Tag: 2026 Spring Newsletter

Dear alumni, students, faculty and friends, 

As the spring semester draws to a close, I’m pleased to share some of the department’s accomplishments in the latest issue of the newsletter. 

First, I’d like to welcome our newest Chemical Engineering Advisory Board members — Engineering alumni Mark Pepple, Ph.D., from Sandia National Labs and Gretta Granado Huerta from Dow, Inc. See what these successful Gators have accomplished since graduation.

Two chemical engineering graduates are returning to the University of Florida, this time to help guide the department that sealed their successes. Alumni Gretta Granado Huerta and Mark Pepple, Ph.D., joined the Department of Chemical Engineering’s advisory board this spring. 

Three longtime Department of Chemical Engineering professors are retiring this year. They are known for their years of dedication to research, academics and, certainly, student mentorship.

Aniela Nozka, a third-year chemical engineering Ph.D. student, earned a UF Health Cancer Institute award for developing a novel approach to heat-based cancer treatment. Her research uses magnetic particle imaging and 3D-printed models to improve patient-specific dosing, aiming to target tumors more precisely while minimizing harm to healthy tissue.

Assistant Professor Yeongseon Jang and her team are developing protein-based, cell-like biomaterials to better understand how immune cells recognize and respond to signals. Supported by a $500,000 NSF award, the research aims to advance next-generation immunotherapies.

A pioneer in electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and modeling, Orazem is recognized at ECS 2026 for a career that bridges disciplines and generations of researchers.

The bad news: The Chemical Engineering building is closed for a years-long renovation. The good news: The department’s Unit Ops Laboratory has been relocated to the Nuclear Science building, and there are 13 new pieces of equipment in the teaching lab.  This new equipment is thanks to a $500,000 contribution from the Herbert Wertheim College […]

Born in Imo State, Nigeria, the fifth of six children, Cynthia Eluagu worked hard to stand out in her family. She did so by earning a bachelor’s degree in engineering with honors in Materials and Metallurgical Engineering. 

University of Florida chemical engineering researcher Helena Hagelin Weaver, Ph.D., is uncovering how the structure of catalyst materials can dramatically improve the efficiency of methane conversion. Her team’s findings, recently published in ACS Catalysis, reveal how manipulating nanoscale support structures can boost methane oxidation at lower temperatures — a key step toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions and enabling more sustainable chemical production.

UF researchers have developed a breakthrough CRISPR upgrade — called CRISPR-LEAP — that can target nearly any DNA sequence, potentially transforming cancer detection, infectious disease testing and personalized medicine.

University of Florida researchers have developed a new “designer” catalyst by combining platinum and chromium into atomic pairs within silver, enabling a more stable process for producing hydrogen gas. The breakthrough, led by Professor Jason Weaver, Ph.D., could improve energy conversion and reduce industrial costs. The team’s findings were published in Angewandte Chemie, a prestigious, peer-reviewed German journal.