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UK students stand out at AIChE annual meeting;
chapter honored for 18 th consecutive yea

Kimberly Hindman was among the presenters from UK.

University of Kentucky chemical engineering students were prominent at the recent annual meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) in San Francisco.

The UK AIChE student chapter was honored as an outstanding chapter for the 18th consecutive year.   Each year, only about 10% of student chapters receive that designation.  

Nathan Ashcraft won first place among 34 student posters in the Materials Engineering and Sciences Division for his paper, "Metal Nanoparticle Synthesis in Polyacrylic acid Composite Membranes for Dechlorination Reactions";   John Twyman received a third place award among 28 student posters in the Environmental Division for his presentation on "Functionalized Silica Particles for Mercury Capture";   and Justin Shofner received a second place award among 31 posters in the Food-Pharmaceutical-Bioengineering Division for his paper on "Interfacial Tension of Aqueous Phospholipid Solutions in Compressed and Supercritical CO2".     

Graduate student Jian Xu also received a first place poster paper award for his work on nanoparticle formation in membranes for the session on Advances in Membranes and Fuel Cell Technology.

John Twyman won a third place award in the Environmental Division.

Undergraduate student presenters were:   Kimberly Hindman (Drs. Rankin and Knutson, research advisors); Shofner (Dr. Knutson); Anthony Davis (Dr. Rankin); Kyle Kellinghaus (Dr. Anderson); Ashcraft (Dr. Bhattacharyya);   Twyman (Dr. Bhattacharyya); and Samantha Meenach (Research Experiences Undergraduate work at USC).   Five of the undergraduates are in the National Science Foundation REU program.

Graduate students presenting research papers were: Mathew Penn (Dr.   Anderson, advisor); Kimberly May (Dr. Anderson); Geoffrey Bothun (Dr. Knutson); Gifty Osei-Prempeh (Drs. Knutson and Rankin); Wei Li (Dr. Rankin); Bing Tan (Dr. Rankin); Ajay Makkuni, Aaron Hollman, David Meyer, Yit-Hong Tee   Deepak Ahuja and Jian Xu (Dr. Bhattacharyya).

UK AIChE student chapter officers are:   Erin Hazlewood, president; Adam Vogt, vice president; Erin Morris, secretary; Courtney Harrison, treasurer; and Sean Lindsey, convention coordinator.   Dr. Bhattacharyya is the chapter advisor.