Awards

ChBE Professor Charlie Nuttelman wins university-wide award for passionate, engaging teaching

Anonymous — Mon, 01 May 2023 17:12:38 +0000

ChBE Professor Charlie Nuttelman wins university-wide award for passionate, engaging teaching Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 05/01/2023 - 11:12

Susan Glairon

“I am a lifelong learner, so teaching is the perfect career for me,” said Teaching Professor Charlie Nuttelman, who has taught 18 different chemical and biological engineering classes at �� Boulder since 2007. “Because when you teach something, you have to master it.” Nuttelman is pictured with his wife, Ella, and son, Logan, on top of Cirque Peak in the Canadian Rockies. Photo credit: Kate McNerny.

He cares deeply about his students. He constantly grasps students’ attention during class. He meets with students outside of office hours to ensure everyone gets all the help they need. He is one of the best professors I have had in Chemical and Biological Engineering. I truly feel lucky to have been able to take his courses and learn from him.

These are just a few of the many accolades from undergraduate students who have taken Teaching Professor Charlie Nuttelman’s classes.

Nuttelman recently won the Boulder Faculty Assembly Excellence in Teaching Award for his work as a �� Boulder professor and as a developer of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC). The university-wide award, given to only three faculty members each year, recognizes the importance of teaching and mentoring students as significant components of faculty duties.

“This award means a lot to me,” said Nuttelman, who has been teaching at �� Boulder since 2007 and has since then won the ChBE Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Faculty Award multiple times. “As a �� Boulder student, I would look at the teaching awards on the second floor wall of Norlin Library, and I would think, ‘Whoa, those people are pretty important. They have a big impact on students.’ And now I am among them.”

While Nuttelman’s classes cover topics that are not always the most exciting — such as Applied Data Analysis, Introduction to Engineering Computing, and Applied Data Instrumentation and Process Controls — his passion for the subjects and teaching shines through, generating a profound enthusiasm for students to learn.

Sam Burke-Bevis, a CBEN senior, says Nuttelman is excited about some of the most mundane topics in engineering, such as Excel shortcuts.

"He comes to class on time, learns his students names and shows actual excitement to teach the material, Burke-Bevis said. "I can't stress enough how much easier it is to learn a topic when the professor is happy to be there.”

To help students succeed and long before it was common to do so, Nuttelman created screencasts (short videos) of the material he taught. He later pioneered embedding in-video questions using PlayPosit (a tool that lets teachers create and edit interactive video assessments) to create “learning modules” that help students maintain focus. To date he has created hundreds of learning modules for multiple classes.

“These learning modules are a student favorite as they are short, cover the right material and are funny with added jokes throughout,” said Teaching Professor and ChBE Associate Chair Wendy Young. “Students consistently comment on how he makes the difficult material approachable and fun.”

Students can rewatch the screencasts, so they have multiple chances to get the answers right. “Everyone gets a 10 out of 10 if they put the work into it,” Nuttelman said.

Nuttelman also created online versions of Introduction to Engineering Computing (CHEN 1310) and Applied Data Analysis (CHEN 3010).

In response to students expressing difficulties in remembering material between semesters and especially over the summers, Nuttelman created a “booster” course for Material and Energy Balances (CHEN 2120), which include screencasts with in-video questions aimed at reviewing and refreshing prerequisite knowledge among the students. Comparing student performance with past years, Nuttelman found that his booster course led to improved learning and retention of knowledge.

“I have really appreciated the clarity of his teaching style — specifically his notes format, writing directly on the slides and having us work through in-class problems,” said Patricia Mendoza-Anselmi, a CBEN senior. “His screencasts my freshman year were super helpful during recitation and for completing homeworks. My favorite class thus far has been instrumentation and process control because Dr. Nuttelman has done a great job connecting what we're learning and applying it to the real world.”

Burke-Bevis added that Nuttelman’s respectful attitude towards his students has had a significant impact on his personal work ethic.

“He treats us like students who have completed an extremely difficult degree,” he said. “Being treated with respect makes you want to attend class and pay attention to return that respect.”

