Department News

2020 Governor's STEM Scholar

Prof. Voronov's high school research volunteer Adwik Rahematpura has been accepted to the 2020 Class of Governor's STEM Scholars! Adwik is a junior at Morris Knolls High School. His particular interest lies in Biomedical Engineering. He volunteered in Prof. Voronov's lab during Spring'19 as statistical analyst in relation to cellular biology, and was published in a paper at NJIT:

Quang Long Pham, Nhat Anh Nguyen Tong, Lydia N. Rodrigues, Yang Zhao, Migle Surblyte, Diomar Ramos, John Brito, Adwik Rahematpura and Voronov, R. S.  "Ranking Migration Cue Contributions to Guiding Individual Fibroblasts Faced with a Directional Decision in Simple Microfluidic Bifurcations". Integrative Biology, Volume 11, Issue 5, May 2019, Pages 208–220.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/intbio/zyz018

He is also a research intern at Drew University assisting in computational neuroscience research. Adwik enjoys learning about the medical field and is also avidly interested in foreign languages, of which he speaks five fluently.

Professor Ecevit Bilgili has been appointed an Editorial Board Member of the journal "Pharmaceutics" (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/pharmaceutics/editors) which is an MDPI Open-Access Journal with 4.773 impact factor and JCR category rank: 26/267 (Q1) in 'Pharmacology & Pharmacy' category (top 10%).

Professor Ecevit Bilgili served as an International Technical Committee Member at the 16th European Symposium on Comminution & Classification (https://escc2019.com/), Leeds, UK, Sept. 02-04, 2019.

Young Faculty Invited To CACHE 50th Anniversary Conference

Prof. Roman Voronov was one of just 20 young faculty across the nation to have been invited to present at the Computer Aids for Chemical Engineering (CACHE) 50th Anniversary conference, which recently took place in Breckenridge, CO.   CACHE is a not-for-profit organization whose purpose is to promote the development and distribution of technology based materials and software in Chemical Engineering education through projects applying computational Chemical Engineering, sponsoring conferences, recognizing outstanding contributions, and providing leadership in chemical engineering education.  The invited young faculty reported on innovations in the development of educational media, exploring novel ways of organizing student-instructor interactions to enhance learning, and experimenting with alternative knowledge delivery modes.  Specifically, Prof. Voronov's presentation was about lessons learned from renovating NJIT’s curriculum.   The conference was attended by many reputable Chemical Engineering educators, and was closed with a banquette speech by the new President of the National Academy of Engineering Elects President, Dr. John L. Anderson (who also happens to be a Chemical Engineer).

Learn more about the conference by following this link: http://cache50th.org/?page=youngfaculty

Voice of America Highlights Murat Guvendiren

Bioprinting tumors for drug screening - a recent study led by Murat Guvendiren, assistant processor of chemical and materials engineering, and Shen Ji, a graduate student in his lab, is highlighted by Voice of America (VOA) news agency. VOA is a federally funded international multimedia agency with content in more than 40 languages. Dr. Guvendiren's interview was in Turkish. This study is currently funded by the New Jersey Health Foundation.  

The interview can be found in the linked below. 

Click here

Faculty Members Join Bioactive Materials Editorial Board  

Bioactive Materials, a leading journal in the fields of biomaterials science and drug delivery, has recently selected 2 NJIT faculty to serve on their editorial board. Co-editor in chief and renowned Penn State Biomaterials Scientist Jian Yang, PhD, personally selected and nominated Xiaoyang Xu (CME) and Vivek Kumar (BME/CME) based on their research and academic efforts. 

Organizer of the American Electrophoresis Society (AES) Annual Meeting

Sagnik Basuray, assistant professor will be one of the organizers at the American Electrophoresis Society (AES) Annual Meeting on October 13-18, 2019 Palm Springs, CA.

more information         

Sagnik Basuray Named Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors  

Sagnik Basuray, an assistant professor of chemical and materials engineering has been named a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Basuray was elected for his development of novel sensors, diagnostic devices and drug delivery systems. The National Academy of Inventors will commemorate his election during the Eighth NAI Annual Meeting on April 10-11, 2019 in Houston, Texas.

