COLLEGE STATION, Texas, May 4, 2010 - Three members of the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering are among a select faculty group honored for contributions to teaching, research and service by Texas A&M University's Dwight Look College of Engineering.

Professor Perla Balbuena has been named a Texas Engineering Experiment (TEES) Station Fellow, Professor Tahir Cagin has been named a William Keeler Faculty Fellow, and Associate Professor Arul Jayaraman has been named a TEES Select Young Faculty member.

Formal recognitions were made at an awards banquet this past April. In all, more than 40 faculty members were recognized.

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 focuses on bulk and nanomaterials used as catalysts and electrolytes in power sources devices such as lithium-ion batteries and fuel cells.

Cagin's research focuses on computational materials science and nanotechnology with emphasis on design, characterization and development of multifunctional nano-structured materials for device and sensor applications; fundamental studies on transport phenomena (heat, mass and momentum) at nanoscale and in confined media; thermal, mechanical, electronic and magnetic properties and phase behavior of materials; materials for thermal management, power generation and energy harvesting; and development and application of multiscale simulation methods.

Jayaraman's research focuses on molecular systems biotechnology, specifically on using integrated experimental and modeling approaches for investigating problems in human health and medicine. His research projects include systems biology of cytokine signaling in inflammatory diseases; inter-kingdom signaling interactions between bacteria and human cells in GI tract infections; and development of microfluidic model systems for combinatorial drug screening and vascular tissue engineering.