Known for making difficult material approachable and fun, ChBE Teaching Professor Charlie Nuttelman recently won the university-wide Boulder Faculty Assembly Excellence in Teaching Award. The award also recognizes his highly successful Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), soon to surpass 500,000 learners.

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Fighting “the bends”: Shields receives Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program Award for decompression sickness study

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Mar 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Fighting “the bends”: Shields receives Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program Award for decompression sickness study Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 03/07/2022 - 00:00

Jonathan Raab

Shields

Assistant Professor C. Wyatt Shields IV is a recipient of a 2022 Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Program Award for his proposal “Mapping Immune Cell Responses to High Pressures in Decompression Illness.” He is among 32 researchers nationwide selected to receive funding for conducting “innovative scientific research that will benefit the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps” according to the ONR.

The U.S. Navy has an ongoing interest in studying decompression sickness, which is often referred to as “the bends.” Shields and his group seek to understand how immune cells in human lungs respond to extreme diving conditions to learn more about the origins of this affliction.

“As divers descend, increased gas pressure within the lungs leads to increased dissolved oxygen and nitrogen in the bloodstream, affecting the biochemistry of alveolar cells,” Shields said. “Our research aims to understand how alveolar immune cells respond to extreme environmental factors associated with deep sea diving as a step toward discovering the potential etiology of decompression sickness.”

The lab group is currently developing a “lung-on-a-chip" device as a model system that replicates the physiological conditions of human lungs experiencing high pressure loads. This work requires cross-disciplinary collaboration with human health researchers, including Professor Ivana Yang at �� Anschutz, who will help identify genes that regulate cellular responses to these environmental factors through epigenomic and transcriptomic screens on monocytes.

The first phase of research is devoted to building the lung-on-a-chip devices, with initial results expected by the second year of the three-year project.

NSF CAREER Award winner

Shields recently received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award for his research into biosensing, which is part of his outreach and mentorship program at Northglenn High School.

Assistant Professor C. Wyatt Shields IV is the recipient of a 2022 Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Program Award for his proposal “Mapping Immune Cell Responses to High Pressures in Decompression Illness.”

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Kuenstler and Mark selected as Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellows

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Jun 2021 18:07:02 +0000

Kuenstler and Mark selected as Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellows Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 06/16/2021 - 12:07

Jonathan Raab

Alexa Kuenstler, a postdoc in the Bowman and Hayward labs, and Lesli Mark (PhDChemEngr’20), formerly of the Medlin group, were selected as Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellows in Chemical Sciences for 2021.

They are among 11 other postdoctoral fellows selected for underscoring “the Foundation’s mission of supporting basic research in the chemical sciences and chemical instrumentation,” according to the Beckman Foundation.

Alexa Kuenstler
Bowman and Hayward Labs
BS, University of Rochester ‘15
PhD, University of Massachusetts Amherst ‘20

Alexa Kuenstler

Kuenstler worked with Professor Ryan Hayward during his time at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and now continues that collaboration as a postdoctoral fellow. She also joined Professor Christopher Bowman’s group in August of last year.

“Ryan gave me a lot of latitude to explore problems of interest to me, and supported me in all my professional ambitions, including sending me to conferences and to work with collaborators around the country,” Kuenstler said. “Chris Bowman has been exceptionally patient and supportive over what’s been a strange time to do research with various COVID-related restrictions. I’ve learned a ton working with Chris and his group and am really excited to continue our work with this new support.”

Professor Bowman offered high praise for Kuenstler’s work as a researcher.

“During the relatively short time Alexa has worked with me as a postdoctoral associate, she has demonstrated that she is destined for a future as a leader in the field of soft materials science,” Bowman said. “She was a truly exceptional candidate for this fellowship based on her achievements to date and her talents as a researcher, and I believe her selection will further build her foundation of knowledge, connections and capabilities that will ultimately enable her to be successful in a faculty position.”

Kuenstler will use the additional funding to research how to incorporate dynamic covalent bonds into high-performance, cross-linked polymer networks.

“While crosslinks provide strength and stability to polymer materials, they also preclude them from being reprocessed and recycled, which is a major environmental concern,” Kuenstler said. “Using dynamic bonds that can be activated in response to certain stimuli helps to provide both dimensional stability when bond exchange is ‘off’, but allows for reprocessing and recycling when the bond exchange is turned ‘on’ and the material flows due to bond rearrangements.”

