News Archive.

2020

December 15, 2020: The 2019 Best Fundamental Paper Award was given to the Wong-Henkelman collaboration for "Design of a Pd−Au Nitrite Reduction Catalyst by Identifying and Optimizing Active Ensembles" by the South Texas Section of AIChE. Congratulations!
November 24, 2020: Congratulations to Dr. Chelsea Clark! She impressed her comittee members with a fantastic thesis defense titled, Rh-Based Catalysis Chemistry of Aqueous-Phase Nitrogen Treatment Reactions.
November 9, 2020: ACS recognizes Wong, Alvarez for work on fracking byproduct 'produced water'
September 17, 2020: We wish a fond farewell to two of our visiting scholars, Ms. Lijie Duan and Dr. Yongchao Li. We wish them both the best and are grateful for their contributions to the group!
September 12, 2020: Leading a team of researchers from UT El Paso, Yale, ASU, and Rice, Dr. Camilah Powell quantified the magnetic and aresenic adsorption propertoes of carbon-coated iron carbide. The paper is out!
August 25, 2020: Very nice work by Sujin (with Camilah and Prof. Dino Villagran) on developing magnetically responsive nitrate reduction catalysts, published in ES Nano!
July 16, 2020: Congratulations to Dr. Sujin Guo, for successfully defending her Environmental Engineering Ph.D. thesis dissertation on Advanced Reduction of Nitrogen-Oxyanions Using Precious Metal-Based Model Catalyst!
June 19, 2020: We are happy to contribute to an international study on nanostructured materials and engineering needs for electrochemical treatment of water!
June 14, 2020: Congratulations to Bo and Lijie for publishing their work on the photocatalytic degradation of PFOA.
June 10, 2020: Nice work on graphene oxide/MOF magnetic adsorbents for brackish water treatment! Collaboration with Julie Zimmerman and Jorge Gardea-Torresday, led by Dino Villagran's group.
June 1, 2020: We are very excited to welcome the two newest members to the group: Mr. Joshua Samba (Ph.D. student in Applied Physics) and Mr. Kiheon Hong (Ph.D. student in Civil and Environmental Engineering)!
May 28, 2020: Congrats to Welman and Kim, who published their paper on indium-decorated Pd nanocubes for no-ammonia nitrate reduction!
May 26, 2020: Thanks to a new Rice University COVID-19 research grant, we will now work with the Verduzco group and NASA on new ventilator technology!
May 18, 2020: Shengqi (Peter) Hang was selected to receive the Dr. Zevi & Bertha Salsburg Memorial Fellowship from the Department of Chemistry - Congratulations!
May 16, 2020: We are so happy to celebrate the advanced degrees of four group members (2 PhDs, 1 MS, 1 MChE) at the 107^th Commencement Ceremony!
May 8, 2020: Ben and Chris' latest work on the catalytic treatment of high-salinity produced water has just been published.
May 1, 2020: First collaboration with Meny Elimelech and his research group!
April 18, 2020: Yan's latest work on heavy oil viscosity reduction has just been published in Fuel. Congratulations to Yan and her team!
April 17, 2020: The Rice Engineering Alumni (REA) has awarded Tanya with a Graduate Student Travel Grant to support her travel to the International Conference on Environmental Systems to present her work on water treatment in space. Thank you, REA!
April 16, 2020: Two publications from the group have been selected for the "Best Papers 2019" Collection by Environmental Science: Nano as part of the Enviornmental Science Best Papers Initiative by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
April 6, 2020: Chris has been awarded with a Graduate Student Travel Grant by the Rice Engineering Alumni (REA) to support his travel to the Permian Basin Water in Energy Conference. Congratulations Chris, and thank you to the REA!
March 13, 2020: Chris has been selected to recieve a travel award to the 17^th International Congress on Catalysis. Congratulations Chris!
March 5, 2020: Our most recent collaborative work has been published! Here, we highlight the discrepancies between typical lab-scale experiments and real waters for environmental water treatment applications. Nice work Tanya and Chris!
March 3, 2020: A new paper about using table salt to synthesize chemicals from sugars!
February 12, 2020: Camilah led a three-university team to study the engineering parameters of a Fe₃O₄-based arsenic treatment unit. Her MagNERD paper is published!
February 5, 2020: Dr. Wong receives the 2019 Southwest Region American Chemical Society Award for his “meritorious contributions to the advancement of chemistry, chemical engineering, chemical education, either pure or applied, to the profession in general.”
January 2020: Dr. Wong begins his term as a Councilor for the American Chemical Society, representing the CATL Division.
January 15, 2020: Congratulations Dr. Powell! Camilah successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis dissertation on Development of Non-Conventional Iron-Based Nanomaterials for Water Treatment.
January 13, 2020: Chris' work on fit-for-purpose treatment options for produced water in shale oil and gas fields is an outstanding collaboration between academia and industry. It is now published!

