Dr. Jain’s Nano-Biomolecular Precision Lab is focused on developing multi-scale biomolecular engineering platforms using nucleic acids chemistry, protein […]

Janani Sampath, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the University of Florida Department of Chemical Engineering has been selected as one of 35 recipients of the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Awards. This competitive research award provides seed money for junior faculty members that often results in additional funding from […]

Richard Dickinson, Ph.D., a professor in the University of Florida Department of Chemical Engineering, has received a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study the assembly and organization of cells in epithelial tissue. This project, in collaboration with Tanmay Lele at Texas A&M University, aims to unravel the biomechanical principles underlying the formation […]

At the Graduate Association of Chemical Engineers (GRACE) annual Symposium, John Blazeck, Ph.D. (ChE B.S. ’07), delivered a captivating keynote speech on his research and shared two big-picture ideas for combating cancer. He is exploring two innovative approaches to help the body fight cancer: using enzymes to fix cancer cells’ metabolism to boost the body’s immune system and […]

Going beyond pregnancy and COVID-19, the world could someday soon come to rely on at-home tests for many diseases thanks in part to AI-fueled improvements. University of Florida scientists have used artificial intelligence tools to simplify a test that works for both hepatitis C and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The simplified test happens […]

Five seniors from the Department of Chemical Engineering Jostin Armada, Dylan Carman, Grace Li, Grace Shoemaker, and Brendan Wernisch, were recently awarded the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRFP). The fellowship program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral […]

The Department of Chemical Engineering (ChE) graduate program has risen to No. 16 among public universities nationwide in the latest U.S. News & World Report (USNWR) rankings. Last year, the chemical engineering graduate program was ranked No. 18 among public universities.   Six of the UF engineering college’s disciplines — agricultural engineering, biomedical engineering, computer engineering, […]

Written by Flynn Baliton and Violet Warren The University of Florida American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) student chapter recently hosted the first fully in-person AIChE Southern Student Regional Conference (ASRC) since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Chemical engineering students throughout the southern region came together to participate in various networking opportunities, industry events, skills-building workshops, […]

Carl Denard, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the University of Florida Department of Chemical Engineering, has received a National Science Foundation CAREER award. His research focuses on cellular and protein engineering to develop novel strategies to diagnose, target and fight disease. With this award, Dr. Denard aims to discover and redesign protein molecules that can reprogram […]