Research
Research Groups
Undergraduate Biodiesel Research Group
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The primary objective of The Biodiesel Group is the enhancement of the education of students by providing challenging real life, hands-on environmental and
sustainability engineering challenges to which they can apply their engineering principles.
Three projects applicable to this objective have evolved from the first few years of this project:
- Development of a continuous process to convert waste cooking oils into bio-diesel fuel.
- Construction of a semi-continuous batch process based on Phase I technology to supply Penn State bio-diesel fuel needs.
- Explore improved feedstock conversion and expansion.
- Determine the feasibility of converting the glycerine by-product to higher value products, possibly to alcohol for use in the transesterification process.
Center for the Study of Polymeric Systems
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A prominent source of information on polymer-solvent interactions,
combining experienced leadership with detailed and dedicated student
research. This center was established as a response to needs expressed
by industry. Ron Danner of Chemical Engineering and Coray
Colina of Materials Science and Engineering serve as co-directors of the center.
Patrick Cirino Research Group
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Research in my laboratory interfaces Chemical Engineering with the biological
sciences, with emphases in biomolecular engineering, metabolic engineering,
andbiocatalysis. Nature provides a vast collection of biological systems
which have evolved mechanisms to achieve catalysis, regulation, molecular
recognition, and energy utilization with incredible efficiency.
Wayne Curtis Lab Page
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The research in my laboratory focuses on bioreactor design for plant
tissue culture bioprocesses, and control and optimization of secondary
metabolism for chemical production from plant tissues.
Henry C. Foley Research Group
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The Henry C. Foley group is focused on developing a wide range of novel nanostructured materials, including nanoporous carbon,
polymer thin films and nanofibers. Potential applications are found in gas separation and storage, catalysis, microelectronic applications,
fuel cells and electrochemical capacitors.
Jong-in Hahm Research Group
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Dr. Hahm's research group studies new materials, particularly molecular
structures on the nanometer scale, for use as molecular tools in engineering
and investigating biologically important molecules. Ultimately her goal
is to develop materials that can be applied to functions as diverse
as molecular probes, improved genotyping methods, and systems for screening small molecules.
Seong Kim Research Group
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The chemical and physical properties of solid surfaces play a key role
in many industrial processes such as nanotechnology, heterogeneous catalysis,
tribology, semiconductor devices, biomaterials, etc. The main theme
of research in my lab is to understand fundamentals of the surface chemistry
and physics related to these applications and to develop new methodologies
to produce solid materials with surface properties tailored for better performance.
Costas Maranas Research Group
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The group's state-of-the-art research activities in optimization - which
span the fields of operations research, metabolic engineering, protein
design, and bioinformatics.
Janna Maranas Research Group
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"mobility of polymers, glasses & biological systems on picosecond
- nanosecond time scales and angstrom - nanometer spatial scales using
molecular simulation and quasielastic neutron scattering". Please
see my research page for more information.
Darrell Velegol Research Group
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Fabrication of colloidal devices, nanocolloidal forces and dispersion, nanoscale charge nonuniformity on particles.
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