Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering student Fred Sollberger was one of five Research Park interns honored. He works for the ADM Bioenergy Modeling Center to review and model the most relevant open source cases in literature for second generation biofuels production. Fred evaluated the differences in operating conditions and performance that can be obtained when employing real feed compositions after using in-house data. His work helps determine the most relevant design features for a large scale reactor at an early stage of development. These findings will be instrumental in current in-house developments at ADM for second generation biofuels production.
Shirley Tan was awarded a Donald F. & Mildred Topp Othmer National Scholarship. The award is presented on the basis of academic achievement and involvement in student chapter activities. Only one individual may be nominated per AIChE student chapter and Shirley was one of fifteen students nationally to receive the award.
Hyunjoon Kong was awarded a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation Biomaterials Program. His proposal is titled "Integrating Biomaterials and Biology for Control of Cell Function in 3D Matrices". The award is given to junior faculty who demonstrate excellence in the coordination of outstanding research and education. His research aims are to design a a 3D cell-encapsulating biomaterial that decouples the
interdependency between biomaterial stiffness and nutrient transport and to establish a set of integrative biomaterial design principles that describe growth factor-induced signal transduction with biomaterial
stiffness. His educational plans are to develop a cross-disciplinary course that explores the interactions between biomaterials and biological systems. Additionally, Prof. Kong will design a program to introduce pre-college students and teachers to the science between biomaterials and biology. 
Huimin Zhao has been selected as the 2009 plenary speaker for Area 15C (Biochemical Engineering) for the AIChE Annual Meeting in Nashville, TN in November. He will be presenting his talk titled "Surfing the Third Wave of Biotechnology: Turning Trash into Cash". 
A greater understanding of how DC-SIGN (Dendritic Cell-Specific Intercellular adhesion molecule-3-Grabbing Non-integrin) binds to pathogens such as Ebola, Dengue fever and HIV is elucidated in a paper by Deborah Leckband, et al. in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. UIUC News Bureau article.
Deborah Leckband was among the first group of scientists elected Fellows of the American Chemical Society. The ACS Fellows Program recognizes members of the American Chemical Society "for outstanding achievements in and contributions to Science, the Profession, and the Society".
Granick graduate student, Liangfang Zhang, Ph.D. 2006, received the American Chemical Society 2009 Victor K. LaMer Award at the spring national meeting. The LaMer award is presented for an outstanding Ph.D. thesis in the field of colloid and surface science. Eligible candidates for this award included all Ph.D. students from chemistry, materials science, chemical engineering, physics, biochemistry, or other programs at U.S. or Canadian universities, who completed their research in colloid and surface chemistry within the past three years.
Crystal structures of membrane proteins are necessary to understanding how they function in cells, but the crystals are notorously difficult to obtain. Paul Kenis and coworkers have developed a device that allows them to determine the conditions needed to crystallize these proteins (Cryst. Growth Des., DOI: 10.1021/cg900289d). C&EN article contains a video showing the device in action.
The groups' research was published this spring in a series articles in the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research. Brendan Harley is a co-founder of the British company, Orthomimetics, that developed from their research. The company is working to develop an osteochondral scaffold to regenerate both bone and cartilage. Human trials with the material have begun in Europe and will possibly start in the United States later this year, pending FDA approval. MIT news article, Forbes article.
Richard Braatz, eight former students and postdocs, and collaborators at Merck & Co. were recognized with the 2009 Collaboration Success Award from the Council for Chemical Research for contributions to process analytical technology for pharmaceutical crystallization. The award recognizes outstanding collaborative research between academic and industrial teams.
The Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine awarded "Engineering Redox-sensitive Linkers for Genetically Encoded FRET-based Biosensors" the 2008 Alan MacDiarmid Best Paper Award in the interdisciplinary research category. The paper was selected using the criteria: significance of research; originality and importance of results; projected impact to the field; and experimental design and quality of data. The authors are Vladimir L. Kolossov, Bryan Q. Spring, Anna Sokolwski, John E. Conour, Robert M. Clegg, H. Rex Gaskins, and Paul Kenis.
Marina Miletic was recently honored by receiving the Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (Instructional Staff), and the Amy L. Devine Recognition Award from the University of Illinois' Alpha Omega Epsilon sorority. The Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from the University of Illinois, UC is given to one to three instructional staff each year and recognizes sustained excellence in undergraduate teaching, positive impact on undergraduate student learning, innovative approaches to undergraduate teaching, and related contributions. The Devine award is given biennially and honors a University of Illinois professor's dedication to their students. In April, she will be awarded the Rose Award for Teaching Excellence from the College of Engineering. This is an award for instructors who motivate undergraduate students to learn and appreciate engineering and one or two are given per year. 
Professors Jennifer Lewis, Ralph Nuzzo, John Rogers and researchers in their groups are authors of a Science Express article of their research demonstrating patterned silver microelectrodes by omnidirectional printing of concentrated nanoparticle inks with mininum widths of about 2 microns on semiconductor, plastic and glass substrates.UIUC News Bureau article.
