Vikas Berry joined the chemical engineeringdepartment Dec. 1, 2006, as an assistant pro-fessor. He came to K-State from the VirginiaPolytechnic Institute and State University,where he received his Ph.D. in chemical engi-neering in 2006.

Berry received his B.Tech degree in chemi-cal engineering in 1999 from the IndianInstitute of Technology in Delhi, India. Hethen completed a master’s degree in chemicalengineering at the University of Kansas in2003. Because his Ph.D. advisor moved to theUniversity of Nebraska-Lincoln during com-pletion of his Ph.D. thesis, Berry lived andworked in Lincoln for the two years prior tocoming to Kansas State. In his Ph.D. work,Berry developed a humidity sensor based onnanoparticle-coated bacteria. This work washighlighted in such prestigious magazines asNature, Discover, and Science News.

Berry answered a few questions in a recentinterview:

What attracted you to Kansas State?

With a warm and supporting faculty, and ahealthy research and teaching environment, Ifound the chemical engineering department atKansas State University to be a perfect place

Berry joins chemical engineering departmentwhere I could implement my teaching method-ologies, develop informative courses for grad-uate and undergraduate students, and build astrong research program. I was most impressedby KSU’s support for novelty in research andinnovation in teaching. I value these elementsas a scientist and a teacher, and I was delight-ed to find these at K-State.

Also, most of my “American-life” has beenin two Midwest cities of Lawrence andLincoln (where I stayed for about two yearseach), and Manhattan was a welcome addition.

Describe the type of research program youwill be building at Kansas State.

The focus of my research program at KansasState will be the study of functional hybrid-systems, built using the physical and biologicalcomponents for applications in molecular-elec-tronics, nanofluidics, mechanical surfaces, bio-medicine, and bio-mimetics. My group willinvestigate the properties of such hybrid sys-tems and develop a fundamental understandingabout their interaction energies and mecha-nisms. The group will then integrate these sys-tems with “functionally active” physical or bio-logical components to develop applications

Berry

Editors

Keith HohnMary Rezac

Continued on page 10

Fall 2007 n Volume 4 Chemical Engineering n Kansas State UniversityChemChem EE

Krista Walton has received the 2007 ArmyResearch Office Young Investigator Award for herproposal, "Multifunctional Nanostructures forAdsorption of Toxic Materials."

The ARO Young Investigator Program seeks toattract universities’ outstanding young facultymembers by providing awards of $150,000 forthree years to support research and encourageteaching and research careers.

Walton will be examining novel porous struc-tures for adsorptive removal of contaminants fromthe air.

Walton receives Young Investigator Award

Novel porous materials known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) may provideenhanced catalytic activity for reactiveadsorption processes.

In this issue

n Dept. head message . . 2

n Alternate energy . . . 3

n Edgar sabbatical . . . 4

n Learning Comm. . . . 5

n Academy update . . 6-7

N E W S

2

reetings from Manhattan. As you’ll see asyou read through the newsletter, it’s been

a busy time at Kansas State University and thechemical engineering department has enjoyedsome important successes during this past year.

Our undergraduate program has grown sig-nificantly in the past few years with the May2007 class nearly 50% larger than May 2006.Once again, May B.S. graduates had essential-ly 100% placement at the time of graduation.The job market was very strong this year withmost students receiving multiple offers andsome May 2007 graduates accepting positionsas early as November 2006. Availability ofinternships for sophomores and juniors alsoappears to be improved relative to previousyears. Here’s hoping this trend continues.

It’s been another year in which our studentsmade us very proud. The successes of theentire student body were recognized throughanother AIChE Outstanding Student ChapterAward. This is the 12th consecutive award forthe group, a record unmatched by any otherprogram in the country. Additionally, the stu-dent ChemE Car team competed in the nationalcompetition and received the Spirit Award fortheir enthusiasm and team spirit. At the K-StateAll-University Open House, ChE studentsreceived awards for the Best Technical Displayand third place overall. Emily Voigt received aGoldwater Fellowship and Jonathan Kingreceived a Phi Kappa Phi fellowship. Awardssuch as these continue to demonstrate the talentand dedication of the group.

Effective Aug. 1, 2007, the College ofEngineering at Kansas State University has anew dean, John R. English. Dean English cameto K-State from the University of Arkansaswhere he served as head of the department ofindustrial engineering since 2000. He has aPh.D in industrial engineering and manage-ment from Oklahoma State University andindustrial experience from AT&TCommunications. Please join us in welcominghim. You can contact him at jenglish@ksu.eduor drop in and say hello the next time you’re intown.

