ChBE Student Honored with 2008 Student Laureate Award

ChBE congratulates Babajide Oke, 4th year chemical engineering student, on receiving the 2008 Student Laureate Award, presented by the Lincoln Academy of Illinois.  The annual award honors an outstanding senior from each four-year degree granting universities in Illinois.  Students are selected for this honor based on their overall excellence in curricular and co-curricular activities, as well as their cumulative and major GPAs. 

Oke is one of ChBE's most involved students.  He is actively involved in the IIT student chapters of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the National Society of Black Engineers, as well as the African Student Association and the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship.  Oke is also a writer and editor for IIT's student newspaper, TechNews, and a resident advisor in IIT's McCormick Student Village dormitory.  In addition to his extra-curricular activities, Oke has participated in the Alternative Spring Break program, which provides IIT students the opportunity to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity over their semester break, for the past three years.

Oke's research interests are focused in renewable energy sources.  Upon graduation, he hopes to work for an engineering consulting firm and earn his Masters in Business Administration.  ChBE congratulates Oke for all that he has achieved while studying at IIT.

The last ChBE student to receive the Student Laureate Award was Dr. Ankit Mehta (ChE B.S. ’03).  Read what Mehta has done since graduating from IIT on ChBE’s alumni page!

ChBE Professor Vijay Ramani Named Recipient of 2009-2014 NSF CAREER Award

ChBE is very pleased to announce Assistant Professor Vijay Ramani is the recipient of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) 2009-2014 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, the most prestigious honor presented by NSF to junior researchers. It recognizes researchers who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research. The award is aimed at supporting the career development of teacher-scholars who are most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century.

Ramani joined ChBE in January 2005. His research group is recognized nationally and internationally for its work in the area of PEM fuel cells. The group has received funding from NSF's Energy for Sustainability Program and IIT's Educational Research Initiative Fund (ERIF). In conjunction with his students, Ramani has published two book chapters and six peer-reviewed publications with several more under review. He has presented more than ten seminars in the U.S. and abroad to industry, academia and national laboratories, and spent the past summer as an Office of Naval Research Summer Faculty Fellow at the National Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. Ramani was also recently elected Vice-Chair of the Industrial Electrochemistry and Electrochemical Engineering Division of the Electrochemical Society. Ramani's research was recently highlighted in the IIT Armour College of Engineering Interface magazine.

ChBE congratulates Ramani on this outstanding accomplishment!

ChBE Shares Inspirational Stories of Women Graduates

It's been nearly 60 years since ChBE's awarded its first degree to a female student Lois Bey was a pioneer when she earned her B.S. in chemical engineering in 1950 from IIT. At the time, she was the only woman enrolled in the program. Today, more than 30 percent of ChBE's undergraduate class is composed of women, well above the national average for women enrolled in engineering programs.

ChBE's graduates work in a variety of industries all across the globe.? The department is pleased to share profiles of some of its most interesting, distinguished alumni. These remarkable women are true examples of what a degree in chemical engineering, ambition and determination can do to help students achieve their dreams.

Lois Bey - First Female Graduate of ChBE

Christine Borwanker - Project Manager at Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company

Dania Ghantous - Vice President of Technology and Battery Development at Imara Corporation

Valerie Mason-Robinson - CEO and Founder of Eden Organix

Are you interesting in becoming more involved in the ChBE department? If so, please visit the alumni section of this web site for more information.

ChBE Alumnus Hank Kohlbrand Elected 2010 President of AIChE

ChBE is pleased to announce Hank Kohlbrand (B.S. ChE '73), Global R&D Director of Engineering & Process Sciences in Core R&D at The Dow Chemical Company, has been elected president of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). He will assume the role in 2010 after serving a one-year term as president-elect. Kohlbrand is the third ChBE alumni to be elected president of the association.? Pervious alumni to serve in this position are John Sachs (ChE '48, M.S. ChE '50, Ph.D. ChE '52) and the late James Y. Oldshue (ChE '47, M.S. ChE '49, Ph.D. ChE '51).

During the past 34 years, Kohlbrand has worked in a variety of research and manufacturing roles at Dow, focusing on process development, new technology implementation and new business growth. Kohlbrand is a fellow of the AIChE, former member of the AIChE board of directors, a member of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, American Chemical Society and American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a past recipient of two IR-100 awards, the Chemical Processing Vaaler Award, and the A.O. Beckman award and is an internationally recognized expert in reactive chemicals engineering and process-scaleup. Kohlbrand also serves as the Chairman of the Advisory Committee for ChBE.

AIChE is the world's leading organization for chemical engineering professionals, with more than 40,000 members from 93 countries. ChBE congratulates Kohlbrand for this outstanding accomplishment!

Four ChBE Alumni Receive IIT Alumni Awards

ChBE is pleased to announce four of its alumni were honored during the IIT Alumni Awards on Friday, May 1. The awards are presented each year by the IIT Alumni Association to honor those who have made outstanding contributions to the university, the community, and/or their profession.

This year's ChBE recipients include:

IIT Alumni Medal - Frank A. Crossley (ChE '45, MET M.S. '47 and MET Ph.D. '50), retired after lengthy careers with Lockheed Martin and GenCorp Aerogroup

IIT Outstanding Young Alumnus/a Award - Dr. Ankit Mehta (ChE '03), Neurosurgery Resident at Duke University,? and William Mustain (ChE'02, ChE Ph.D. '06), Assistant Professor at the University of Connecticut's Department of Chemical, Materials and Biomolecular Engineering

IIT Professional Achievement Award - Madhava Syamlal (ChE M.S. '81, ChE Ph.D. '85), Focus Area Leader at the National Energy Technology Laboratory

ChBE congratulates these professionals for their outstanding contributions to the department, the university and society!