Mass Transfer Fall/Winter 2025
Department Head Address
Dear ChBE Illinois alumni and friends,
As I sit down to write this message, I’m struck by how much can unfold in just a few months. The pace in our department has been both busy and inspiring, with signs of growth and progress all around us. Each new development builds on the last, propelling us toward even greater innovation and impact.
Since our last magazine issue, we’ve welcomed two new faculty members: professor of the practice Chris Burcham, who brings years of industry experience from Eli Lilly, and assistant professor Elizabeth Bickel Rogers, beginning her teaching career after postdoctoral work at the University of Minnesota. Their contributions will enrich our students’ learning in meaningful ways, and you can read more about them in the pages ahead. We also welcomed Tamara Persad to our front office staff, and she is quickly learning the processes that help the department function smoothly.
On the student side, we greeted 199 new undergraduates and 20 graduate students this fall, bringing our totals to 604 undergraduates and 153 graduate students. Our Master of Engineering in Chemical Engineering Leadership program continues to grow steadily, and this semester also marked the launch of our new Chemical Engineering + Data Science bachelor’s degree program, with 15 students in the inaugural cohort – a number I anticipate will grow significantly next year. Indeed, overall application numbers for Fall 2026 admission are extremely robust.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention the tremendous effort put forth by professors Jon Higdon, Baron Peters, and Uzoma Monye, with help from undergraduate program coordinator Kathy Thomas-Stagg, that led to the successful renewal of our ABET accreditation. The long and arduous renewal process confirmed that our program remains strong and rigorous, positioning us to continue to lead in chemical engineering education.
Our facilities play a pivotal role in the education and research opportunities that we provide our students. Over the summer, the National Science Foundation renewed its support of the Molecule Maker Lab Institute, which is led by Huimin Zhao, with a $15 million, five-year award. In September, we celebrated the ribbon cutting of our new Unit Operations Lab and the NSF’s Illinois BioFoundry, also led by Huimin and housed at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology. These state-of-the-art spaces will help drive discovery and innovation in our department for years to come.
A few more items of note before I close: first, Damien Guironnet, Simon Rogers and Diwakar Shukla have been promoted to full professor. Congratulations to each of them on reaching this significant milestone in their careers! In addition, Deborah Leckband was named Fellow of the Biophysical Society and Hong Yang was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Finally, in spite of ongoing nationwide uncertainties related to research funding, it has been a busy season for grants and publications, and several of those projects have been highlighted in this issue.
In all, 2025 has been a banner year, and our commitment to cutting-edge research and education is providing significant momentum to carry us forward into an exciting future.
Happy holidays and best wishes for 2026!
Chris Rao
Ray and Beverly Mentzer Professor, Department Head
Elizabeth Bickel Rogers
The Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering is pleased to announce the appointment of Elizabeth Bickel Rogers as an assistant professor. Bickel Rogers joined the faculty in November.
At Illinois, Bickel Rogers’ research group will focus on designing new catalytic materials and developing innovative reaction strategies for producing fuels and chemicals from diverse carbon feedstocks, including waste and natural resources. Her approach integrates synthesis of new and well-defined catalytic materials with characterization and kinetic studies to discern reaction pathways and mechanisms, and their connections to reaction conditions and catalyst properties, in order to enable judicious design of energy-efficient, applied catalytic processes.
Christopher L. Burcham
The Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering is pleased to welcome Christopher Burcham to the faculty as a professor of the practice. Burcham joined the faculty in August.
Prior to joining Illinois, Burcham spent over 23 years in the pharmaceutical process design and development field. As an Executive Director in the Synthetic Molecule Design and Development (SMDD) Department at Eli Lilly & Company, Burcham led the Particle Engineering group in SMDD where he was responsible for the technical supervision and advancement of both crystallization and absorption enabling platforms.
“Here students will engage in the type of hands-on learning that is vital in preparing them for successful, high-impact careers. It’s through transformative learning experiences like this that our students discover how much they are capable of and what a significant impact they can make on our world.” – Venetria Patton, Dean, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Damien Guironnet
Damien Guironnet was promoted to full professor, effective August 16, 2025. Guironnet's research focuses on the challenge of implementing recent advances in homogeneous catalysts into continuous processes, with a particular emphasis on polymer and fine chemical productions.
Paul Kenis
Paul Kenis has received the Carl Wagner Memorial Award from the Electrochemical Society. This award was established to recognize mid-career achievement, excellence in research and significant contributions in the teaching or guidance of students or colleagues in education, industry or government.
Alexa Kuenstler
Alexa Kuenstler has been recognized by the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences as Lincoln Excellence for Assistant Professors (LEAP) Scholar for outstanding contributions and potential in research and teaching. Kuenstler also received an SCS Teaching Award in recognition of educational efforts, from course development to in-class instruction.
