COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Nov. 6, 2009 – Mahmoud El-Halwagi, professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been named recipient of the 2009 Research Excellence in Sustainable Engineering Award.

The prestigious award is presented by the Sustainable Engineering Forum (SEF) of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and recognizes basic or applied research results relative to the sustainability of products, processes or the environment. It is annually bestowed upon a researcher who has made significant technical contributions to the advancement of sustainable engineering in research, teaching and development activities.

Holder of the McFerrin Professorship, El-Halwagi is internationally known for his pioneering contributions in the fields of sustainable design and process integration, and he has written two widely used texts on the subject. At Texas A&M, he teaches senior-level undergraduate and graduate classes, covering the areas of sustainability, process design, simulation, economics, integration and optimization.

The SEF seeks collaborative work in programming and education objectives with other professional societies, both national and foreign. Specific focus areas of the forum include using appropriate metrics for sustainability; developing approaches for designing products and processes that can be optimized to desired metrics criteria and that incorporate environmental and societal benefit factors; and assessing impacts of resource use on environmental and social benefits of products, processes and services.

Other focus areas include designing new processes or products that are comparatively benign; responding to socioeconomic measures such as emission trading; and developing educational materials related to the field.

El-Halwagi will receive the award at an awards ceremony taking place during the 2009 AIChE Annual Meeting in Nashville.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Nov. 2, 2009 – M. Sam Mannan, director of the Texas A&M University System Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center, will deliver a keynote address at the 38th Annual Iowa Governor’s Safety and Health Conference in Cedar Rapids.

Mannan, who also holds the title of regents professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M, is scheduled to present “Making the right Decision: What we Learn From History” at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4 at the Cedar Rapids Marriott Hotel.

This year’s conference theme is “Safety at Risk: Choice and Influence.”

Mannan, a professional engineer and certified safety professional, is an internationally recognized expert on process safety and risk assessment. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and a member of the American Society of Safety Engineers, International Institute of Ammonia Refrigeration and National Fire Protection Association. In addition to his many professional honors and achievements, Mannan has served as a consultant to numerous entities in both the academic and private sectors, including the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.

In addition to Mannan’s address, the conference also will feature keynote presentations from John S. Bresland, chairman/ chief executive officer of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, and John Henshaw, former assistant secretary of labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Sept. 7, 2009 – As the complexity of chemical engineering design problems continues to increase, a number of advanced process integration techniques have the potential to address key industrial problems, said Mahmoud El-Halwagi, a Texas A&M University chemical engineering professor, delivering a keynote address at the 8th World Congress of Chemical Engineering.

El-Halwagi, an authority on process integration in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, spoke about design challenges for a changing world, at the international conference, which convenes every four years to discuss key advances in chemical engineering. This year’s conference was held in Montreal.

Many of the techniques developed by his research group, El-Halwagi said, are aimed at addressing problems such as conservation of natural resources (mass and energy), productivity enhancement, pollution prevention and reduction of greenhouse gas emission.

These techniques, which are based on chemical engineering fundamentals coupled with advanced optimization methods, pave the way for innovation in creating new products and processes such as biofuels and integrated biorefineries, El-Halwagi said.

The 8th World Congress of Chemical Engineering emphasized the key role played by chemical engineers from all around the world to develop the processes and products needed by humanity in a more sustainable way. It featured presentations delivered by prominent and highly respected professionals selected for their distinctive vision of the future.

El-Halwagi is holder of the McFerrin Professorship at Texas A&M, where he teaches senior-level undergraduate and graduate classes covering the areas of process design, sustainability, simulation, economics, integration and optimization. He has written two widely used texts on process integration and is the recipient of numerous research and teaching honors.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Sept. 1, 2009 – Juergen Hahn, a faculty member in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, has received tenure and promotion to associate professor.

In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Hahn conducts research that focuses on the development of new systems analysis techniques and their application in systems biology as well as for traditional chemical engineering processes. Applications of these techniques include sensitivity analysis of signal transduction pathways, image analysis techniques for fluorescence microscopy images, model reduction for controller design and experimental and sensor network design.

