Posts Tagged ‘research’

Researchers Selected for Startup Business Plan Competition

Posted on:
Researchers Selected for Startup Business Plan Competition

Chemical engineering researchers Taylor Harvey and Aaron Chockla will represent The University of Texas at Austin to compete against some of the world’s top universities for more than $1 million in prizes at the 15th annual Rice Business Plan Competition at Rice University in Houston, Texas April 16-18.

Harvey and Chockla will pitch product information … Read the rest »

Engineers Develop New Yeast Strain to Enhance Biofuel and Biochemical Production

Posted on:
Engineers Develop New Yeast Strain to Enhance Biofuel and Biochemical Production

Researchers in the Alper Lab have used a combination of metabolic engineering and directed evolution to develop a new, mutant yeast strain that could lead to a more efficient biofuel production process that would make biofuels more economically competitive with conventional fuels. Their findings were published online in the journal Metabolic Engineering in March.

Beyond … Read the rest »

Michael Baldea Receives NSF CAREER Award for Research on Energy-Intensive Processes

Posted on:
Michael Baldea Receives NSF CAREER Award for Research on Energy-Intensive Processes

Michael Baldea, assistant professor of chemical engineering, is working to improve the efficiency and economic performance of chemical processes that interact with the power grid. His research was recently selected for a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award.

CAREER Awards are highly competitive and prestigious grants given to young faculty who effectively integrate research … Read the rest »

Jennifer Maynard’s Vaccine Research Showcased at SXSW

Posted on:

South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive is hosting inventors, thought leaders and entrepreneurs at the festival’s UT Village Sunday, March 15 from 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m. at the Radisson Hotel & Suites in downtown Austin.

The event is an all-day showcase of innovation and expertise that offers visitors the chance to get a behind-the-scenes look at the … Read the rest »

Jennifer Maynard’s Work to Fight Whooping Cough Featured on National Public Radio

Posted on:
Jennifer Maynard’s Work to Fight Whooping Cough Featured on National Public Radio

Associate professor Jennifer Maynard’s research group is working to develop a therapeutic vaccine to treat whooping cough—a highly contagious and dangerous disease that causes an estimated 294,000 deaths annually worldwide, primarily among young, unvaccinated children. Whooping cough is on the rise in the United States, and in Texas cases have increased 79 percent in … Read the rest »

Department Partners with Industry to Promote Safety Culture

Posted on:
Department Partners with Industry to Promote Safety Culture

The department has teamed up with key industry partners to roll out new initiatives to share best practices and keep safety at the forefront of day-to-day operations. The partnership has established lab safety visits and increased safety seminars.

“The primary objective is to raise awareness and foster a safety culture,” said Gary Rochelle, chemical … Read the rest »

Undergraduate Research Poster Competition Winners

Posted on:
Undergraduate Research Poster Competition Winners

The department is pleased to announce winners of the fall 2014 Undergraduate Research Poster Competition:

First Place

Bijal Patel (Johnston Group)
Turning the Electrocatalytic Activity of Perovskite Oxides through Support Interactions
$100 prize

Bijal’s research focuses on improving the performance of perovskite oxides for electrocatalysis. Perovskite-Carbon composites offer a cheap, earth-abundant alternative to current industry-standard Read the rest »

New Study Measures Methane Emissions from Natural Gas Production and Offers Insights into Two Large Sources

Posted on:
New Study Measures Methane Emissions from Natural Gas Production and Offers Insights into Two Large Sources

David Allen‘s research team and environmental testing firm URS report that a small subset of natural gas wells are responsible for the majority of methane emissions from two major sources — liquid unloadings and pneumatic controller equipment — at natural gas production sites.

With natural gas production in the United States expected to continue … Read the rest »

Graduate Student Yichen Fang Wins AIChE Polymer Poster Competition

Posted on:
Graduate Student Yichen Fang Wins AIChE Polymer Poster Competition

Yichen Fang, graduate student and research assistant, recently won first place in the Area 8A Poster Competition for polymer research at the American Institute of Chemical Engineer’s Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.

The award recognized the best poster presentation on polymer research out of more than 70 competitors.  Fang’s winning poster, entitled “High Performance Nanofiber … Read the rest »

Sai Gourisankar Awarded Astronaut Scholarship

Posted on:
Sai Gourisankar Awarded Astronaut Scholarship

Sai P. Gourisankar, junior and undergraduate researcher in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, has been awarded an Astronaut Scholarship from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation

He is one of 28 students nationwide to receive the $10,000 scholarship, which is given to “outstanding students who exhibit motivation, imagination and exceptional performance in the fields of … Read the rest »