October 2006: Gerard O'Sullivan joins our group as a FAS (Foras Aiseanna Saothair) Science Challenge Fellow. He is a PhD graduate student in the Chemistry Department at University College Cork, Ireland. Welcome!

October 2006: Amy Liu, a freshman at Rice, joins our research lab as a Century Scholar. Welcome!

October 5, 2006: Drs. Wong, Nutt, and Hughes received the Best Applied Paper Award in 2005 from the South Texas Section of AIChE, for their ES&T paper on Pd/Au nanocatalyst work. (View the newsletter here.)

September 14, 2006: Michael Wong received the Young Investigator Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Nanoscale Science and Engineering Forum.

September 8, 2006: Michael Wong was named to the 2006 list of the 35 Top Young Innovators by MIT's Technology Review.

September 6, 2006: Michael Wong received a Best Presentation Award at GOLD 2006 Conference (held in Limerick, Ireland), for the "best new idea in gold catalysis."

August 28, 2006: Will Knowles successfully defended his Chemical Engineering PhD thesis on supported metal oxide catalyst fundamentals!

August 2006: Grant Belgard was chosen for a Schering-Plough Travel Grant, a highly competitive award that recognizes undergraduates, graduate students, and post-docs for outstanding research and academic accomplishments in chemistry.

May 2006: Chris Barth and Grant Belgard joins our group this summer as NREU research assistants. Also this summer, Zhe Loy joins our group as a SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship) research assistant. Welcome!

May 25, 2006: Alison Takemura, now a junior at Rice, was named a 2006 Morris K. Udall Scholar.

May 13, 2006: Mark Pond and Chris Barth graduated with their BS degrees in Chemical Engineering. Congratulations!

April 22, 2006: Michael Wong received the 2006 Hershel M. Rich Invention Award.

April 21, 2006: Michael Nutt successfully defended his Chemical Engineering PhD thesis on bimetallic nanoparticle enviro-catalysts!

April 19, 2006: Vinit Murthy successfully defended his Chemical Engineering PhD thesis on nanoparticle assembly of microcapsules!

April 18, 2006: Regina Yoo successfully defended her Chemical Engineering MS thesis on layer-by-layer assembly of microcapsule arrays! Prof. Laibinis was her co-advisor.

April 6, 2006: Suba Asokan received an Educational Scholarship in Optical Science and Engineering from SPIE (The International Society for Optical Engineering).

March 17, 2006: The Southwest Catalysis Society (SWCS) chapter of the North American Catalysis Society held the 2006 Spring Symposium at Rice University. (Click here for the program and wrap-up.)

March 2, 2006: Professor Wong gave an invited oral presentation on "(Passive and Active) Impact of Nanotechnology on the Environment" at the first India-US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium held in Agra, India. This meeting was sponsored by the US National Academy of Engineering, Indo-US Science and Technology Forum, and IIT Kanpur.

January 2006: Vinit Murthy received the 2006 George Kozmetsky Award for Outstanding Graduate Research in Nanotechnology, as selected by the Nanotechnology Foundation of Texas. (See March 13, 2006 issue of C&EN)

January 2006: Professor Wong was selected to receive a 3M Nontenured Faculty Award.

January 4, 2006: Professor Wong gave a plenary lecture entitled "Contribution of Nanotechnology to Rural Development: New Approaches to Groundwater Clean-up" at the 93rd Indian Science Congress held in Hyderabad, India.

October 2005: Grainne Duffy joins our group as a FAS (Foras Aiseanna Saothair) Science Challenge Fellow. She is a graduate student in the School of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland. Welcome!

October 11, 2005: Suba Asokan and Vinit Murthy were recognized for their poster presentations at the Associated Nanotechnology Congress. They received separate third-place awards for their research in quantum dots and nanoparticle-assembled microcapsules, respectively.

