CHEM
NEWS
GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY • SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING • VOL. 11 NO. 1 • SPRING/SUMMER 2003
Tech Dedicates the Ford Environmental Science and Technology Building, the School of Chemical Engineering’s New Home are certain to miss the future.” Tech President Wayne Clough, Mr. Ford and Dr. Meredith also addressed the large crowd during the dedication ceremony.
School Chair Ronald Rousseau stands outside the Gossage Atrium with the Ramblin’ Wreck at the Ford ES&T Building dedication.
After more than three years of planning and anticipation, the School of Chemical Engineering officially relocated to the newly constructed Ford Environmental Science and Technology Building in January. Four months later, on May 16, the building was officially dedicated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and named for its principal and $10-million-donor, the Ford Motor Company. Numerous special guests attended the event, including Edsel Ford II, a member of the Board of Directors of Ford and great-grandson of the company’s founder; Thomas C. Meredith, Chancellor of the University
System of Georgia; and Virginia and Thomas Gossage, ChE ‘56, MSChE ‘57, who provided funding for the building’s Gossage Atrium. The School was honored to have Tiffany Stark, a senior chemical engineering major who will graduate this summer, selected to speak for the student body. She presented her thoughts on the new facility and how it will impact the campus now and in years to come. Quoting President John F. Kennedy, Tiffany challenged the audience to consider the importance of change: “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present
Boasting 287,000 square feet, the building is the largest academic structure on campus and anchors the Institute’s interdisciplinary Life Sciences and Technology Complex. Each department in the facility emphasizes in their curriculum the implications of technology on the environment. In addition to housing Chemical Engineering, classrooms and research facilities are also designated for the Advanced Technology & Development Center, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, as well as the disciplines of environmental biology and chemistry. “Georgia Tech is already a recognized leader in creating sustainable technologies, solving environmental problems and educating students to view their professions through the prism of sustainability,” said President Clough during the dedication. “The ES&T Building will take our efforts to a new level, and we are very pleased to have
Ford Motor Company as a partner in this effort.” The $58 million Ford ES&T Building was built with a combination of state and private funding, including $38 million from the state of Georgia, $15 million from private donors and $5 million from the Georgia Research Alliance. “This is a tremendous new building, and it also is a tool,” said Mr. Ford. “But what counts most is the Georgia Tech scientists, engineers and cadre of dedicated graduate assistants. In the hands of these very capable people, this facility will help increase our environmental understanding and shape a better world for all of us.” Ford has a long history of hiring Tech graduates as well as funding the Institute’s programs. Over the past 40 years the company has been a key corporate partner with the Institute, giving more than $10.4 million with an additional $6.2 million committed for future gifts. Ford celebrated its 100th anniversary on June 16. Please see pages 2, 3 & 4 for photos of the Ford ES&T Building.
Ford ES&T Building
The east side of the Ford ES&T Building comprises mostly faculty
The south wing of the Ford ES&T Building (right) faces Ferst Drive.
offices and offers a wonderful view of the Tech baseball field.
To the left is the U.A. Whitaker Building for Biomedical Engineering, which is currently under construction.
A park-like quadrangle connects the Ford ES&T Building to the Petit
The Gossage Atrium as seen from the outside.
Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience and the U.A. Whitaker Building for Biomedical Engineering, which will open in August.
The north wing of the Ford ES&T Building.
The Ford ES&T Building’s signage was unveiled during the dedication ceremony.
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Ford ES&T Building Dedication
Wayne Clough, Tech President; Edsel Ford II, Ford Board of Directors;
Escorted by Tech President Wayne Clough (right), Edsel Ford II enters
Tiffany Stark, ChE ‘03; Thomas Meredith, University System of Geor-
the new building for the first time.
gia Chancellor; and Buzz participate in the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Students, faculty and guests celebrate with refreshments and fellow-
Thomas L. Gossage, ChE ‘56, MSChE ‘57, and his wife, Virginia,
ship after the building dedication ceremony.
with Tech President Wayne Clough in front of the plaque naming the Gossage Atrium in his honor.
Edsel Ford II stands next to the plaque honoring Ford’s commitment
Ron Rousseau (center) with Tiffany Stark, ChE ‘03 (2nd from left), and her family at the building dedication ceremony.
to the new building.
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Ford ES&T Building
Modern acoustical design makes the main auditorium and lecture
The main level of the Gossage Atrium features a cafĂŠ vending area
hall well-suited for classes and lectures.
where students gather to enjoy snacks and study together.
Three members of Professor Jay Lee’s research group conducting an
Top-notch laboratories with ample space provide the ideal environ-
experiment in their new lab space.
ment for student and faculty research.
The Gossage Atrium functions as the main thoroughfare in the new
The comfortable chairs and natural lighting in the new building
building by connecting the north and south wings and faculty offices.
create appealing space for both studying and relaxing.
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Global Awareness East Meets West with Unprecedented Success Richard Lee Smith, ChE BS ‘80, MS ‘83 and PhD ‘85, is serving in a leadership role in Japan that previously has been open only to native Japanese engineers. He received the honor in 2002 of becoming the first Western engineering professor to serve as a department head at a Japanese university. Dr. Smith leads the Research Center of Supercritical Fluid Technology at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. This distinction poses many challenges and demands because of the size of the department and the structure at the University. Dr. Smith’s center is part of the Department of Chemical Engineering, which is divided into five main teaching and research entities: Energy Process Engineering, Chemical Process Engineering, Process Systems Engineering, Research Center of Supercritical Fluid Technology, and Chemical Process Science.
This structure, which differs greatly from what is commonly used in Western universities, is based on a Japanese concept known as koza or “family.” Each koza is led by a full professor functioning in a chair capacity, and is supported by one or two assistant or associate professors, as well as post docs, graduate students and 4th-year undergraduate students.
Dr. Smith is currently involved in several research projects, including the separation of anacardic acid from cashew nut vesicant fluid for potential use in the pharmaceutical industry as an antiviral treatment for such diseases as TB and HIV. His research group is also working on thermally driven devices to develop more efficient analytical equipment for extraction, reaction material formation, and dyeing without the use of electricity in order to create a renewable sustainable process.
Smith received all of his ChE degrees from Georgia Tech, where Dr. Amyn Teja served as his advisor and oversaw his research on critical phenomena in thermally unstable fluids. After graduation, Smith served as a lecturer at Tohoku in 19851988, and then as an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina in 1988-1994. In 1994, he returned to Tohoku as an Associate Professor in the Research Center of Supercritical Fluid Technology.
While a student at Tech, Dr. Smith participated in both the London Summer Program and the Cooperative Education Program and he says that “he strongly recommends” both programs to current ChE students. Dr. Smith also credits the education he received at Tech for the success that he has enjoyed since graduation.
