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Accolades 2 Graduate Affairs wins for Excellence in Innovation The Graduate Affairs Admissions and Enrollment Office was recognized for “Excellence in Innovation” at Hobsons’ annual Innovation & Best Practice Awards, held in London on March 3, 2015. Hobsons, a student lifecycle management solution, acknowledged KAUST’s unique adaptations and usage of their student management tools known as Apply Yourself (AY) and CONNECT.
Hadjichristidis wins highest ACS honor On March 25, Nikos Hadjichristidis, professor of chemical science in the Physical Science and Engineering Division, was honored with the prestigious ACS Award in Polymer Chemistry at the 249th American Chemical Society National Meeting & Exposition in Denver, Colorado.
Abdul Latif Abdul Latif, lead developer in Admissions, was on hand to accept the award. "It is great to be recognized for excellence by an industry-leading software provider, knowing that the work we are doing is cutting-edge and very rewarding," he said. “Graduate Affairs has successfully taken AY and CONNECT from a basic online relationship management platform, and have expanded it into an online access point, not only for prospective students, but also for internal applicants, the Visiting Students, Visiting Students Research Program applicants and the entire onboarding and student exit processes at our institution,” said Greg Murphy, associate director of Admissions.
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The award, sponsored by the ExxonMobil Chemical Company, represents the highest honor in the field of polymer science. It was presented to Hadjichristidis in the presence of a packed audience that included KAUST senior leadership and many of the world’s top scientists in polymer science and polymer chemistry, including Robert H. Grubbs, the 2005 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry. “I’m very happy because this is the biggest award I have ever received, and it was under the affiliation of KAUST,” said Hadjichristidis. Hadjichristidis’ research focuses on the synthesis of polymeric materials with complex macromolecular architecture (star, comb, cyclic, dendritic). His group at KAUST’s Polymer Synthesis Laboratory works on various projects, including block copolymer membranes for selective water transport, polymeric membranes for fuel cells and batteries, and unusual polymeric materials.
CEMSE paper earns IEEE-NEMS honors A recent collaboration between the Electromechanical Microsystems & Polymer Integration Research Lab (EMPIRE) and the Sensing Magnetism and Microsystems Lab (SMM) within the Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Science and Engineering Division (CEMSE) brought home the best paper award at the 10th IEEE International Conference on Nano/Micro Engineered and Molecular Systems in Xi’an, China. The winning paper, which was presented by doctoral student Ying Yi, was entitled, "Electromagnetically powered electrolytic pump and thermo-responsive valve for drug delivery”. The device can provide long-term and localized drug delivery by utilizing an electrolytic pump in combination with a solid-drug-in-reservoir approach that was developed by Yi and research scientist Ulrich Buttner from the Microfluidic Core Lab. They worked under the supervision of Assistant Professor (adjunct) Ian Foulds. The longstanding problem of undesired drug diffusion has been solved by using a magneto-thermoresponsive valve developed by Yi, doctoral student Amir Zaher and postdoctoral fellow Dr. Omar Yassine, under the supervision of Assistant Professor Jurgen Kosel. “Integrating those different concepts led to a miniaturized device that strikes with high performance and simplicity. In particular, both the pump and the valve are operated by the same electromagnetic field, which enables wireless device control,” said Kosel.
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