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Biodiesel Research Recognized by U.S. EPA Chief

On September 7, 2004, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Mike Leavitt, came to UNR to recognize the research into alternative fuels by Dr. Hatice Gecol of the UNR Chemical Engineering Department.  Dr. Gecol demonstrated her process to produce clean-burning diesel fuel from waste cooking oil and bio-mass produced ethanol.  University shuttle buses and other vehicles use biodiesel.  Dr. Gecol's work is funded in part by both the U.S. EPA and Washoe County.

UNR Hosts 2004 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Western Regional Student Conference

Our student chapter hosted this conference of Chemical Engineering students from California and Nevada, April 24, 2004. Sarah Struble (Class of 2005) was the chair of the conference committee. Thank you Sarah! Click here for more information

The team of Michael Fears, Bronson Duck, and Antonio Mulei (not shown) won the First Annual UNR ChemE Car Competition on the Engineering Quad at a distance of 61'10" with their rocket-powered car.
April 24, 2001

UNR Chemical Engineering Students Keep Winning Awards!

April 24, 2004: Chemical Engineering students from UNR won 5 awards at the 2004 AIChE Western Regional Student Conference. The design team of Bronson Duck, Jarod Collens, Michael Fears, Brehnen Wong, and Francisco Vega (all Class of 2004) won second place in the poster competition and third place in the paper competition for their project "High Throughput Optimization of Oligonucleotide Purification." The design team of Brian Hopkins, Karen Parian, and Ivan Gantan (all Class of 2004) won second place in the paper competition for their project "Supramolecular PBI for PEM Applications." The design team of Daniel Hickman, Katherine Laird, and Allan Carmichael (all Class of 2004) won first place in the poster competition for their project "Reduction of Off-Road Diesel Particulate Emissions." The team of Jarod Pesis, Joseph Vesco, and Jarod Williams (Class of 2007) and Ivan Gantan and Daniel Hickman (Class of 2004) won second place in the Chem-E-Car competition, earning a berth at the national competition in November at Austin.

Allan Carmichael (Class of 2004) won the 2004 outstanding Chemical Engineering Senior Award from the Northern California Section of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

April 10, 2003:  The design team of Catie Heine, Sage Hiibel, Mike Matheus, and Dale Sperlin (all in the B.S.Ch.E. Class of 2003) won second place at the WERC International Environmental Design Competition at Las Cruces, New Mexico, today for their project "Low Energy Seawater Desalination System."  The competition included a written design report, an oral presentation, a poster presentation, and a bench-scale demonstration.  The team won an expense-paid trip to Germany this June to present their work in Europe.

March 29, 2003, Riverside California:  At the 2003 Western Regional Student Conference of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, UNR students won awards in all 3 of the competitions, besting the other participating universities (BYU, Cal Poly, UC Berkeley, Cal State Long Beach, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, and USC).  Jake Elkins, Alissa Tibesar, Allan Carmichael, Tyson Harris, and Janie Ha won first place for their oral presentation "Characterization of Ferrofluids for Tumor Embolization."  That same student team won second place for their design project poster.  The team of Michael Fears, Karen Parian, Bronson Duck, Dan Hickman, and Ivan Gantan won first place in the Chem-E-Car competition.  Both teams won berths in their respective categories at the national competitions to be held in San Francisco in November.

On Sunday, November 3, 2002, the UNR Chem-E-Car Team "Pocket Rocket" won fourth place in a very competitive field of 29 pre-qualified teams at the AIChE National Competition in Indianapolis.  Congratulations to the team of Karen Parian, Bronson Duck, Michael Fears, Josh Waldo-Speth, and Ivan Gantan.

Alissa Tibesar (Class of 2003) won the 2002 Donald F. & Mildred Topp Othmer National Scholarship Award.  Each year, only 15 chemical engineering students worldwide are awarded this prestigious scholarship.  Alissa has been recognized as being in the top 0.1% of chemical engineering students nation-wide.

The UNR entry in the National Chem-E-Car Competition won third place in a very close pack at the Reno Hilton, November 4, 2001.  The team designed a rocket powered car that they named BOB. (Ballistic or Bust) and competed against teams from 24 universities.  The team members are:  Michael Fears, Bronson Duck, Sage Hiibel, Andrew Katz, Cathy Sue McMurray, Ivan Gantan, Francisco Vega, and Wyatt Robards.  For the story, click here .

Kavitha Elugula (M.S.Ch.E. student) won third place in the Environmental Division of the Student Poster Session at the AIChE Annual Meeting, November 5, 2001.  Her poster was "Operation of the CerOx Process in the University of Nevada's Hazardous Waste Management Program

 Jesse Murray (Class of 2002) won the 2001 Donald F. & Mildred Topp Othmer National Scholarship Award.  Each year, only 15 chemical engineering students worldwide are awarded this prestigious scholarship.  It comes as no surprise that Jesse is in the top 0.1% of chemical engineering students nation-wide.

On Friday, April 20, 2001, the team of Carlos Ledon, Tom Brokaw, and Bryce Jones (B.S.Ch.E. '01) won First Place at the Regional Student Paper Competition of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, held in Bozeman, Montana.  Carlos gave the paper about their design project, "Lifetime Prediction of Natural Rubber:  Reverse Time-Temperature Superposition and Cumulative Damage Theory."