2019

December 17, 2019: Camilah has been selected as the co-winner of the 2019 AIChE Env. Div. Student Poster Competition for her posters on adsorptive arsenic removal and nitroarene reduction by AMF. Nice work Camilah!
December 12, 2019: Congratulations Dr. Yin! Ben successfully defended his thesis work Sensing and Mitigating Water Contaminants with Engineered Gold-Based Nanostructures.
December 3, 2019: Ben's latest work on the catalytic oxidation of methyl-glucoside has just been published.
November 27, 2019: Chelsea's paper, Mechanistic Insights into pH-Controlled Nitrite Reduction to Ammonia and Hydrazine over Rhodium was just published in ACS Catalysis.
November 11, 2019: We welcome Zheng Li (co-advised by Prof. Abbas Firoozabadi) as the newest visiting scholar to the group.
November 11, 2019: We are all very excited to welcome Juan Donoso (Fulbright Fellow) as the newest graduate student in the group!
November 6, 2019: Chelsea's recent work on the adsorptive removal of PFOS using UiO-66 has earned her 1^st place in the 2019 Enviornmental Division Graduate Student Paper Awards at AIChE.
October 9, 2019: Priscilla's lastest work on the desulfurization of liquid fuels has just been published in I&EC Research!
October 1, 2019: Dr. Wong received the William M. McCardell Professor in Chemical Engineering endowed chair from the University!
September 26, 2019: We are all very excited to welcome our newest visiting scholar from the Hunan University of Science and Technology, Dr. Yongchao Li.
August 28, 2019: Kim's latest work on the degradation of 1,4-dioxane was just published in RSC Advances. Congratulations Kim!
July 18, 2019: New experiment-theory work on metal-on-metal catalyst design for nitrite reduction, in collaboration with Henkelman group (UT Austin)!
June 18, 2019: Congratulations to Ben and Tanya for being elected to the inaugural class of NSF NEWT Fellows!
June 12, 2019: Congratulations to our newest alumni, Samantha Samaniego, who successfully defended her MS thesis research on Gas Chromatography Study of Sulfur Removal from Jet Fuel using Nanoporous Materials!
June 10, 2019: We are very excited to welcome two new visiting scholars, Kaitlin and Michelle, for the summer. They are local K-12 science teachers joining us through the NEWT RET program.
May 30, 2019: We are pleased to welcome Ms. Xinying Luan (first-year ChBE graduate student) as a visitor to our lab for the summer.
May 12, 2019: Ben's work on PdAu-catalyzed oxidation through in situ generated H₂O₂ in simulated produced water was just published online in Catalysis Today.
May 2, 2019: Ben and Chris' work on Microencapsulated Photoluminescent Gold for ppb-level Chromium(VI) Sensing was just accepted to ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.
April 16, 2019: Kim's recent work has been featured as the cover article for the special issues of Accounts of Chemical Research "Water for Two Worlds: Urban and Rural Communities".
April 11, 2019: Published! An international assessment of nanotechnology opportunities for groundwater and soil decontamination (in Environ. Sci.: Nano).
April 5, 2019: Chelsea has received the 2019 Richard J. Kokes Travel Award to fund her trip to the 26th North American Catalysis Society (NACS) meeting in Chicago, IL later this year. Congratulations Chelsea!
March 5, 2019: Chelsea paper Highly Defective UiO-66 Materials for the Adsorptive Removal of PFOS has just been published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. Way to go Chelsea!
February 22, 2019: Congratulations Kim for the first publication of 2019!

