2010 News
October 21, 2010
"Reza Rostamikia wins second place poster award"
Gholamreza (Reza) Rostamikia won a second place award for his poster presented at the annual Student Poster Competition of the Philadelphia Catalysis Society. The title of Reza's poster was "First Principles Design of Electrocatalysts for Direct Borohydride Oxidation." Reza is in his 5th year as a Ph.D. student, with research employing both computational and experimental approaches to the design of electrocatalysts.
October 11-12, 2010
"Janik attends PSU-DUT Joint Energy Workshop in Dalian, China"
Michael Janik was part of the Penn State delegation to the 1st PSU-DUT Joint Energy Workshop, held in Dalian, China. Penn State and the Dalian University of Technology have formed a joint energy research center. The center is coordinated at Penn State by Chunshan Song, Director of the EMS Energy Institute, and by Xinwen Guo, Professor and Dean of the School of Chemical Engineering at DUT. Six faculty from PSU attended and presented at the workshop, held at DUT from October 11-12.
October 10, 2010
"Three new graduate students join the group"
Three first year graduate students have joined the Janik group to pursue their Ph.D. research. Tom Senftle (BS Notre Dame) and Matt Krcha (BS Clarkson) will research ceria supported catalysts and adsorbents, with support from the NSF Catalysis and Biocatalysis Program and the DOE Energy Frontiers Research Center fo Atomic-Level Catalyst Design. Garrett Tobin (BS PSU), advised jointly by Costas Maranas, will pursue research in the computational design of enzymes, supported by the NSF Catalysis and Biocatalysis Program.
September 1, 2010:
Janik, Cirino, and C. Maranas receive NSF Grant
The Janik group has received an NSF grant in collaboration with Costas Maranas (PSU, Chem. Eng.) and Pat Cirino (PSU, Chem. Eng.). The funding period begins on September 1, 2010. The project, titled "Computational Modeling and Design of Enzyme Reactivity and Substrate Specificity" and is sponsored by the "Catalysis and Biocatalysis" Program of the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems.
September 1, 2010
Janik, van Duin, and Batzill receive NSF Grant
The Janik group has received an NSF grant in collaboration with Adri van Duin (PSU, Mechanical Engineering) and Matthias Batzill (U. South Florida, Physics). The sponsoring NSF program is "Catalysis and Biocatalysis" program within the Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems Division. The funded project it titled "Experimental and theoretical study on the structure and catalytic activity of metal cluster/metal oxide interfaces."
May 14, 2010
Iman Shahidi Pour Savizi
receives his Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering
Iman Shahidi Pour Savizi received his Masters degree in Chemical Engineering at the Spring 2010 commencement. His thesis is titled "Effects of Electrolyte on the Cathode Performance of Microbial Fuel Cells and Microbial Electrolysis Cells." Iman will be pursuing a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at the University of British Columbia.