Spring Symposium advance registration deadline extended to Friday, May 11

CCP - 7 May 2012

Dear Colleagues,

The Catalysis Club of Philadelphia 2012 Spring Symposium will be held on Thursday, May 17 at the DoubleTree Hotel, Concord Pike, Wilmington, DE. The detailed program including abstracts, the symposium registration form, and driving directions are attached

The speakers for the symposium are: - Matt Neurock, University of Virginia - Enrique Iglesia, University of California, Berkeley - David Johnson, Lucite International - Raul Lobo, University of Delaware - Tewodros Asefa, Rutgers University - Istvan Halasz, PQ Corporation - Michael Janik, Penn State - Alan Allgeier, DuPont - Yadan Tang, Lehigh University

The advance registration deadline has been extended to Friday, May 11. Please mail your registration form along with your check payment (payable to Catalysis Club of Philadelphia) to:

Bjorn Moden
Zeolyst International
280 Cedar Grove Rd.
Conshohocken, PA 19428

Call for Nominations of The 2012 Catalysis Club of Philadelphia Award

CCP - 10 April 2012

Each year the Catalysis Club of Philadelphia recognizes an outstanding member of the catalysis community, who has made significant contributions to the advancement of Catalysis. Such advancement can be scientific, technological, or in organization leadership. The Award consists of a plaque and a $1000 cash prize.

We appreciate your help in submitting nominations. The entire nomination package, including a resume and recommendation letters, should not be more than 10 pages. The deadline for the receipt of nominations is April 21, 2012. Prior nomination packages sent in 2009 or later will automatically be considered for the 2012 Award.

Nomination letter along with supporting materials should be emailed to: vlachos@udel.edu.

Prof. Dion Vlachos
Department of Chemical Engineering
University of Delaware
150 Academy St.
Newark, DE 19716, USA
Tel. 302-831-2830
Fax 302-831-1048

Download Award Announcement:

2012 CCP Spring Symposium

CCP - 10 April 2012

The Catalysis Club of Philadelphia will be holding its annual Spring Symposium on Thursday, May 17th, 2012 at the DoubleTree Hotel in Wilmington DE. The current list of speakers is listed below.

Speakers for the 2012 Spring Symposium:

• Matt Neurock - University of Virginia
• Enrique Iglesia - University of California, Berkeley
• David Johnson - Lucite
• Istvan Halasz - PQ Corporation
• Raul Lobo - University of Delaware
• Michael Janik - Penn State
• Vicky Doan-Nguyen - University of Pennsylvania, winner of CCP student poster competition

For additional information, please contact Bjorn Moden (bjorn.moden@pqcorp.com).

Elections for the 2012-13 Season Executive Committee will be held on April 19, 2012

Updated, CCP - 6 March 2012

Candidates:
Chair-elect: Carl Menning, Vlad Nikolakis
Treasurer: Haiying Chen, Parag Shah
Directors: Yaritza Lopez, Chuck Coe

Biographical sketches of the candidates
Chair-elect:
Carl Menning is currently a Research Engineer at DuPont at the Corporate Research center in Wilmington, DE, where he is working on catalyst development for renewably-sourced materials. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in 2003. Following a short period in industry, he received his Ph. D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware under the guidance of Jingguang Chen in 2009 with a focus on bimetallic catalysts for PEM fuel cells. He has industrial experience in a variety of fields including consumer foods, petroleum-based products, inorganic pigments and renewably-sourced materials. Carl is currently the Program Chair of the Catalysis Club of Philadelphia and was the Arrangements Chair from 2006 to 2008.

Dr. Vladimiros Nikolakis (Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2001) joined the Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation at University of Delaware as a Senior Research Associate in 2011. Before that he was a Principal Researcher at the Institute of Chemical Engineering & High Temperature Chemical Processes (FORTH/ICE-HT), Greece. His current studies are focused in the field of heterogeneous catalysis for the conversion of biomass feedstocks to platform chemicals or fuels. His research interests also include the fields of zeolite crystallization; zeolite membrane synthesis, evaluation and development of novel characterization techniques. He has published more than 30 articles in peer reviewed scientific journals and he has more than 50 presentations in scientific conferences. He has served the professional community as a member of the organizing committee of several scientific conferences (once as a conference chair), and as reviewer of research articles or proposals.

Treasurer:
Dr. Hai-Ying Chen is a Product Development Manager at Johnson Matthey Inc., Emission Control Technologies, in Wayne, Pennsylvania. He is responsible for developing advanced catalysts for exhaust emission control. Hai-Ying Chen received his Ph. D. degree in Chemistry from Fudan University, Shanghai, China. He has been a member of the Philadelphia Catalysis Club since 2000, and served the club as Sectary, Program Chair, Director, and Chair.

