Seminars

The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering fall 2023 seminars, sponsored by the Shell Corporation, will take place on Thursdays in Dell Butcher Hall 180 at 2:30pm except on holidays, during university breaks, or as otherwise noted.

Fall 2023 Seminars Sponsored by The Shell Corporation

August 24, 2:30PM
Yushan Yan, PhD
The University of Delaware
Room: Dell Butcher Hall 180
Seminar Title: Electrochemical Engineering for Energy Transition: Green Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and Carbon Capture

August 31, 2:30PM
Srini Siripurapu, PhD
Prysmian Group
Room: Dell Butcher Hall 180
Seminar Title: Innovation and Sustainability as Intertwined Forces to Accelerate Net Zero Goals

September 7, 2:30PM
Bamin Khomami, PhD
The University of Tennessee
Room: Dell Butcher Hall 180
Seminar Title: Atomistic Simulation of Elongational Flow-Induced Phenomena in Entangled Polymeric Fluids

September 21, 2:30PM
Marwa Al-Ansary, PhD
Shell
Room: Dell Butcher Hall 180
Seminar Title: Shell's Next Generation Breakthrough Research

September 28, 2:30PM
Bob Maughon, PhD
SABIC, Inc.
Room: Dell Butcher Hall 180
Seminar Title: A Rapidly Transforming Chemical Industry: How Embracing Innovation, Risk, and Collaboration will be Essential to Thrive and Deliver on a Sustainable Future

October 5, 2:30PM
Adrianne Rosales, PhD
The University of Texas at Austin
Room: Dell Butcher Hall 180
Seminar Title: Multiscale Control of Dynamic Hydrogels for Biomedical Applications

October 12, 2:30PM
Peter Green, PhD
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Room: Dell Butcher Hall 180
Seminar Title: A Future Clean Energy System: Challenges and Opportunities

October 19, 2:30PM
Barry Thompson, PhD
University of Southern California
Room: Dell Butcher Hall 180
Seminar Title: Approaches to Mechanically Robust and Sustainable Polymers for Organic Solar Cells

October 26, 2:30PM
Rakesh Agrawal, PhD
Purdue University
Room: Dell Butcher Hall 180
Seminar Title: TBA

November 2, 2:30PM
Eric McFarland, PhD
University of California, Santa Barbara
Room: Dell Butcher Hall 180
Seminar Title: TBA

November 16, 2:30PM
Speaker TBA
University TBA
Room: Dell Butcher Hall 180
Seminar Title: TBA

Past Seminars

Spring 2023

January 19, 2:30PM
Matthew W. Kanan, PhD
Stanford University
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Finding a Path to CO₂ Conversion on a Scale that Matters

February 2, 2:30PM
Jason Adams, PhD
The California Institute of Technology
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Organic Species, Alloys and Support Identity Control the Transformation of H₁, O₂, and H₂O over Metal Nanoparticles

February 9, 2:30PM
Matthew McDonald, PhD
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Crystalization for Process Intensification: an Enzymatic Case Study

February 16, 2:30PM
Kent Jingxu Zheng
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Engineering Mesoscale Order in Crystaline Materials for Sustainability

February 23, 2:30PM
Stavroula-Alina Kampouri
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Leveraging the Unique Properties of MOFs for Light-Driven Catalytic Applications

March 9, 2:30PM
Max Joshua Huelsey
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Controlling the Local Reaction Environment to Drive Catalysis

March 23, 6:00 - 8:00PM
The Chevron Lecture
Jose Santiesteban
Lecture: 6:00pm, Keck 100
Reception: 7:00pm, Sid Commons
Seminar Title: New Directions for Chemical Engineering

March 30, 2:30PM
Rangachary Mukundan, PhD
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Durability of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) Fuel Cell and Electrolyzer Materials

April 6, 2:30PM
Leonardo Spanu
Shell Project and Technology
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Enabling Deep Decarbonization via Natural Gas Pyrolysis: Old Ideas and New Technology Challenges.

Friday, April 14, 11:00AM
Mercouri G. Kanatzidis
Northwestern University
Room: Anderson Hall 117
ChBE/CHEM Special Joint Seminar: Solar Energy Conversion and Optoelectronics Enabled by the Halide Perovskites

April 20, 2:30PM
Carolin Sutter-Fella
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Mechanistic Understanding of Synthesis Coupled with Automation Exemplified on Halide Perovskites

Fall 2022

September 8, 2:30PM
Milad Abolhasani, PhD
North Carolina State University
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Self-Driving Fluidic Labs: A Sustainable Voyage through the Chemical Universe en route to Smart Manufacturing

September 15, 2:30PM
Adam Boies, PhD
University of Cambridge
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Harnessing Aerosol Technology for Environmental, Energy and Climate Sustainability: Nano-Carbons, C02-Free Hydrogen, Li-Ion Battery Materials and Particle Sensing Technologies

September 22, 2:30PM
Siamak Nejati, PhD
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Bottom-up and Dry Approaches to Macromolecular Assembly Synthesis, Integration, and Applications

September 29, 2:30PM
Flavia Vitale, PhD
University of Pennsylvania
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: When Nano Meets Neuro: High-Resolution, Multimodal Interfaces Enabled by Nanoscale Soft Conductors

October 6, 2:30PM
Ryan Hartman, PhD
New York University
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Data-Centric Micro-Reaction Engineering for a Sustainable Future

October 13, 2:30PM
Farshid Ramezanipour, PhD
University of Louisville
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Designing Energy Conversion Materials by Tailoring the Structural Order in Multi-Metal Oxides

October 20, 2:30PM
Hongfei Lin, PhD
Washington State University
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Towards Holistic Approach for Decarbonizing Energy System