These types of materials have benefited from significant research in the past decade, but Kuenstler wants to find ways to incorporate them into semi-crystalline materials for industrially relevant applications, including 3D printing. She hopes to find ways to extend the use-life and re-use potential of these materials.

“I am sincerely grateful to Ryan, Chris and my colleagues in their groups for all the support and guidance they’ve provided me,” Kuenstler said. “Additionally, the administrative support both from those in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and the Office of Contracts and Grants helped coordinate the application process and were really great during a particularly hectic time.”

Lesli Mark
Hermans Group, University of Wisconsin-Madison
BS, Notre Dame ‘15
PhDChemEngr’20, Medlin Group

Lesli Mark

Mark earned her PhD as a member of Professor Will Medln’s group last year, and has since gone on to join the Hermans Research Group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a postdoctoral researcher.

“My time in Will Medlin’s group and at �� Boulder equipped me with the proper tools to be able to identify and tackle key problems in chemical instrumentation and heterogeneous catalysis,” Mark said.

Much of Mark’s work as a student in the Medlin group concerned ultrahigh vacuum techniques and its specialized equipment, which prepared her to work with and troubleshoot other complex chemical instrumentation systems.

“Lesli has many strengths as a researcher, but the two that stick out the most are her versatility and her tenacity,” Medlin said. “She has the ability to do cutting-edge research in an unusually diverse set of technical areas, and she has always refused to be defeated by major challenges that would deter most researchers.”

Mark will apply the resources provided by this fellowship to her efforts to design and optimize a high-pressure modulation excitation system for spectroscopic characterizations, including diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy.

“This system will allow for the correlation of catalytic performance—activity and selectivity—with molecular changes observed with spectroscopy under true reaction conditions,” Mark said. “The development of this apparatus will give us the ability to take spectroscopic chemical images of heterogeneous catalysts under real conditions. This will allow for an in-depth understanding of the working principles of catalytic materials, and is the key to advancing the field of catalysis.”

Mark plans to pursue a career in academia as research faculty.

“I would like to thank my mentors, Will Medlin and Ive Hermans, as well as my labmates from both the Medlin and Hermans groups,” Mark said.

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Anseth to receive 2021 Herman F. Mark Polymer Chemistry Award this fall

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Anseth to receive 2021 Herman F. Mark Polymer Chemistry Award this fall Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 02/08/2021 - 00:00

Jonathan Raab

Professor Kristi Anseth will be the recipient of the prestigious Herman F. Mark Polymer Chemistry Award at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall 2021 meeting.

“Kristi Anseth has made fundamental contributions to the field of polymer science and to its application to biological investigation and biomedicine,” said Professor Jeffrey A. Hubbell of the University of Chicago in his nomination letter.

Professor Kristi Anseth

Hubbell went on to cite Anseth’s numerous scientific achievements, including her pioneering of biomaterial cell-culture systems to decipher extracellular matrix signals in tissue research, her work in regenerative biology and medicine, and more.

“Kristi Anseth has been a leader and a pioneer in polymer chemistry,” said Professor Nicolas A. Peppas of the University of Texas, who also nominated Anseth. “The Herman Mark Award recognizes her seminal contributions to the synthesis of novel biopolymer materials that are used in medical and pharmaceutical products.”

The Herman F. Mark Polymer Chemistry Award was created in 1976 to recognize significant scientific achievement and leadership in the field of polymer science. The award is managed by the Division of Polymer Chemistry, Inc. of the ACS. Recipients receive a commemorative plaque, an honorarium of $3,000, and paid travel expenses to the ACS Meeting at which they will be honored.

“This award—which is only given to one person every two years—is a major recognition of Kristi’s truly amazing accomplishments in research and leadership,” said Professor J. Will Medlin, Chair of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. “The list of previous awardees includes some of the most well-known chemists and chemical engineers over the past few decades, including multiple Nobel laureates. Kristi is right at home in this kind of group. We in ChBE are all extremely proud to have Kristi as a colleague.”

Anseth recently received the L’Oreal UNESCO for Women in Science Laureate for North America and is a member of three national academies.