2018

December 18, 2018: We wish the best of luck to our departing visiting scholar, Dr. Dennis Lee, as he returns back home to the Advanced Photonics Research Institute (APRI) at Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Korea
December 11, 2018: Congratulations Camilah for being awarded the Fall 2018 Outstanding Teaching Award by the ChBE Senior class! Way to go Camilah!
December 6, 2018: Dr. Pinn-Tsong Chiang's time as a Post-Doc in the group has come to an end - we're all sad to see you go, but wish you the best in your new position. Thank you for all your hard work and help Pinn-Tsong!
November 21, 2018: We are all very excited to welcome our two newest members to the group: Mr. Bo Wang and Mr. Austin Fehr (Co-advised with Dr. Aditya Mohite).
October 24, 2018: We are very excited to welcome the newest member of our group, Ms. Lijie Duan, who is visiting our lab from Tsinghua University.
October 16, 2018: Congratulations to Dr. Wong for receiving the ACS-GHS Joe W. Hightower Award!
August 20, 2018: We wish a warm welcome to the newest undergraduate member of our group, Mr. Davis Elder
August 17, 2018: Ben has been selected to receive the AIChE Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division Travel Award for the upcoming annual meeting in Pittsburgh. Way to go Ben!
August 10, 2018: Congratulations Ben! He is the official winner of the Graduate Poster Session at the 2018 Rice SCI Colloquium for his work on "Hydrogen Peroxide Production from Hydroxylamine using Palladium-Decorated Gold Nanoparticles."
August 10, 2018: Our visiting scholar, Mr. William Zenor, of San Jacinto College finished off his summer of hard work with a great presentation at the 2018 Rice SCI Colloquium.
July 14, 2018: Dr. Wong was elected Fellow of the American Chemical Society.
June 13, 2018: We are all very excited to welcome back Dr. Welman Elias to the group as our newest post-doc.
June 4, 2018: We all welcome Mr. William Zenor, a sophomore majoring in Chemical Engineering at San Jacinto College, joining us for the summer through the NEWT Research Experience for Community College Students (REU) program.
April 26, 2018: Yan and Ciceron's work on heavy oil viscocity reduction has been published by the Society of Petroleum Engineers. Great work!
April 20, 2018: Sujin and Ben were recognized with a Best Poster Award for their poster presentation at the 2018 Spring Symposium of the Southwest Catalysis Society!
April 13, 2018: Camilah has been selected as a NASA OSSI intern for Summer 2018. Congratulations Camilah!
March 15, 2018: Kim and Sujin's article,"Removing Nitrates and Nitrites through New Catalysis Chemistry", has been published in WC&P International magazine.
February 9, 2018: Ben received the “Best Presentation” Award and Priscilla received the "Best Participation" Award at the 2018 Smalley-Curl Institute (SCI) Transdisciplinary Symposium. Congratulations!
February 2, 2018: Tanya has been selected for the NASA Pathways Program. She will conduct her research at Rice and NASA, with Johnson Space Center researchers. Congrats!
February 1, 2018: Ben has been selected to attend the 2018 IGNITE Entrepreneurship Trek to Silicon Valley program, as a RCEL representative. Congrats!
January 2018: The group’s first paper of 2018, led by Sujin and Kim ("Insights into Nitrate Reduction over Indium-Decorated Palladium Nanoparticle Catalysts”), has gotten outstanding attention. Super job!
January 11, 2018: We are very pleased to welcome Dr. Dennis Lee as visiting scientist in our research group for the next 12 months. Dennis runs a research program at the Advanced Photonics Research Institute (APRI) at Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Korea.