New faculty: Assistant Professor VikasBerry joined the department in December2006. Vikas has research interests in the area ofnanobiotechnology and is working to developbiologically inspired sensors. In his first year,he taught the undergraduate Materials Scienceand Engineering course and has worked withone graduate and two undergraduateresearchers. Look for more details regardingVikas’s past experiences and his plans for hiscareer at K-State later in this newsletter.

Faculty development: The department hasbeen very fortunate to have been able to pro-vide a number of professional developmentopportunities to faculty members this past year.The most significant was clearly the sabbaticalleave provided to Professor James Edgar as hestudied new techniques in the Netherlandsrelating to semi-conductor materials (moreabout this in a separate story). Additionally,Professors Jennifer Anthony, Vikas Berry, andKrista Walton were supported to travel tonational and international technical meetingswhere they advanced their research skills. Theyall also received training here at K-State relat-ing to becoming effective classroom teachers.Finally, every faculty member attended at leastone regional or national technical meeting dur-ing the past year. They presented many papersdescribing research activities at KSU and inter-acted with colleagues from industry and otherinstitutions.

As always, we hope that you’ll drop in andsee us when you’re in Manhattan. The nextCollege of Engineering Open House will beApril 18 and 19, 2008, and is always a greattime to learn about the exciting projects onwhich students and faculty are working.

All the best,

Message from the department headG

Mary Rezac

3

K-State researchers working to find alternative energy sourcesFrom heating your home to fueling your car,

the rising cost of energy is a hot topic forAmericans. It's also at the heart of a newKansas State University initiative to bringexperts together from across campus to posi-tion the university as a national and worldleader in sustainable energy research.

A newly developed coalition of K-Stateresearchers, the K-State Center for SustainableEnergy, aims to develop a university-wide,integrated research, teaching, and outreach pro-gram with a focus on sustainable energy pro-duction and use. In particular, K-State is study-ing alternative and renewable energy and therelated economic opportunities for Kansas.Professors Mary Rezac, chemical engineering,and Ron Madl, grain science and industry, co-direct the Center for Sustainable Energy.

"We recognized the need to have a campus-wide effort to study renewable and sustainableenergy," said Sue Peterson, K-State assistant tothe president and director of governmentalrelations. "Our goal is to make sure K-Stateresources—people, facilities and projects—arehelping solve a problem for the future of thecountry."

K-State is providing strategic and significantresearch in a wide range of sustainable energyareas that extends from biofuels linked to agri-cultural crops to sustainablearchitecture in buildings.Researchers from three collegesand dozens of departments areworking on a diverse array ofenergy-related topics.

"The center will allow K-Stateto take current research to a high-er level of success and visibility by creating anopportunity for more effective synergies andcoordination among the various K-State sus-tainable energy groups," Duane Nellis, KSUProvost, said.

Initial activities have focused on the produc-tion of fuels from biomass, a significantKansas resource. After these activities are wellestablished, the focus will expand to includeboth solar- and wind-energy-related activities.The center focuses on (a) conducting funda-mental research to aid in the development oftechnology, (b) training students and the publicin the area of energy resources, and (c) provid-ing input to policymakers regarding the likely

impact of new legislation. With volatile oil prices creating frustration at

fuel pumps, alternative fuels like ethanol andbiodiesel are gaining more attention. Butinstead of corn, K-State researchers are evalu-ating feedstocks as a more long-term solution.Even if all starch-based grain resources (corn,sorghum, etc.) are used for ethanol, it wouldstill produce less than half of the country’stransportation fuel needs. Furthermore, grainused for fuel takes away from established foodand feed uses. Thus, ethanol industry personnelare exploring options for using cellulosic feed-stock, such as sorghum, corn stover or stalks,and switchgrass. K-State researchers are devel-oping processes to make these conversionspossible.

However, just because a crop seems to be aviable alternative to corn doesn't mean it is a

good choice for Kansas. RichardNelson, associate professor ofengineering and head of the K-State Engineering ExtensionService, studies the overall feasi-bility of using agricultural cropresidues for producing fuels. Theconversion of crop residues to

fuels brings the positive result of producing adesirable product but has the negative conse-quences of additional soil erosion, potentialcontamination of groundwater, and the need foradditional chemical treatment. Nelson’s goal isto provide farmers with tools to determine themost sustainable long-term use for their fields.

Within the department of chemical engineer-ing, research focuses on the development ofthermochemical routes for the conversion ofvegetable oils to green gasoline and greendiesel, development of enabling separationstechnology for biofuels production, and devel-opment of nanoporous materials for sorbentsfor gaseous methane and hydrogen.

