This past week, the Chemical Institute for Canada (CIC) Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering (CSChE) held the Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference (CCEC) from October 6-9th in Toronto, Canada. CCEC is the premier conference for chemical engineers and the only event with a focus on Canadian chemical engineering. Smith Engineering Department of Chemical Engineering was a Gold Sponsor.
Kevin De France Lab Group. From left to right, Marwa Naime (MASc student), Carolina Ordoñez Franco (PhD student), Brigitte Gaudert (Undergraduate thesis student), Spencer McCluskey (Undergraduate thesis student), Kevin De France, Yidan Wen (MASc student), Lenka Vitkova (Postdoctoral fellow), Nasim Fadaie (PhD student), Romina Shirazi (PhD student), Mohamed Wahbi (PhD student).
Department of Chemical Engineering faculty, Cao Thang Dinh and Kevin De France each gave talks “CO2 electrolyzer with proton-carbonate-recombination membrane” and “Designing natural aerogels from cellulose- and protein-based building block.” Kim McAuley also gave an invited presentation “Advancing Sustainability via Chemical Process Modeling and Statistical Methods” in the Canadian-Japanese Symposium on Chemical Technology for Sustainable Development.
Postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Olga Torres Rocha (supervised by Michael Cunningham), gave an award lecture, “Non-covalent modification of cellulose nanocrystals using block copolymers synthesized via NMP: effect of the degree of polymerization of each block on the dispersion performance,” as part of the CSChE Best PhD Dissertation Award (second place) she won earlier this year. Kim McAuley also received her CIC Fellowship which was announced earlier this year.
Awards winners Left: Olga Torres Rocha with supervisors Pascale Champagne and Michael Cunningham, and Right: Kim McAuley. Photos from the Chemical Institute of Canada: https://www.flickr.com/photos/61234653@N08/
Cunningham and Champagne groups. From left to right: Michael Cunningham, Gisell Pazmino (PhD student, INRS), Pascale Champagne, Olga Torres Rocha (Postdoctoral fellow), Rachel Korkinsky (PhD student in Chemistry), Manpreet Kaur (PhD student), Carolina Ordoñez Franco (PhD student), Raz Abbasi (PhD student).
In total 26 graduate students and 4 postdoctoral fellows gave oral and poster presentations including students of nearly every faculty member in the department including Brian Amsden, Dominik Barz, Michael Cunningham, Kevin De France, Cao Thang Dinh, Aris Docoslis, Peter Gilbert, Martin Guay, Robin Hutchinson, Marianna Kontopoulou, Ehssan Koupaie, Kim McAuley, Jim McLellan, Louise Meunier, Scott Parent and Laurence Yang.
|
Student Name |
Supervisor(s) |
Title |
|
Raz Abbasi |
Michael Cunningham |
Crosslinking of CO2-Switchable Polymers Triggered by CO2 Removal: Paints and Coatings Application |
|
Maryam Aghili |
Aris Docoslis |
Graphene Nanoplatelet Hydrogels for Sensitive SERS Detection of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) SERS Detection of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Using 3D Silver Nanostructured Reduced Graphene Oxide Aerogels |
|
Ghazeleh Amini (PDF) |
Ehssan Koupaie |
Valorization of Black Liquor from Pulp and Paper Industry: Synthesis of Lignin Nanoparticles via Anti-Solvent Method |
|
Fatemeh Sadat Arghavan |
Louise Meunier, Ehssan Koupaie |
Efficient photodegradation of tetracycline from simulated freshwater using green synthesized MnFe2O4@CuS nanocomposites |
|
Shamim Azimi |
Aris Docoslis |
An Electrokinetic SERS Platform for Sensitive Virus Detection |
|
Armineh Azizi (PDF) |
Ehssan Koupaie |
Enhanced carbohydrate recovery from Canadian hardwood residues using combined acidic-thermal pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis |
|
Mohammad Bandpey |
Dominik Barz |
Electrochemical Characterization and Post-mortem Analysis of a Supercapacitor-Battery Hybrid Based on Multivalent Vanadium |
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Amir Hossein Behroozi |
Louise Meunier, Ehssan Koupaie |
Acetaminophen removal from freshwater: A comparative study of synthetic and commercial adsorbents |
|
Melissa Bonilla |
Robin Hutchinson |
Scalable Routes to Block Copolymers via Cu-Mediated Reversible-Deactivation Radical Polymerization |
|
Florence Bullem |
Ehssan Koupaie |
Effect of Reactor Configuration on Staged Anaerobic Digestion of Wastewater Sludge |
|
Joshua Chamberland |