2017

December 14, 2017: Ben Yin was selected to receive a Graduate Student Travel Grant from the Rice Engineering Alumni (REA). Congratulations!
December 12, 2017: We are very proud to announce that Chelsea has recieved the 2017 Kobayashi Graduate Fellowship from the ChBE Department to recognize her outstanding thesis research proposal. Congratulations Chelsea!
November 29, 2017: Li successfully defended her PhD thesis research on "Understanding Pyrolysis Chemistry to Improve Biomass to Chemicals Transformations”. Congratulations, Dr. Chen!
November 23, 2017: We are very excited to welcome the two newest members of our group: Tanya Rogers and Hunter Jacobs!
October 29, 2017: Chelsea and Fernando are headed to Minneapolis, MN with Dr. Wong for this year's AIChE Conference.
September 28, 2017: Hao's time as a visiting scholar is coming to a close. We already miss him, but wish him all the best back home at Tsinghua University.
September 22, 2017: Rio Tsukimura has reached her last week in Houston for the visiting scholars program; We wish her all the best, and hope to see her in the science world in the near future!
September 18, 2017: Rio and Sujin share their work on utilizing bimetallic alloy nanoparticle catalysts for the nitrate reduction reaction at the 2017 Nakatani REIS Fellowship Poster Presentation.
August 21, 2017: We welcome Chris Conrad and Samantha Samaniego Andrade (Fulbright Fellow) into the group as new members!
August 18, 2017: Ben presents his and Chris' work with Fluorescent Gold for Cr(VI) detection at the Texas Soft Matter Meeting at the UH Campus
August 11, 2017: Ben Yin received the Rice University School of Engineering Award for best poster (out of ~40 graduate posters) at the 2017 Smalley-Curl Institute Colloquium, on the topic of "Selective Sensing and Simultaneous Removal Chromium(VI) in Water Using Fluorescent Nanogold”
August 11, 2017: Congratulations to Fernando for presenting at Rice's SCI Summer Research Colloquium!
August 2017: We're excited to welcome Dr. Pinn-Tsong Chiang as our newest Post-Doc!
June 15, 2017: Chelsea Clark successfully passed her proposal. Congratulations Chelsea!
May 2017: Devanshi has joined the group as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome Devanshi!
May 2017: Dr. Hao Xu is joining our group as a visiting scholar.
May 2017: Fernando has joined the group as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome Fernando!
April 28, 2017: Ben Yin was recognized with a Best Poster Award for his poster presentation on “Selective oxidation of ring-locked glucose using Pd-on-Au catalyst" at the 2017 Spring Symposium of the Southwest Catalysis Society.
March 31, 2017: Jake Lobb defended his MS thesis on the topic of 'Adsorptive Removal of Sulfur Containing Compounds from Fuels using Metal Loaded Zeolite.' Congratulations!
March 2017: Congratulations to Ben for winning 1^st place at the 2017 Chevron Lecture on Energy, Graduate Student Poster Competition!
March 2017: Congratulations to Ben Yin for being selected as a 2017 RemTEC Student Competition Winner at the RemTEC Summit!
February 2017: Li has been selected to attend the 2017 IGNITE Entrepreneurship Trek to Silicon Valley program, as a RCEL representative. Congrats!
February 2017: Sujin Guo was selected to receive a 2017 IBB Travel Award. Good job!
February 2017: Congratulations to Camilah Powell for being named a finalist for the Department's 2016 Kobayashi Award for best PhD thesis proposal and receiving an Honorable Mention!

2016

May 2016: Welman received 1^st place for his poster on “Nitrate Anions Degrade Rapidly on Indium-Coated Pd Nanocube Edge" at the 2016 International Water Association (IWA) Nano and Water Specialist Conference. Great work!
April 2016: Welman wins two best poster awards - Best Poster Award at the SWCS Meeting, and 3^rd Place at the Department Graduate Student Poster Competition. Congratulations!
February 2016: Dr. Gupta was elected as a Director of American Chemical Society-Greater Houston Section. Thanks for your service to the community, Mayank!
January 6, 2016: Congratulations! Dr. Varun Shenoy Gangoli successfully defended his PhD dissertation on "An Investigation of Carbon-based Nanomaterials for Efficient Energy Production and Delivery.

2014

December 2014: Ms. Li Chen receives the 2014 Kobayashi Fellowship Award in Chemical Engineering, given annually for the best PhD thesis proposal. Congratulations!
November 2014: Our Group welcomes 3 new Chemical Engineering graduate students: Ms. Yan Xu, Ms. Camilah Powell, and Mr. Ben Yin. Welcome!
September 19, 2014: Congratulations! We are very proud of our latest Chemical Engineering PhD graduate, Dr. Zhun Zhao. He successfully defended his thesis research on "Catalytic Oxidation Properties of Palladium-decorated Gold Nanoparticles."
September 2014: Zhun's article "Volcano-shape glycerol oxidation activity of palladium-decorated gold nanoparticles" was chosen as a cover article for the October issue of Chemical Science. Congrats!
August 2014: Ms. Sujin Guo joins our Group as a PhD candidate in Environmental Engineering. Welcome!
July 1, 2014: Prof. Wong became Chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department.
June 2014: We welcome into our Group Dr. Mayank Gupta (LSU, PhD) as a postdoctoral research associate!
March 2014: Dr. Zhen Wang (Zhejiang University, PhD) joins our group as our newest postdoctoral research associate. Welcome!
March 2014: Zhun received a very competitive award from the China Scholarship Council ("Chinese Government Award For Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad"). Excellent!
January 2014: We welcome Sarah Munday, Wilfred So, Karim De Vol, and Peter Milling (all ChBE'ers) to the group this Spring!