Cutline????

by Mary Rezac

4

During the 2006-2007 academic year, Iwas on sabbatical from K-State, working inthe applied materials science department ofRadboud University in Nijmegen, theNetherlands. Although it is a small depart-ment, it has an excellent program in myarea of research, semiconductor crystalgrowth and characterization.

The main project I worked on during theyear was the characterization of defects insemiconductor crystals (aluminum nitrideand silicon carbide) by defect-selectiveetching. It is a simple method of locatingand identifying defects (mistakes in thearrangement of atoms) in crystals. Defectscan be hard to locate because they are very small.Despite their small size, they have profound effectson a material’s reactivity and electrical properties. Byetching with certain chemical compositions, pits areproduced where the defect is located. The type of

defect present can be identified from a pit’s size andshape, as seen in the figures above. I was truly fortu-nate to work with and learn from Jan Weyher, one ofthe world’s foremost experts on the theory and prac-tice of this technique, and whose research I hadadmired for many years.

During my stay, my department moved into a brandnew building, named after Christiaan Huygen, aDutch mathematician and astronomer famous for hisdiscovery of Saturn’s moons and for developing high-ly accurate pendulum clocks. There was a big cele-bration during the grand opening of the building,

attended by Queen Beatrix, the queen of theNetherlands.

In addition to my work, I experienced Dutch cul-ture and society. The Netherlands is one of the mostdensely populated countries in the world; everywhere

you go there are people.Consequently, this influenceseverything they do. TheDutch are more activelyinvolved in energy conserva-tion and are more concernedabout the environment thanthe average American.Bicycling is greatly encour-aged by extensive dedicatedcycling paths and parkinggarages exclusively for bicy-cles. Every morning, thebicycle garage in my buildingwas filled with more than 500bicycles. Education is subsi-dized so more of society can

attend college. College tuition was just over $2000per year, and each student receives around $300 permonth from the government to help defray the costs.

Overall, my sabbatical was a rewarding experience.I learned new skills from an expert that will benefitmy research; I developed new ideas for future proj-ects; and living in the Netherlands and travelingthrough Europe has given me a better understandingof European culture, society, history, and geography.

My sabbatical year inthe Netherlands

Jim, Libby, and Sterling Edgar in the big market square of Bruges,Belgium, a city noted for its beautiful medieval architecture

Etch pits formed on crystals of (left) aluminum nitride and (right) scandium nitride.

by Jim Edgar, ChE professor

5

n Sarah Patterson (B.S. 2000) transitioned toPlastics TS&D North America at the DowChemical Company in January 2007. As a devel-opment specialist on the NA pipe team, shefocuses her efforts on implementing Dow’s poly-ethylene pipe solutions in the Dow pipeline, con-ducting application development for gas-distribu-tion pipe, and providing technical service to themicro-irrigation and drip-tape customers.

n Sean Tomlinson (B.S. 2005) works forSchlumberger as a field engineer. He is currentlystationed in Saudi Arabia in the middle of thelargest oilfield in the world: Ghawar. He shep-herds two cement crews responsible for eight oiland gas rigs. He is currently finishing up a 13-week stint in the field, after which he will have athree-week vacation followed by six weeks inParis, France, for training.

n Stuart Leonhart (B.S. 1964) was promoted toaccount manager at Republic Waste Services,Inc.

n Kurt Anderson (B.S. 1990) has been workingin design, manufacturing, Six Sigma, and man-agement at Dow Corning for 16 years. Currently,

Alumni notesAnderson is workingas a Six Sigma BlackBelt for the sealantsbusiness unit. InMarch 2007 Andersonretired from morethan 20 years in theArmy Reserves. Hehad been deployed inIraq where he workedon reconstructionprojects, most recent-ly in charge of start-ing up the Baghdadprovinial reconstruc-tion team. On this team, Anderson worked withState Department, USAID, native-Iraqi bilingualcultural experts, and military personnel from theNavy and Army.

n Jim Brewer (B.S. 1981) joined Criteria Labs infall 2006 to run operations. Criteria Labs is asemiconductor services company specializing insupport of fab-less semiconductor companies.Brewer volunteers at his daughter’s grade schooland just ended a two-year position on the execu-tive board there.

Anderson

Engineers are increasingly being valued as much fortheir ability to learn new things and operate as membersof teams as for their technical skills. Yet these skills aretypically not formally taught in engineering classes. Toaddress this disparity, Keith Hohn has facilitated alearning community for freshman and transfer chemicalengineering students for the past two years as part of theCollege of Engineering Learning Community Initiative.