On Thursday, April 12, 2001, the design team of Wayne Burton, Siu Cheng, Conrad Peterson, and Brian Petty (B.S.Ch.E. '01) won Second Place in the WERC International Environmental Engineering Design Competition in Las Cruces, New Mexico, for their project "Single Shell Underground Tank Solid Waste Remediation."

On Monday, November 13, 2000, Bryce Jones (B.S.Ch.E. '01) won two separate awards for his research poster at the Annual Meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in Los Angeles.  Bryce presented the research he completed at the Argonne National Laboratory last summer.  His awards were third place in the Catalysis & Reaction Engineering category and first place in the Green Engineering category.

On Monday, November 13, 2000, Vladan Jankovic (B.S.Ch.E. '01) won third place in the Engineering Sciences & Fundamentals category for his research poster at the Annual Meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in Los Angeles.  Vladan presented the research he performed last summer on supercritical fluids in Dr. Baglin's laboratory.

On Sunday, November 12, 2000, the UNR Chem-E-Car team won first place for their poster at the Annual Meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in Los Angeles.  Their car, known affectionately as the "Geriatric Turtle,"  was powered by a fuel cell.

On Sunday, April 9, 2000, three UNR Chemical Engineering Seniors won First Place for their design project "Methanol Steam Reforming" at the 2000 AIChE Western Regional Student Conference, held at UCLA.  Vladan Jankovic, Matthew Johannson, and Michael Coleman studied the thermodynamics, kinetics, and design of a process to produce hydrogen for fuel-cell applications.

On Sunday, October 31, 1999, five UNR Chemical Engineering seniors won Second Place in the inaugural "Autonomous Vehicle Competition," at the Annual Meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, in Dallas. (See full story)

Chemical Engineering seniors from the University of Nevada, Reno, won two awards at an international environmental engineering design competition held at New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, April 12-15, 1999.  This competition, sponsored by the Waste-Management Education and Research Consortium (WERC) included more than 40 university teams from around the country and several foreign nations.  ( See full story. )

Five Chemical Engineering seniors from the University of Nevada, Reno, won First Prize for "Best Demonstration of the Industrial Process" at an international environmental engineering design competition held at New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, April 14-17, 1998, for their design of a process to clean up mining wastes.  This competition, sponsored by the Waste-Management Education and Research Consortium (WERC) included more than 30 university teams from around the country.  ( See full story. )


Green Engineering Educators Workshop hosted by UNR Chemical Engineering

This workshop was held at UNR on July 25, 2000.  It was for Chemical & Environmental Engineering faculty from throughout the country and demonstrated the latest pollution prevention strategies and computer-aided design tools.  It was sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Chemical Engineering Division of the American Society for Engineering Education.
Details are available.


President's Cabinet:  A Career for Chemical Engineers

Chemical Engineer Samuel W. Bodman was nominated by President George W. Bush on December 10, 2004, to be the U.S. Secretary of Energy. In the words of the President, Dr. Bodman "will bring to the Department of Energy a great talent for management and the precise thinking of an engineer."

Astronaut:  A Career for Chemical Engineers

Chemical Engineer Donald Pettit served on the International Space Station as the science officer and flight engineer.  He flew to the space station on Space Shuttle Endeavor on November 23, 2002, and returned to Earth in a Soyus capsule on May 4, 2003.  Chemical Engineer Al Sacco, Jr., flew as payload specialist October-November 1995 on Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-73.


The CEO of General Electric is a Chemical Engineer

John F. Welch, Jr., is a chemical engineer and the Chief Executive Officer of one of the largest and most successful industrial enterprises in the world:  General Electric Corporation.  Over the years, GE has become a leader in the chemical industry, and this transformation has been chronicled in a recent book from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.


When 100,000 Chemists were asked Who Contributed the most to Chemistry in the 20th Century, they chose a Chemical Engineer!

Linus Pauling was chosen by the American Chemical Society as the person who contributed the most to chemistry during the last century.  After earning a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, he found himself very well prepared to enter graduate school in chemistry at Cal Tech.  In fact, he completed his Ph.D. there in just two years.  Among his many awards were two Nobel Prizes.  As a consummate creative problem solver, Dr. Pauling is credited as saying, "If you want to have a good idea, you must have lots of ideas."  Now that's a Chemical Engineer!

Time magazine's 1997 "Man of the Year" is a Chemical Engineer

Andrew Grove, Chairman and CEO of Intel Corporation, earned his B.S.Ch.E. in 1960 from City College of New York.  He went on to become "the person most responsible for the amazing growth in the power and innovative potential of microchips."  As you read this, you are probably using a microprocessor made by Intel.  It is certain that you are using a computer whose materials and components (from the keys to the screen to the microchips) were designed and produced through chemical engineering.  Other major campanies have chosen Chemical Engineers as CEO's, including 3M, BASF, B. F. Goodrich, Dow, DuPont, Exxon, and, of course, The Company (former CIA director John M. Deutch was a Chemical Engineer).

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