Skip to main content Skip to navigation
Washington State University
The Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering

In charge and involved

WSU President Kirk Schulz with student, Sherry Voss

WSU President Kirk Schulz and Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture Dean Mary Rezac lead the university and the college, but with their training as chemical engineers, they also provide valuable input and unique contributions to the Voiland School.

While they are busy administrators, Schulz and Rezac remain active faculty members who understand the demands of research and teaching, have taught many chemical engineering courses, and continue to interact with students, says Jim Petersen, school director.

Before becoming administrators, both Rezac and Schulz taught virtually every undergraduate and graduate class in the chemical engineering curriculum.

Schulz holds a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Virginia Tech and received several teaching awards as a professor before he began his career in administration. He is as fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has conducted research in catalysis, surface science, and materials science, which are some of the strength areas in the Voiland School.

Schulz has long ties to WSU’s chemical engineering program. As an ABET program evaluator for many years, he evaluated WSU’s program in 2001 — an evaluation that led directly to the refurbishment of the school’s unit operations laboratory. As a faculty member, his last National Science Foundation grant provided support for the American Society for Engineering Education’s chemical engineering summer school — an event held in Pullman in 2007 and attended by faculty from across the nation.

WSU Voiland College Dean, Mary Rezac visiting with students, 2018
Dean Rezac talking with Voiland School students

Rezac holds chemical engineering degrees from Kansas State University and the University of Texas at Austin. Before starting her academic career, she worked in the petroleum industry for a company that annually supports the Voiland School and hires WSU students.

As a professor, she has directed more than 30 graduate students, received research and teaching awards, and co-authored more than 250 publications and presentations. Her research interests include molecular-level fundamentals of separation processes and integration of these processes into industrial scale processes. The work has applications in the energy, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals industries.

In the Voiland School, the administrators participate as active faculty members. Schulz serves as academic advisor for five undergraduate students, meeting with them on a regular basis, and on the graduate advisory committee for a PhD student working on the synthesis of nanoparticles for clean energy.

He is never too shy to tell students about his own struggles and that he, in fact, failed his first undergraduate class in fluid mechanics.

“These stories really encourage the students,” said Petersen. “He really shows them that you can persevere to achieve success.”

Rezac occasionally fills in to teach classes and recently received a standing ovation from the students after a lecture.

“These opportunities are unique and meaningful for the students,” said Petersen. “These individuals are in their positions because they are impassioned, engaged faculty.”

Dr. Hongfei Lin’s research featured on the cover of ChemSusChem

Hongfei Lin
Dr. Hongfei Lin
The research of Dr. Hongfei Lin and his team was recently featured on the cover of ChemSusChem. Other contributers to the paper, Coupling Glucose Dehydrogenation with CO2 Hydrogenation by Hydrogen Transfer in Aqueous Media at Room Temperature, include Dr. Guodong Ding, Dr. Ji Su, Cheng Zhang, Kan Tang, and Dr. Lisha Yang.

Abstract

Cover of ChemSusChem Magazine, July 2018 with graphic of synergistic catalysisConversion of CO2 into value‐added chemicals and fuels provides a direct solution to reduce excessive CO2 in the atmosphere. Herein, a novel catalytic reaction system is presented by coupling the dehydrogenation of glucose with the hydrogenation of a CO2‐derived salt, ammonium carbonate, in an ethanol–water mixture. For the first time, the hydrogenation of CO2 to formate by glucose has been achieved under ambient conditions. Under the optimal reaction conditions, the highest yield of formate reached approximately 46 %. We find that the apparent pH value in the ethanol–water mixture plays a central role in determining the performance of the hydrogen‐transfer reaction. Based on the 13C NMR and ESI–MS results, a possible pathway of the coupled glucose dehydrogenation and CO2 hydrogenation reactions was proposed.

Improving chemotherapy treatments to reduce side effects

Afshin Khan and Kevin Gray working at the computer

Two WSU doctoral graduates partner to become entrepreneurs

When someone close to you is diagnosed with cancer, it can change your life perspective — and sometimes your life projectory. For Kevin Gray, a WSU doctoral graduate, the diagnosis drove him to a new passion and the ultimate creation of a biotechnology company to develop novel cancer treatments.

“I was in my second year in undergraduate school when my dad was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive kind of cancer,” says Kevin, co-founder and principal inventor of Chimeric Designs Inc. “It kind of flipped my world upside down and freaked me out.”

Kevin did what most do in this situation: he turned to the internet to research cancer treatment. A year later, he was in a class on cancer biology and technology where guest speakers visited from large universities across the nation. “It was like listening to a rock star every week,” Kevin recalled. It was then he decided to pursue a career researching cancer technology.