The purpose of a learning community is to build acommunity of chemical engineering students who willsupport each other in their studies, and who will discussand practice skills such as teamwork, leadership, andbeing effective learners. All students in the introductorychemical engineering course were given the opportunityto participate. Students enrolled for one hour of credit,with that hour paid for by the College of Engineering.Ten students participated in 2005-2006, and 14 studentsparticipated in 2006-2007.

Each learning community meets twice each monththroughout the academic year: one time as small learn-ing communities and one time when all learning com-munities meet together in a session facilitated by Jan

Learning communities expand student opportunities

(left to right, front row) Elizabeth Hohn, Missy Troutman, ElainLamm, Lauren Sturn;(middle row) Keith Hoh, Eve Buettell, BristenKrinhop, Jeremy Miller, Megan Young, Ross Holmes; (back row)Lauren Bode

Continued on page 9

6

One of the goals of the chemical engineeringdepartment is to upgrade the undergraduate lab-oratories so that students benefit from hands-onexperience with modern equipment. Supportfrom the K-State ChE Academy is vital toachieve this goal. In last year’s newsletter, wereported on a new laboratory experiment devel-oped for the unit operations laboratory that wasmade possible through academy support. Thisexperiment, the extraction and purification ofan enzyme from a sweet potato, was successful-ly implemented in spring 2007 and will contin-ue to serve our students in the future.

This year, academy support has allowed us topurchase a new gas chromatograph (gc) for use

Laboratory upgrades made possible through academy supportin the transport phenomena laboratory.

This gc is used to measure the relative con-centrations of CO2 and CH4 in order to analyzethe results of the gas diffusion experiment. Itreplaces a Varian gc that was used for the last30 years. While the Varian gc was functionalfor many years, it had become unreliable andeffectively unrepairable. The new gc is con-trolled by a computer and all data analysis isdone with a modern software package. In addi-tion, the CO2-CH4 separation is more efficient,taking less time for analysis than the old gc.Without the generous support of academydonors, this improvement in the transport phe-nomena laboratory would not be possible.

Replaced 30-year old Va

ChE Academy members July 1, 2006–June 30, 2007ChE Academy members July 1, 2006–June 30, 2007

$250 to $499Bryan Steven AndersonJohn Paul BoehnkeKent Morris BusterCyrus H Elting JrJiaming HuaWarren and Gisela KennedyCarl T LiraDonald and Nancy LivingstonChris and Edward NullRoss and Lise OstenbergRobert L Rainbolt JrThatcher and Anne ReistSamuel and Dorothy Sinderson JrJohn B SutherlandEdward and Dorothy Travnicek

$500 to $999Mark and Terrie BoguskiJeffrey Bone

Michael and Pamela BrownThomas and Rosaline CarlisleDavid and Kathy CarrTansukhlal DorawalaJohn FimerellisRex and Gloria GarreltsEric Donald Johnson and Pamela

Susan DlabalAlan and Helen HammerliTracey and Larry LindeenRobert and Betty MeyerRandy Mark NewcomerKurtis and Theresa NussDavid and Leah OttMarc and Jody RamsdaleMary Rezac and Peter PfrommLawrence A Schulte JrJim M SiefkinKenneth L ThomasClarence and Jean WatersRalph William WeddKerry Fred WilliamsDebra A Zoloty

$1000 to 2499Willis and Beth BarrettMarla and Wayne BenyshekLyndon and Gerri Boyer PhDMatthew and Lynn DassowLewis HoEdward and Ming HsuRich E MistlerKathleen R NafusKurtis and Theresa NussMorey E OldweilerVan and Sharon PoolerAnn and Donald SchaechtelRobert and Margaret SmithJohn Richard StewartKeith Gregory SteyerFrederick and Lois StollerLawrence and Martha StoverGurdeep RanhotraPatrick and Carolyn Wilburn

$2500 +Larry and Laurel EricksonMary Lee Durland KindDana and Elizabeth MathesRichard and Sarah PorterDon and Barbara RiedlSpencer and Susan Tholstrup

$25,000 lifetimeTeresa and Arnold AllemangTom and Marilyn BarrettRichard and Mary Elizabeth

CorbinJudith T Fan and Robert ReayL T and Eva FanGordon and Joyce GoeringArthur and Georganne HiserVirginia K HonsteadEdward and Ming HsuScott and Karen Love

Partner

Fellow Exective Member

Founder

Academy Associate

7

sible through academy support

New SRI 310C gas chromatograph provided through ChE Academy support0-year old Variam gas chromatograph

