The University of Illinois Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering is pleased to announce Notre Dame professor and ionic liquids expert Joan F. Brennecke as its 2015 Parr Lecturer.
Dr. Brennecke is the Keating-Crawford Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame and founding director of the Notre Dame Center for Sustainable Energy. Her research has focused on solvents, such as supercritical fluids and ionic liquids, which are less environmentally harmful than other solvents.
Her lecture, “Ionic Liquids for Post-Combustion CO2 Capture” will be at 4 p.m. Thursday, May 7 at 100 Noyes Laboratory. A reception will immediately follow her talk.
Dr. Brennecke received her M.S. and Ph.D.s from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her B.S. from the University of Texas at Austin. Throughout her career, she’s been recognized by many organizations, including the American Chemical Society, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the U.S. Department of Energy. In 2002, she was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering.
The Parr Lecture is named after Samuel W. Parr, the founder of chemical engineering at Illinois. A Granville, IL native, Parr became professor of applied chemistry and head of industrial chemistry at Illinois in 1891. He was a prolific author and made numerous discoveries. Parr developed an alloy—called Illium, made of nine different metals—that has powerful corrosion-resisting properties. He also invented the first simplified instrument for measuring the heating value of coal. An early Parr Calorimeter can be viewed in the north lobby of Roger Adams Laboratory.