Deborah Leckband
Deborah Leckband has been named a 2026 Fellow of the Biophysical Society by the Society’s Fellows Committee. Leckband was cited for her "pathbreaking research in biophysics that has transformed our understanding of fundamental mechanisms of biomolecular mechanics and force transduction."
Simon Rogers
Simon Rogers was promoted to full professor, effective August 16, 2025. At Illinois, Rogers uses experimental and computational tools to understand and model advanced colloidal, polymeric and self-assembled materials. Rogers, a James W. Westwater Scholar, also has an appointment in the Beckman Institute.
Diwakar Shukla
Diwakar Shukla was promoted to full professor, effective August 16, 2025. Shukla’s research is focused on understanding the complex biological processes using novel physics-based models and techniques. Shukla also has faculty appointments in Bioengineering and NCSA, and is affiliated with Chemistry and the Carl R. Woese Institute of Genomic Biology.
Hong Yang
Hong Yang has been named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the chemical sciences. Fellowship is the highest professional award conferred by the society. Yang's research focuses on material chemistry approaches to the design of nanostructures for energy and catalysis applications.
Huimin Zhao
Huimin Zhao has been named to the 2025 Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers list. The list recognizes researchers and social scientists who have demonstrated exceptional influence, as reflected through their publication of multiple papers frequently cited by their peers during the last decade.
Illinois celebrates opening of iBioFoundry, National Institute for Biofoundry Applications
Scientists, government officials and participants from around the world gathered on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus for the grand opening of the National Science Foundation’s Illinois BioFoundry, or iBioFoundry, and the National Institute for Biofoundry Applications at the U. of I. The ribbon-cutting ceremony took place Sept. 18 at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology on the U. of I. campus in Urbana, where the new facilities are housed.
The iBioFoundry, which is led by professor Huimin Zhao, builds on more than a decade of research at the U. of I. to integrate synthetic biology, laboratory automation and artificial intelligence to advance protein and cellular engineering. It is one of several biofoundries established in the U.S., each of which has its own focus and mission.
New theory promises faster, more accurate predictions of chemical bond energy
Researchers have developed a new theoretical framework that could dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of predicting chemical reaction energetics without sacrificing accuracy. Led by Alex Mironenko, the team introduces a method that may one day replace the current computational models used in quantum chemistry. At the core of the research is a concept called the independent atom reference state in the density functional theory framework. This new approach simplifies the complex mathematics involved in quantum chemistry, potentially replacing current computationally intensive models without compromising accuracy.
NSF awards DMREF grants to Illinois researchers
Several ChBE researchers are heading projects selected for funding by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF) program. The goal of DMREF is to get materials to market faster and cheaper than what is possible through traditional research methods. The NSF awarded only 25 DMREF projects in 2025, to researchers at 44 universities across 25 states.
Read more about these projects:
More Highlights
Q&A with Theresa Schoetz
Theresa Schoetz's research group focuses on the development of electrochemical materials and interfaces for next-generation batteries and supercapacitors that can be integrated in modern electronics. Here, Schoetz answers a series of questions about the article, her research focus, and more.
What is the central focus of your research?
My research focuses on how electrochemical interfaces, the thin regions where electronic and ionic charges meet, can be engineered to make better-performing materials and devices. These interfaces determine how efficiently batteries store energy, how sensors detect signals, how catalysts drive reactions, and how new types of electronics function. In my group, we study what happens at these boundaries and use that understanding to design materials whose behavior we can predict and control, rather than discover by trial and error.
Student Awards and Honors
Left to right, top to bottom:
Ashwin Bale was awarded third place at the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies student poster competition.
Afia Subhani received the Gender Equity in the Chemical Sciences Inclusive Leadership Award from the School of Chemical Sciences.
Archana Verma received the 2025 Women in Chemical Engineering Travel Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).
Song Yin received the Pharmaceutical Discovery, Development and Manufacturing (PD2M) Student Award from AIChE.
Mavis Future Faculty Fellows
Three ChBE graduate students were selected as 2025-2026 Mavis Future Faculty Fellows by The Grainger College of Engineering. This fellowship program, made possible by a gift from Frederic T. and Edith F. Mavis, is designed to facilitate training for the next generation of engineering professors.
