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The recipient of the 2021 Founders Award is Kristi S. Anseth, Distinguished Professor and Tisone Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU-Boulder). Dr. Anseth is being lauded for her “seminal contributions to the application of foundational aspects of chemical engineering to the design of advanced biomaterials, hybrid medical devices, and bionanoscale-based processes.”

Jiajie Huo, Postdoctoral Associate – Medlin Lab Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021 2:45 p.m., JSCBB A108 "Catalyst Development for Aqueous-phase Biomass Conversion and Gas-phase Methane Activation" Seminar Abstract Catalysis plays a crucial role in the

The conversion of intermittent solar radiation into storable and transportable chemical fuels can enable access to sustainable feedstocks and dispatchable sources of power, regardless of geographic location. Of particular interest is technologies that facilitate the endothermic dissociation of water and carbon dioxide while utilizing heat that is obtained via concentrating optics and/or renewable sources of electricity.

Liquid crystalline materials (LCMs) showcase extensive potential for application in a range of industries including soft robotics, optics, and, more recently, biomaterials. By patterning the mesogen alignment within these materials, a directed response can be achieved resulting in muscle-like contraction or 3-D deformation. Employing alignment techniques such as surface enforced alignment, photopatterning, and 3-D printing, we seek to further develop these methods to target biologically relevant LCM applications. Here, I will discuss two LCM systems that highlight recent progress in liquid crystalline biomaterials as enzymatic biosensors and substrates for tissue engineering. In the development of the biosensors, we explore the implications of harnessing an enzyme (jack bean urease) within a heavily crosslinked liquid crystalline network (LCN). The network leverages a hydrogen-bonded liquid crystalline mesogen as a chemoresponsive unit, sensitizing the material to ammonia. As the urease enzyme catalyzes the transformation of urea into ammonia, the pre-programmed alignment of the network mesogens is disrupted, resulting in a bulk shape change. In a separate study, surface aligned liquid crystalline elastomers are synthesized to target aligned cell culture for anisotropic tissues such as muscle. Results show a preference for cell growth along the nematic director of LCEs.

Geometric frustration, the incompatibility of local ordering with global geometric constraints, is known to cause anomalous structures, crystal defects, and self-limitation.

Filipe Henrique is this year’s recipient of the Dwight E. and Jessie D. Ryland Endowed Graduate Fellowship from the College of Engineering and Applied Science. This fellowship provides $10,000 over two years to a deserving first-year PhD student working in alternative energy or improved energy utilization and efficiency.

The proliferation of plastic products has created an environmental challenge: what should be done with unusable, discarded plastic waste that can harm the environment? Faculty from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering are working on a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded project, Hydrogenolysis for Upcycling of Polyesters and Mixed Plastics, to address this serious environmental issue.

Polysaccharides represents an abundant class of biopolymers, of which cellulose in trees and chitin from Crustacea are common examples. Alginates from seaweed have high affinity to divalent cations and form hydrogels by ionic crosslinking.

No universal vaccines exist for infectious diseases like HIV and influenza, largely due to the high frequency with which the pathogens that cause these diseases acquire mutations in their surface proteins. Hear from Assistant Professor Kayla Sprenger as she describes our efforts to address this challenge for HIV using a variety of computational methods that include homology modeling, molecular simulations, mathematical modeling, and machine learning.

Chern-Hooi Lim (PhDChemEngr’15) is the founder and CEO of New Iridium, a spinoff company created by research conducted in part in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. He was recently selected for C&EN’s Talented 12, a program that honors young chemists and chemical engineers who are bringing innovation and entrepreneurship to bear on pressing global issues.