Dr. Richard Smith, ChE BS ‘80, MS ‘83 and PhD ‘85
In 1996, Dr. Smith was inducted into the Georgia Tech Council of Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni. He and his wife, Azusa Haruhara, have three children: sons Ken and Shoh and daughter Mari.
Alumni Events Homecoming Weekend Atlanta, Georgia Thurs.-Sat., October 2-4 ChE alumni reception and tours of the School’s new home in Ford ES&T
College of Engineering Alumni Awards Atlanta, Georgia Friday, October 17
AIChE Annual Meeting Alumni Reception San Francisco, California Tuesday, November 18
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etired Marine Corps General Raymond G. Davis, ChE ‘38, and three other alumni were recognized in a ceremony on May 19 dedicated to Tech’s Congressional Medal of Honor recipients. Gen. Davis is Tech’s only living recipient of the Medal.
Korean War. Despite facing an overwhelming enemy force, Gen. Davis led a battalion to rescue a rifle company and seize and hold a pass that provided an escape route for two other Marine regiments. He retired after a 33Retired Marine Corps General Raymond G. Davis, year career in 1972 as ChE ‘38, stands next to a plaque commemorating the Marine Corps’ second-highest ranking his Congressional Medal of Honor. officer. He is America’s most decorated living soldier. family now has three generations of Tech graduates, including his He observed his 88th birthday on daughter, Willa Davis Kerr, Biol January 13 and enjoyed a public ‘73, and granddaughter, Shana celebration a few days later at Kerr, Biol ‘02. He and his wife, The National Museum of Patrio- Willa, also have a son, Gilbert, tism in Atlanta. The Davis and seven grandchildren.
Plaques commemorating the Medal of Honor recipients were given by Joseph P. Byrd III, GE ‘38, and create a wall of honor leading to the plaza entrance of the Wardlaw Center. President Harry Truman presented the nation’s highest military honor to Gen. Davis in 1952 for his actions in the 5
Dr. Richard Gross Presents 19th Annual Ashton Cary Lecture
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standing-room-only crowd assembled on February 19 to hear Dr. Richard Gross present the 19th Annual Ashton Cary Lecture on “Research & Development and New Business Growth.” Dr. Gross is the Corporate Vice President of Research and Development at The Dow Chemical Company. Professor Ronald Rousseau introduced Dr. Gross by extolling his professional accomplishments, as well as noting his penchant for Cajun-style crawfish, gumbo, and red beans and rice. Dr. Gross, who served on the ChE External Advisory Board for many years, then launched into his presentation addressing innovation, research and chemical engineering science. Dr. Gross first described the three core beliefs that guide his thinking about innovation. First, he stated that technological innovation is the key for human progress. Second, technological innovation is driven by new knowledge generated by individuals conducting R&D. And third, chemical engineering science is at the heart of producing significant new knowledge.
Dr. Richard Gross chats with graduate student Kerry Bullock and Professor Dennis Hess during the reception held following his lecture.
size to a few hundred nanometers. Compared to conventional micron-sized particles, nanoparticles of danazol, a synthetic hormone used to treat endometriosis, were shown not only to dissolve much more quickly in water, but also gave considerably higher blood levels after oral delivery to animals.
He further advocated that innovation, rather than invention, is needed to drive the economy. Citing quotes by two of the 20th century’s greatest business minds, Peter Drucker and Joseph Schumpeter, Dr. Gross explained that invention generates new ideas, but innovation brings them to the marketplace where they can impact society. A recent study by the Council on Chemical Research indicates that innovation is currently strong in the United States.
Dr. Gross concluded his presentation with a quote from Sir Henry Tizard that “the secret of science is to ask the right questions” and urged the audience to think about which questions are most urgent in their fields of research. Everyone then adjourned for conversation over drinks, hors d’oeuvres and desserts.
Bucking conventional wisdom, Dr. Gross asserted that “old” technology has not been fully optimized and that applying new thinking to old problems will provide great opportunities for innovation. He cited a number of case studies from Dow to serve as examples.
Dr. Gross’ views have been shaped by an exceptional career in industry with significant interactions with government and academia. Dr. Gross joined Dow in 1974, after receiving a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a doctoral degree in chemical engineering from the University of Utah. He initially worked on hydrocarbons and energy R&D for Dow in Michigan and then transferred to Louisiana to work on coal gasification. Back again in Midland, Dr. Gross assumed a number of director-level positions in the areas of chemicals, metals, hydrocarbons and consumer products research. Before becoming Corporate Vice President in 1998, he was Vice President and Director of Michigan Operations and Global Vice President of Core Technologies R&D.
The first case study concerned the conception and development of a boiling tube evaporator to recover heat-sensitive products from a dilute stream. Inspired by a wiped film evaporator used in the paper industry, this innovation prevents product degradation by reducing contact time in the high temperature region of the device. Because it replaced a liquid-liquid extraction, this relatively simple technology saved millions of dollars in capital costs and annual solvent expenses. Another case study concerned a gas phase chlorination reactor that had operated stably for 30 years, but had inexplicably started displaying chaotic pressure oscillations. Using software algorithms developed by Hewlett Packard for other applications, Dow engineers were able to show that the complex behavior was actually deterministic and further found that simply placing a baffle in the feed line corrected the problem.
In 1996, Dr. Gross was a recipient of the Dow Genesis Award for Excellence in People Development. He is a member of a number of chemical engineering professional societies, including the Council for Chemical Research where he serves on the Governing Board Executive Committee. He also serves on advisory boards at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the University of California–Berkeley, the University of Michigan, the National Research Council, the National Institute of Standards & Technology, the National Science Resources Center, and the Michigan Molecular Institute Board.
Because a large fraction of drugs are poorly soluble in water, the pharmaceutical industry wants to make suspensions of drug particles that can rapidly dissolve in the gastrointestinal tract. Dow’s approach was to use crystallization inhibitors to reduce drug particle 6
A Moment in Time Last year marked the beginning of the second century of the study of Chemical Engineering at Georgia Tech. The following is the last segment in the ChE History series as we honor our past and look forward to our bright future in the new Ford ES&T Building. Chemical Engineering at Tech: 1951-2001 By Dr. Henderson L. Ward Henderson Ward earned his BS in ‘48, MS in ‘52, and Ph.D in ‘53 in ChE from GT. Dr. Ward retired from the ChE faculty in ‘84 and is currently writing a history of the School.
When Bunger-Henry opened in 1964, the surrounding area was very different than today. In this photograph, Atlantic Drive and the Van Leer (ECE) Building have not yet been added.
