Message from CCE alum, Satoshi Ohtake, Senior Director at Pfizer:
On behalf of the CCE alumni, congratulations!
This year, we have 19 B.S. degree recipients, 11 M.S. degree recipients and 49 Ph.D degree recipients joining our community of 5,252 CCE alumni.
Many of you will continue to pursue your academic aspirations, while others will take on diverse careers in the private sector or government. The possibilities are endless. Irrespective of your selected career path, I have no doubt that you will leverage your learnings and training from your time at Caltech. More importantly, don’t forget to tap into the incredible network, both the one you’ve created and those which remain unexplored.
A few requests from me. Please stay connected with the CCE community and share your accomplishments. We want to feature your success, which in turn will attract talented students to pursue their academic careers at Caltech. You are an integral part of the talent ecosystem that is self-reinforcing.
I will join your peers, friends, and family to cheer you on as you march down the lawn of Beckman auditorium during commencement. I look forward to connecting and reading about your future accomplishments in our alumni magazine, Techer.
Awards and Honors
Faculty Awards
Theo Agapie: Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award
Bill Clemons: National Academy of Sciences
Shasha Chong: Searle Scholar
Linda Hsieh-Wilson: National Academy of Sciences
Steve Mayo: American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Hosea Nelson: 2022 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists Finalist
Max Robb: Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, NSF CAREER Award and PMSE Young Investigator
Graduate Student and Post Doc Awards
Termeh Bashiri: NSERC Fellowship Award
Alex Barth: CCE Teaching Assistantship Award
Wesley Chang: 2022 Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow
Emily Du: NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
Nathan Harper: NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
Levi Palmer: CCID Activist Scholar Award
Stefan Petrovic: McCoy Award & CCE Teaching Assistantship Award
Adrian Samkian: NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
Skyler Ware: 3 Minute Thesis (3rd place and People's Choice)
Olivia Harper Wilkins: 2022 CAS Future Leader
Undergraduate Student Awards
Lucas E. Abounader: Renuka D. Sharma Prize
Emily Du: ACS Undergraduate Award in Organic Chemistry & Merck Index Award
Alex Fontani Herreros: ACS Undergraduate Award in Analytical Chemistry
Katerina Gorou: Richard P. Schuster Memorial Prize
Alex Hong: ACS Undergraduate Award in Inorganic Chemistry
Catherine J. Ko: Renuka D. Sharma Prize
Amy-Doan Vo: ACS Undergraduate Award in Physical Chemistry
Tianyi Zhang: ACS Undergraduate Award in Organic Chemistry & Merck Index Award
Staff Awards
Margarita Davis: Service Award (10 Years)
Julianne Just: Service Award (10 Years)
Irina Meininger: Service Award (15 Years)
Scott Virgil: Service Award (15 Years)
STUDENT NEWS
Solar Energy Activity Lab (SEAL) End of Year Conference
On May 14, 2022, high school students in the community participated in SEAL Con, a year end research conference for those involved in the Solar Energy Activity Lab (SEAL). SEAL is an outreach program where Caltech mentors work with local high schools to help students gain hands-on research experience in areas related to sustainability. Students investigated microbial fuel cells throughout the 2021-2022 school year. They tested different types of soil and different fuel cell designs to assess and compare fuel cell performance. At SEAL Con, the students presented their results to other schools and brainstormed future directions to improve their experimental designs. Additionally, SEAL Con provided an opportunity for high school students to tour some of Caltech’s research laboratories to gain a better understanding of what a career in scientific research looks like. Participating schools included Alverno Heights Academy, Crescenta Valley High School, Franklin High School and Polytechnic School.
DIVISION NEWS
CCE Staff Appreciation Day / Administrative Professionals Day
On April 27, 2022, CCE staff and faculty gathered at Tournament Park for the division's annual staff appreciation picnic. Attendees enjoyed burgers and pie from local favorite Pie N' Burger as well as ice cream from Fosselman's Ice Cream.
54th Annual W. N. Lacey Lectureship in Chemical Engineering
On May 18 & 19, 2022, the 54th Annual W. N. Lacey Lectureship in Chemical Engineering was held in the Linus Pauling Lecture Hall and featured Professor Paula T. Hammond. Professor Hammond is an Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering. She gave two talks, "Designer Nanocarriers for Cancer Therapy" and a researched-focused lecture on "Tuning Stickiness and Adapting Charge of Nanomaterials to Target Tissues and Cell Matrices".
This series of distinguished lectureships is named in honor of Dr. William Noble Lacey. The yearly special lectures honoring W. N. Lacey recognize outstanding research and are held during the winter or spring quarters. The objective of the lectureship program is to bring to the campus world-renowned experts currently active in chemical engineering or related disciplines.
