The University of Toledo Chemical Engineering Department

The end of an era indeed.

We thought we would share the news that Palmer Hall is currently in the process of being torn down. For those of us on-campus right now, it's surreal to watch. But, new and exciting things are on the horizon!

Good morning, The University of Toledo Rocket Engineering alumni and friends!

We’re witnessing the end of an era as our beloved Palmer Hall, the former R&D building for O-I Glass, is being demolished to make way for new and exciting developments on the engineering campus. This building has been a cornerstone of our college for many years, and we know it holds countless memories for many of you.

As we share daily photos of the demolition, we invite you to share your stories and memories of the times you spent here.

Did you have a favorite class, an unforgettable professor, or a life-changing moment within these walls? We want to hear about it!

Please comment below with your memories and stories. Let’s celebrate the legacy of Palmer Hall together, and start planning for what the Engineering Quad could be.

Exciting new research project featuring Dr. Joseph Lawrence, Associate Professor in Chemical Engineering.

https://news.utoledo.edu/index.php/05_16_2024/utoledo-researchers-support-cutting-edge-repair-technique-at-soo-locks

Drs. Coleman, Lapitsky, and Ponnaiyan participated in the 2024 Junior Achievement Inspire event this week at the Glass City Center. This event offered young people (8th-12th grades) the opportunity to discover career pathways through hands-on experiments.

UToledo AIChE participated in the AIChE Student Regional Conference at The Ohio State University last weekend and again (no surprise) came home winners!

Morgan Schuld took 1st place in Student Research Presentations. She earns a spot in the national competition in San Diego.

The ChemE Car Team took 2nd place in performance. The 2nd place may seem disappointing to the students' ongoing dynasty, however, the performance was truly exceptional. Each car gets two runs, and the car was within 0.516 m after Run 1 and then 0.098 m from the 18.7 m target after Run 2. Being within 10 cm is as close or closer than some of our previous victories. They too qualified to compete in San Diego.

Noah Dull participated in the research poster presentation of the event.

Dr. Matt Liberatore also gave the KEEN sponsored "Building a great student chapter" workshop and helped judge the Jeopardy games.

The AIChE region conferences run four main competitions (ChemE Car, Jeopardy, Research Presentations, and Research Posters).

Congratulations to all!

Today is the Day of Giving! - March 21, 2024

Please consider donating a gift to the Chemical Engineering Progress Fund. This fund has been used in various ways including renovations for the undergraduate laboratory, the UToledo student chapter of AIChE, and the ChemE Car.

Currently, we have a match graciously started by Dr. Glenn Lipscomb matching $25 per donation up to $1,000.

Donations can be made until 6:00pm EDT today.

Thank you in advance for your generosity!

Rocket Forward 2024 Join me and make a gift to UToledo's Rocket Forward Day of Giving!

Rocket Spotlight on Chemical Engineering senior Morgan Schuld!

Rocket Spotlight on...Morgan Schuld - University of Toledo Athletics On getting involved in campus activities when you are a shy person, what it's like to be a twin, and what Toledo has taught her about being a leader

Great article highlighting our recent graduate, Riley Mohr!

https://news.utoledo.edu/index.php/02_21_2024/chemical-engineering-graduate-excels-in-academics-and-athletics

Recently, the department held our annual CHEE Student Award Ceremony to celebrate the accomplishments of our undergraduate students. We are so proud of all the wonderful contributions our students have made to the department and university and will continue doing so as alumni!

We celebrated our students today with a Student Appreciation event! Hot cocoa, hot cider, and donuts were on the menu to power the students through this last week of classes and prep for exams next week. 🍩🍩

Dinosaurs invaded the The University of Toledo Chemical Engineering Department today. Dr. T did his best to wrangle them, but was quickly outnumbered.

In reality, four of our seniors graduating on December 16th had some fun with their final lab presentation for the semester and dressed as dinosaurs (which are Dr. T's favorite)! Dr. Coleman was happy to join in the fun too!

rocks!

