With Christmas nearly upon us, I would like to thank all of you for making Chemical Engineering a very special place for teaching, research and discovery. This has been a year of many changes and there is much to be proud of.
NEW FACULTY AND STAFF
With the addition of Associate Professor Venkat Subramanian, Assistant Professor Vincent Holmberg and Dr. Andy Kim – the first John C. Berg Lecturer – our faculty is now larger than it has ever been. Even more exciting, we are on track to add two new Professors to our ranks, one of whom will develop battery materials of the future and be jointly appointed in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering. Three new staff members, Shoko Saji Bagwell, Allison Sherrill and Ao Ding have energized the front office and graduate advising.
FIFTY YEARS OF TEACHING AND RESEARCH
In the largest event ever hosted by the College Engineering and 50 years to the day after he was hired by the University of Washington, we celebrated Prof. John Berg’s contributions to the department as educator and researcher extraordinaire. Over 350 alumni participated in the September 15 celebration during which the Interfacial and Colloid Science Lab was named in John’s honor.
A TRANSFORMATIVE INSTITUTE
At the helm of the Clean Energy Institute (CEI), Prof. Schwartz is transforming campus energy research and taking bold steps towards re-envisioning energy production, storage and distribution. With a nearly $7M gift from the Washington Research Foundation, CEI is making a deep difference by enabling departments to recruit top faculty like Prof. Subramanian and support graduate students through fellowships. The recently launched Innovation Fellows program will attract some of the best and brightest postdoctoral researchers to the department and the university.
HONORS AND RECOGNITION
In 2014, AIChE honored both our faculty and students. Prof. Jenekhe received the Stine Award in Materials Science, one of our senior design team won Honorable Mention in the National Student Design Competition and our undergraduates took 1st place, 3rd place and Honorable Mention in the Regional Student Competition. The School of Medicine recognized Prof. Ratner’s many contributions to biomaterials through its second ever Lifetime Inventor and Innovation Award. Prof. Castner was awarded the United Kingdom Surface Analysis Forum Rivière Prize for major impact on surface analysis. Finally, University of Washington President Young selected Prof. Carothers for his inaugural Innovation Award, while the College of Engineering named Prof. Pfaendtner 2014 Junior Faculty Innovator and honored Rainie Nelson with the Dean’s Medal for Academic Excellence.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Thanks to the generous support of Jeet and Janice Bindra, the department will soon inaugurate the Bindra Innovation Lab, a multi-use instrumentation space for teaching, prototyping and research. A number of additional infrastructure upgrades are under way to further improve the student experience and support our innovation agenda.
I feel very fortunate to work with such an outstanding group of students, staff and faculty and I am proud of our collective achievements.
Best wishes for a wonderful holiday season and an extraordinary new year.
François Baneyx
Department Chair and Charles W.H. Matthaei Professor