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 the best.
Our AIChE ChemE-Car Team won first place at the regional conference with their CU Later Gator. The story includes a video of their winning run, and the team is now qualified to compete at the AIChE National Conference this fall.
Two of our Ph.D. students, Caroline Lubbe and Aniela Nozka, were selected to receive the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship. This highly competitive fellowship aims to ensure the vitality and strength of the scientific and engineering workforce of the United States.
Piyush Jain, Ph.D., an associate professor and Exxon Mobil Gator Alumni Faculty Endowment Professor in Chemical Engineering, was selected as a senior member of the 2025 National Academy of Inventors for his inventions in genome engineering. Jason Butler, Ph.D., Tony Ladd, Ph.D., and Jiayi Wang, their fourth-year Ph.D. student and research assistant, published their research on new technology to purify DNA samples quickly and economically in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
You can learn more about our students and alumni in two new profiles. Hsiao-Hsuan (Renee) Wan, is a third-year chemical engineering Ph.D. student with an interesting background and hobbies that might surprise you. Alum Ryan Montes, Ph.D., who studied under Dr. Butler, gave a talk recently to students about his career and startup company.
The ChE Student Center has reopened and is again the hub of student activity. We are about to begin remodeling the ChE building, resulting in state-of-the-art labs and collaborative learning spaces. In the meantime, our teaching laboratories have relocated to the Nuclear Sciences Building, where we have set up an impressive lab space that was outfitted thanks to a generous $500,000 contribution from the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering.
Finally, I would like to thank the generous donors who supported our department and students on this year’s Giving Day. Your contributions of more than $14,000 will support student activities and organizations that are crucial to making students’ time here more successful.
Sincerely,
Carlos