Left to right: Michael Chen, Haisu Kang and Paul (Eun Suk) Lee
Graduate Research Symposium
Poster presentation winners:
- Song Yin, Computational Chemistry and Artificial Intelligence Guided Study of Lasso Peptide Folding
- Feray Buyuktopcu, Tandem Plasma and Electrochemical Treatment for Near-Complete Defluorination of PFOA
- Michael Taleff, Measuring Termination Rates in Living Polymerizations via the Molecular Weight Distribution
Oral presentation winners:
- Ankit Gautam, First-Principles Design of Materials for Sustainable Energy Generation and Efficient Separation Technologies
- Vijay Shah, Enhancing Performance of PDMS Nanomembrane-Based CO2 Capture Through O2 Removal
- Ashwin Bale, Nanoscale Infrared Imaging for Metabolic Mapping in Single-Cells
Special thanks to our judges (left to right): Ayman Allian, Bryan Boudouris, Chandra Raman and Meredith Sellers
Graduate Fellowships
EXTERNAL
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
Jared Rivera-Otero
Archana Verma
Studying Abroad Scholarship by the Ministry of Education, Republic of China
Ching-Yu Chen
CAMPUS
Chemistry-Biology Interface Training Program
Frederick Ward
Graduate College Fellowship
Darien Raymond
Alyssa Spencer
Graduate College Block Grant Fellowship
Runing Cui
Chenxi Jiang
Rashi Sultania
Grainger College Mavis Future Faculty Fellowship
Michael Chen
Haisu Kang
Eun Suk Paul Lee
Grainger College SURGE Fellowship
Destiny Gray
Megan Pierce
Genesis Rios-Adorno
Alyssa Spencer
Sloan Scholar
Christian Hurd
Jared Rivera-Otero
DEPARTMENTAL
Harry G. Drickamer Fellowship
Rithwik Ghanta
Michael Taleff
Samuel W. Parr Fellowship
Matthew Ball
Elliot Barton
Jacob Castaneda
Yong-Cheol Cho
Noah Garrick
Eric Giavedoni
Wesley Ho
Christian Hurd
Sudharshan Kannapadi
Alison Kim
Penelope Kovakas
Abhay Kshirsagar
Abiela Meek
Abu Nayeem
Yash Patel
Megan Pierce
Zhensong Qiu
Samuel W. Parr Fellowship, cont.
Ashiqur Rahman
Forrest Ramirez
Jared Rivera-Otero
Juan Rojas
Katherine Selvaggio
Jae-Won Seo
Nistha Shrestha
Evgany Turdakov
Hunter Wood
Glenn E. and Barbara R. Ullyot Fellowship
Alec Damron
Sirikarn Siri Phuangthong
Harini Srikant
A.T. Widiger Fellowship
Michael Chen
Parham Ghasemiahangarani
Jiye Lee
Gunnar Thompson
Congratulations to the 2025 ChBE Alumni Award winners!
Legacy in the Making:
How Adam Ferrari turned family support and personal grit into a thriving energy company
Adam Ferrari (BS 05) didn’t arrive at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with a perfect academic record, but he brought something just as powerful: a strong work ethic, competitive mindset and a desire to pursue something difficult. Two decades later, those same qualities have helped him build Phoenix Energy, a successful private oil and gas company headquartered in California with operations across multiple states.
A Trip Down Memory Lane
Although I graduated in 1982, I had not been back on campus since the late 80's. My wife, Lauren, had never seen my college campus so we decided this year to take a road trip to C-U, catch an Illini football game, tour the campus, and get some Papa Del's pizza! During the tour of the buildings where I spent most of my Chem E. undergraduate time, we walked almost every inch of Noyes Lab, RAL, etc. I saw signs for Dr. Westwater and Dr. Alkire and told Lauren that I had both of those professors in my day and how great I thought they were. When we walked the halls, I saw Dr. Alkire's name on a door – I was very happily surprised to see that, so I had to have a picture taken there. I had a blast during my four years at U. of I., studied a ton, and received a top-notch engineering education! I honestly believe that educational experience set my foundation for a very successful professional career.
Tim Stephan (BS 82)
Wilbert E. Asper (BS 58) passed away peacefully on September 24, 2025, at the age of 90. Following in the footsteps of his parents, Asper attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he earned a degree in chemical engineering. Asper fulfilled his ROTC commitment with commissioning as a 2nd lieutenant in the U.S. Army, then had a successful international career in the oil industry. Outside of work, Asper was active in his community, including as a member of the Lions Club, Rotary Club, and his church, where he served as a church officer, choir member and Sunday School teacher. He also founded the local Junior Achievement program in Guam.
James D. Batchelor (MS 50, PhD 53) passed away on August 5, 2025. Batchelor grew up in Winter Park, Fla. Upon graduating from high school as an honor student, he enrolled at the University of Virginia, where – after a two-year hiatus to serve in the U.S. Army – he received a B.S. degree in chemical engineering. Batchelor later attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and earned a master's degree and doctorate in chemical engineering. While at the U. of I., he met the love of his life, Elizabeth Jeanne Pinska, and they were married on Nov. 23, 1950. Throughout his career, Batchelor mainly focused on directing research and development efforts that involved materials and industrial processes. He was awarded eight U.S. patents and authored several research papers. After many years of service, Batchelor retired from his position as Director of the Office of Coal Liquefaction Technology for the Department of Energy. His hobbies included traveling, sailing, spending time with family and friends, and being active in his church.