Happy Halloween!! 🎃🎃

The Chemical Engineering Department in conjunction with the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department hosted a trick or treat event for students this afternoon. Best costume was won by Dr. T by a landslide! 🏆

Congratulations to Chemical Engineering student, Morgan Schuld, the Jesup Scott Honors College Student of the Week!

Keep up the great work, Taylor!

Faculty, staff, and students from the College of Engineering had the opportunity on March 31st to visit TekniPlex in Holland, OH. Joining the site visit from The University of Toledo Chemical Engineering Department was Dr. Yakov Lapitsky, Dr. Thihal Ponniyan, Geoff Humphrys, and Chanda Raine. Current CHME student, Grace Holbrook, is completing her first co-op rotation at TekniPlex this Spring semester and she presented several projects that she is currently working on in the lab.

TekniPlex is a globally integrated company that provides innovative solutions through materials science and manufacturing technologies.

A global leader in the Healthcare and Consumer Product markets, TekniPlex provides medical device components and a multitude of material science solutions that lead to a healthier and more sustainable world. Its solutions are found in some of the most well-known names in the Healthcare, Personal Care, Household, and Food and Beverage markets.

We appreciate TekniPlex's hospitality and giving us the opportunity to learn about their company and share this information with more students.

Last weekend, the UToledo AIChE Chem-E Car Team competed at the University Illinois Chicago at the annual North Central Regional competition with their car, The Toledo Torpedo.

On the last run of the entire competition, UToledo slid up the leaderboard from fourth to first, clenching the North Central Regional Championship. The Toledo Torpedo successfully stopped just 7 inches from the target distance of 19.82m. Despite their back-to-back international victories, the UToledo Chem-E Car has not won a regional victory since 2018. The team will be traveling to Orlando in November to defend their international victories.

Additionally, multiple students from the The University of Toledo Chemical Engineering Department were recognized for their research presentations including:

Samie Kummar - 1st place in Student Research Presentations
Morgan Schuld - 3rd place in Student Research Presentations

The UToledo AIChE team also took 3rd place in the ChemE Jeopardy competition.

Congratulations all!

Today is the Day of Giving 2023!

Your generous gift to The University of Toledo Chemical Engineering Department will help fund several initiatives that will support our students.

Thank you for your generosity!

https://www.givecampus.com/schools/TheUniversityofToledo/day-of-giving-2023

The University of Toledo Chem-E Car Team recently took first place for the second year in a row at the 2022 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Annual Student Conference Chem-E Car Competition in Phoenix, competing against 35 other universities worldwide. They are only the second university team in the history of the Chem-E Car Competition to win back-to-back international championships.

http://news.utoledo.edu/index.php/11_16_2022/utoledo-team-wins-back-to-back-international-chem-e-car-championships

Congratulations to Dr. Glenn Lipscomb and Dr. Thihal Ponnaiyan who were both recognized recently by the university for their work with the APLU Student Experience Project as Equity Champions.

Over the course of the last year, both Drs. Lipscomb and Ponnaiyan made evidence-based changes in their classes to improve students' sense of belonging, social connectedness and belief in their capacities to be successful, which resulted in higher course outcomes and more positive student experiences. Equity Champions play a vital role in institutional goals to improve success for all students and eliminate systemic inequities for historically minoritized populations. Both instructors serve as campus leaders who model a continuous improvement approach in the service of teaching excellence and equity.

In addition to being recognized for his role as a Equity Champion, Dr. Lipscomb was also recognized as a Faculty Leader and Research Fellow for the APLU Student Experience Project.

Leo Nemetz, Tessa Karren, and Payton Kamer joined Chemical Engineering professor, Dr. Glenn Lipscomb, at Whitmer High School (Toledo) recently to speak with high school students about the UToledo Chemical Engineering program.

Leo, Tessa, and Payton serve as Chemical Engineering student ambassadors for the department and visit schools both in-person or virtually to share their experiences in the program with prospective students as a recruiting initiative.

At Whitmer, they had the opportunity to speak with sophomores, juniors and seniors in Honors Chemistry classes. Their presentation focused on defining what chemical engineering is, what chemical engineers do, UToledo's program, co-op and research. They ended the presentation with a separations activity where students had to separate various materials using differences in their physical properties.

