Mix a senior chemical engineering student with some solid undergraduate research experience, good grades, and a passion for what she does, and you may not get a chemical reaction, but you will get a great candidate for a competitive internship program.

Kelly Fitzgerald has been selected as one of approximately 30 students in the U.S. to participate in the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)’s National Security Internship Program this summer.

PNNL, located in Richland, WA, is one of the Department of Energy’s ten national laboratories. The internship program provides the opportunity for students to participate in national security-related science. Fitzgerald will spend the summer working in the radio chemistry department, where she is expecting to work in computer modeling and electro-chemistry.

Fitzgerald learned about the internship from her chemistry professor, Sue Clark, and applied.

The two major benefits of the program are the possibility for tuition reimbursement and a great networking experience, she said.

Fitzgerald has been active in undergraduate research since her sophomore year, working in the lab with Clark, as well as with graduate and post-doctoral students.

“This really helped me get the internship because it gave me a lot of experience in a lab,” she said.

Fitzgerald hasn’t always been interested in chemical engineering, but her classes at WSU led her to her current career choice.

“My dad is a nuclear engineer, so I knew about engineering as an option early on,” she said. “I started out in bioengineering, but after taking two courses in chemical engineering, I realized I was much more interested in that.”

After completing her internship and her undergraduate studies, Fitzgerald is considering graduate school, possibly at WSU.

“I think I have the resources here where I could really excel in the program,” she said.

Although a little nervous about surviving the heat in the Tri-Cities all summer long, Fitzgerald said she is extremely excited for the internship.

“I’m excited to finally be in a work environment instead of just in the student role,” she said. “I can’t wait to do the work I’ve chosen as the career for the rest of my life.”

RICHLAND, Wash. – An innovative idea for making advanced biofuels such as jet fuel, diesel and gasoline from regional resources is moving forward with a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

“This process will demonstrate the use of local biomass from our community and our farmers and it will answer questions across the state,” said Diahann Howard, Port of Benton economic development director. “It will also give more options locally to use waste for energy and not stockpile ag waste, which can create hazardous or unappealing situations.”

The team of WSU Tri-Cities, the Port of Benton, Clean-Vantage LLC and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will conduct the $1.5 million “BioChemCat” pilot project in the Bioproducts, Sciences, and Engineering Laboratory at Washington State University Tri-Cities under the leadership of Birgitte K. Ahring, Director of the WSU Center for Bioproducts and Bioenergy and the Battelle Distinguished Professor.

BioChemCat refers to the biorefinery process which makes use of both biochemical and thermochemical processes for making biofuels and biochemicals.

“The concept is feedstock agnostic, it doesn’t really care what kind of biomass you use,” Ahring explained. “It can use all kind of feedstocks – municipal waste, vineyard waste, feedlot manure, woody material, ag waste like corn stalks, straw or corn cobs after the kernels have been removed. It could be implemented all over the world.”

The project is funded with a DOE grant to the Port of Benton of $951,000 plus $549,000 in matching funds. Ahring expects to have the first results by early fall.

The project includes other new twists on biofuels production, including:

• The waste can be wet — many biofuels processes first require that the waste be dried, which can be expensive and time consuming.
• The process can be operated in a spoke-and-hub manner, where the initial part of the process (the creation of distillates) is done in small-scale local facilities, while the final upgrading into advanced fuels is done in a few specialized hubs.
• Both parts of the process combine new break-through knowledge that allows for reducing the cost of the final fuel.
• This process is expected to be high-yield, for example, potentially making more than 70 gallons of jet fuel per ton of dry materials. This is much higher than other known processes.
• The process can be operated to produce either gasoline, diesel, or jet fuel depending on the needs. Therefore, it represents an example of producing “drop-in replacement fuel” for oil-based products.

“It’s really exciting because it’s a true Tri-City project,” Ahring said, noting the partnership includes a local company providing the overall concept, a university campus, the Port, a national laboratory setting up and operating the pilot facility, and the regional biomass materials that will be used. “We think we will be capable of demonstrating within two years that the BioChemCat process has major value.”

“The growth of the University leads to the growth of the Port,” Howard said. “This is exactly what we’re here to do.”

The BSEL building at WSU Tri-Cities is the core of the Center for Bioproducts and Bioenergy. The $24.8 million, 57,000-square-foot building opened in May 2008 in partnership with the State of Washington, Washington State University, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Half of the building, including the high bay, is occupied by PNNL research teams.

Another advantage of the BioChemCat research project is that it uses equipment purchased with the Washington State’s STAR researcher funding provided as part of the 2008–2009 recruitment package for Dr. Ahring.

