2014 Archive

CBE Graduate Seminar Series 2014-2015 announces “Speaker of the Month” for October and November 2014

The Department of Chemical and Biochemical is pleased to announce the winners of the “Speaker of the Month” for October and November 2014. The winners are Patricio Javier Valades Pelayo who presented his seminar on the topic “scale-up studies on bench-scale slurry photocatalytic reactors: radiative and kinetic modelling” and Isabela Reiniati who presented her seminar on the topic “Production and purification of bacterial cellulose nanocrystals”.

Congratulations to Dr. Lauren Flynn and Dr. Lars Rehmann!

The Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering would like to congratulate Dr. Lauren Flynn on being granted tenure (July 1, 2015) as well as Dr. Lars Rehmann on being promoted to Associate Professor and granting of tenure (July 1, 2015). Please join us in congratulating them on these career milestones!

Western Engineering Water Research Video featuring CBE professors, Dr. Amarjeet Bassi, Dr. George Nakhla, Dr. Ajay Ray and Dr. Mita Ray 

Watch how Western Engineering researchers are working to create solutions for the management and treatment of water supplies, and the remediation of wastewater. (watch the video)

Congratulations to Dr. Amarjeet Bassi!

Congratulations to Dr. Amarjeet Bassi on being elected president of The Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering (CSChE). (more)

Dr. Charles Xu turning forestry and agricultural 'waste' into useable products 
Western Engineering News | November 26, 2014
Dr. Charles Xu is looking to turn corporate sustainability goals into reality by assisting companies seeking new ways to produce and use environmentally friendly products. (more)

The Department of Chemical & Biochemical Engineering's Distinguished Lecture 2014

The Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering will host Dr. Sossina M. Haile, Carl F. Braun Professor of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, for a distinguished lecture on November 13, 2014. (more)

Dr. Kibret Mequanint looks to zero in radiation treatment

Dr. Kibret Mequanint, whose research focuses on the design and development of materials for biomedical applications, is working to improve something he’s developed – a hydrogel dosimeter for radiation therapy, which is a material that can measure the dose of radiation delivered to a cancer tumour. (more)

Congratulations to Dr. Kibret Mequanint!

The Department of Chemical & Biochemical Engineering would like to congratulate Dr. Kibret Mequanint on being the recipient of the 2014 Bikila Awards' Professional Excellence Award. (more)

Congratulations to Dr. Cedric Briens!

The Department of Chemical & Biochemical Engineering would like to congratulate Dr. Cedric Briens on being named NSERC/Syncrude/ExxonMobil Industrial Research Chair in Fluid Coking Technologies! (more)

Congratulations to graduate student Dibakar Mondal!

The Department of Chemical & Biochemical Engineering would like to congratulate graduate student Dibakar Mondal on being named one of the recipients of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship! (more)

Congratulations to Dr. Charles (Chunbao) Xu!

The Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering would like to congratulate Dr. Charles (Chunbao) Xu on being promoted to Professor (July 1, 2014). Please join us in congratulating Dr. Xu on this career milestone!

Congratulations to Dr. Argyrios Margaritis on his induction as a Fellow in the Canadian Academy of Engineering!

Dr. Argyrios Margaritis has been inducted Fellow in the Canadian Academy of Engineering. (more)

Congratulations to graduate student Joseph Donohue on winning the national 3-minute thesis competition!

MESc student, Joseph Donohue, has won the top prize at Canada’s National 3-Minute Thesis competition (3MT), a research communication competition where graduate students have three minutes or less to present their research and its impact to a panel of non-specialist judges and peers. Congratulations Joseph! (Western News) (CAGS News)

Congratulations to our 2014 Research Bridges Graduate Student winners!

The 5th Annual Research Bridges graduate student symposium took place last Friday, June 6, 2014 at the Western Sarnia-Lambton Research Park. Twelve of our graduate students presented in 3 categories: ‘Fluidization and Particle Technology’, ‘Energy and Nanomaterials’ and ‘Biotechnology and Environment’ and 7 of our graduate students presented posters on their research projects. Congratulations to Joseph Donohue, Angel Lanza, Ghodsieh Malekshoar, Anastasia Colomba, Ana Maria Aguirre, Ferdinando Crapulli, Valerie Orr, and Alfredo Martinez-Iglesias! (more)

Congratulations to graduate students Ana-Maria Aguirre and Luis-Carlos Luque!

