Dan Schwartz
2006 Catalyst Article
During this past year, Prof. Dan Schwartz has seen the passage of several classroom teaching and research milestones. In the classroom, Dan had the distinct pleasure and honor to co-instruct senior design with Prof. Bruce Finlayson. This was Prof. Finlayson’s last quarter before retirement. Bruce has served as a model for faculty like Dan, who started their teaching careers while he was department chair; he has an extraordinary ability to organize courses that possess both structure and opportunities for open-ended creative work. Details of the design project on biodiesel production are given elsewhere (page 4, Catalyst), but if you want a glimpse into the project you can see the website (http://courses.washington.edu/dtsclass/Chem_E_486_05.html), where you can even hear an interview from KOMO News on the project.
In 2005, Dan graduated his 10th and 11th PhD students (Haixia Dai and Jian Chen). This is a significant milestone when you consider the time, energy, and money invested in PhD education. Both of these students started their PhDs in the autumn of 2000. Their research addressed fundamental issues tied to nanotechnology and home healthcare. During their time at UW, they not only did research and wrote papers, but also assisted UW faculty to teach chemical engineering to undergraduates (Haixia was a McCarthy Outstanding TA winner). In a broader sense, who are these (now 11) people who received their PhDs from Dan’s labs, and what happens when they graduate? The UW has a strong reputation worldwide, so we attract the best and brightest from the U.S. and abroad. Seven PhD graduates have been U.S. citizens (two Texans, two Californians, a Washingtonian, a Minnesotan, and a Hoosier), and four have been international students (three from China and one from Mexico). When they graduate with their Ph.D.s, they have skills needed in the technology and educational sectors; they work for big U.S. companies (Western Digital, Intel, HP), small local companies (Isotron and Neah Power), national laboratories (Sandia Labs), and universities (University of Colorado, UW EE, and Imperial College in London).
A final milestone is the recent filing of two patent applications for technologies developed in Dan’s labs. U.S. and international patent protection is being sought for a process called “Electrochemical Printing” (the process was featured in a news report on the site http://www.iop.org/ej/news/-topic=949?rss=2.0), and U.S. patent protection is sought for a microtechnology approach called “Microsteady Streaming Devices.”
Overall, it was another great year in the Pacific Northwest.