WSU Tri-Cities is located along the scenic Columbia River in Richland, Wash. Established in 1989 with upper division and graduate programs, WSU Tri-Cities expanded in 2007 to a full four-year undergraduate campus offering 17 bachelor’s, 13 master’s, and seven doctoral degrees. Learn more about the most diverse campus in the WSU system at www.tricity.wsu.edu.

Professor Cornelius (Neil) Ivory has been named as the inaugural Paul Hohenschuh Distinguished Professor in the Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering.

The professorship, which was recently created by Paul Hohenschuh and Marjorie Winkler, was announced at the Voiland School’s spring advisory board meeting. The professorship is to be used to recruit and/or retain a world-class, internationally-recognized faculty member, providing annual funding support for materials, equipment, staff, graduate student salaries or other support that furthers his or her research program.

A faculty member at WSU since 1989, Ivory is a well-known researcher in the area of bioseparations, where his work is focused on the development of novel systems to enable molecular-level protein separations and purification. The work has important implications in a variety of areas ranging from separations of radionuclides for national defense to purification of proteins that are used in pharmaceuticals and other health-related applications.

Ivory worked with his students to develop a separation technique called dynamic field-gradient focusing, which enables the isolation and purification of specific desired and undesired molecules by trapping them in an electric field gradient. Using this and other separation techniques, he is working with his collaborators to develop a blood test that may be used in a physician’s office to quickly and simply identify protein biomarkers that indicate if a patient is at-risk of suffering a heart attack. He also has worked with pharmaceutical companies to develop ways to better detect impurities in commercial pharmaceuticals, and is applying his technologies to enable the purification and detection of specific radioactive isotopes that have implications for national defense. Ivory holds five patents, with several others pending, and has more than 80 refereed publications. He holds a M.S. and Ph.D. from Princeton University in chemical engineering and received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame.

The Hohenschuh professorship employs a unique gift mechanism that allows the donor to commit a specific gift amount for a set period of years to support a faculty position or a scholarship. While most chairs and professorships have typically come from an endowment established in a donor’s estate plan, this new annual gift mechanism allows a donor to fund faculty and students immediately, says Don Shearer, associate director of development for the Voiland School. In so doing, the donor is able to immediately see the gift’s impact.

Hohenschuh (‘64 BS, ‘70 MS) grew up in Washougal in rural southwestern Washington. When he came to WSU with support of a scholarship, he was overwhelmed by the rigorous program in chemical engineering as well as continual financial stress. Two professors, George Austin, who was department chair, and Harry Stern, were particularly instrumental in helping him at critical times in continuing his education. He went on to become vice president of manufacturing of Genentech, a leading biotechnology/pharmaceutical company. He is now retired.

“We are grateful to Paul and Marjorie for their investment in the faculty of this school,”said Jim Petersen, director of the Voiland School. “With this support, they are helping to enhance the school’s performance, helping grow its reputation while ensuring that we have the best faculty teaching engaging, challenging, and educating our students. In so doing they’re showing how much they care about and support the School’s mission. They will truly make a difference in the lives of both chemical engineering and bioengineering students.”

A story published on April 8 by CNNMoney reported the results of the most recent survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers. The article was entitled “Best-paying college major: engineering”. It notes that “Majors in the engineering field dominated the association’s list of top-paying degrees for the class of 2011, with four of the top five spots going to engineering major… Chemical engineers were offered the highest starting salaries this year—an average of $66,646.” Average chemical engineering salaries exceed the average salary of the next highest major, mechanical engineering, by more than 10%. This analysis illustrates the tremendous national need for chemical engineers. The need in WA is even greater, given the breadth of industries that rely on chemical engineering expertise. Such industries include, for example, cleanup and clean energy companies clustered around the Hanford site in southeast WA, the petroleum refineries in northwest WA, airplane brake manufacturers in Spokane, and polysilicone for solar energy in Moses Lake. Chemical Engineers are needed throughout the nation and state. See the full article at CNNMoney for a more detailed analysis.

Howard Davis and Denny Davis of the Bioengineering program were named as the joint winners of the 2011 Library Excellence Award. Davis and Davis identified an important educational need in their senior bioengineering capstone design class: the lack of Information Literacy skills in many of their students. Concerned about their students’ ability to succeed, not only in the classroom but in their future careers, they devoted valuable time to participate with WSU librarians in the Project to Improve Information Literacy Skills Development (PRMWG) in WSU Engineering Courses. Wendy Blake, the Chair of PRMWG notes that “Dr. Denny Davis and Dr. Howard Davis have clearly demonstrated their appreciation for the WSU Libraries by their enthusiastic personal commitment to improving the research skills of their students.”

