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Recent News

• Chao Wang joins the department as Assistant Professor.
• Profs. Bevan and Frechette organize the 86th ACS Colloids and Surfaces meeting: This conference at JHU featured talks from over 500 national and international participants.
• Chemical sequence replication: In a recent publication in PNAS Prof. Schulman and co-authors demonstrate that chemical sequences made from designed nanoscale building blocks can self-replicate that is approaching the accuracy of the PCR method used to amplify DNA, suggesting a way to replicate and evolve functional nanostructures.
• Donohue appointed to Leadership Role at the Council for Chemical Research: Prof. Donohue was appointed Vice Chair of Board of Directors and Annual Meeting Program Chair, Council for Chemical Research.
• Self-assembly research from Gracias lab featured on Science Nation.
• Sravanti Kusuma (Gerecht lab) and Courtney Gonzalez (Ostermeier lab) receive NIH Pre-doctoral fellowships: These fellowships are awarded to promising applicants with the potential to become productive, independent, highly trained scientists.
• Schulman receives a major grant from the NSF: Prof. Schulman co-leads a collaboration that is a awarded a $1M grant from the NSF to use synthetic biomolecules to engineer complex pattern formation similar to what occurs during biological development.
• Skin regeneration: In a recent publication in PNAS, a specially designed polysaccharide hydrogel developed in the Gerecht lab was shown to induce rapid blood vessel penetration into severe burned tissues, enabling complete skin regeneration with new hair growth.
• Discover Magazine's Top 100 Stories of 2011 included the Ostermeier lab's development of a protein switch that selectively kills cancer cells. The protein switch concept offers a platform for the development of inherently selective protein therapeutics for cancer and other diseases.
• Bevan receives a major grant from the NSF Cyber Enabled Discovery and Innovation program: In an effort led by Prof. Bevan, this $1.6M grant funds four PIs at four institutions to investigate new ideas related to the First-Principles Based Control of Multi-Scale Meta-Material Assembly Processes.
• Self-assembling curved microfluidics: Drawing inspiration from vascularized biological systems such as leaves and tissues, paper from the Gracias lab in Nature Communications discusses the self-assembly of curved microfluidic devices.
  Smart protein therapeutics: As discussed in a paper in PNAS, the Ostermeier lab has developed a novel approach to protein therapeutics in which protein switches turn on their cell-killing activity preferentially in cancer cells.
• Professor Jeff Gray was named the F. Stuart Hodgson Faculty Scholar.
• Professor Joelle Frechette won the prestigious Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award.
• Professor Konstantinos Konstantopoulos accepted an invitation to serve as the next chairman of the Bioengineering, Technology & Surgical Sciences Study Section at the Center for Scientific Review.
• Marc Ostermeier was promoted to full professor.
• Mustapha Jamal won the Ford Foundation Fellowship. Yagmur Muftouglu (class of 2011), Sarah Schrier (class of 2010 and now at MIT for Bioengineering), Rachel Truit (class of 2010 and now at Penn for Bioengineering), and Colin Paul (in the Konstantopoulos Lab) received grants from the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Honorable mention was also awarded to Barret Steinberg and Nathan Nicholes of the Ostermeier Lab as well as Christian Pick of the Frechette Lab.
• Fall 2011 issue of the ChemBE Bond Newsletter is now available.
• The Ostermeier lab marshaled a protein found in high levels in cancer cells.
• Rebecca Schulman and Zach Gagnon have joined the department.
• Professor Gray and his wife welcomed their new daughter, Linden Marjorie Joyce Gray, on January 21.
• Fall 2010 issue of the ChemBE Bond Alumni Newsletter is now available.
• Professors German Drazer & Joelle Frechette exhibited their work at the USA Science and Engineering festival.
• Sai Prakash has joined the department as Lecturer.
• David Gracias and Jeffrey Gray have both been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure.
• In a breakthrough achievement, the Gracias laboratory has designed micro-scale grippers that can grab and remove living tissue from hard to reach places. Read about this research in the early edition of  the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA and also the New York times.

Student Grants & Awards

• Jeannine Coburn Ph.D. ’12 from Dr. Elisseeff's group received a NIH pre-doctoral fellowship
• Liza (Moon Young) Lee received a NSF fellowship
• Arianne Sevilla was awarded the PURA Grant for the Fall 2011
• Elizabeth Peijnenburg was awarded the PURA Grant for the Fall 2011
• Class of 2012 Siebel Scholars are Donny Hanjaya-Putra and Stephanie Fraley
• Kelly Schwarz wins the 2011 Genentech Process Research & Development Outstanding Student Award
• Jeannine Coburn from Dr. Elisseeff's group received a NIH pre-doctoral fellowship
• Noy Bassik selected as a 2010 Seibel Scholar
• Stephanie Fraley (Dr. Wirtz's group) and Laura Beasman (Dr. Gerecht's group) received NSF fellowships (April 2009)
• American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Award for Scholastic Achievement for 2009: Rachel Truitt, Kexun Chen, Remus Wong, Elisabeth Olson
• Paul A.C. Cook Award from the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department for 2009: William Bagdorf and Stephen Reilly
• Loy Wilkinson Award for 2009: Eric Lam
• Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Undergraduate Research Award 2009: Elizabeth Specht, Yung-Chi Chuang, Ryan Bloom, Matthew Moura, Amy Fu, Mary Mallaney, Yiran Zheng, Bryan Benson
• Joseph L Katz Award for 2009: Bradford Cotter, Michael Zhang, Polina Belyantsva, Dih-Dih Huang
• Greater Washington Institute of Chemists Award for 2009: Andy Chen
• Chia Chi “Michelle” Ho won the Fisher Award for excelling in a cancer related research program.
• Richard Carrick won the Genentech Process Research and Development Outstanding Student Award.
• Stephanie Fraley (Dr. Wirtz's group) and Laura Beasman (Dr. Gerecht's group) received NSF fellowships (April 2009)
• Guoming Sun won the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund- Postdoctoral Fellowship.
• Congratulations to all the undergraduates presenting their research at this year's annual AIChE conference! (expand)
  Congratulations to all the undergraduates presenting their research at this year's annual AIChE conference! Reflecting the emphasis on undergraduate research experience within the department, several of our undergraduates will present their research at the Annual AIChE meeting. In addition a workshop is being organized to discuss student chapter operation. (collapse)
• 2008 ChemBE Undergraduate Awards (expand)
  2008 ChemBE Undergraduate Awards
  The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering has named the recipients of this year's undergraduate awards. The awards will be presented at the Convocation ceremony on May 5 at 3:00 pm in 110 Hodson Hall.
  