The 2021 award will be presented at the national ACS Meeting, themed around the “Resilience of Chemistry,” taking place August 22-26 in Atlanta.

Professor Kristi Anseth will be the recipient of the prestigious Herman F. Mark Polymer Chemistry Award at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall 2021 meeting.

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Grad students and recent PhD recipients encouraged to apply for Ereztech fellowship award

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 17:46:48 +0000

Grad students and recent PhD recipients encouraged to apply for Ereztech fellowship award Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 07/18/2019 - 11:46

From Ereztech:

Each year, Ereztech, a leading organometallic specialty chemical manufacturer, awards three $1500 fellowship awards to well deserving students and post-docs pursuing careers in organometallic chemistry.

Frequently Asked Questions:

What are the qualifications for interested applicants?

The award is available to graduate students, recent PhD recipients (grad should have received PhD within the last 5 years), and postdoctoral fellows that have distinguished themselves in organometallic related fields.
The applicant must be attending or working at an accredited North American college or university.
The scientist can be associated with a university or a government research organization.
Both national and international applicants are urged to apply.

What is the amount of each award?

The awards are $1,500.

What is the deadline, and when will the winners be notified?

For the 2019 award the deadline for submitting applications is September 1st. The winners will be announced on October 1st.

Is financial need a factor?

No, we do not base the decision on financial need.

How to apply?

To apply, please submit a CV including publications in organometallics and a 500-600 word article on the future of organometallic chemistry as you perceive it to award@ereztech.com. By submitting this content, you confirm this is original content and may be promoted by Ereztech.

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Three new GAANN programs launch in ChBE

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 07:00:00 +0000

Three new GAANN programs launch in ChBE Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 11/06/2018 - 00:00

The Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and its partners are hosting three new GAANN programs, or Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need, to equip graduate students to research solutions to critical national needs.

GAANN is a competitive grant program funded by the U.S. Department of Education to support outstanding PhD students with financial need.

Together, the three new programs will fund more than 20 chemical and biological engineering PhD students with competitive stipends, tuition, fees, insurance and travel grants. The programs include student/faculty retreats, supervised teaching, research, professional activities and community outreach. New and continuing students are invited to apply.

The programs are:

Professional Preparation of Chemical Engineers for Rebuilding the Nation’s Infrastructure

The nation’s infrastructure includes much more than buildings, highways, bridges and airports. It also includes water, energy, communications, manufacturing facilities, advanced materials and more. This program will prepare chemical engineers to play key roles, whether creating lightweight polymeric materials for airplanes, automobiles and cell phones or designing efficient processing facilities for transportation fuels, water treatment, and chemical and pharmaceutical production. Led by Professor Robert Davis, the faculty leadership also includes Professors Kristi Anseth, Chris Bowman and Will Medlin.

Materials for Energy Conversion and Sustainability (joint with Electrical, Computer & Energy Engineering)

This new program incorporates several related research and training centers that provide research opportunities and industry experience focused on critical needs in material science and engineering research. Led by Professors Won Park and Jennifer Cha.

Soft Materials (joint with Materials Science and Engineering)

Knowledge of the fundamental and applied aspects of soft materials is relevant to developing the workforce in critical areas of material science and chemical engineering. This program will increase the number of outstanding graduate students who are trained in teaching and research in critical technologies related to the interdisciplinary field of soft materials. Led by Professors Robert McLeod and Stephanie Bryant.

The College of Engineering and Applied Science also earned two additional GAANN grants in:

Critical Aerospace Technologies (Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences)
Rebuilding Better Infrastructure for Resilient Communities (Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering)

Learn more about all five GAANN grants.

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Professor Christopher Bowman Wins 2018 Roy W. Tess Award in Coatings

Anonymous — Fri, 06 Jul 2018 18:41:01 +0000

Professor Christopher Bowman Wins 2018 Roy W. Tess Award in Coatings Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 07/06/2018 - 12:41

Professor Christopher Bowman will receive the 2018 Roy W. Tess Award in Coatings from the American Chemical Society’s Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering.

The Tess Award is presented annually in recognition of outstanding contributions to coatings science, engineering and technology and is funded by a grant from Dr. and Mrs. Roy W. Tess. The purpose of the award is to encourage interest and progress in coatings science technology and engineering and to recognize significant contributions to the field.