Our Chemical Engineering student ambassadors are available for in-person or virtual presentations. If you are an educator who would like to have our students visit your classroom, please contact us at [email protected].

The 2022 Day of Giving is here!

Please considering supporting The Chemical Engineering Department by helping match a $2,500 anonymous donation to the department. The funds will be used to support the Jharyn Price Memorial Scholarship and the Chemical Engineering Study Abroad Fund.

The link to the challenge is: https://www.givecampus.com/icgy5u. Click on “Make Your Gift Early” or “Make Your Gift” and then click on the matching donations list under the amount box to find the challenge.

The challenge runs through 6 PM (ET) Thursday April 7.

Day of Giving Help celebrate 150 years of The University of Toledo during Day of Giving, April 6-7!

Congratulations to Dr. Thehazhnan (Thihal) Ponnaiyan on receiving the College of Engineering Outstanding Teaching Award. Dr. T was nominated for the amazing amount of effort he contributes each year to provide a high quality experience for the undergraduate students in his classes.

Thank you, Dr. T, for all that you do for the Chemical Engineering Department!

Congratulations to Chemical Engineering student, John Hutchinson, who was selected as the Jesup Scott Honors College Student of the Week!

Congratulations to Chemical Engineering student, Lauren Bachman, who was named the Toledo Society of Professional Engineers Student Scholar for E-Week 2022.

Lauren is a 2018 graduate of Grand Valley High School in Orwell, Ohio. She is currently a senior at the University of Toledo majoring in Chemical Engineering and minoring in Business. She will be graduating with her Bachelor's in Chemical Engineering degree in December 2022 with honors.

While at UToledo, Lauren has been on the President's List or Dean's list every semester. She manages to balance her academics with various extracurriculars such as Engineering Council, AIChE, peer mentoring freshman engineering students, and Omega Chi Epsilon, among other organizations. She also conducts undergraduate research related to water purification units. Lauren has spent three full semesters on co-op with Lubrizol working in different facilities and engineering positions, even moving to South Carolina for one rotation. She will return to Lubrizol for one last term this summer before graduating in the fall.

Congratulations, Lauren!

Homeowners can rid tap water of more toxin particles by installing reverse osmosis units, UT prof says Under-the-counter reverse osmosis units continue to show promise as an added defense mechanism against the most common form of algal toxin found in western ...

Congratulations to Jim Burtnett-Grigsby, who was recently named the 2022 Toledo Area Young Engineer of the Year!

Jim graduated from the UToledo Chemical Engineering program in 2011 and continues to make great contributions to the department and local community.

Well done, Jim!

2/22 UPDATE: If you would like to view Dr. Lipscomb's presentation, please see the YouTube link in the comments.

Dr. Lipscomb will be a guest presenter and the event is free! Sign-up to hear Dr. Lipscomb discuss algal bloom toxins.

Freshwater Science: Stopping Algal Bloom Toxins at the Kitchen Tap February 22, 2022 – New research from Ohio Sea Grant, Stone Lab and the Harmful Algal Bloom Research Initiative

Congratulations to Professors Yamamoto, Viamajala, Varanasi and students Ajith Mudiyanselage and Pramod Poudel for receipt of US Patent 9,562,210 entitled "Methods for Production of Fatty Acid Alkanolamides (FAAAS) from Microalgae Biomass"

Congratulations to Professors Lapitsky, Seo, and their student Kristopher Richardson for receipt of US Patent 9,560,849 entitled "Antibacterial Surfactant/Microgel Formulations, Methods of Making and Methods of Using the Same"

Spring Break often is a time students travel to a beach for warmth and relaxation. However, this year 16 of our students will travel to El Salvador to install and maintain water treatment systems with Clean Water for the World. This trip is a follow-up to the trip taken May 2016.

The students kindly ask for your help to partially offset travel expenses. If you wish to make a tax-deductible donation, go to the University of Toledo Foundation (http://www.utfoundation.org/), click Give Now, and search for the "Chemical Engineering Study Abroad" fund. Your support is greatly appreciated!