Before After

uly 1, 2006–June 30, 2007uly 1, 2006–June 30, 2007

00 +Erickson

nd Kindbeth Mathesr h Porterr Riedlu an Tholstrup

0 lifetimed AllemangBarrett

a y Elizabeth

nd Robert Reayn

e Goeringganne Hiser

s eadng Hsun Love

Kenneth Lee MartinRobert and Margaret SmithKeith Gregory SteyerTimothy and Sharon TaylorNorman and Donna Tetlow

$250 t0 $499BPCargill FoundationThe Williams Companies Inc

$500 to $999ChevronTexacoDow Corning CorporationNational Cooperative Refinery

Assoc

$1000 to 2499Burns & McDonnell FoundationCargill IncMistler Family FoundationTesoro Petroleum Corporation

$2500 +Chevron Phillips Chemical

Company LPFidelity Investments Charitable

Gift Fnd

$25,000 lifetimeAkron Community FoundationChevron Phillips Chemical

Company LPConocoPhillipsCosmo Ec Co Ltd

E I Du Pont De Nemours and Company

Estate of Joe HyerExxonMobil FoundationKUBOTA CorporationMobil Foundation IncMonsanto CompanyNisshin Flour Milling Co, LtdThe Dow Chemical FoundationThe Dow Chemical CompanyThe Procter & Gamble Mfg

Company

Academy Associate

Member

nder

Every effort has been made to produce acomprehensive listing of donors for the cal-endar year. We apologize for any incorrectlistings, misspellings, or omissions, andextend our sincere thanks for your support.

Partner

Fellow

Exective Member

Founder

Corporations

8

Chemical engineering M.S. and Ph.D. graduates

Geoff Tolbert – AGP

Norberto Acosta – Chevron Phillips ChemicalRachel Alewine – seekingKaty Crabaugh – U.S. SteelJustin Cunningham – seekingAndrew Friling – CargillNathan Fritz – Georgia Tech, ChE graduate

studentLee Green – Chevron Phillips ChemicalNelson Green – Georgia Tech, ChE graduate

student

Kyle Taggart – (Edgar) (MS) 3MTarl Vetter – (Pfromm) (MS) KochPeng Lu – (Edgar) North Carolina State

Chemical engineering B.S. graduates Levi Houk – University of New MexicoSteven Jansen – Exxon-MobilKatie Kennedy – Chevron Phillips ChemicalJonathan King – University of California-

Berkeley, ChE graduate studentAbraham Neghassi – seekingJose Ortega – Dow ChemicalBryan Richter – Chevron Phillips ChemicalKatherine Shaeffer – ADMKyle Smith – Dow ChemicalDarren Strope – Exxon-MobilMegan Winter – NanoScale Corporation

August 2007

May 2007

December 2006 May 2007

Nathan Keiser – (Rezac) (MS) 3MTyler McGown – (Anthony) (MS) Burns &

McDonnell

December 2006

Aveen Alkhatib – KU, ChE graduate studentDavid Strickley – Home Depot

9

Faculty and staff notesn Larry Erickson was a recipient of a LutherAchievement Award, presented to distinguishedalumni from Lutheran Junior College inWahoo, Neb. Erickson received this award atLutherfest, June 22-24, 2007, at MidlandLutheran College in Fremont, Neb.

n Krista Walton received the UniversityMentoring Fellowship for Women andMinorities in the Sciences and Engineering,designed to help tenure-track women andminority scientists and engineers find mentorsand develop their research programs to a levelthat attracts outside funding. Walton receivedNSF travel support to attend and present at the9th International Conference on theFundamentals of Adsorption in Giardini Naxos,Italy, in May 2007. She also presentated at the15th International Zeolite Conference inBeijing, China, in August 2007.

n Walter Walawender was awarded an hon-orary membership in the Steel RingProfessional Engineering Honor Society at the2007 Open House banquet. There have beenonly nine honorary memberships awarded inthe history of Steel Ring.

n Jennifer Anthony attended a course on theFundamentals of X-Ray Diffraction sponsoredby the International Centre for Diffraction Datain Pittsburgh, Pa., in June. She was funded bythe Research Enhancement Visit programthrough the College of Engineering and the

NSF ADVANCE program. In July, Anthonyattended and presented at the ChemicalEngineering Summer School program spon-sored by the American Society of EngineeringEducation. Anthony also attended and present-ed at the 15th International Zeolite Conferencein Beijing, China, in August.

n The Sperman refinery has churned out itsfirst grandchild for Florence and Jim Sperman.Ryker Ludlow Sperman-Wiens strutted into theworld on Friday, April 13, clearly unimpressedwith the superstitious nature of such a finespring day.