In 1950, the School of Chemical Engineering was a vibrant place to study and to teach with major changes to the student body and the curriculum soon to come. Just two years later, Tech first admitted women as day students. In 1961, Tech became the first school in the Deep South to become integrated without a court order.
The discipline now required more mathematical interpretation, particularly when considering transport phenomena, and the lowered cost of pocket calculators pushed slide rule use to obscurity around the same time that computer courses were added to the curriculum in the late 1960s. The development of polymer engineering also signaled future directions for the study of chemical engineering, becoming part of the academic program in 1970.
At that time, the ChE faculty had more experience in industry than in research. With the introduction of the concepts of transport phenomena, research changed from empirical to focus more on theoretical questions. Professor Henderson Ward attended workshops with key academics on the subject and brought the ideas to Tech where they became part of the curriculum in the mid-1960s.
The year 1975 marked the beginning of the School’s summer study program at University College of London. Tech students joined a group from Iowa State in a venture so successful that the London summer program continues today.
The next major change for the growing department was in 1964 when the School moved into the Bunger-Henry Building, which was named for two early ChE professors. At the time, it was considered a modern classroom and research facility. The new building had larger lab space to accommodate chemical engineering’s impressive enrollment, which already qualified it as one of the largest ChE departments in the country.
During the Vietnam War, the School’s graduate program became quite large. Significant increases in the undergraduate student body occurred afterward in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Some classes topped 100 students and met in auditoriums and larger classrooms in the facilities of nearby schools like Electrical Engineering. In 1979, the School’s first External Advisory Board was formed. The Board comprises alumni, industrial friends, and academic members who advise the School’s administrators. Today, the School remains one of the largest Chemical Engineering programs in the country. Its large faculty with a diversity of research interests allows students to learn modern approaches to traditional topics as well as cutting-edge applications of new chemical engineering principles. The calibre of students is the one thing that has remained the same throughout the 100-year-history of the School: they are still among the best and brightest coming to Georgia Tech each year. In 2002, students earning bachelors degrees in ChE had an average GPA over 3.0 in a program that is still considered by many to be one of the most challenging majors at Georgia Tech.
This photograph, taken in the 1950s, shows the location of the School of Chemical Engineering prior to the construction of the Bunger-Henry Building in 1964. The School’s facilities were housed in the building second from the right in the foreground.
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Chemical Engineering Welcomes Four New Faculty
T
he School is excited to announce the addition of four new faculty members: Victor Breedveld, Martha Gallivan, Sankar Nair and Athanasios
Nenes. Drs. Breedveld, Gallivan and Nenes are featured in this issue. An article spotlighting Dr. Nair will appear in the next issue.
Dr. Victor Breedveld Victor Breedveld joined the School of Chemical Engineering as an assistant professor in the spring of 2003. After obtaining his Ph.D. from the University of Twente in the Netherlands in October 2000, he came to the U.S. as a postdoctoral researcher on a TALENT grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and worked at the Materials Research Laboratory of the University of California at Santa Barbara. One of his projects at the Materials Research Laboratory was conducted under the guidance of Professors David Pine and Tim Deming. It focused on the self-assembly of novel block copolypeptides. These polymers are synthesized from amino acids and have unique biomimetic properties that are highly tunable due to the flexibility and control of the synthesis technique. His research focused on the mechanical properties and gelation behavior of the hydrogels with potential applications in tissue engineering and drug delivery. The goal was to optimize the molecular design for desirable material properties. His postdoctoral experience inspired Dr. Breedveld to stay in the U.S. and he took the opportunity to start his own research group at Georgia Tech. The general theme of his research is
“Structure and Rheology of Complex Fluids,” which investigates the structure and mechanical strength of materials that are neither simple Newtonian fluids nor elastic solids.
ChE’s new faculty members toast at the 2003 Graduate Student Recruitment Weekend banquet at the Renaissance Hotel in Atlanta: (from left) Victor Breedveld, Martha Gallivan, Sankar Nair and Athanasios Nenes.
Complex fluids encompass a large variety of materials: food products, polymer melts and solutions, coatings, personal care products, biological fluids and gels, etc. The mechanical properties (visco-elasticity, shear viscosity) are controlled by the microscopic molecular structure, which can be tuned by changing the interactions between molecules. The interplay between molecular structure and rheology is the focus of his research.
approach offers a number of unique opportunities. Due to the small sample size (microliter or less), microrheology is very suitable to investigate the structure and mechanical properties of expensive and rare materials. Microrheological measurements are also much faster than conventional approaches, thus enabling high-throughput screening of rheological properties. Last but not least, the size of the probe particles allows for localized rheology measurements with micrometer spatial resolution so that inhomogeneities in the structure can be detected. Capitalizing on these advantages of the novel technique, Dr. Breedveld currently focuses on the local rheology of bioengineering materials, such as tissue engineering scaffolds and on high-throughput applications for systems where screening and optimization of rheological properties is important.
Experimental research in the group is centered around two rheological techniques: conventional rheology with a rheometer and microrheology. Macrorheology studies the mechanical properties by deforming a fluid sample (0.5 to 10ml) in a controlled way in a rheometer and measuring the relation between applied stress and resulting deformation. Microrheology employs submicron particles as mechanical probes. The thermal fluctuations of these particles can be used as the driving force (~kT) and the resulting Brownian motion can be analyzed under an optical microscope to extract rheological information about the surrounding fluid. The
Dr. Breedveld enjoyed the beautiful late spring weather in Atlanta and is curious to experience what the “Hotlanta” summer is like. His Dutch background regularly causes hilarity in the classroom when using 8
Dutch expressions in the English translation. It also inspires an ongoing effort to teach Atlanta drivers how to deal with cyclists by commuting on two wheels, in spite of the general opinion that biking in Atlanta is not a wise idea.