  American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Award for Scholastic Achievement: For the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering students with the highest scholastic standing after the sophomore year. This award is given to student with junior standing.(collapse)
  

  • Amy Fu
  • Dennis Ko
  • Nisarg Shah
  • Michael Zhang
  • Pei Kun Richie Tay

  Paul A.C. Cook Award from the ChemBE Department: Given to outstanding sophomores or juniors in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering who are best all-around students.
  

  • Eric Lam
  • Rachel Truitt

  Loy Wilkinson Award: For a demonstrated record of academic excellence, leadership, and service in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
  

  • Shirley Leong
  • Gwendolyn Melnyk

  Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Undergraduate Research Award:For demonstrated contributions to research in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
  

  • Jeremy Harris
  • Richie Tay
  • Nisarg Shah
  • George Stern
  • Sunyia Hussain
  • Joseph Abatemarco
  • Thomas Long

  Joseph L Katz Award: Presented to Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Seniors for academic excellence and service to the department and fellow students.
  

  • JD Bagert
  • Jeremy Harris
  • Alex Teran
  • Omer Sedes

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• Ben Tang wins Diversity Recognition Award (April 2008) (expand)
  Ben Tang wins Diversity Recognition Award
  
  ChemBE graduate student Ben Tang has been selected to receive a 2008 Diversity Recognition Award to be presented by President Brody at the Awards Ceremony scheduled for Thursday, May 1, 2008 at noon in the Glass Pavilion (Homewood).
  
  Ben spent more than a year working with the National Federation for the Blind, preparing an event that ultimately hosted over 200 blind and low-vision high school students from more than 40 states The "Youth Slam" event took place on the Homewood campus this past summer.
  
  The visiting high school students took part in specially-designed,non-visual science and technology experiments and workshops using JHU facilities and working with JHU faculty.  The event enabled the high school students to complete science and technology projects while being mentored and encouraged them to pursue further education and careers in these fields.
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• SEBM Best Paper for 2007 (March 2008) (expand)
  The Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine has chosen the paper, “Quantifying the Intracellular Transport of Viral and Nonviral Gene Vectors in Primary Neurons” authored by Jung Soo Suk, Junghae Suh, Samuel K. Lai and Justin Hanes as the SEBM Best Paper for 2007 in the experimental biology/basic research category. (collapse)
• Nisarg Shah was selected as a winner of the Genentech PD Awards Program (Devember 2007) (expand)
  Congratulations to Nisarg Shah
  
  Current ChemBE Student Nisarg Shah was selected as a winner of the Genentech PD Awards Program which includes a prize of two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500.00) and an internship opportunity in the Process, Research & Development Organization at Genentech, Inc. for the summer of 2008. (Devember 2007) (collapse)
• Timothy Leong wins a Gold Graduate Student Award (November 2007) (expand)
  Timothy Leong wins a Gold Graduate Student Award conferred by the Materials Research Society (MRS)
  
  Congratulations to Tim Leong (Gracias Group), who was awarded a Gold Graduate Student Award at the Materials Research Society (MRS) Fall Meeting. The GSA award is the most prestigious graduate student award in the Materials Science Community, and is hotly contested. MRS Graduate Student Awards are intended to honor and encourage graduate students whose academic achievements and current materials research display a high level of excellence and distinction. (November 2007) (collapse)
• Dennis Ko who won a poster award at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Meeting (Novermber 2007) (expand)
  Congratulations to Dennis Ko who won a poster award at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Meeting
  
  Dennis Ko won a third place award from for his poster titled, "A Treatment for Myopia, Hyperopia, and Keratoconus: Collagen Crosslinking to Reshape the Cornea" at the 2007 National AIChE Undergraduate Student Poster Session from approximately 60 posters in the Food, Pharmaceutical, and Biotechnology Division. (November 2007) (collapse)
• Christina Randall and Tim Leong won first place in MEMS poster competition (October 2007) (expand)
  Graduate Students win MEMS Poster Competition
  
  Congratulations to Christina Randall and Tim Leong won first place in the poster competition (out of approx 25 posters) at the 2007 MEMS Alliance Mid Atlantic Area Conference for their poster titled, "Nanoliter containers for Biomedical Applications". They received a plaque and $1000. (October 2007) (collapse)
• Monica Berrondo receives a Ruth L. Kirschstein Graduate Fellowship from the NIH (July 2007)
• Eric Kim wins a Provost's Undergraduate Research Award (May 2007)
• Dave Masica wins a Genentech poster award at ICBE (January 2007)