“Juergen is an outstanding scholar and citizen of the department; this promotion is richly deserved,” said Michael V. Pishko, department head and Charles D. Holland ’53 professor.

Hahn, who joined Texas A&M in 2003, received his doctoral and master’s degrees from the University of Texas at Austin in 2002 and 1998, respectively. He completed his undergraduate career at RWTH Aachen University in Germany in 1997.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, August 17, 2009 – A team of researchers led by Juergen Hahn, assistant professor in Texas A&M University’s Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, has been awarded a $1.4 million grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The team also includes two other chemical engineering assistant professors from Texas A&M, Arul Jayaraman and Carl Laird, and Martin L. Yarmush of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. Their research will focus on the development of a new computational framework that will enable investigation of the role of cell populations on signal transduction.

Signal transduction pathways, Hahn says, play a key role in many cellular functions as well as intercellular communication. One specific example highlighting the importance of signal transduction and how it is affected by cell population is stem cell differentiation. The resulting cell type is affected by the cell population and intercellular communication that activates different signal transduction pathways, he explains.

Currently, only limited non-invasive measurement capabilities are available for observing intracellular signals, Hahn notes, but this new research effort will address this point. The work will integrate mathematical, computational and experimental approaches to determine information about intracellular components of individual cells. This information will then be used to develop improved models of signal transduction pathways, Hahn says.

The grant is part of NSF’s “Cyber-Enabled Discovery and Innovation” effort – a five-year initiative to create revolutionary science and engineering research outcomes made possible by innovations and advances in computational thinking. The research outcomes from this initiative are expected to increase understanding of a wide range of science and engineering phenomena and socio-technical innovations that create new wealth and enhance the national quality of life.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, August 11, 2009 – Two faculty members from Texas A&M University’s Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering have been awarded a $900,000 R01 grant by the National Institutes of Health for research aimed at rewiring the regulatory machinery of bacterial cells in order to control biofilm formation.

In a shift from previous studies that have sought to eradicate biofilms, Thomas Wood, professor, and Arul Jayaraman, assistant professor, are working to utilize the benefits of biofilm formation for engineering purposes and to inhibit them for medical applications. They aim to control biofilm formation and virulence genes through manipulation of signal regulators. Their model system includes E. coli, which in the United States is responsible for eight million annual trips to physicians, Wood says.

If the formation of multi-species biofilms can be controlled, Wood says, then these techniques may be used for applications ranging from reducing corrosion to novel treatments for the 80 percent of bacterial infections that occur in biofilms where antibiotics are often ineffective.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, July 10, 2009 – Vice Chancellor and Dean of Engineering G. Kemble Bennett has appointed Arul Jayaraman holder of the Ray Nesbitt Professorship in Chemical Engineering. Jayaraman is assistant professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University.

Jayaraman, who completed his undergraduate career at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India, earned his Ph.D. at the University of California, Irvine in 1998. He was an instructor in bioengineering at Harvard Medical School for four years prior to joining Texas A&M in 2004.

At Texas A&M, Jayaraman’s research focuses on investigating molecular mechanisms underlying inflammatory diseases and bacterial infections using integrated experimental and modeling approaches. His research projects include systems biology of interleukin-6 signaling in liver inflammation; metabolic engineering and proteomics of adipocytes during hypertrophic enlargement; and role of quorum sensing signaling in bacterial communication and infection.

Earlier this year, Jayaraman was awarded a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award sponsored by the National Science Foundation for research that includes the development of a molecular systems signaling framework aimed at gaining a fundamental understanding of signals, receptors and recognition mechanisms, which will further the advancement of emerging areas such as synthetic biology.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, July 2, 2009 – Perla Balbuena, professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, will present her research Wednesday, July 15 at the University of California, Santa Barbara as part of the International Materials Research Center Workshop on Modeling of Fuel Cell Electrocatalysts.