Dr. Martha Gallivan In the fall of 2002, Martha Gallivan joined the School of Chemical Engineering as an assistant professor. She earned her bachelor’s degree at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign in 1996, and defended her Ph.D. thesis at the California Institute of Technology in 2002. Her thesis work was directed by Richard Murray in Control and Dynamical Systems, David Goodwin in Mechanical Engineering, and Harry Atwater in Applied Physics. The goal of this multidisciplinary project was to control microstructural evolution during thin film deposition for microelectronic applications, using simulations of atomic scale behavior as the plant model, process history as an
input, and final material properties as the control objective. Experimental work included reactor design for chemical vapor deposition of superconducting thin films and ultra-high vacuum deposition of germanium using electron diffraction as the real-time process sensor. Theoretical work focused on the development of low-dimensional models that describe an atomistic Monte Carlo simulation of surface evolution to be used for control. Dr. Gallivan is developing a research program with the goal of applying mathematical engineering approaches like optimization and feedback control to complex dynamic systems described by discrete atomic interactions. While atomistic kinetic models have been developed within the field of computational materials science, they are high-dimensional, nonlinear, and stochastic, not like the process models typically used for optimization and control. Her research involves developing process models that are compatible with existing algorithms and developing algorithms that are compatible with existing plant models. The modeling effort is also needed to best utilize the noisy and incomplete data that is acquired from on-line process sensors, by combining knowledge of the dynamics with sense data to provide the most complete picture of system evolution and material properties. The primary focus of Dr. Gallivan’s current research is on problems in materials processing, although the same mathematical structure and complexity is found in other models of small-scale dynamics, including intracellular reactions, protein folding, and quantum computing. It is expected that the
modeling of tropospheric aerosols and developed a model (ISORROPIA) which has since become a model of choice in the international air quality and global modeling community. It is currently being used in more than 25 modeling groups in government, industry and academic sectors, including the Environmental Protection Agency (CMAQ), Harvard University (GEOS-CHEM), NASA (GISS GCM), the Ford Corporation, the Meteorological Service of Canada, EPA-Taiwan and Meteo-France.
development of general mathematical algorithms will play a role in these and other applications. Dr. Gallivan taught Numerical Methods this spring, an undergraduate sophomore-level course. This was her first experience teaching, and she enjoyed it even more than she expected. She is new to the South, and is enjoying the dogwood trees and lunches at Junior’s and Piccadilly Cafeteria. She made the long drive from California to Georgia last July with her husband, Dr. Justin Gallivan, along with their two cats. They recently moved into their first home in the Lake Claire neighborhood of Atlanta, and are now learning about yard work and home maintenance. Her husband joined the chemistry faculty at Emory University in the fall of 2002, and both are happy to have found excellent research and teaching opportunities in the same city.
Dr. Nenes continued his graduate studies at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 2002. His thesis work focused on improving the understanding of how aerosols (airborne particulate matter) affect climate. Human activities increase the concentrations of aerosols and lead to more reflective and persistent clouds. Since clouds are very effective reflectors of incoming solar radiation, even small perturbations in their properties can significantly decrease the amount of solar radiation absorbed by the climate system, and thus lead to cooling. Quantitative estimates of this “indirect climatic effect” of aerosols are highly uncertain, but potentially can be as large as the warming from greenhouse gases. Of all the components of climate change, the aerosol indirect effect is the most uncertain and potentially has the largest cooling effect. Until the aerosol indirect effect is well quantified, society is incapable of assessing its impact on future climate.
Dr. Athanasios Nenes In fall 2003, Professor Athanasios Nenes joined the faculty of Chemical Engineering in a joint appointment with Earth and Atmospheric Sciences as an assistant professor. Dr. Nenes received a Diploma in Chemical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece in 1993. He then worked at LDEKO & Associates in Athens, Greece as an Environmental Consultant for two years. Between 1995-1997, he pursued and obtained an MSc in Marine and Atmospheric Chemistry from the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences in Miami, Florida. During that time, Dr. Nenes focused on thermodynamic
Part of the challenge in assessing the aerosol indirect effect originates from the wide range of length scales involved in the 9
problem. Such assessments are done with global climate models, with a typical mid-latitude grid cell size of a hundred kilometers (or a few degrees) and can only resolve the largest of cloud systems. Ideally, one needs to explicitly resolve processes taking place on the meter length scale. Global models are far from being able to achieve this resolution, and thus heavily rely on parameterizations to account for the sub-grid processes of cloud formation. It is believed that over the next few years, advancements in computing capabilities and improvements in modeling efforts will be able to address the scale issue. While conducting his thesis research work, Dr. Nenes developed a variety of aerosol-cloud interaction modules for global climate models that can substantially reduce the uncertainty of key aerosol-cloud interactions. He is still currently focused on this area of research. Dr. Nenes has published more than 20 articles and holds one U.S. patent (pending) in the field of cloud microphysics instrumentation. He has also received a number of professional honors. His diploma thesis, which was in numerical modeling of multiphase flows, was named by the Technical Chamber of Engineers in Greece as best diploma thesis for 1996. He was awarded a University of Miami Fellowship between 1996-1997 and received the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences Dean’s Prize for outstanding Masters Thesis in 1998. Dr. Nenes is an avid fan of classical music and enjoys playing the piano in his free time. His other favorite pastimes are the cinema and travel.
ChE Students Shine Each year the Women’s Leadership Conference honors outstanding Georgia Tech women. The 2003 Women of Distinction include ChE nominees and award winners.
Graduate students Celesta White (left) and Alexis Hillock were recognized as outstanding Georgia Tech women.
Senior center and chemical engineering major Sonja Mallory was named to the first-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference women’s basketball team by the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association, earning All-ACC honors for the second year in a row. She was then named a member of the ACC’s All-Defensive team following a vote of the league’s nine head coaches, and to the District 2 WBCA/ Kodak All-America team. Soon after, Sonja was also named Georgia Division I Player of the Year, making her one of only three players in Tech history to be so honored.
Celesta White and Alexis Hillock were among five of the women nominated for this year’s Outstanding Graduate student award. Celesta was a co-recipient, along with an MBA student, Katie Hudson.
She had the best season of her career in 2003, finishing the regular season by leading the Jackets in scoring (16.9 ppg), rebounding (9.3 rpg) and blocked shots (1.79 bpg). Her rebounding and blocked shot totals were tops in the ACC, while her scoring average was third. She also led the Jackets in beating the Lady Dawgs for the first time ever in 2003.
Amanda C. Gable, who is an Academic Professional in the Graduate Studies Research Department, nominated Celesta because of her unique ability to give so much to the Tech community while still achieving academic perfection. Among her numerous achievements, Celesta has received two national graduate fellowships from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the American Association of University Women (AAUW). She has also maintained a perfect GPA throughout her entire undergraduate and graduate studies. As president of the campus chapter of the Society of Women Engineers last year, she more than doubled membership, offered more developmental and social programs, and instituted a new graduate women’s component to the organization open to women of all majors on campus.
She capped her outstanding season by being selected in the second round of the WNBA draft by the New York Liberty. Sonja, who was an honorable mention WBCA All-American and first-team All-ACC pick as a senior, became the second Dr. Amyn Teja, one of Sonja’s ChE Yellow Jacket to be selected professors, shared a happy moment in the draft, joining Kisha with the basketball star at a party held in her honor. Ford who was also picked by the New York Liberty in the fourth round of the inaugural WNBA draft in 1997. By being selected with the 24th overall pick, Sonja becomes the highest draftee in Tech history.