The award includes a plaque and a $3,000 cash prize.

Bowman is internationally recognized for his contributions to our fundamental understanding of photopolymerization systems and reaction engineering of crosslinked polymer systems.

Bowman has made important contributions to both the fundamental understanding of the kinetics, mechanisms, structure, and properties of photo-polymer systems and the creative development of new coating applications for these polymeric materials. He has published more than 350 articles related to polymeric materials and he has been awarded 25 patents, including seven that have been licensed or optioned to eight different industrial companies.

Bowman will receive the Tess Award in August 2018 during the 256th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Washington, D.C.

Bowman earned his BS and PhD in chemical engineering at Purdue University. He began his academic career at the University of Colorado as an assistant professor in 1992 and is currently the James and Catherine Endowed Chair and a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering.

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Professor Stephanie Bryant Inducted into Medical & Biological Engineering Elite

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 22:17:23 +0000

Professor Stephanie Bryant Inducted into Medical & Biological Engineering Elite Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 07/05/2018 - 16:17

Professor Stephanie Bryant has been inducted into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

Bryant was nominated, reviewed and elected by peers and members of the College of Fellows for major contributions in understanding advancements of hydrogels and their design for in vitro and in vivo tissue engineering applications.

Election to the AIMBE College of Fellows is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to a medical and biological engineer. The College of Fellows is comprised of the top 2 percent of medical and biological engineers. College membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering and medicine research, practice, or education” and to "the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of medical and biological engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to bioengineering education."

An induction ceremony was held during the AIMBE Annual Meeting at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., on April 9. Bryant was inducted along with 156 colleagues in the class of 2018.

Bryant earned her PhD from �� Boulder and joined the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering in 2005. She also serves as associate director of the Materials Science & Engineering Program.

AIMBE is the authoritative voice and advocate for the value of medical and biological engineering to society. AIMBE’s mission is to recognize excellence, advance the public understanding, and accelerate medical and biological innovation. The organization brings together academic, industry, government and scientific societies to form a highly influential community advancing medical and biological engineering. AIMBE’s mission drives advocacy initiatives into action on Capitol Hill and beyond.

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Assistant Professor Jerome Fox Receives Two National Awards on the Same Day

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 20:18:39 +0000

Assistant Professor Jerome Fox Receives Two National Awards on the Same Day Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 07/05/2018 - 14:18

University of Colorado Boulder chemical and biological engineering Assistant Professor Jerome M. Fox won two prestigious national awards this spring.

Fox found out on the same day in March that he had received the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career (CAREER) Award and the U.S. Army Research Office Young Investigator Award.

The CAREER Award is given to early-career faculty who have the potential to become leaders in research and education while also advancing the mission of their department and organizations. The five-year, $514,000 grant will help to address a longstanding challenge of medical science: the development of low-cost pharmaceuticals. Fox will develop an approach to “evolve” drug leads (biologically active molecules that could serve as the starting point for new pharmaceuticals) that can be synthesized in simple microorganisms. This project is unique in its focus on two challenges usually examined in isolation: the discovery of leads and the synthesis of those leads. If successful, it could accelerate the rate and lower the cost of drug development.

The ARO award will fund a study focused on a long-standing question: How do biological systems do so much with so little? Fox will determine how enzymes - Nature’s catalysts - work together to carry out complex operations quickly. This work will help illuminate the biochemical basis of information processing and “low-power complexity” in living systems. If successful, this project could lead to new varieties of dynamically adjustable biochemical systems and materials. The award will total $360,000 and will be given over three years.

Fox has been an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering since 2016. He earned his undergraduate degrees in environmental engineering and natural science from Johns Hopkins University and his doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

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Graduate Nick Monteleone Earns Silver Medal Award

Anonymous — Tue, 29 May 2018 16:40:29 +0000

Graduate Nick Monteleone Earns Silver Medal Award Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/29/2018 - 10:40

His service, professionalism and academic efforts throughout college earned him the Colorado Engineering Council’s Silver Medal, one of the most prestigious awards offered to �� Engineering graduates.

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