More information 

Invited Keynote Lecturer

Prof. Gennady Gor was invited to give a Keynote Lecture "Adsorption-induced deformation: solvation pressure and surface stress approaches" at the Workshop "Sorption Induced Deformation of Solids: Swelling and Shrinkage" in Frankfurt, Germany. His lecture opened the workshop November 25, 2018.

Published Paper Highlighted on the Cover of the Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Journal 

Roman Voronov, assistant professor, along with his co-authors Long Pham, Lydia Rodrigues, Max Maximov, Vishnu Deep Chandran, Cheng Bi, David Chege, Tomothy Dijamco, Elisabeth Stein, Anh Tong, and Sagnik Basuray published their paper titled "Cell Sequence and Mitosis Affect Fibroblast Directional Decision-Making During Chemotaxis in Microfluidic Mazes" which is also being highlighted on the cover of the Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering journal.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12195-018-0551-x

Invited Plenary Talk at the Annual AIChE Conference 

Prof. Voronov and his PhD student Long Pham will be presenting an Invited Plenary Talk at the annual American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Conference in Pittsburgh, PA on Monday, October 29, 2018.

https://aiche.confex.com/aiche/2018/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/524689

Highlight in AIChE's Meet the Process Engineers Series
 

Professor Ecevit Bilgili's professional contribution to the field of Process Engineering is highlighted on the AIChE website as part of AIChE's Meet the Process Engineers Series.
https://www.aiche.org/chenected/2018/07/meet-process-engineer-ecevit-bilgili
 

Recipient of the 2018 AAPS Fellows Award

Rajesh Dave, distinguished professor of chemical engineering, was recognized with the honor of Fellow in the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. This is recognition of professional excellence and sustained superior impact to global health and to the AAPS community. AAPS will formally recognize Dr. Dave at the AAPS PharmSci 360, held November 4-7 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC.

   

2018-2019 Blue Waters Intern

Migle Surblyte, is developing code to investigate novel mechanisms of blood clot formation using Lattice Light Sheet Microscopy and Lattice Boltzmann Method computational fluid dynamics. Under the guidance of Dr. Roman Voronov, assistant professor of chemical engineeirng, this research seeks to aid the development of anti-thrombotic drugs by furthering the understanding of how blood clots form and what factors lead to their break up. Two leading causes of death in the United States are brain strokes and heart attacks, both of which are caused by bursting blood clots. This research could lead to improved outcomes for the 750,000 Americans affected by these two conditions each year.

Molecular Simulations Mini-Workshop

On May 18, 2018 Otto H. York Department of Chemical and Materials
Engineering held a mini-workshop on molecular simulations organized by
Professor Gennady Gor.

This workshop brought together different research groups at NJIT
working on molecular and atomistic modeling. The workshop provided a
forum for discussion of applications of this type of models to
problems across various disciplines: chemistry, physics, mechanics,
materials science and chemical engineering. The keynote presentation
was given by the invited speaker, Prof. Vasily Pisarev, Leading
Research Fellow at the International Laboratory for Supercomputer
Atomistic Modelling in Moscow. The workshop included more than ten
talks given by NJIT faculty members, postdoctoral researchers and
students.

More information is available at: http://porousmaterials.net/workshop.html

1st Place Winner at the 2018 Dana Knox Student Research Showcase

Faustin Arevalo, a junior in chemical engineeirng, was the first-place winner among undergraduate students at the 2018 Dana Knox Student Showcase Poster Session held on April 18, 2018. He presented a poster titled "Comparative Assessment of Drug Release: Griseofulvin Nanocomposites and Amorphous Solid Dispersions". Mr. Arevalo worked along side his advisor Dr. Ecevit Bilgili in preparation for this poster competition.    

Fulbright Scholarship Winner Brendan Dente

Brendan Dente, a senior chemical engineering student and President of Omega Chi Epsilon, has won a Fulbright scholarship to spend the next two years earning a master’s degree at one of Europe’s major STEM hubs, the Technological University of Delft (TU Delft) in the Netherlands.