2013

December 13, 2013: Sravani Gullapalli successfully defended her Chemical Engineering PhD thesis on "Advanced Synthesis Techniques and Characterization of Functional Semiconductor Nanomaterials" Congratulations!
October 3, 2013: Our Scientific Reports paper led by Prof. Biswal ("Inexpensive Method for Producing Macroporous Silicon Particulates (MPSPs) with Pyrolyzed Polyacrylonitrile for Lithium Ion Batteries") was chosen to receive the Best Applied Paper in 2012 Award from the South Texas Section of AIChE!
October 2013: Varun Shenoy Gangoli won the Best-in-Flight award (category: 'Engineering for Natural Resources') at the 2013 RCEL (Rice Center for Engineering Leadership) Screech elevator pitch competition.
September 2013: Prof. Wong received an honorary guest professorship at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (China).
September 2013: We welcome Ms. Olivia Tati (ChBE sophomore) into the group this Fall!
September 2013: We are delighted to have Dr. Marwan M. Batiha join our group as a Fulbright Scholar from Al-Hussein Bin Talal University (Jordan). Welcome!
August 2013: Zhun was selected to receive a CRE (Catalysis & Reaction Engineering) Division Travel Grant for the upcoming AIChE Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
August 2013: Dr. Huifeng Qian was awarded the 2013 International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Prizes for Young Chemists. Congratulations!
July, 2013: We welcome Dr. Sivaram Pradham (University of Cardiff, PhD) as our newest postdoctoral research associate!
June, 2013: Zhun Zhao received the 2013 Richard J. Kokes Award for the 23^rd North American Catalysis Society (NACS) meeting. Wonderful!
April 27, 2013: Zhun Zhao was recognized with a Best Poster Award (second time winner) for his poster presentation on "Hydrogen Generation from Formic acid at Room Temperature using Pd-on-Au Catalysts" at the 2013 Spring Symposium of the Southwest Catalysis Society. Congratulations!
May 11, 2013: Sumedh Warudkar was selected as the sole graduate student to receive the Neil deGrasse Tyson Commencement Speaker Award. Wonderful!
April 2013: Our very own Colin Shaw and his team received much attention for their work on 'space coffee'. Nicely done!
April 15, 2013: Sumedh Warudkar successfully defended his Chemical Engineering PhD thesis on "Re-engineering the Alkanolamine Absorption Process to Economize Carbon Capture." Congratulations!
April 2013: Sumedh Warudkar has been recognized for his service to the university and to student life with two awards: the 2013 Sallyport Award and a Rice University Service Award. Congratulations!
April 2, 2013: Lori Pretzer successfully defended her Chemistry PhD thesis on "Synthesis, Structure, and Catalytic Properties of Versatile Au-Based Nanocatalysts." Congratulations!
February 2013: Zhun Zhao was awarded an Edgar O'Rear Travel Grant from the Rice IBB to attend the 23^rd North American Catalysis Society Meeting. Congrats!