In addition to Celesta and Alexis’ nominations, two other ChE students were nominated for the Outstanding Undergraduate award: Andrea Ostby and Nina Paolella. Graduate student Karsten Bartling was presented with a distinguished award for his thesis entitled “Lipase Catalyzed Synthesis of Geranyl Acetate in n-Hexane with Membrane-Mediated Water Removal.” His work was named best masters thesis for 2000/2001 by the Working Committee for Technology Transfer, Inno- Karsten Bartling (left) and Professor Mary Rezac hold the trophy Karsten vation Advancement and received for his thesis award. Continuing Education at the Giessen-Friedberg University of Applied Science in Germany. The research for his thesis was conducted at the Chemical Recovery Group at the Institute of Paper Science and Technology in conjunction with his advisor, Professor Mary Rezac. The work has been published in the journal Biotechnology and Bioengineering and has been presented at numerous poster sessions and talks.
“Sonja really is a great success story,” said Georgia Tech women’s basketball coach Agnus Berenato. “She never lost faith in herself and was motivated to improve every day. She really always had faith in her ability and trusted that she could become a great player. It was one of her goals to make first-team All-ACC, but she really wanted to be on the All-Defensive team and she’s accomplished both of those things.” Sonja still has a few core chemical engineering courses to complete before she graduates, but her Chemical engineering professors say that she brings the same dedication to her studies as she displays on the basketball court. “I am impressed with Sonja’s ability to handle the demanding chemical engineering curriculum and the pressures of playing and achieving at a high level in Division I basketball,” said Professor Arnold Stancell. According to Professor Amyn Teja, who has followed Sonja’s career since she joined the program in 1999, “Sonja is very smart and personable. Her chemical engineering and time management skills will serve her well in whatever she decides to do in the future.” 10
ChE Students Shine Chris Power, who will graduate in August with a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering and received an MBA in May from the DuPree College of Management, was part of a group of MBA students who formed a company named Torex International.
The 14th Annual Chemical Engineering Graduate Symposium, cochaired by Courtney Woods and Tina Tosukhowong, was held April 3-4 in the Bill Moore Student Success Center. The two-day conference assembled 28 graduate students to share advances in their research through oral and poster presentations. Twenty-two industry representatives from 17 companies attended to review and judge the presentations.
In March, Torex International took third place and received $2,500 in funding at the 2003 Georgia Tech Business Plan Competition. They also won $45,000 in services for being the most fundable venture team. The group then participated in the 2003 Carrot Capital Business Plan Challenge on April 26 in New York City. They were one of 20 finalists selected from 750 business plan submissions. Torex International placed third in the competition and received $250,000 in funding.
This year’s winners for Best Oral Presentation were: Roy Furbank (1st place), Shilpa Damle (2nd place), and Michael McKittrick (3rd place); and for Best Poster were: Alexis Hillock (1st place), Luis Aguilar (2nd place), and Tina Tosukhowong (3rd place).
Torex International offers steel fiber designed for the international construction industry. The product enables customers to create safer structures at a lower cost with revolutionary, patented Steel Fiber Reinforced Cement (SFRC) composite technology.
Undergraduate students Abimbola Balogun and Jennifer Ebner made paper presentations on their research at the AIChE student chapter Southern Regional Conference March 6-8 at Florida Tech. Abimbola Balogun, whose advisor is Dr. Cliff Henderson, won first place in her session and first place in the overall competition. She will represent the Southern Regional Conference at the national level in San Francisco in November. This is the second year in a row that a GT student has received this honor—In 2002, Stephen Baisch was the overall winner. His advisor is Dr. Mark Prausnitz.
School Chair Ron Rousseau; Sylvia Little, ChE ‘84, KimberlyClark; and Sidney Kossowsky.
The Annual Student Awards Banquet, which was sponsored this year by Fluor and AIChE, was held April 22 in the Gordy Room of the Wardlaw Center. In addition to the 60 undergraduate and graduate students recognized for exemplary academic achievement, the following students were also honored:
Michael W. McKittrick’s poster paper “Single-Site Olefin Polymerization Catalysts via the Molecular Design of Porous Silica” was selected for an AIChE Catalysis and Reaction Engineering (CRE) Division award for best poster paper in Catalysis. The award will be presented at the AIChE meeting in San Francisco in November. His advisor and co-author is Dr. Christopher Jones.
Graduate students Celesta White (top) and Benita Comeau clean playground equipment at a TEAMBuzz community service event.
Last fall, a group of 15 ChE students comprising mostly AChEGS and AIChE members, participated in a community service activity called TEAMBuzz. The group volunteered at Al-Farooq Masjid, a school in Midtown, where they cleaned and performed maintenance. Alexis Hillock, AChEGS president at the time, participated in the event. She said that “the staff and teachers there were very welcoming and happy to have help in preserving and improving their school.”
Joseph Scattergood–AIChE Student Chapter President Nicholas Holiday–Omega Chi Epsilon Student Chapter President Sidney Kossowsky– AIChE/Kimberly-Clark Outstanding Senior Nicholas Silvestri–BASF Outstanding Junior Ryan Lewis–Albemarle Corporation/Dixie E. Goins Outstanding Sophomore 11
Katelyn Swindle–Omega Chi Epsilon Excellence Award Roy Furbank–NTC Graduate Student Speaking Contest Winner Krishna Tej Marla–2003 Ziegler Award for Best Paper Michael McKittrick–2003 Ziegler Award for Best Proposal Tina Tosukhowong and Courtney Woods–2003 Graduate Student Symposium Chairs Raymond Chafin, Anshul Dubey, Alexis Hillock, Trevor Hoskins, Jeessy Medina, and Celesta White–2003 Graduate Student Teamwork Awards James Broering, Benita Comeau, Karla Dennis, John Perry, and Karen Polizzi– 2002 National Science Foundation Fellows Dan Euhus, Alexis Hillock, and Courtney Woods– 2003 Outstanding Teaching Assistants
John Ziegler, Phys ‘61, MS ‘65; Michael McKittrick; Krishna Tej Marla; and William Ziegler, IM ‘41.
Faculty News Charles Eckert gave the 2003 Warren McCabe Lecture at North Carolina State University, making him the first person to give the lecture for the second time—the first was in 1990. Also last fall, he and Charles Liotta both gave invited lectures at the Midwest American Chemical Society (ACS) Meeting in Lawrence, Kansas.
William Koros was named a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and was selected for the 2003 Ziegler Outstanding Faculty Award. Also, funding for the Science and Technology Center on “Environmentally Responsible Solvents and Processes” in which Dr. Koros participates, has been renewed for another five years. The cooperative project involves five universities—UNC– Chapel Hill, NC State, UT–Austin, NC A&T and Tech. Tech will receive $674,000 over the five-year period for research focusing on membranes and sorbents to enable recycling and reuse of CO2.
