Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering University of Illinois University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
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7th Annual Graduate Research Symposium
Friday, October 10, 2008

Members of the ChBE Graduate Student Advisory Council and the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering organized the "7th Annual Graduate Research Symposium". Upper level graduate students were urged to make oral presentations and more recent students were encouraged to make poster presentations of their research.

Twelve students took the opportunity to present their research orally to faculty, students and judges on Friday morning. That afternoon, the unit operations lab was abuzz with research discussions and interactions generated by the eleven poster presentations. Five former alumni and friends of the School of Chemical Sciences graciously consented to be judges and provided the students with insights gained from their experience.

photo of judges together
Judges, (from left to right) Qingjun Meng, Brian Anderson, Christopher Burcham, Bruce Cook, and Stephen Tyler

Judges

Brian C Anderson, Ph.D.
B.S. ChBE, 1998
Global Pharmaceutical Operation
Manufacturing Science & Technology
Process Science & Engineering
Abbott

Christopher Burcham, Ph.D.
B.S. ChBE, 1992
Principal Research Scientist
Process Definition
Chemical Product Research and Development
Eli Lilly and Company

Bruce Cook, Ph.D.
Ph.D. Chemistry, 1987
Advanced Refining Manager
BP Products North America

Qingjun Meng , Ph.D.
Ph.D. ChBE, 2004
Senior Research Engineer
PX Asset Improvement
BP Products North America

Stephen M. Tyler
M.S. University of Georgia
Director, Quality Assurance
Global Pharmaceutical Operations
Strategic Quality & Technical Operations
Abbott

Feedback from the judges

Symposium Planning Committee

Much thanks for the smooth functioning of this symposium needs to go to these students.
Carl Denard (GSAC VP)
Khushnuma Koita (GSAC Group Representative)
So Youn Kim (GSAC Group Representative)
Mike Thorson (GSAC Group Representative)
Yevgeniy Kondratenko accepting his prize from Prof. Seebauer. Event organizers, Mike Thorson (left), So Youn Kim (right), and Carl Denard (extreme right).
photo Fikile Brshett
Fikile Brushett making his oral presentation

Oral Presentation Awards

First Place
Ryan P.Sullivan
Advisor: Huimin Zhao
Title: Engineering a Fungal L-Arabinose Pathway Towards the Utilization of Pentose Sugars for Production of Xylitol and Ethanol (abstract)
Second Place
Zachary Dunbar
Advisor: Richard Masel
Title: MRI Investigation of Water Distribution in an Operating PEM Fuel Cell (abstract)
Third Place
Nikhil Nair
Advisor: Huimin Zhao
Title: Biobutanol from Yeast: A Synergistic Genome and Protein Engineering Approach (abstract)

photo of Sheryl B. Rubin-Pitel making her poster presentation
Sheryl B. Rubin-Pitel making her presentation to Qingjun Meng and Bruce Cook.

Poster Presentation Awards

First Place
Yevgeniy Kondratenko
Advisor: Edmund G. Seebauer
Title: Photostimulation of Diffusion and Activation of Dopants in Ion Implantation Applications (abstract)
Second Place
Sheryl B. Rubin-Pitel
Advisor: Huimin Zhao
Poster Title: Structure-Function Analysis of the Type III Polyketide Synthase from Neurospora crassa (abstract)
Third Place
Eric Mock
Advisor: Charles Zukoski
Title: Synthesis, Microstructure, and Macroscopic Properties of Anisotropic Polymer Colloids (abstract)

7th Annual ChBE Graduate Research Symposium — Oral Presentation Schedule (pdf)

7th Annual Graduate Research Symposium — Poster Presentation Schedule (pdf)