Balbuena’s invited lecture is titled “Activity and Durability Analysis of Pt-based Alloy Cathodes.” In addition, Gustavo-Ramirez-Caballero, a graduate student under Balbuena’s supervision, is scheduled to present an introduction to ab initio methods applied to atomic scale issues in fuel cell catalysts during the first day of the workshop.

The workshop, which is scheduled to take place July 12-16, is sponsored by the National Science Foundation. It aims to bring together modelers and experimentalists working on electrocatalysts for proton-exchange membrane fuel cells and solid-oxide fuel cells to discuss the present understanding and challenges for the future.

Balbuena’s research focuses on understanding and predicting thermodynamic, transport and kinetic properties of materials using state-of-the-art first principles computational chemistry and physics methods. Her work centers on design of nanomaterials used as catalysts and electrolytes in power sources devices such as lithium-ion batteries and fuel cells.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, June 22, 2009 – Gilbert Froment, research professor in Texas A&M University’s Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, recently presented his research on rate modeling of hydrotreatment as part of the 2009 International Symposium on Advances in the Hydrotreatment of Oil Fractions (ISAHOF).

Froment delivered a plenary lecture at the symposium, which was held in Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, Mexico where representatives from academia, industry and research centers from throughout 30 different countries converged to exchange ideas, present new developments and discuss recent results in the field of hydroprocessing. Hydroprocessing includes chemical engineering processes such as hydrodulfurization, hydrodenitrogenation and hydrocracking and is an important part of oil refining.

Froment’s research focuses on the kinetic modeling of hydrocracking, catalytic cracking, catalytic reforming, hydrodesulfurization, synthesis gas production by steam reforming and catalytic partial oxidation of natural gas, solid acid alkylation, methanol-to-olefins on ZSM5 and SAPO 34, olefins production by steam cracking of hydrocarbon mixtures and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis.

Froment is a foreign associate of the U.S. Academy of Engineering, a member of the Texas Academy of Medicine, Science and Engineering, the Belgian Academy of Science and the Belgian Academy of Overseas Science. He received his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Gent, Belgium.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, June 3, 2009 – Arul Jayaraman, assistant professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, has been awarded a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

As a recipient of the prestigious award, Jayaraman will receive $400,000 throughout the next five years for his research, which is aimed at developing an integrated research and educational program in molecular systems biology (MSB). His project focuses on soluble signal-mediated signaling between bacteria and human cells, termed inter-kingdom (IK) signaling, as the research paradigm for MSB.

Jayaraman, who completed his undergraduate career at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India, earned his Ph.D. at the University of California, Irvine in 1998. He was an instructor in bioengineering at Harvard Medical School for four years prior to joining Texas A&M in 2004.

At Texas A&M, Jayaraman’s research focuses on investigating molecular mechanisms underlying inflammatory diseases and bacterial infections using integrated experimental and modeling approaches. His research projects include systems biology of interleukin-6 signaling in liver inflammation; metabolic engineering and proteomics of adipocytes during hypertrophic enlargement; and role of quorum sensing signaling in bacterial communication and infection.

His NSF-funded research has the potential to impact several areas, he says, noting the molecular systems signaling framework to be developed in the project will lead to a fundamental understanding of signals, receptors and recognition mechanisms. This, in turn, will further the advancement of emerging areas such as synthetic biology, Jayaraman says.

In addition, the research is expected to form the basis of novel molecular therapeutic strategies against E. coli and other pathogens, Jayaraman explains. The microfluidic tools and reporter cells to be developed in this work can be applied to other paradigms in biology and medicine where spatio-temporal behavior is important, he notes. Also, the dynamic profiling method utilized in this project will synergistically further efforts in computational systems biotechnology through the development of new models and algorithms for describing biomolecular dynamics and interactions, Jayaraman says.

The CAREER Award was established to support junior faculty within the context of their overall career development, combining in a single program the support of research and education of the highest quality and in the broadest sense. Through this program, the NSF emphasizes the importance on the early development of academic careers dedicated to stimulating the discovery process in which the excitement of research is enhanced by inspired teaching and enthusiastic learning.