Dennis Hess was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Chris Jones edited Nanostructured Catalysts, which was recently published as volume three of the Nanostructure Science and Technology book series, and he contributed a chapter in the book Strategies for the Control of Porosity Around Organic Active Sites in Inorganic Matrices. Dr. Jones also received a $25,000 Faculty Career Initiation Award from the Shell Oil Company Foundation, and was awarded a U.S. Patent for “Acylation of an organic group over a zeolite.”
Jay Lee gave invited lectures at FSU, USC, UT–Austin and the Univ. of Pittsburgh. Dr. Lee, along with other Tech faculty members, founded the Center for Process Systems Engineering (CPSE), for which he is the first director. The CPSE will promote research and educational activities that address process systems engineering challenges seen in various application domains and at multiple length/time scales. The CPSE will work with the Centre for Process Systems Engineering at Imperial College/University College London to create a PSE super-center.
Two ChE professors were honored with distinguished awards during the 2002 annual AIChE meeting held in Indianapolis last fall.
Charles Liotta was elected Chair of Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) Board of Directors at the 58th annual meeting of the ORAU Council of Sponsoring Institutions in Atlanta. The board manages the property and affairs of ORAU for its membership. ORAU is a university consortium leveraging the scientific strength of 88 major research institutions to advance science and education by partnering with national laboratories, government agencies, and private industry. ORAU manages the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education for the U.S. Department of Energy.
Cecil J. “Pete” Silas Chair and School Chair Ronald Rousseau shares the prestigious Warren K. Lewis Ronald Rousseau (left) and Amyn Award with Richard M. Teja with their AIChE award Felder, a professor at NC plaques at the Honors Luncheon. State. He and Dr. Felder co-authored the text Elementary Principles of Chemical Processes, which is now in its third edition. The book has been the dominant introductory text in chemical engineering for more than 25 years.
Athanasios Nenes gave invited lectures at the Center for Integrated Study of the Human Dimensions of Global Change at Carnegie Mellon, NASA-Goddard Institute of Space Studies, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration–Aeronomy Lab in Boulder, Colo. He also received an NSF Fellowship to attend the ACCESS VII Colloquium and the Gordon Research Conference on Atmospheric Chemistry in Yellowstone National Park and was invited by NCAR to attend the UCAR/NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research Junior Faculty Forum on Future Scientific Directions.
The award recognizes important contributions to chemical engineering education based on criteria that include strong leadership skills, creative teaching that inspires students, and contributions of superior textbooks, lectures, inventions and laboratory techniques or models.
From May through December 2002, Mark Prausnitz was the NSF/NIH Scholar-in-Residence at the National Institute of Health’s Vaccine Research Center through a “sabbatical” program sponsored by NSF. Dr. Prausnitz also gave several invited lectures at locations including the 144th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in Cancun, Mexico and the University of Colorado–Boulder. His research group was awarded a grant called “Painless Glucose Monitoring Using Microneedles” as part of the Georgia Tech/CDC Collaborative Research Program and also completed a DARPAfunded project called “Microneedle-Based Pain Management” in collaboration with Emory.
Professor and Associate Chair for the Graduate Program, Amyn Teja received the Institute Award for Excellence in Industrial Gases Technology, which is open to non-AIChE members and recognizes an individual’s sustained excellence in contributing to the advancement of technology in the production, distribution and application of industrial gases. Dr. Teja was selected for the award for his ongoing contributions to the measurement and analysis of thermophysical properties and phase equilibria that have led to new applications of industrial gases in extracting biomolecules, making nanoparticles, and processing polymer composites.
Arnold Stancell was appointed Co-Chair of the Board of Chemical Science and Technology. The Board is a unit of the National Research Council and advises U.S. government agencies on technical matters regarding anti-terrorism. He also was the invited speaker at the 100 Year Seminar Series at the University of Illinois–Urbana last fall. 12
Faculty News The School recently bid farewell to two long-standing members of the department when professors Jude Sommerfeld and Ronnie Roberts retired.
Chemical Engineering professor Larry Forney and Georgia Tech Research Institute engineer John Pierson have developed a betterperforming, less costly method of disinfecting water John Pierson (left) and Larry Forney used in food processing. Like current technologies, the new Advanced Disinfection Technology System relies on ultraviolet (UV) radiation to eliminate molds, viruses and bacteria. But the new system handles water more efficiently and thus improves the overall effectiveness of the disinfection process.
After more than 30 years on the faculty, Dr. Sommerfeld left a strong mark on Georgia Tech. He was actively involved in many aspects of service, including a decade-long assignment as Associate Director of the School of Chemical Engineering. Dr. Sommerfeld’s teaching and research interests primarily emphasized the field of computer-aided process design and simulation. Other interests included reaction kinetics and process control. Despite retirement from Tech, Dr. Sommerfeld continues to be an active chemical engiDr. Jude Sommerfeld neer. He is preparing and reviewing exam questions for the chemical engineering Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) exam for the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying.
Federal regulations require the disinfection of water used in food processing before it can be reused. In many cases, the lack of cost-effective disinfection means water is used only once and then discarded. When a disinfection system is used, the process is not always effective.
In addition to continuing professional activities, Dr. Sommerfeld is also an extremely busy grandfather, with grandchild number 18 on the way! To escape the big city of Atlanta, he has decided to move to the banks of Lake Hartwell in South Carolina, where he looks forward to a quiet lifestyle with plenty of fishing. Dr. Ronnie Roberts had a 27-year presence at Georgia Tech and his absence is already being felt. “Rocket Ron,” as he is affectionately known by some, influenced many students as their instructor in reaction kinetics and separations classes, and as the first–and for many years, the only–member of the chemical engineering faculty working in the field of bioengineering.
The heart of the new advanced system is a pair of cylinders, one inside the other. The smaller cylinder rotates inside the stationary outer cylinder while water is pumped through the gap separating the two. Inside the gap, the cylinder rotation causes water to churn and tumble in a well-documented phenomenon called a Taylor vortex, which mixes water with light shining from four UV lamps embedded in the outside cylinder wall. UV light penetrates the water thoroughly so no additional cycles through the system are necessary. Fewer UV lights are required compared to conventional systems, thus saving energy. “Even if the fluid absorbs radiation, which would normally limit light penetration and thus the effectiveness of conventional UV reactors, the vortex motion in the new design continuously exposes fresh fluid to the radiation surface,” Dr. Forney explained.