May 31, 2005: The paper "Designing Pd-on-Au Bimetallic Nanoparticle Catalysis for Trichloroethene Hydrodechlorination" was recognized as the third place winner of the 2004 Graduate Student Paper Award Competition of the AIChE Environmental Division. It was cited for outstanding research work in the application of chemical engineering to environmental problems. Graduate student Michael Nutt receives a plaque and a monetary award; the co-authors are Professors Joseph Hughes (Georgia Tech) and Michael Wong.

March 2005: Alison Takemura and T. Grant Belgard were selected into the NREU summer research program. They joined the Wong research lab last Fall as Century Scholars.

March 2005: Mark Pond was chosen to be one of two Arnold and Mabel Beckman Scholars this year. Supported by this undergraduate fellowship program, he will carry out research in the Catalysis and Nanomaterials Laboratory and represent Rice University at the annual Beckman Scholars Program meeting.

February 25, 2005: Michael Nutt was recognized for his award-winning poster presentation at the 2005 Spring Symposium of the Southwest Catalysis Society. He was one of four winners, chosen out of 20 posters in the competition. The title of his poster was "Designing Pd-on-Au Nanoparticle Catalysts for Aqueous-phase Trichloroethylene Hydrodechlorination."

February 25, 2005: The Southwest Catalysis Society (SWCS) chapter of the North American Catalysis Society held the 2005 Spring Symposium at Rice University (click here for the program).

February 7, 2005: Prof. Wong was selected to receive the Smalley/Curl Fund for Innovation Award, from the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST) at Rice University. Materials Today, April 2005 issue (pdf)

October 29, 2004: Subashini Asokan received the 2nd prize award for her poster presentation at NanoDays 2004, the third annual CBEN conference on nanotechnology and its applications to bioengineering and environment. The poster was entitled "Synthesis of High Quality CdSe Quantum Dots in Heat Transfer Fluids," and the co-authors were Ms. Alessandra R. Carreon (undergraduate), Zuze Mu (graduate student), Karl M. Krueger (graduate student), Dr. Alkhawaldeh, Prof. Colvin, and Prof. Wong.

September 2, 2004: Will Knowles and Michael Nutt were announced as co- recipients of the Rice University Chemical Engineering Department Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award for 2003-2004. This marked the second time they received the Award (previously in 2002-2003).

August 6, 2004: Vinit Murthy received the Micron Technology Prize for Best Oral Presentation at the 18th Annual RQI Summer Research Colloquium. Out of 87 talks, his presentation was chosen for one of the two sponsored $500 awards. The title of his talk was "Nanoparticle Assembly via Counterion Condensation Induced Formation of Polyamine Soft Microclusters," and the co-authors included Rohit Rana, Jie Yu, and Dr. Wong.

July 28, 2004: Zuze Mu successfully defended his Chemical Engineering MS thesis on "Synthesis, Photostability, and Photocatalytic Properties of Water-Suspended CdSe and CdSe/CdS Quantum Dots." His thesis committee was comprised of Dr. Wong, Dr. Pasquali, and Dr. Mantzaris.

May-June 2004: Three undergraduates joined the Wong research lab as summer researchers: Lynh Jones (Rice U.; Chemical Engineering/CBEN fellow), Alessandra Carreon (Rice U.; Chemical Engineering/CBEN fellow), and Prasad Sarangapani (WPI; NREU fellow). Welcome!

October 13, 2003: Ammar Alkhawaldeh received a 2nd prize award for his poster presentation at Nanodays 2003, the second annual CBEN conference on nanotechnology and its applications to bioengineering and environment. The title of his poster was: "Nanomanufacturing: Scaling Up Liquid-Phase Production of Optically Active Nanoparticles", and the contributors list included Ammar, Dr. Ausman, Prof. Colvin, Prof. Mantzaris, Prof. Pasquali, Prof. Zygourakis and Prof. Wong.

June 2, 2003: Prof. Wong was selected to receive a 2003 Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award, sponsored by the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU).

March 7, 2003: The Catalysis and Nanomaterials Laboratory officially opened with a lab-warming party.

December 5, 2002: Chemical Engineering professor recognized as one of top young researchers," Rice News vol. 12, no. 15.