Harden M. McConnell Lecture
On May 26, 2022, Professor Dame Carol Robinson of Oxford University gave a lecture titled "A new phase for structural biology" in the Linus Pauling Lecture Hall. Professor Robinson holds the Oxford Chair of Dr. Lee’s Professor of Chemistry and is the first Director of the Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery at the University of Oxford.
The annual lectureship, named in honor of McConnell (PhD '51)—who taught at Caltech for more than a decade and is widely recognized as one of the leading physical and biophysical chemists—aims to bring to the campus outstanding scientists to present on physical chemistry research.
Robert W. Vaughan Lecture in Chemical Engineering
On June 2, 2022, CCE alumna Professor Nga Lee (Sally) Ng (MS '04, PhD '07) spoke at the annual Robert W. Vaughan Lecture in Chemical Engineering with her lecture "“Photolysis and Photochemical Oxidation of Atmospheric Monoterpene Organic Nitrates". She is a professor and Tanner Faculty Fellow in the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and the School of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
The yearly special lectures honoring Robert W. Vaughan recognize outstanding research and are held during the winter or spring quarters. Robert W. Vaughan was at the center of developments of high-resolution, solid-state NMR techniques at the time of his untimely death in 1979. The objective of the Vaughan Lectureship is to honor distinguished young scientists in any of the fields of Chemical Engineering, Chemical Physics or Applied Physics.
Constantin G. Economou Symposium
On June 3, 2022, the Constantin G. Economou Symposium was held in the Linus Pauling Lecture Hall to retroactively award the Economou Prize for the last five years. The Economou Prize is awarded to a chemical engineering graduate student distinguished by outstanding research accomplishments and exemplary attitude while fulfilling candidacy requirements for the Ph.D. degree.
Economou Prize Recipients:
- 2017: Bill Ling "Biomolecular Ultrasound Diagnostics"
- 2018: Andy Ylitalo and Hyeongjoo Row "Better Polymer Foam Insulation through 'Backdoor' Bubble Nucleation" and "Reverse Osmotic Effect in Active Matter"
- 2019: Marjorie Buss "Ultrasound Imaging of Tumor-Homing and Intestinal Bacteria Using Acoustic Reporter Genes"
- 2020: Ravi Lai "Engineering Hemoproteins for Highly Enantioselective [1,2]-Stevens Rearrangements of Small Nitrogen Heterocycles"
- 2021: Sam Varner "Dilution Effects in Room Temperature Ionic Liquid Supercapacitors"
Robert H. Grubbs Memorial Service
On May 20, 2022, Students, faculty, staff, friends and family of Bob Grubbs gathered on the Beckman Mall and virtually via livestream to celebrate the life of Bob Grubbs. Speakers included Caltech President Thomas Rosenbaum, Provost Dave Tirrell, chemistry professor Hosea Nelson and alumni and colleagues of Bob Grubbs. Music was provided by blue grass band Fred Sokolow Music--a favorite genre of Bob's.
MEET THE GRADS
The following are a handful of CCE students graduating this year. Learn more about where they're off to next, words of wisdom they have for incoming students and moments they are most proud of during their time here at CCE and Caltech.
#MeetCCE
The division's #MeetCCE feature highlights members across the division to get to know them better. We are asking for submissions from across the CCE community (staff, faculty, students, postdoc, etc.).
If you are interested in being featured, please fill out the #MeetCCE form.
CCE DEI Updates & News
DEI FUNDING
The CCE DEI committee has limited funding to support CCE groups and individuals in activities focused on diversity, equity inclusion, and accessibility. The committee's primary aim is to foster the success of underrepresented minorities in CCE and STEM.
Please contact ccedei@caltech.edu for the funding forms and information.
ALUMNI NEWS
Seinfeld Lab Photo Donation
Christine and Dwight (MS ’70) Landis generously gifted a mounted photo of Caltech’s first Teflon smog chamber—built in 1970—to chemical engineering professor, John Seinfeld. The Seinfeld laboratory uses these Teflon chambers to study atmospheric secondary organic aerosols, an important component of smog. Dwight founded and runs ATEC, a company that, among other things, constructed Teflon chambers for research groups across the United States and Canada.
George Whitesides (PhD '64) receives Kavli Prize
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters named Harvard chemist George M. Whitesides as one of 11 recipients of the 2022 Kavli Prize in recognition of his contributions to the field of nanoscience.
Upcoming CCE Events
June
- June 9: McCoy Symposium
- June 22: Organic Chemistry Seminar - Osvaldo Gutierrez (Texas A&M University)
- June 23: DEI/DICI Seminar - Osvaldo Gutierrez (Texas A & M University)
July
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...
Watson Lecture on May 11: Scott Cushing on What We Can Learn from Quantum Entanglement
- Four Faculty Members, Five Alums Elected to National Academy of Sciences
- Caltech Breaks Ground on Resnick Sustainability Center
Stay Connected!
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