Parag Shah is a Research Chemist at PQ Corporation and is involved in developing improved silica-based supports, new polyolefin catalysts and process/product development for emerging catalyst technologies. In 2008 he received his PhD in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from University of Pennsylvania under the guidance of Prof. Raymond J. Gorte. His thesis work focused on investigating the thermodynamic properties of metal-oxide catalysts. Parag earned his Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the Institute of Chemical Technology, University of Bombay (India), and subsequently did a Masters in Chemical Engineering at the University of Twente (The Netherlands), with emphasis on Process Development and Design. He has been a member of the Catalysis Club of Philadelphia since 2004, and served as Secretary since 2010-2011 season.

Directors:
Yaritza M. López is currently a Senior Application Engineer at Johnson Matthey in the Heavy Duty Diesel department in Audubon, PA. She is working on the technical applications of new catalysts for emission control for heavy duty diesel engines. She joined JM in September 2010, after finishing her Post-Doc at the University of South Carolina (USC), where she focused her research of NOx reduction catalysts for gasoline emissions. She obtained her PhD degree from USC in 2009, her dissertation was focused on the synthesis, characterization and kinetic evaluation of dendrimer-derived monometallic and bimetallic catalysts for hydrogenation and NOx reduction reactions. Yaritza was member of the Southeast Catalysis Society and she is an active member of the North American Catalysis Society (2007 – present). She has been part of several professional and graduate student committees. She was co-chair on fundamentals of catalysis session in AIChE and she participated as judge of AIChE undergraduate student poster (2010). She was also vice-president of the chemical engineer graduate organization at USC (2008-2009) and part of the graduate student recruiting committee at USC from 2005 to 2009.

Chuck Coe is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Chemical Engineering Department of Villanova University. After obtaining his PhD in inorganic chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University, Chuck joined the Chemical Additives division of Air Products and Chemicals Early in Chuck’s career he transferred to the corporate research group at the company headquarters where he developed an extensive expertise in molecular sieve science. Before retiring from Air Products, Chuck was named a strategic technologist for the Corporation and provided internal consultation on a broad range of materials characterization issues involving catalysts and adsorbents. Chuck has been an active member of the Philadelphia and NY Catalysis Clubs for over thirty years. Earlier in his career he served as an officer in the Philadelphia Catalysis Club. He received the 2010 Catalysis Club of Philadelphia Award. Since retiring, Chuck has joined the Chemical Engineering faculty at Villanova as a Visiting Assistant Professor and is sharing his knowledge with the next generation of engineers and scientists.

Sandrine Rivillon has 15 years experience in the chemical industry and university as a physical-chemist. She has worked in several areas (polymer, surface chemistry, catalysis) as a scientist and participated in technology teams looking for new opportunities in the gas industry. Sandrine is part of the Chemistry Technology Center in the Global Technology Centers working closely with the HyCO tonnage business to solve critical issues and propose new solutions. She is also looking for new opportunities, developing technologies aligned with the business to improve the efficiency and cost of the HyCO fleet. Previously she has held positions investigating cleaning formulations for the electronic business as well as looking for new opportunities and growth area in membranes and in the chemical and process industry. Prior to joining Air Products and Chemicals, Sandrine was a research associate at Rutgers University investigating new methods to functionalize surfaces of semi-conductors for applications in the electronic and the pharmaceutical industry. She developed several collaborations inside and outside the university working closely with groups in various areas promoting the use of infrared spectroscopy at surface. She has also been a mentor for several undergraduate and graduate students. After earning her Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Paris XI (France), Sandrine spent two years in Spain in the Department of Chemistry investigating new surface rheology techniques applied to polymer science before joining Rhodia, Inc. in the United States where she developed a critical understanding of new synthesized products and participated in the development of a chemistry making permanent polymeric nano-objects. Sandrine has published more than 20 papers in international peer reviewed scientific journals and a book chapter, has more than 30 contributed/invited talks at international conferences and co-inventor in a filed patent. She holds a yellow belt in continuous improvement from Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

Anton Petushkov is a Research Chemist at Zeolyst International / PQ Corporation. He works on developing new and improving the existing zeolite products for custom and automotive applications. He received his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Iowa in 2011 under the supervision of Prof. Sarah Larsen. His doctorate thesis was on synthesis of nanocrystalline and hierarchical zeolites. Anton received his Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Herzen State Pedagogical University (Russia). He has been a member of the Catalyst Club of Philadelphia since 2011.