Dr. Ronnie Roberts
Beginning in the 1970s as one of the earliest engineers to work on mammalian cell culture technology, Dr. Roberts’ research interests have addressed the fields of biochemical engineering, reactor design, and process modeling. He has been especially interested in fermentation research and the concept of vigorous stationary phase fermentation. As a notable product of his research, he received U.S. and Canadian patents based on his collaborative work with fellow ChE professor John Muzzy in neutral solvent deliginification.
The process was designed for recycling water from fruit and vegetable washing at food-processing plants, but it could be applied in other industrial processes. The new disinfection process may find uses far beyond the project’s original scope. Virtually anything that flows can run through the system, allowing for applications in the soft drink industry, brewing, dairy products and fruit juice processing. It would work for any fluid for which there are concerns about the existence of pathogens, Dr. Forney explained. A nonthermal procedure, it could supplant pasteurization, which is expensive, changes the taste and consumes a lot of energy.
In the early days of computers, Dr. Roberts led the School to integrate computer-aided calculations into courses, which today can be seen in the widespread use of HYSYS and other programs throughout the ChE curriculum.
A variation of the device could even be developed for swimming pools as a non-chemical alternative to keeping water germ-free. “If you were able to pass pool water through a UV reactor successfully, it would feel like normal water,” Dr. Forney said. “It would have no taste and wouldn’t be irritating to your mouth, eyes and lungs.”
He also developed a reputation in the department for knowing how to throw a good party featuring Louisiana crawfish and shrimp. 13
Alumni News 1955 Darryl C. Aubrey of North Palm Beach, Fla., retired from IBM’s chemical consulting practice in Houston in 2001. Previously, he worked for Exxon Chemical Co., then became a faculty member and department chair in management at Sacred Heart Univ.
1957 William P. “Bill” Killian was elected vice chairman of AquaChem Inc.’s board of directors in Dec. 2001. Aqua-Chem is a global leader in boilers and burner systems as well as process evaporation and seawater desalting systems. He retired in 2000 as an officer of Johnson Controls Inc., where he was responsible for corporate strategy and acquisitions. Killian is also on the board of directors of RBC Bearing Corp. of Fairfield, Conn. Killian and his wife, Beverly, live in Sarasota, Fla.
1959 W. John Lee, ChE ‘59, MS ChE ‘61, PhD ‘62, was honored in March with the 2002 Mineral Industry Education Award by the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers. He is a professor and holder of the Peterson chair in the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1993 and Tech’s inaugural class of Distinguished Engineering Alumni in 1994. Robert W. Glenn retired in 2001 after 15 years as director of public works and building for the city of Coral Springs,
Fla. Previously, he served for 27 years with the Army Corps of Engineers, retiring with the rank of colonel. He lives in Midway, Ga.
general manager for Crossett paper operations. He and his wife, Kathi, have three children, Meredith, Patrick and Will, and live in Crossett.
Sons, Inc. He is CEO of Interactive Objects Software GMBH in Freiburg, Germany.
1966
1976
Richard B. “Brad” Fabian and his wife, Leah, announce the birth of their first child, Richard Matthew, on Oct. 3, 2001. The family lives in Stone Mountain, Ga.
David Mitchell has been elected chairman of the South Texas chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Mitchell moved to Texas after two years in Africa as a lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers. He is a senior process consultant for GDS Engineers. He and his wife, Ronnett, have two sons and live in Houston.
Michael E. Mullins has been appointed chair of chemical engineering at Michigan Technological University, where he has taught and conducted research since 1988. He was named a professor of chemical engineering in 1994.
1980 Carlos Barroso was recently promoted to senior vice president of research and development for Frito-Lay International in Dallas, Texas. He was also appointed to Georgia Tech’s ChE External Advisory Board this year.
1971 Sherman J. Glass, Jr., ChE ‘71, MS ChE ‘72, took over as president of ExxonMobil Global Services Company on Jan. 1. Previously, he was general manager of corporate planning for ExxonMobil Corp. in Irving, Texas. ExxonMobil Global Services is based in Fairfax, Va.
1981 Mark “Smitty” Smith is assigned to Indonesia as a staff drilling engineer after working for 12 years in Europe’s North Sea. He divides his time between his ranch in Lacombe, La., and Indonesia.
1975 Keith Aspray has been appointed general manager and managing director of UOP India Private Ltd., UOP’s subsidiary in India. He and his wife, JoAnn, are relocating to New Delhi, India, from Des Plaines, Ill. The couple’s children, Kristen and Dustin, will remain in the U.S. and continue to attend college. Dustin is a sophomore at Georgia Tech.
1983 Steve Cox, ChE ‘83, MS Mgt ‘85, received his doctorate in civil engineering in May 2001 from Virginia Tech, where he is now a faculty member in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He lives in Blacksburg, Va.
1987
Charles E. Hodges has been named senior vice president of Southern manufacturing for Georgia-Pacific Corp. and will oversee manufacturing strategies for the Southern region. He will also retain his duties as
Richard G. Hubert has written a book on software architecture called Convergent Architecture: Building model-driven J2EE systems with UML. The book was published by John Wiley & 14
1988
1989 Laura German Platner and Jim Platner, EE ‘88, are living in Melbourne, Australia with their children, Chase, 5, and Shelby, 2. Jim is senior vice president of Asia Pacific sales for Acterna, and Laura is a fulltime stay-at-home mother.
1990 Kenneth Roberts was featured in the Jan. 2 issue of Black Issues in Higher Education magazine. Roberts, who earned his MS and PhD degrees in chemical engineering from the University of South Carolina, is an assistant professor of chemical engineering at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro. Since taking the position in 1997, he has received numerous awards, including the North Carolina Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Outstanding Science Award.
1991 Janice Dodson Teske and her husband, Erich, announce the birth of their second child, Susanna Lanier, on May 23, 2001. Susanna joins brother Andrew at the family’s home in Chicago. Teske is global innovation knowledge manager for Wrigley in Chicago.
Alumni News Christina Klein Pramudji and Ari Pramudji, EE ‘90, announce the birth of their first child, Thomas Zane, on Nov. 15. The family lives in Houston, where Christina is a doctor of urology and Ari is a patent attorney with Moser, Patterson & Sheridan. Andrew T. Meunier was recently named as a Partner at Alston & Bird, LLP in Atlanta where he specializes in the preparation and prosecution of patent applications in the chemical and pharmaceutical area.
1994 Cathy Lee Morris and Bryce Morris, ChE ‘95, announce the birth of a son, Jarod Evan, on June 12, 2002. They live in Pensacola Beach, Fla. Shirley Wang Ho and Joseph Ho ME ‘94, welcomed their first child, Sarah, on Feb. 11. Sarah arrived weighing 7 lbs., 14 oz. and was 19-¼ inches long.
