Department of Chemical Engineering

Lecturer, Chemical Engineering

Technical communication is an active and growing subfield of engineering, as the importance of being able to communicate technical information clearly and concisely is of the utmost importance in business and industry today. The field has expanded over the years to include such topics as engineering communication, writing across the curriculum, writing in the disciplines. Engineering communication focuses on writing and speaking within the engineering field specifically, while the writing across the curriculum/writing within the . . .

Assistant Professor

Research and Teaching Interests

Particulate processing, chemistry and thermodynamics of metals extraction; physical separation processes, sustainable raw materials production, oxidative and reductive bioleaching of metals.

Materials such as fly-ashes scrubber sludges, metallurgical slags, machining wastes, and many other similar materials present a significant disposal problem, which can be much reduced if commercial markets can be developed for them.

I have an interest in development of improved processing techniques to deal with ever finer and more . . .

Assistant Professor

My research group uses natural and artificial molecular recognition to improve human health. This work includes discovering small peptides or chemicals that bind specifically to proteins and engineering devices that utilize the binding property.

A biotherapeutic is any product that is made to improve human health and comes from a biological source, including human blood plasma, cell culture or bacterial fermentation. The sources of these products are living organisms so there is an inherent risk that these . . .

Chair, Department of Chemical Engineering

S. Komar Kawatra joined the faculty at Michigan Tech as an associate professor in 1977. He was promoted to Professor in 1985 and chaired the Department of Mining and Materials Processing Engineering from 2000-2002 when its programs were merged into other academic departments. He has served as chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering since 2007.

Kawatra is an accomplished researcher, teacher, and lecturer. His primary area of research is chemical engineering specializing in: instrumentation and on-line . . .

Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering

My research interest is in the areas of nanostructured materials for electrochemical energy conversion and storage applications.

Energy issues have been identified as a primary research  challenge for the next fifty years. With major raw oil reserves declining and the world’s population rapidly growing, people will be forced to seek clean, affordable, flexible, technically-viable and sustainable energy resources. Low temperature fuel cells have been very attractive for future power sources for automobile, homes and portable electronics. Compared to . . .

Associate Professor

Professor

Ceramics, fine particles, and engineered nanostructures

In the area of ceramics and particle technology, we are learning to make novel nanoscale structures for use as electrodes, catalysts, biomaterials, and membranes. Specific current research includes the development of polymer/inorganic nanofibers for tissue scaffolds, electrosynthesis of new hybrid materials, porous carbon electrodes for battery and fuel cell applications, the development of zeolite membranes for gas phase separations and reactions, the production of nanometer scale polymer/ceramic particles, and the synthesis of . . .

Professor

My research interests are in drug delivery, nanobiotechnology, and tissue engineering

The potential of ultrasonic standing wave fields to facilitate viral transduction rate has been demonstrated. Under acoustic exposure, suspended cells move to the pressure nodal planes first and form cell clusters. Then, viruses circulated between nodal planes use the pre-formed cell clusters as the nucleating sites to attach on. As a result, this system enhances gene delivery efficiency. The same apparatus were used to increase the gene delivery . . .

Professor

Research interests are in the areas of sustainability, life-cycle environmental assessments, environmental transport processes, and forest-based biofuels.

Life Cycle Assessment/Sustainability
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a method that allows for a comprehensive assessment of environmental impacts for a product or process. The scope of the assessment is over the entire life cycle; starting with extraction of raw materials from the environment manufacturing transportation use in society, recycle, reuse, and final treatment or disposal in the environment. Multiple indicators of environmental . . .

Professor

My research interests are in the area of composite materials. Specifically, my interests often focus on adding various carbon fillers to typically thermoplastic polymers to produce electrically and thermally conductive resins.

Increasing the thermal and electrical conductivities of typically insulating polymers, such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and nylon, has the potential of greatly increasing the market for these materials. A thermally conductive material is useful as a heat sink in applications such as lighting ballasts and transformer . . .

Assistant Professor

My research is focused on using and advancing computational systems biology and engineering to better understand and further improve complex chemical and biochemical processes to address problems related to bioenergy production and environment protection. The complexity of processes involved in these problems necessitates systematical approaches. The ultimate goal is to generate computational tools that can be used to aid the analysis and design of corresponding biochemical systems.  

Lignocellulosic biomass has long been recognized as a . . .