WaltonErickson Walawender

Anthony

Wiersema from the College of HumanSciences at Iowa State University. Atthese interactive meetings, students wereexposed to important concepts such asactive listening, conflict resolution,problems solving as a team, and learningtheory. Students discussed these topics,engaged in an activity to reinforce thetopic, and brainstormed on how theycould apply the concepts in their aca-demic and professional lives.

Example activities included a prob-lem-solving activity where teams of stu-dents had to consider and rank whatequipment would be most vital for sur-vival in the desert, an activity where

teams of students had to design andbuild a working scale made completelyof edible materials, and an activitywhere students discussed engineeringethics by first listing the arguments for acertain action by an engineer being ethi-cal and then listing the arguments forthat action being unethical. In additionto these activities, students wereexposed to several methods that couldbenefit their learning. For example, stu-dents practiced a technique called “readand explain pairs,” where a pair of stu-dents read a technical article by breakingthe article into pieces and taking turnssummarizing the main points of each

piece to their partner.Participant Lauren Sturn commented

on what she got out of the experience,“Learning communities was a greatopportunity for me to interact with otherstudents within my major and across allfields of engineering for an entire yearand build strong relationships as welearned to be better team members andmore responsible learners.”

Participant Ross Holmes said,“Learning community allowed me tostep back and realize my strengths andweaknesses. I can take what I learned inthis class and not just apply it to school,but also to my career and life.”

Continued from page 5

Learning communities expand student opportunities

Sperman and newgrandson

10

Last fall, the Dow Chemical Companyprovided financial support to establishthe Dow Chemical Company FoundationScholarship program. The five-year pro-gram will provide $4000 supplementalscholarships to 27 chemical engineeringstudents. This program supplements thelong-standing Dow Outstanding Juniorprogram which provides a $1,500 sup-plemental scholarship plus a 10-weekpaid internship at a Dow ChemicalCompany location.

In the 2006-2007 academic year,Amanda Martin, senior; Erin Johnson,

junior; and Amanda Jacobs, sophomore,were Dow Chemical CompanyFoundation Scholars. Lisa Mercurio wasnamed the Dow Outstanding Junior.

For the 2007-2008 academic year,senior Lisa Mercurio, juniors VanessaWhittle and James Swanson, sopho-mores Bristen Krinhop and ElaineLamm, and freshman Edgar Ortega,were named Dow Chemical CompanyFondation Scholars. The DowOutstanding Junior will be named laterin the year.

Dow Scholarship winners

Cutline

Kansas State University has beenselected as the newest member ofConocoPhillips’ SPIRIT Scholarsprogram. The program recruits out-standing students and provides themwith leadership and public serviceopportunities throughout their col-lege careers. The program's objectiveis to prepare students for success inthe modern business world.

Students receive scholarships,potential summer internships, busi-ness-related training, and profession-al mentoring. The program is formal-ly established and provides funding

for individual scholarships for stu-dents at eight universities, nowincluding K-State.

Six K-State chemical engineeringstudents have been namedConocoPhillips SPIRIT Scholars forthe 2007-2008 academic year,including seniors Kaylee Cocke,Christopher Frampton, WilliamService, Ben Tryon, and AlisonYoung and junior Amanda Jacobs.SPIRIT scholars will receive $5000supplemental scholarships during thenext academic year.

ConocoPhillips SPIRIT Scholars for 2007-2008,from l to r: Amanda Jacobs, Kaylee Cocke,Alison Young; second row: Ben Tryon, WilliamService, Christopher Frampton

ConocoPhillips Scholarship winners

Berry joins chemical engineering departmentContinued from page 1 like sensors and nanomechanical systems. The

first project my group is working on is to builda three-component nano-hybrid system forapplications in molecular electronics, bio-physics, and nano-mechanics.

What courses are you planning on teaching?

I taught electronic materials in spring 2007and will be teaching chemical reaction engi-neering in fall 2007.

What is your teaching philosophy?

In my opinion, an effective teacher is onewho inspires the students’ interest in the disci-pline by transmitting his enthusiasm and lovefor the subject, and develops a feeling of fasci-nation and importance of the course, which in

turn eases the learning process. At the graduatelevel, an additional aspect which has to beincorporated in teaching is to make studentsthink independently and conduct independent,but mentored, research. I want to incorporateall these elements into my teaching. I alsobelieve that one-on-one communication is veryessential to address each student’s specificneeds and to help them think like engineers.

What do you like to do outside of work?

I enjoy tennis, racketball, running, iceskating,and hiking. Apart from sporting activities, I alsolike music. I have played the bamboo-flute forseveral years and have recently taken up guitar.I also like to read a book once in a while.

