Category: Newsletter

Albert DaCosta (BS ‘98) returned to his old stomping grounds recently to discuss life after the University of Florida and offer advice for future graduates.

Sunil Roy’s journey started in India, wove though Gainesville and – for now – landed him in Silicon Valley. He came back to UF in January and spoke to students about those years, and more specifically, his experiences at the University of Florida.  

Dear members and friends of the UF chemical engineering community,   It’s Spring graduation time and we are thrilled about the successes of our students and faculty this semester. Once again, many of our students graduated with honors in Spring 2025. This is just the beginning of their new journey, and we wish them all […]

What do chemical engineering, the aurora borealis, semiconductors and badminton all have in common? That would be Hsiao-Hsuan (Renee) Wan, a third-year chemical engineering Ph.D. student.  Wan came to her academic choice organically because her Taiwanese family has a strong background in chemical engineering. Her mother holds a Ph.D. in chemical engineering and her father […]

Ryan Montes’ upbringing in a “humble Latin family” in Florida may seem so different from his experiences at the University of Florida and his career path. But, in reality, their tightly held family values, such as hard work, resilience, and focus on pursuing a better life, are why he has thrived in his field.  These […]

Dear Friends, As we reflect on the past few months, we are excited to share several highlights from our department in this latest edition of our newsletter.  In October, a group of our students traveled to San Diego to attend the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) conference, where they brought home several prestigious awards, […]

Ambar Coral Velázquez-Albino, a Ph.D. candidate defending her dissertation this summer, attended the NextProf Nexus program this past summer after meeting a professor from the University of Michigan at AIChE 2023 in Orlando. Sasha Cai Lesher-Pérez, Ph.D., encouraged her to apply during a poster presentation, where they met and had an opportunity to speak.  Velázquez-Albino, […]

Until recently, Hansel Montalvo was a fourth-year Ph.D. student exploring reaction mechanisms and material catalysts to produce alkenes and aromatics. However, it’s networking that helped him get selected into two prestigious programs this summer and helped him determine his next career step.  Montalvo met Beata Kilos, Ph.D., a Dow Fellow, when she delivered a graduate […]

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 […]

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 […]