Kevin and his business partner, Afshin Kahn (left above), started Chimeric Designs Inc. as a spin-off of Kevin’s co-curricular research internship. The company is committed to researching more effective techniques in chemotherapy treatment to reduce post-treatment impacts on patients. Chimeric Designs, incorporated in May 2017, was recently awarded a Commercialization Gap Fund from the WSU Office of Commercialization to support the advancement of its products to the marketplace…

Read the entire story at the Washington State University Graduate School website

Experi-mint: Eucalyptus as alternative to dense jet fuel

Hongfei Lin with two of his students in the lab

Hongfei LinPULLMAN, Wash. – A research team led by Hongfei Lin, associate professor from Washington State University’s Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, has developed a novel process for synthesizing dense jet fuel from mint, pine, gumweed, eucalyptus or other plants.

The research is a significant step towards making high-energy density biofuels affordable in the aviation industry.

Jet fuel from numerous plants

The process, known as biphasic tandem catalytic process (biTCP), synthesizes cyclic hydrocarbon compounds for jet fuel from terpenoids, the natural organic chemical compounds found in many plants. Cyclic hydrocarbons are molecular compounds with structures that can store high levels of energy. The researchers were able to create a high yield of the cyclic hydrocarbon p-menthane from eucalyptus oil.

Collaborating with the University of Nevada-Reno, the researchers’ work was recently published in the journal Green Chemistry.

View full article at WSU News

View article at Biomass Magazine

View article at Green Car Congress

Back to Voiland School News and Events

PHS student experiments with methane conversion alongside WSU chemical engineers

Hongyeoul Park works with Jake Gray in Su Ha's lab

[Photo credit (above): Geoff Crimmons, Moscow-Pullman Daily News; Pullman High School junior Hongyeoul Park, above, mixes nickel nitrate under the supervision of Washington State University doctoral student Jake Gray. Gray was Park’s mentor during a summer internship through the American Chemical Society’s Project SEED.]

By Taylor Nadauld, Daily News staff writer | Published at the Daily News on September, 28 2017

Pullman High School junior Hongyeoul Park, right, works in Dr. Su Ha’s lab under the supervision of Washington State University doctoral student Jake Gray in Pullman.
Pullman High School junior Hongyeoul Park, right, mixes nickel nitrate under the supervision of Washington State University doctoral student Jake Gray in Pullman. [photo credit: Geoff Crimmons, Moscow-Pullman Daily News]
When 16-year-old Pullman High School student Hongyeoul Park began a summer research project with Washington State University chemists to investigate the efficient conversion of methane into fuel, he did so with just one uninspiring year of high school chemistry under his belt.

“Chemistry did not spark any more interest in chemical engineering,” Park said Tuesday, “but when I first heard about the research they were doing and how this research can somehow lead to making our environment a better place, I kind of felt intrigued.”

Park was chosen this past summer to participate in the American Chemical Society Project SEED summer research program, a program that gives economically disadvantaged high school juniors and seniors the chance to work on research projects in laboratories alongside experienced scientists and mentors…

View full article at the Moscow-Pullman Daily News

Back to Voiland School News and Events

Research of Haluk Beyenal’s group recently featured by Journal of the Electrochemical Society

Figure that was featured on the cover of the Journal of the Electrochemical Society [a. Picoammeter/voltage source or potentiostat, Reference electrode (counter electrode) Working electrode, Ag/AgCl reference electrode, Carbon microelectrode, Glass outer case, G. sulferreducens biofilm, Diffusion barrier -200um; b. Fumaate-free medium, fumarate reduction by G. sulferreducens biofilm (fumarate + electrons = succinate); c. Carbon microelectrode, carbon wire and glass with G. sulfurreducens biofilm at bottom]

The research of Haluk Beyenal’s group was recently featured on the cover of the Journal of the Electrochemical Society. Fumarate microbiosensor is a microscale biosensor capable of detecting fumarate at micromolar level in biofilms. The working principle is the correlation between fumarate concentration and current consumption during fumarate reduction by Geobacter sulfurreducens biofilms grown on a carbon microelectrode tip. In addition to biofilm applications, the microbiosensor can be used in various anaerobic applications such as in a wastewater treatment system during anaerobic conversion processes in which fumarate is used as an electron acceptor.

Read about the research at the Journal of the Electrochemical Society.

Voiland researchers win early NSF CAREER awards

Jean-Sabin McEwen and Steven R. Saunders

Two Voiland School researchers have received young faculty awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Jean-Sabin McEwen and Steven R. Saunders, both assistant professors, each received approximately $500,000. Their awards are intended to provide significant research support to young faculty beginning their careers.

View full article at WSU News

Back to Voiland School News and Events