11

K-State chemical engineering students continue to receivenational recognition for their academic achievements by win-ning prestigious national scholarships. In the past year,Jonathan King was awarded the Phi Kappa Phi GraduateFellowship and Emily Voigt was awarded the Barry M.Goldwater Scholarship. These two outstanding students joinseven previous students who have won competitive nationalscholarships since 1982 (see table below).

Emily Voigt, senior in chemical engineer-ing with a minor in German, was one of 317students nationally to win a 2007 Barry M.Goldwater Scholarship. They were selectedon the basis of academic merit from a fieldof 1,110 mathe-matics, science,and engineeringstudents nomi-nated by the fac-

ulties of their colleges and univer-sities. The scholarship providesup to $7,500 annually for a stu-dent's final one or two years ofundergraduate studies. Voigt con-ducted research at PennsylvaniaState University on transgenicprotein production in plant cellsin summer 2005 and again in2006 on algae biofuels, and plans

Student notes

Voigt

n K-State chemical engineering students receivedthe National Outstanding Chapter Award for the12th consecutive year at the AIChE AnnualMeeting held in San Francisco, Calif.

n The ChemE Car team placed fifth at thenational competition, held at the AIChEAnnual Meeting. The team also won the SpiritAward for their enthusiasm.

n Levi Houk took first place in the poster pres-entation competition at the AIChE AnnualMeeting.

n Jonathan King received the AIChE OthmerNational Scholarship. This is the 12th consecu-tive year in which a K-State chemical engi-neering student has won this award.

to perform research next year in biofuels production underProfessors Keith Hohn and John Schlup. She plans to earn aPh.D. in chemical/biological engineering, with a long-termgoal of conducting research in biofuels and teaching at a uni-versity.

Jonathan King, senior in chemical engi-neering, was one of 60 students nationally toreceive the Phi Kappa Phi GraduateFellowship. This fellowship provides$5,000 for post-graduate study at accreditedinstitutions of higher learning. Jonathan hashad a variety of research experiences includ-ing an NSF-funded Research Experiences

forUndergraduatesat the University of Colorado in2005, a Chemistry and MaterialsScience Internship at LawrenceLivermore National Laboratory in2006, and honor’s research onsynthesis of zeolites withProfessor Jennifer Anthony.Jonathan will pursue his Ph.D. inchemical engineering at theUniversity of California atBerkeley starting in fall 2007,where he plans to specialize innanotechnology.

King

National recognition for ChemE students

n Ben Gurtler received the 2007 Richard G.Akins Student Service Award.

n Li Du received the Rotary InternationalGraduate Scholarship.

n James Swanson was selected for K-State’sjunior honor society, Chimes. Chimes promotesleadership, scholarship, and service, and annu-ally selects K-State's Honorary Family as partof the university's Family Day events.

n Ben Tryon and Emily Voigt were named TauBeta Pi Scholars. They were two of 16 studentsnationally to receive this award.

ChE students awarded prestigious national scholarships

2006 – Jonathan King, Goldwater Scholar2002 – Peter Pauzauskie, NSF Graduate Fellowship1999 – Peter Pauszauskie, Goldwater Scholar1999 – Steven Alley, Udall Scholar1992 – Christopher Baldwin, Marshall Scholar1992 – Robert Rainbolt, Jr., Goldwater Scholar1990 – Christopher Baldwin, Marshall Scholar1989 – T. Teresa Dao, Phi Kappa Phi Graduate

Fellow1982 – Rodney Fox, Fulbright Scholar

12

Department of Chemical EngineeringKansas State UniversityDurland HallManhattan, KS 66506-5102

Phone: (785) 532-5584Fax: (785) 532-7372www.engg.ksu.edu

We would like to feature alumni in future issues of ChemE News. Please fill out the section belowand mail it to Keith Hohn, Department of Chemical Engineering, Kansas State University,Manhattan, KS 66506-5102, e-mail to hohn@ksu.edu, or fax to 785-532-7372. Thank you.

name_______________________________________________________________________________________ degree/year _______________________

title ____________________________________________________________ company name______________________________________________

business address________________________________________________________________________ phone _____________________________

home address____________________________________________________________________________ phone _____________________________

news/accomplishments_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Let us know what you’ve been up to!