David V. Boger (MS 64, PhD 66) passed away on July 5, 2025. An Emeritus Professor at Monash University, Boger was a world-renowned chemical engineer whose pioneering research in viscoelastic fluid mechanics led to the discovery of Boger fluids – elastic liquids with constant viscosity that revolutionized understanding of non-Newtonian flow. He was also well-known in the mining industry for developing processes that mitigate the environmental risks associated with toxic mining waste. Born in Pennsylvania, he studied at Bucknell University and the University of Illinois before moving to Australia in 1965, where he built a distinguished career at Monash University and the University of Melbourne. His work bridged theory and practice, advancing sustainable industrial processes such as waste reduction in alumina refining, innovations now adopted worldwide. Over his career, he published more than 350 papers, co-authored five books, and collaborated with over 90 companies. Among his many honors and fellowships, Boger was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2017 for discoveries and fundamental research on elastic and particulate fluids and their application to waste minimization in the minerals industry. He received the College of LAS Alumni Achievement Award in 2017, and the department's Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award in 2019.
Donald B. Halcom (BS 61) passed away at the age of 87 on July 20, 2025. Halcom earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and later received a Ph.D. from Rice University. Following his graduation, Halcom was employed as a chemical engineer, mostly working in research and development at Calsicat. After 36 years, he retired from BASF in 1999. Outside of work, Halcom enjoyed photography and sailing, and was known for his tremendous sense of humor.
James H. Kirk (BS 68) passed away at the age of 79 on June 26, 2025. Kirk received an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and earned a master’s degree in finance from the University of Chicago. Kirk spent the entirety of his career at Mobil Oil Company, where his work took him around the world. Regardless of his location on the map, Kirk had enduring relationships with his colleagues and remained closely connected to many of them after retirement. Outside of work, Kirk enjoyed skiing, traveling, golfing and tending his prized tomato plants. Kirk is remembered as a man of great curiosity and deep values, who was always learning, asking questions and seeking new challenges.
Douglas L. “Brian” Nippa (BS 71) passed away on June 14, 2025, at his home in Lafayette, Calif. Nippa grew up in Lockport, Ill., and attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where he received a degree in chemical engineering. Following graduation, Nippa relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area to work for Chevron. He later took on a new position at Shell Oil Products as a senior process engineer. He was passionate about music and loved to play the French horn. He played for several community orchestras and sang in various choral groups. Nippa is remembered as an extremely caring and generous person, with unwavering faith. He was an active member of his church for many years.
Ronald J. Patun (BS 57) passed away peacefully on August 7, 2025, at the age of 89. Patun earned degrees in chemical engineering and mathematics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign before graduating from Northwestern University with his MBA. Following graduation, Patun was employed for over 40 years at BorgWarner, Kennametal and CTC. While working for Kennametal, Patun was assigned to Zurich, where he organized and restructured operations across numerous European locations. Outside of work, he enjoyed bowling, hiking, skiing, biking, tennis, yoga and running in marathons, and was an active member of his church community.
Robert W. Schrader (BS 54) passed away on July 2, 2025, at the age of 93. Schrader received a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he also completed the ROTC program. Following his graduation, he joined Eastman Kodak where he spent his career. Early in his career, Schrader paused his career to earn a master’s degree in business from the University of Illinois and to serve in the Army Corp of Engineers. Following his retirement, he earned a Master of Divinity degree and, in 1997, became an ordained deacon. After retiring from this role at the age of 75, Schrader continued to assist in church services and volunteer at local organizations. In his free time, he enjoyed hiking, tending to his garden, watching sports, reading and attending musical performances.
Stanley A. Vejtasa (MS 67, PhD 69) passed away on May 18, 2025, at the age of 81. Vejtasa received his associate degree from Virginia Community College and went on to earn a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota. He attended graduate school at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he received both a master’s degree and a PhD in chemical engineering. While at the University of Illinois, he met Dianna Dunn and they married in 1967. Vejtasa began his career as a process engineer at Shell Oil, where he contributed to reducing emissions from sulfur recovery facilities. In 1976, he went on to become the manager of technology evaluation for the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto, Calif. In 1995, Vejtasa and his second wife, Kathy, retired and moved to Grants Pass, Ore., where he indulged his love for the outdoors. After completing Oregon State University’s Master Woodland Manager Program, he purchased 40 acres of forestry and dedicated the remainder of his life to preserving its beauty.