 

Dr. Guvendiren's team has published a comprehensive review article on Human Tissue Models, titled "Engineering 3D Hydrogels for Personalized In Vitro Human Tissue Models", in Advanced Healthcare Materials (Wiley). The use of hydrogel scaffolds for developing in vitro patient-specific tissue and organ models using human-derived cells is a powerful platform for studying the mechanism of disease initiation and progression, screening of potential drug candidates, and ultimately, the regeneration of fully functional tissues and organs. In this article, Dr. Guvendiren's team review the current developments in hydrogel-based in vitro tissue models and fabrication technique, with particular focus on liver and cancer tissues (current research interest of the Guvendiren lab). The image designed by Dr. Chya-Yan is selected for back cover of the journal for the corresponding issue. The authors, Dr. Chya-Yan Liaw is a postdoc and Shen Ji is a PhD candidate (majoring CHE) working in Guvendiren Lab.
  

3D Printing in the Makerspace

Dr. Guvendiren is teaching a graduate level elective course on 3D printing (CHE 702 - Additive Manufacturing and Applications). The course consists of lecture and hands-on laboratory session with extensive interaction between students and the instructor. The course takes place in Makerspace, allowing students to have direct access to 3D printers. This course summarizes additive manufacturing technologies and current (and emerging) applications. Students also learn how to select the proper printing technology and materials for particular applications. In the lab sessions, students create 3D designs and print functional prototypes. There are 30 graduate students (15 in a PhD program), majoring in CHE, BME, MSE, and CE, enrolled in the course this semester. 

1st Place Winners of the Senior Design Showcase Competition

Roman Voronov, assistant professor of chemical engineering, advised his team consisting of Sebastian Villegas, Johanna Lopez Benitez, and Derek Huan to win 1st Prize in the Senior Design Showcase Competition. The three undergraduates students of the Electrical Engineering department were mentored by Long Pham, PhD student, chemical engineering. Their project is titled "A Low-Cost, Scalable, Transparent Environment with Integrated Temperature Control and Automated Pneumatic Pumping for Live Cell Microcopy Experiments."

Recipient of the 2017 AIChE Pharmaceutical Development of Manufacturing Student Award

Meng Ling, PhD student, working along side her adviser Ecevit Bilgili, is the recipient of the 2017 AIChE Pharmaceutical Development to Manufacturing (PD2M) Student Award sponsored by Pfizer. This prestigious award is highly competitive and is given by AIChE's PD2M division annually. Meng received the award during the AIChE Annual Meeting in Minneapolis.

Congratulations, Ecevit and Meng, on this well deserved award!
 

First Prize Poster Competition Winner

Victoria Harbour who is currently a senior conducting research with Sagnik Basuray won first prize in the poster competition at the American Electrophoresis Society (AES) Meeting, which was held with the AIChE 2017 National Meeting in Minneapolis. AES is the premier society for microfluidics and biosensors. Furthermore, Victoria was competing with both undergraduate and graduate students. Congratulations Victoria!
 

Winner of the 2017 Alan S. Michaels Award for Innovation in Membrane Science and Technology

Kamalesh Sirkar, distinguished professor of chemical engineering, won the 2017 Alan S. Michaels Award for Innovation in Membrane Science and Technology.This award is given every three years by the North American Membrane Society (NAMS). The award consists of a $ 10,000 prize and lifetime membership in NAMS. Sirkar holds 31 U.S. patents and three in Canada. He is best known for developing the concept of membrane contractors, a process that permits two phases that do not mix, such as two liquids or a liquid and a gas, to contact each other at the pores of a membrane without dispersing into each other in order to introduce or extract specific compounds across it. He also developed a novel membrane distillation technology capable of converting sea and brackish water into potable water with a considerably high eater recovery rate than the standard method, reverse osmosis. 
 

Chemical Engineering Professor Awarded the 2017 Emerging Researcher Award

Xianqin Wang, associate professor of chemical engineering won the 2017 Emerging Researcher Award for the American Chemical Society’s energy and fuels division at the organization’s national meeting in Washington, DC. The award recognizes “sustained and distinguished contributions” to the field of fuel chemistry. Professor Wang is the first woman to win this award.