13

ChE Academy members July 1, 2006–June 30, 2007ChE Academy members July 1, 2006–June 30, 2007

$1 to $249AT&T FoundationSherri and Michael BurnetteTanner Michael CallenderDane Lee ChapmanShen-Yann ChiuThomas Layne CoxMark Elliott CrossThomas D DenchfieldShelli and John DennisKyle Dean DybingJames and Libby EdgarLisa D Eisele and John Clarke

EstesKira L EplerWarren Matthew EwertFrancis A Grillot JrWillis and JoAnne HartDaniel and Toni HoganKeith and Joanna HohnDonna Dale Kottwitz and Mark E

LarsonScott and Staci KringLarry G. LignitzJack LonsingerHal Arthur Lund

Dennis and Sheri MillerEnos Everette Moore JrNorman and Margaret PereiraPfizer FoundationProvident Life & Accident

Insurance CoSheila and Peter RadeckiJ William RiegScott M RoneyTracy Arthur SandowHerbert Yukio SatoSBC Communications IncStanley Joseph SchroederBruce SchrottDwight A SchulkeBill and Twyla ServiceAdrian C SnyderLaura Ann TaylorBrent Allen TracySteven J TylerUNUM Life InsuranceCompanyTyler P VothChiu-Sen WangCharles and Elizabeth Webb JrBryce and Christiane WilliamsLandra K WilsonZhiyong Xie and Yan Zhao

$250 to $499Bryan Steven AndersonJohn Paul BoehnkeMark and Terrie BoguskiBPKent Morris BusterCargill FoundationCyrus H Elting JrJiaming HuaWarren and Gisela KennedyCarl T LiraDonald and Nancy LivingstonChris and Edward NullRoss and Lise OstenbergRobert L Rainbolt JrThatcher and Anne ReistSamuel and Dorothy Sinderson JrJohn B SutherlandEdward and Dorothy TravnicekThe Williams Companies Inc

$500 to $999Mark and Terrie BoguskiJeffrey BoneMichael and Pamela Brown

Thomas and Rosaline CarlisleDavid and Kathy CarrChevronTexacoDow Corning CorporationTansukhlal DorawalaJohn FimerellisRex and Gloria GarreltsEric Donald Johnson and PamelaSusan DlabalAlan and Helen HammerliTracey and Larry LindeenRobert and Betty MeyerNational Cooperative Refinery

AssocRandy Mark NewcomerKurtis and Theresa NussDavid and Leah OttMarc and Jody RamsdaleMary Rezac and Peter PfrommLawrence A Schulte JrJim M SiefkinKenneth L. ThomasClarence and Jean WaRalph William WeddKerry Fred WilliamsDebra A Zoloty

Partner

Academy AssociateCatagory Name?

14

ly 1, 2006–June 30, 2007uly 1, 2006–June 30, 2007line Carlisle

y Carr

porationwala

arreltsnson and Pamela

Hammerliy Lindeeny Meyerative Refinery

w omere a NussOtt

R msdale eter Pfrommu te Jr

asan Waters

W ddams

$1000 to 2499Teresa and Arnold AllemangWillis and Beth BarrettMarla and Wayne BenyshekLyndon and Gerri Boyer PhDBurns & McDonnell FoundationCargill IncMatthew and Lynn DassowLewis HoEdward and Ming HsuRich E MistlerMistler Family FoundationKathleen R NafusKurtis and Theresa NussMorey E OldweilerVan and Sharon PoolerAnn and Donald SchaechtelRobert and Margaret SmithJohn Richard StewartKeith Gregory SteyerFrederick and Lois StollerLawrence and Martha StoverTesoro Petroleum CorporationGurdeep RanhotraPatrick and Carolyn Wilburn

$2500 +Chevron Phillips Chemical

Company LPLarry and Laurel EricksonFidelity Investments Charitable

Gift FndMary Lee Durland KindDana and Elizabeth MathesRichard and Sarah PorterDon and Barbara RiedlSpencer and Susan Tholstrup

$25,000 lifetimeAkron Community FoundationTeresa and Arnold AllemangTom and Marilyn BarrettChevron Phillips Chemical

Company LPConocoPhillipsRichard and Mary Elizabeth

CorbinCosmo Ec Co LtdE I Du Pont De Nemours and

CompanyEstate of Joe Hyer

ExxonMobil FoundationJudith T Fan and Robert ReayL T and Eva FanGordon and Joyce GoeringArthur and Georganne HiserVirginia K HonsteadEdward and Ming HsuKUBOTA CorporationScott and Karen LoveKenneth Lee MartinMobil Foundation IncMonsanto CompanyNisshin Flour MillinG Co, LtdRobert and Margaret SmithKeith Gregory SteyerTimothy and Sharon TaylorNorman and Donna TetlowThe Dow Chemical FoundationThe Dow Chemical CompanyThe Procter & Gamble Mfg

Company

Fellow Exective Member

Founder

Every effort has been made to produce acomprehensive listing of donors for the cal-endar year. We apologize for any incorrectlistings, misspellings, or omissions, andextend our sincere thanks for your support.