The 16th Ontario-Quebec Biotechnology meeting was held in Toronto on May 15-16, 2014. CBE graduate student, Ana-Maria Aguirre won first prize for an oral presentation she gave during the first day of the conference. Her presentation was entitled 'Study of the effect of high pressure steaming on biofuels recovery from microalgae'. CBE graduate student, Luis-Carlos Luque also won second prize for an oral presentation he gave on the second day of the conference. His presentation was entitled 'Alcohol production from pyrolytic sugars obtained from selective fast pyrolysis of pretreated biomass'.

Congratulations to Dr. Amarjeet Bassi for being appointed to an important NSERC Committee!

Dr. Amarjeet Bassi has been appointed as a member of the Environmental Science and Technologies Committee of NSERC.

Congratulations to Undergraduate Students Kevin Black and Jason Pumfrey!

The submission from Kevin Black and Jason Pumfrey has received an honourable mention from Minerva Canada's Awards Committee for this year's Minerva James Ham Safe Design Award competition for engineering undergraduate students. Their report presented reactor modifications that would reduce downtime and the potential for employee and contractor injuries. Congratulations to Kevin and Jason as well as to Dr. Shahzad Barghi in supervising 4th year Plant Design project of Kevin and Jason.

Congratulations to Western's 3MT Winner Joseph Donohue!

Please join us in congratulating CBE graduate student Joseph Donohue, winner of Western's Three Minute Thesis (3MT) finals on April 10, 2014. Joseph will be invited to attend the Ontario 3MT final on Thursday, April 24 at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. (more) 

Congratulations to 3MT Finalists!

This past Friday, five CBE graduate students competed in the 3-minute thesis competition. These students included Koosha Azhie, Gureet Chandhok, Joseph Donohue, Noshin Hashim, and Anastasia Pasche. Congratulations to finalists Anastasia Pasche and Joseph Donohue who will be moving on to compete with the top 20 students from across Western at the finals on Thursday, April 10 from 3:00-4:30pm in the Davenport Theatre, Talbot College. Please support our graduate students competing and attend to show your support. (more) 

CBE Graduate Seminar Series 2013-2014 announces “Speaker of the  Month” for Febraury/March 2014

The Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering has introduced a new format for the Graduate Seminars for the year 2013-2014.  The seminars are organized by a graduate committee comprising of graduate students and every seminar is also chaired by a graduate student (other than for invited external speakers). We are pleased to announce the winner of the “Speaker of the Month” for February/March 2014. The winner is Adam Golin who presented his seminar on the topic “electrospun scaffolds for use in tympanic membrane tissue engineering”.

Congratulations to CBE 4415 Research Project Presentation Undergraduate Student winners!

Please join us in congratulating CBE 4415 Research Project Presentation Undergraduate Student winners Manuell Oliveira (1st Prize), Qingchen Liu (2nd Prize), and Mark Weatherall (3rd Prize).

CBE Faculty Members Receive NSERC Grants

Please join us in congratulating Franco Berruti, Lauren Briens, Dimitre Karamanev, Argyrios Margaritis, Charles Xu, and Jesse Zhu on receving NSERC Discovery Grants and Sohrab Rohani on receiving an NSERC RTI Grant.

Congratulations to Dr. Kibret Mequanint on receiving a Faculty Scholars Award 2014!

Dr. Kibret Mequanint is a recipient of the Faculty Scholars Award for 2014. Established in 2005, the Faculty Scholars Award recognizes significant recent scholarly achievements in teaching or research. Nominated by faculty deans and selected by the Faculty Selection committee chaired by the Provost, the recipients have an international presence in their discipline and are considered all-round scholars. Winners hold the title “Faculty Scholar” for two years and receive $7,000 each year for scholarly activities, as well as receiving a citation. (more)

Congratulations to our 2014 Capstone Design Competition Undergraduate Student winners!