Drs. Davis will be honored at the annual LEA reception on Tuesday, April 26, 2011, 10:00 AM–11:00 AM in the Terrell Atrium.

Denny C. Davis, professor in the School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering and director of the Engineering Education Research Center (EERC), earned the Sahlin Faculty Excellence Award for Leadership. Four WSU faculty members have been named recipients of the annual 2010–11 Sahlin awards. The awards were presented at WSU’s annual Showcase celebration of excellence on March 25, 2011.

Professor Davis is recognized as a leader in engineering education at the local, national and international levels because of educational innovations and scholarship he has catalyzed through the EERC. He has provided vital leadership for instructional innovations leading to a nationally recognized interdisciplinary engineering entrepreneurship senior projects experience at WSU.

Davis’ servant-leadership has had numerous impacts. He has mentored faculty locally and nationally to become successful in engineering education scholarship. His mentoring has yielded a diverse, well funded cadre of engineering education scholars at WSU and collaborators across the nation. He has traveled abroad as an expert in his field to introduce others to his innovations in engineering design education, and international scholars have visited WSU to personally explore the uniqueness of the programs developed by Davis.

He was a founding member of the President’s Teaching Academy, a group that was charged with helping to lead WSU’s educational process. With his contributions and leadership, the academy developed and implemented several programs and tools that have advanced WSU’s instructional mission.

“We need to teach our kids that it’s not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the science fair.”
– Barack Obama, 2011 State of the Union address

With government and industry leaders calling for innovation as a way to stay competitive in a global economy and for improved education, particularly, in engineering and sciences, a group of Washington State University researchers is taking a leading role in the field of engineering education.

Three faculty members in WSU’s Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering received approximately 10 percent of the $18 million awarded nationally by the National Science Foundation’s Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (TUES) program, more research money in 2010 than any other academic department in the United States. The program provides research support for the improvement of curricula and teaching methods in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

“If we are to meet the national call to be technology leaders in the 21st century, we need to be innovative in the way that we educate our students and bring the best education tools into our classrooms,” strong funding support speaks very well to the cutting-edge work we’re doing in this area.”

In 2005, WSU researchers from the College of Engineering and Architecture and the College of Education established the Engineering Education Research Center to facilitate research enabling innovation and effectiveness in engineering education. Led by Denny Davis, professor in the Voiland School, the research center has led and encouraged engineering education research that now is one of the larger research thrusts at WSU.

Voiland school researchers were also leaders in establishing the first-ever research experience program for junior high school and high school teachers in the United States. The SWEET (Summer at WSU Engineering Experiences for Teachers) program, which was initiated by three faculty from the Voiland School (Jim Petersen, Bill Thomson and Richard Zollars) and has subsequently been established at a national level, introduces teachers to engineering and helps them develop learning modules that they can bring back into their classrooms.

In 2010, three Voiland School researchers received support for the following engineering education NSF TUES funded projects:

• Multi-Disciplinary Project-Based Paradigm that Uses Hands-on Desktop Learning Modules and Modern Learning Pedagogies. Led by Bernard Van Wie, professor in the Voiland School, this $600,000 project expands on an earlier project that developed a prototype desktop learning module (DLM). The DLM is a desktop apparatus with multiple, easily interchangeable cartridges that can be reconfigured to perform a variety of experiments. This apparatus is being used in classrooms for implementing better teaching practices and demonstrating basic concepts in fluid mechanics and heat transfer.
• Appraisal System for Superior Engineering Education Evaluation-instrument Sharing and Scholarship (ASSESS). Led by Denny Davis, professor in the Voiland School, the purpose of this $600,000 project is to create a web-based library of proven engineering education evaluation instruments to help build evaluation capacity for the engineering education community.
• Exploring Studio-Based Learning in Chemical Engineering Education. Led by Richard Zollars, professor in the Voiland School, this $600,000 project builds on a previously developed scaffolded software environment called ChemProV (Chemical Process Visualizer). ChemProV presents chemical engineering students with dynamically-generated feedback on the syntactic and semantic correctness of their evolving process flow diagrams and sets of equations, guiding them toward correct solutions.

In addition to these projects in engineering education, Shane Brown, assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, also received a $400,000 National Science Foundation CAREER grant for a four-year project to better understand how practicing civil engineers gain understanding of engineering concepts. He hopes to develop a model of engineering thinking about these concepts and to create improved curricular materials based on this research.