Graduate Student Seminar Series Top Presenters

The department is pleased to announce the top presenters for this year’s Graduate Student Seminar Series, as voted by attending first-year and third-year Ph.D. students:

Top Presenter

James Wagner (Alper Group)
High throughput microfluidic droplet screening for enhancing the production of secreted biomolecules

James’ research focuses on the development and application of high throughput screening systems for optimizing the biorenewable production and secretion of value-added polymer precursors, pharmaceuticals and proteins.

Runners-up

Matt Deaner (Alper Group)
Expediting metabolic engineering with rapid enzyme sensitivity analyses

Matt’s research aims to enhance the rate at which valuable chemical-producing strains can be engineered by rapidly studying and optimizing metabolic enzymes within the cell.

Alon Kirschner (Freeman Group)
Surface modification for improved membrane fouling resistance

Alon’s research focuses on improving the performance of water treatment membranes in treating oily wastewater, through chemical modification of the membrane surface.

A special thanks to corporate partner representatives Chris Quinn (AkzoNobel), Jean Tom (Bristol-Myers Squibb), Janet Schepcoff and Bobby Laughlin (DuPont). We are very grateful for partner contributions and support of this seminar series.

Thanks to all the speakers for their thoughtfulness in presenting, to graduate students Matt Deaner and Dan Houck for organizing the weekly seminars and to Professor Hal Alper for overseeing the program.

Tags: AkzoNobel, Alon Kirschner, Alper Group, bristol-Myers Squibb, Dr. Hal Alper, DuPont, graduate student seminar series, James Wagner, Matt Deaner, McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas ChE