October 27, 2:30PM
Hsi-Wu Wong
University of Massachusetts Lowell
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Revealing Molecular Level Interplays During Copyrolysis of Macromolecular Mixtures

November 3, 2:30PM
Speaker: Sepideh Razavi
University of Oklahoma
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Dynamics of Multi-Component Fluids Near Interfaces

November 10, 2:30PM
Speaker: Feng-Yang Chen
2021-22 Riki Kobayashi Fellowship Winner
Rice University
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: TBA

December 1, 2:30PM
Speaker: Zengyi Shao
Iowa State University
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Teaching and Old Dog New Tricks - Elucidating Core Design Principles to Engineer Nonconventional Yeasts as Microbial Factories

Spring 2022

February 8, 2:30PM
Hon Chung Lau, Ph.D.
Rice University, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Pathways to Achieve Rapid Decarbonization of Southeast Asia

February 15, 2:30PM
Julea Vlassakis, Ph.D.
Rice University, Bioengineering
ZOOM Seminar: https://riceuniversity.zoom.us/j/96447225612?pwd=V1ZHb0lVQStsdStnQnVuMk5FbHhNQT09
Seminar Title: Investigation of Macromolecular Interactions at Single-Molecule and Single-Cell Levels

March 1, 2:30PM
Mohamed Ateia Ibrahim, Ph.D.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Fighting Against Forever Chemicals

March 8, 2:30PM
Chihui An, Ph.D.
Merck
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Biocatalytic Toolbox for Site-Selective Insulin Modification

March 22, 2:30PM
Alberto Salleo, Ph.D.
Stanford University
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Mixed Conduction in Polymeric Materials: The Marriage of Electrons and Ions for Brain-Like Computing

March 29, 2:30PM
Safa Jamali, Ph.D..
Northeastern University
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Rheology-Informed Neural Networks (RhINNs) for Complex Fluid Modelling

April 5, 2:30PM
Long Luo, Ph.D.
Wayne State University
Room: Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Electrifying Material and Organic Synthesis

April 19, 2:30PM
Peng Zhu, Riki Kobayashi Fellowship Award Winner and
Chris Conrad, Tina and Sunit Patel '85 Endowed Fellowship Award Winner
Rice University
Room: Herzstein 210

April 26, 11:00AM
Behnam Jafarpour, Ph.D.
University of Southern California
Room: Duncan 1070
Seminar Title: Dynamic Imaging and Characterization of Subsurface Flow Systems with Deep Learning Architectures

Fall 2021

September 14, 2:30PM - Zoom seminar
Francesca Toma, Ph.D.
Lawrence Berkeley Labs
Seminar Title: "(Photo)electrocatalysis at Work"

September 21, 2:30PM
Divya Panchanathan, Ph.D.
Axiom Space
Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: "Materials Research, Discovery, and Commercialization in Space"

October 5, 2:30PM
Mehmet Orman, Ph.D.
The University of Houston
Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: "What Do We Know About Microbial Persisters?"

October 19, 2:30 PM
Wilfred Chen, Ph.D.
University of Delaware
Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: "Synthetic Modulation of Protein Functions by Dynamic Strand Displacement"

October 26, 2:30 PM - Zoom seminar
Kai Zhu, Ph.D.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Seminar Title "Perovskites for Efficient Tandem Solar Cells"
https://riceuniversity.zoom.us/j/99838291870?pwd=T3p6RzNDZ08yUUJESzdVUHlTSWVEUT09
Meeting ID: 998 3829 1870
Passcode: 251965

November 2, 2:30 PM
Paul Kenis, Ph.D.
University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign
Herzstein 210
Seminar Title "Sustainable Manufacturing of Chemicals and Nanomaterials"

November 16, 2:30 PM
Wilfred van der Donk, Ph.D.
University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign
Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: “Biosynthesis and Engineering of Macrocyclic Peptides”

November 30, 2:30 PM
Lucas Hildebrand Pires de Cunha (presenter) and Peng Zhu (unavailable to present)
Riki Kobayashi Fellowship in Chemical Engineering Award Recipients
Rice University
Herzstein 210
Seminar Title: Settling Dynamics of Brownian Chains

Spring 2021

February 2, 3:00 PM
Zoom Seminar
David Cullen, Oak Ridge National Lab
"Advancing Catalysis for the Hydrogen Economy through Analytical Electron Microscopy"

February 9, 3:00 PM
Zoom Seminar
Ryan Hartman, New York University
"Design of Microreactors with in situ Spectroscopy and Machine Intelligence for Faster Discovery"

February 23, 3:00 PM
Zoom Seminar
Vittorio Cristini, Houston Methodist
"Mathematical Modeling of Cancer"

March 9, 3:00 PM
Zoom Seminar
Andrey Zarur, Greenlight Biosciences, Inc.
"Solving the COVID-19 Crisis: The Role of Chemical Engineering"

Wednesday, March 24, 7:00PM - See link for times and RSVP Information
The Gatherly link will be emailed to those who RSVP
Chevron Lecture on Energy Seminar
Akshay Sahni, Chevron Technology Ventures
"Corporate-Academia Partnership for Driving Innovation in Energy"

March 30, 3:00 PM
Zoom Seminar
Jeffrey Rimer, University of Houston
"Breaking the Rules of Classical Crystallization: An Unconventional Guide to Crystal Engineering"

April 13, 3:00 PM
Zoom Seminar
Petia Vlahovska, Northwestern University
"Active Colloidal Fluids"

April 27, 3:00 PM
Zoom Seminar
Charles Campbell, University of Washington
"Catalysts and Electrocatalysts for Energy Technologies: Fundamental Understanding and Pathways to Catalyst Design"