Thirteen teams of 4th year undergraduate students in CBE and GPE presented in the Chemical & Biochemical Processes, Fuel & Energy, and Waste Treatment & Environmental categories at the 9th Annual Capstone Design Competition at the Western Sarnia-Lambton Research Park. Congratulations to Tanuj Dutta, David Edwards, Daxton Novak, Julian Smith, Helal Elkolaly, Benjamin Poitras, Mark Weatherall, Kevin Black, Jason Pumfrey, Darren Njgli, Hecham Omar, Sarah DeDecker, Geoffrey Ankumah, Anna Maveal, Balakrishnan Subramanian, Sean Devouge, Nicholas Tan, Chou Khat, Kristen Dorey, Leena Mohammed Faeq. (The Lambton Shield | March 21, 2014) (Sarnia This Week | March 20, 2014)

Undergraduate Students Recognize Outstanding Teachers 2013-14: The Maurice Bergougnou Teaching Excellence Award in CBE

In 2010, the Department of Chemical & Biochemical Engineering initiated the Maurice Bergougnou Teaching Excellence Award. The winners of this award are selected by the Undergraduate Students of Chemical & Biochemical Engineering/Green Process Engineering for their outstanding work in teaching undergraduate courses. The Undergraduate Students of Chemical & Biochemical Engineering/Green Process Engineering have chosen the winners for 2013-14. We would like to congratulate Dr. Jose Herrera (CBE 2207 Industrial Organic Chemistry II), Dr. Ajay K Ray (CBE 3322 Heat Transfer Operations and CBE 3324 Mass Transfer Operations) and Dr. Shahzad Barghi (CBE 4497 Chemical Engineering Plant Design) on this recognition.

Undergraduate Students Recognize Outstanding Teaching Assistants 2013-14

The Undergraduate Students of Chemical & Biochemical Engineering/Green Process Engineering have chosen graduate students for their outstanding work as Teaching Assistants in 2013-14. We would like to congratulate Pegah Saremirad (CBE 3315), Angel Lanza (CBE 2214), Ghodsieh Malekshoar (CBE 3322), Adrianna Mika (CBE2291) and Alexandra Dawn Bannerman (GPE 2213) on this recognition.

Congratulations to Dr. Jose Herrera, Dr. Beth Gillies and Dr. Paul Charpentier

Dr. Jose Herrera (under the Chemical & Biochemical Engineering program), Dr. Beth Gillies (under the Chemical & Biochemical Engineering program) and Dr. Paul Charpentier (under the Green Process Engineering program) have received the 2012-2013 USC Teaching Honor Roll Award of Excellence in the Department of Chemical & Biochemical Engineering. (more)

The Department of Chemical & Biochemical Engineering's Distinguished Lecture 2014

The Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering will host Dr. Gregory Stephanopoulos, Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for a distinguished lecture on April 10, 2014. (more)

Congratulations to Dr. Kibret Mequanint and Dr. Jin Zhang

The Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering would like to congratulate Dr. Kibret Mequanint on being promoted to Professor (July 1, 2014) as well as Dr. Jin Zhang on being promoted to Associate Professor and granting of tenure (July 1, 2014). Please join us in congratulating them on these career milestones!

Chemical & Biochemical Engineering welcomes newest faculty member Dr. Lauren Flynn

Dr. Lauren Flynn comes to Western continuing her exploration of novel biomaterials and tissue engineering strategies that will improve health. (more)

CBE Graduate Seminar Series 2013-2014 announces “Speaker of the  Month” for January/Febraury 2014

The Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering has introduced a new format for the Graduate Seminars for the year 2013-2014.  The seminars are organized by a graduate committee comprising of graduate students and every seminar is also chaired by a graduate student (other than for invited external speakers). We are pleased to announce the winner of the “Speaker of the Month” for January/February 2014. The winner is Tennison Yu who presented his seminar on the topic “Characterizing a cetyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) system for nanotube dispersion ”. (more)

Dr. Hugo de Lasa to deliver Distinguished Lectures at University of Calgary in February

Dr. Hugo de Lasa will be delivering two Distinguished ZANDMER Lectures at the Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Department, University of Calgary in early February. (more)

Dr. Franco Berruti Awarded the 2014 Kalev Pugi Award

The Kalev Pugi Award is given by the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI), the business forum of the Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC), and is made to an individual or team for specific research and development projects that have been performed during the previous 10-15 years. The award will be presented to Franco during the Canadian International Annual Gala Dinner in Toronto on April 3, 2014 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. (more)