NJIT Graduate Student Wins Poster Competition

Kerri-Lee Chintersingh-Dinnall, a Ph.D. student in chemical engineering won the poster competition for her poster entitled "Combustion of boron and boron-iron composite particles in different oxidizers" at the U.S. Defense threat Reduction Agency Program Review Meeting in McLean, VA.  Kerri-Lee worked along side her adviser and distinguished professor Edward Dreizin completing work in the lab completing her research on boron. She will present her work on boron at the American Institute of Chemical Engineering Annual Meeting and Materials Research Symposium later this year.      
 

New CBPE Faculty Member

Dr. McEnnis is currently completing a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Michigan studying multicompartmental nanoparticles for drug delivery applications. She received her PhD from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in Polymer Science and Engineering and BS from MIT in Chemistry. Her research uses physical chemistry characterization techniques in novel ways to investigate drug delivery vehicles in biological environments to create successful, well-designed drug delivery systems.

Kathleen McEnnis will join the CBPE department as an Assistant Professor in Fall 2017.

Shen Ji, first year graduate student in the chemical engineering PhD program, published his first paper with Dr. Guvendiren, Assistant Professor of CBPE. The study titled "Recent Advances in Bioink Design for 3D Bioprinting of Tissues and Organs" is a mini review based on Shen's qualifier exam. 3D bioprinting is an additive manufacturing approach that utilizes a “bioink” to fabricate devices and scaffolds in a layer-by-layer manner. In this mini review, Shen summarized the commonly used bioprinting methods such as extrusion-based, droplet-based, and laser-based bioprinting, with particular focus on bioink design requirements for each approach. The study also presents the current state of the art in bioink design including the challenges and future directions.

Article can be reached (Open Access) from the link:

http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fbioe.2017.00023/full

1st Place Winners at the 82nd Annual AWWA Conference

Scott Quirie, Emily Heckman and Daniel Young, chemical engineering students, won first place at the 82nd Annual American Water Works Association (AWWA) NJ conference held on March 22nd at the Borgata Hotel in Atlantic City. The conference showcases the latest research, products and services within the water industry. The winning research poster was entitled "Feasibility of Nano-Ozone Bubbles to Treat Drinking Water", and focused on the application of ozone-filled nanoscale bubbles that possess great potential in the cleanup of both organic contaminants as well as pathogens. 
 

Victoria Harbour Wins Third Place in Research Poster Presentation at Regional AIChE Meeting

Ms. Victoria Harbour, a junior chemical engineering major was awarded third place for a research poster presentation at the Mid-Atlantic Regional AIChE Conference held at Rowan University on March 25, 2017.

The topic of her research was NVU-on-a-chip: Multi-spectroscopic, flow-based platform to study in-vitro transient dynamics of the brain. Her research advisor is Professor Sagnik Basuray, an assistant professor in the department.

AICHE North Jersey Section Award Scholarship Presentations

The annual presentation of scholarships for chemical engineering students from NJIT and Stevens Institute of Technology was held at Stevens Institute of Technology on Tuesday, February 21, 2017. These scholarships are awarded to students with outstanding academic performance as well as an exemplary record in contributions to the AIChE student chapters. Several other NJIT students attended the dinner meeting which also featured a talk on Effective Interviewing.

The following are the awardees from NJIT:

• James Wakerlik                       Otto H. York Award
• Thomas Reardon                     Stanley S. Grossel Award
• Robert Gwiszcz                       Outstanding Chemical Engineering Senior
• Thomas Hopper                       Robert M. Brown Memorial Scholarship

Dr. Gennady Gor, Assistant Professor, has published an invited review paper on adsorption-induced deformation of nanoporous materials in the journal Applied Physics Reviews. Nanoporous materials play an important role in many chemical engineering applications, in particular they are used as adsorbents. When fluids get adsorbed in the pores that are only a few nanometers wide, the intermolecular forces between the fluids and solids induce very high pressures. These pressures can reach hundreds of atmospheres and cause noticeable deformations even in stiff solid materials. The review paper discusses a variety of cases where these strains are significant: change of permeation of zeolite membranes, swelling of coal, etc. and presents the state-of-the art theoretical understanding of this phenomenon.

The paper is available online (open access) at
http://aip.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/1.4975001​