1995 Marvin “Richard” Brookshire was promoted and relocated to Hernando, Miss., with Kawneer, an Alcoa Co., for his role in the implementation of a $16 million expansion to the company’s Hernando facility.
1996 Daniel Moskowitz has joined Roth & Associates, a full-service financial planning and employee benefits company, in Atlanta. He and his wife, Nicole, live in Alpharetta, Ga. Jay Curtin and Tiffany Dickey Curtin, CE ‘97, announce the birth of a son, Leo, on Nov. 16. The family lives in Marietta, Ga. Chris Gentry and Mindy Brown Gentry, Biol ‘96, announce the birth of a daughter, Allison
Dianne, on Nov. 12. The family lives in North Augusta, S.C. Ellen McNeil Klug and her husband, Jeremy, announce the birth of a son, Owen James, on June 10, 2002. Ellen is a fulltime mother. The family lives in Brunswick, Ohio.
1997 Tameeka Law graduated from Mercer University School of Medicine in June 2002, and is doing her residency training at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. She is a lieutenant in the Navy. Jonathan “Byrd” MacDonald and Kristy Leichliter MacDonald, Chem ‘98, announce the birth of their first child, Allison Rose, on Dec. 25. Both Byrd and Kristy work for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and live in Limerick, Pa.
1998 Michelle Renee Corley and Craig Michael Anderchak were married Oct. 13, 2001. Michelle works for Solvay Engineered Polymers. The couple live in Dallas, Texas.
2000
1943
Ginger Wilde and Chris Nichols, ChE ‘95, were married Oct. 19, 2001. Both Ginger and Chris are employed with Merck & Co. Inc. The couple live in Albany, Ga.
Charles S. Pulliam of WinstonSalem, N.C., on Jan. 14. He served as a Navy lieutenant during World War II. He began working at the Grinnell Corporation as a co-op student and remained with the company until he retired in 1982.
2001 Melissa Bonk and Tony Kirkland were married Sept. 28, 2001, in Columbus, Ga. Melissa is a process control engineer at the Dow Chemical Co. The couple live in Baton Rouge, La.
OBITUARIES 1937 Marvin R. McClatchey of Atlanta, on Oct. 28. A member of Chi Phi fraternity and a lieutenant commander in the Navy during World War II, he founded Southern Aluminum Finishing Co. in Atlanta and served as its president until his retirement in 1988. Survivors include son M. Reynolds McClatchey, ChE ‘65; daughter Juliet M. Allan, MS ChE ‘88; and granddaughter P. Ruth McClatchey, ChE ‘86.
1949 Frank E. Rockwell, Jr. of Port Charlotte, Fla., on Sept. 15. He served in the Army during World War II. His career took him to the Philippines, Peru and Columbia, where he was project director of a coal handling plant from 1982 to 1984. As a boy, he worked with his father in the Rockwell Citrus groves. After leaving Columbia, he returned to the family business in Florida.
1989 Karen Platek DeBord of Aurora, Ohio, on Nov. 12, of colon cancer. She had worked for Texaco, General Electric and Phillips Container before becoming a stay-at-home mom. Survivors include husband David DeBord, ChE ‘89.
ChE welcomes the following new members to its External Advisory Board:
1999 Jennifer Mayberry and Anthony Sasser, ChE ‘99, were married Dec. 15, 2001, in Sandersville, Ga. Jennifer is a graduate student in the Medical College of Georgia’s Pharmacology and Toxicology Department, and Anthony is a quality assurance engineer with Fuji Film in Greenwood, S.C. The couple live in Edgefield, S.C.
Carlos Barroso, ChE ‘80, Senior Vice President R & D Latin America, Frito-Lay, Inc. Steven K. Hall, Director, Citigroup Alternative Investments, Inc. Ray W. Miller, ChE ‘72, Program Director, Bio-Refinery and Business Development, DuPont Bio-Based Materials and Growth Enterprises Jeffrey J. Siirola, Research Fellow, Eastman Research Division, Eastman Chemical Company
Brian Wiley and Adina Reed, ChE ‘01, were married September 27 in Charlotte, N.C., where they live. 15
We Welcome Your Questions, Comments or News: ChE Newsletter: Josie Giles (404) 385-2299 Email: josie.giles@che.gatech.edu
ChE Development & Alumni News: Jenny Daley (404) 894-0987 Email: jenny.daley@che.gatech.edu
ChE Program Information: ChE Main Office (404) 894-2867
Our request for alumni remembrances brought the following response from George Mitchell Allen, ‘37, who lives in Toccoa, Ga. While a student, he was on the Blueprint staff, an ROTC Lieutenant, and a member of Sigma Nu and Pi Delta Epsilon.
I received my degree in ChE in 1937. Being in the middle of a recession, my class was the smallest for years before and Allen’s senior class after. Yet at Blueprint photo. six weeks, a sizable portion of the freshman class was terminated. The reasoning was that staying would be a waste of time for both the
CHEM
Correspondence May Be Mailed to this Address: School of Chemical Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA 30332-0100 www.che.gatech.edu
students and the Institute. Sometimes I wonder if my memory is accurate; however, I recall my father paid only $2,000 for my four years at Tech. Outside the administration, there were few employees with PhDs. Some departments were headed by a faculty members with only a masters degree. Our equipment was very different than today and my education at Tech would not have been possible without slide rule proficiency. Our metallurgy text book was a paper bound set of typewritten, mimeographed sheets about a half-inch thick. As I recall, Dr. Harold A. Bunger wrote the text. Dr. Bunger was a very brilliant man, but he had very poor
eyesight. One of his classrooms was in the basement of Lyman Hall and was always dark. It was not unusual for him to start writing on the chalkboard without turning on the lights. We could not see what he had written until the lights were later turned on. There was a metalloscope (microscope) with camera attachments in the hall. The floor was somewhat springy, and before taking a photo, students had to be posted around the building to keep people away from the area so the equipment would not shake. The Class of 1937 helped move the old chemical engineering lab from the basement of Lyman Hall into the Emerson Annex. We did pipe fitting and helped move the tanks and vessels. I helped apply insulating material
NEWS
to the outside of one of the vessels with my bare hands. In a few days, I had an infection in one of my finger joints. I went to the infirmary where my finger was lanced to remove infection. It appeared one of the components of the insulation material contained rock wool fibers (a forerunner of fiberglass) and the material had become embedded in my finger. I remember some of my frat brothers stole the components of a lab glass still, which they carried to the frat house. It was used to distill the contents of a wood charred keg. The liquid looked like black molasses. Needless to say, it produced very clear alcohol, but it did not interest me for I have always been a teetotaler.
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