Dominik Barz, Scott Parent |
Symmetric Ionic Liquid-Based Battery-Supercapacitor Hybrid with Bipolar Nitroxide Radical Redox Activity |
|
Gelson da Silva (PDF) |
Cao Thang Dinh |
Tuning local microenvironment for selective and high-rate CO2 conversion from aqueous solutions |
|
Alla El Halabi |
Kim McAuley |
Accounting for Spatial Variations during Photopolymerization of 1,6-hexane-diol Diacrylate in the Presence of Oxygen |
|
Nasim Fadaie |
Kevin De France |
Crosslinkable Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) Nanofiber Aerogels for Organic Dye Adsorption |
|
Guorui Gao |
Cao Thang Dinh |
Effect of Ligand Shell of Atomically Precise Au13 Nanoclusters on Electrocatalytic CO2 Reduction |
|
Lauren Gibson |
Kim McAuley |
Bayesian Parameter Estimation using Truncated Normal Distributions as Priors for Parameters in Fundamental Models of Chemical Processes |
|
Maryam Ghazizade Fard |
Ehssan Koupaie |
A Deep Learning Model on Continuous Anaerobic Co-Digestion of Waste Activated Sludge and Food Waste |
|
Houda Haidar |
Kim McAuley |
Modeling of a heat-integrated biomass downdraft gasifier: Tuning of key model parameters using experimental data |
|
Romina Hajmohammadtaghishirazi |
Ehssan Koupaie, Kevin De France |
Enhancing Bioenergy Recovery from Anaerobic Digestion Process with Nanomaterial Additives |
|
Telema Harry |
Martin Guay |
Data-driven Gaussian process output regulation for a class nonlinear systems |
|
Manpreet Kaur |
Michael Cunningham |
Synthesis and characterization of polymeric nanoparticles for in vivo drug delivery (poster) |
|
Sara Mohebbi |
Robin Hutchinson |
Free radical copolymerization of bio-based itaconate monomers |
|
Iman Moshiritabrizi |
Kim McAuley |
Process Knowledge for Drug Substance Production via Kinetic Modeling, Parameter Estimability Analysis and Reaction Optimization |
|
Marwa Naime |
Marianna Kontopoulou, Kevin De France, Peter Gilbert |
Measuring Lysozyme Protein Fiber Orientation with Rheo-SANS Chord |
|
Benham Nourmohammadi Khiarak |
Cao Thang Dinh |
High-rate CO production from aqueous bicarbonate solutions |
|
Carolina Ordoñez Franco |
Michael Cunningham, Pascale Champagne, Kevin De France |
Oil-in-water Pickering Emulsions Stabilized by Protein Nanofibers: BSA and Lysozyme (Poster) Enhancing the Properties of Latex-based Coatings with Carboxylated Cellulose Nanocrystals |
|
Olga Lida Torres Rocha (PDF) |
Michael Cunningham |
[Award Lecture] Non-covalent modification of cellulose nanocrystals using block copolymers synthesized via NMP: effect of the degree of polymerization of each block on the dispersion performance Synthesis of block copolymers from 1,5-cyclooctadiene and norbornene via Ring Opening Metathesis Polymerization (ROMP) in miniemulsio |
|
Fatemeh Salarhosseini |
Robin Hutchinson |
Propagation Kinetics of Sparingly Soluble Monomers in Water for Emulsion Copolymerization |
|
Andrew Sellathurai |
Dominik Barz |
Investigation of Reduced Graphene Oxide Modified Zinc Anodes Using Various Electrochemical Techniques |
|
Jacob Straznicky |
Kim McAuley |
A Deterministic Model to Predict Tacticity Changes During Controlled Degradation of Polypropylene |
|
Lenka Vitkova (PDF) |
Kevin De France, Brian Amsden |
Bioorthogonally crosslinkable protein-based electrospun scaffolds for tissue engineering applications |
|
Mohamed Wahbi |
Marianna Kontopoulou, Kevin De France |
Enhancing Performance of PLA/CNCs Composites: Surface Modification, Compatibilization, and Blending Strategies |
|
Yidan Wen |
Kevin De France |
From Microalgae to Sustainable Plastics: Preparing Protein Nanofibers from Algal Biomass |
|
Abdul Yaeesh Yaish |
Jim McLellan and Laurence Yang |
Hybrid Solutions for Plastic Recycling: A Case Study on Polyvinyl Chloride and Polyethylene Terephthalate |
Ehssan Koupaie Lab Group. From left to right: Florence Bullem (MASc student), Ghazaleh Amini (Postdoctoral fellow), Ehssan Koupaie, Armineh Azizi (Postdoctoral fellow), Fatemeh Sadat Arghavan (PhD student), Amir Hossein Behroozi (PhD student).
Finally, our faculty participated as Session Chairs, including Nicolas Hudon and Martin Guay who were Session Chairs for Systems and Control, Dominik Barz and Cao Thang Dinh who were Chairs for Electrochemical Energy Storage: Catalysis, Kinetics, and Reaction Engineering, and Kim McAuley who was a Chair for the Canadian-Japanese Symposium on Chemical Technology for Sustainable Development.
Sara Mohebbi (PhD student) and Supervisor Robin Hutchinson.