2012

December 2012: Sravani Gullapalli's "Happy Nano Days!" image was selected as the winner of the Smalley Institute's NanoArt imagery contest.
December 2012: We welcome Dr. Ho-Jeong Chai (Korea Research Insitute of Chemical Technology, Korea) into the Group!
December 2012: Mr. Hassan Alasiri and Mr. Yinhong Cheng join our group as first-year Chemical Engineering PhD candidates. Welcome!
November 2012: Zhun Zhao was awarded a 3rd place prize in the 2012 Centennial Ken Kennedy Institute Research Nugget Competition for his project "Studying nanocatalysts for improved H₂ production". Congratulations!
November 2012: We welcome Dr. Marcelo Machido Viana (UFMG, Brazil) and Mr. Kai Zhou (Tsinghua University, China) as visiting scholars this Fall!
October 2012: We welcome Mr. Colin Shaw (Century Scholar, 2012-2013) into the group this Fall!
October 4, 2012: Our ACS Catal. paper on "Kinetics Analysis of Palladium/Gold Nanoparticles as Colloidal Hydrodechlorination Catalysts" received the Best Fundamental Paper in 2011 Award from the South Texas Section of AIChE. Congrats!
June 2012: Dr. Huifeng Qian (Carnegie Mellon University, PhD) joins our group as an Evans Attwell Postdoctoral Fellow. A hearty welcome!
April 20, 2012: Zhun Zhao was recognized with a Best Poster Award for his poster presentation on "Modulating palladium-on-gold catalysis for glycerol oxidation with Pd surface coverage" at the 2012 Spring Symposium of the Southwest Catalysis Society. Congratulations!
April 13, 2012: Jason Grider was recognized with a Best Poster Award (1^st place in Sustainability Division) for his poster presentation on "Role of Surfactants in Formation of CdSe Hollow Nanoparticles" at the Rice Undergraduate Research Symposium (RURS 2012). Congratulations!
April 13, 2012: Juyan Azhang was recognized with a Poster Award (3^rd place in Engineering Division) for his poster presentation on "Improved Metal/Semiconductor SWNT separation through agarose gel column chromatography" at the Rice Undergraduate Research Symposium (RURS 2012). Congratulations!
April 2012: Li Chen was selected to participate in the ACS Summer School on Green Chemistry and Sustainable Energy, to be held at Colorado School of Mines in June.
March 12, 2012: Prof. Wong's "nanoreporters" project with Profs. Tour and Tomson was written up in C&EN .
March 2012: Ms. Meiriane Faria Soares joins our group as a visiting scholar from the Departamento de Química at UFMG (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil). Welcome!
January 2012: We welcome Mr. Taye Zewdu from Spain and Mr. Sean Kim (ChBE, BS '13) into the group!
January 2012: Professor Wong joins the Editorial Board of the journal Applied Catalysis B: Environmental.
January 2012: Zhun Zhao was awarded a research grant from the very competitive Sigma Xi Grants-in-Aid of Research Program. Congrats!

2011

December 2011: We welcome Ms. Li Chen as the newest first-year Chemical Engineering PhD candidate of our group!
December 2011: Sravani Gullapalli was chosen for a Best Teaching Assistant Award from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Congratulations!
December 2011: Lori Pretzer was awarded an Edgar O'Rear Travel Grant from the Rice IBB to attend the 2012 Spring ACS meeting.
November 17, 2011: Gautam Kini successfully defended his Chemical Engineering PhD thesis on "Bilayer Approaches for Nanoparticle Phase Transfer." Wonderful!
November 2, 2011: Nikolaos Soultanidis successfully defended his Chemical Engineering PhD thesis on "Solvothermal Synthesis and Supported Catalysis of Polyanion-derived Metal Oxide Nanoparticles." Congratulations!
October 2011: Dr. Jerimie Forsythe (PhD, LSU) joins our group as a postdoctoral research associate. Welcome!
October 2011: Ms. Hua Yang joins our group as a visiting scholar. Welcome!
October 6, 2011: Gautam Kini, Dr. Hitesh Bagaria, and Dr. Wong received the Best Applied Paper in 2010 Award from the South Texas Section of AIChE (AIChE-STS), for their JPCC paper on processing salt-water suspensions of surfactant-coated NPs and understanding how high-salinity water improves the chemical/colloidal stability of NPs.
September 29, 2011: Quang Nguyen successfully defended his Electrical and Computer Engineering MS thesis on "Water-phase Synthesis of Cationic Silica/polyamine Nanoparticles." Congratulations!
September 2011: We welcome Ms. Taryn Willett (ChBE, Century Scholar) into the group this Fall!
September 2011: Sumedh Warudkar and Prof. Wong are part of the Rice research team chosen by DOE to develop innovative new technologies that can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by capturing carbon dioxide from power plants.
August 5, 2011: A Houston Chronicle article about engineers and soft skills. Prof. Wong had some thoughts!
July 2011: Dr. Hao Qian (Huaqiao University, China) joins our group as a senior visiting scholar. Welcome!
July 2011: Dr. Zac Schaefer (PhD, Penn State) joins our group as a postdoctoral research associate. Welcome!
June 2011: Zhun Zhao and Varun Shenoy successfully passed their PhD thesis proposal defenses. Congrats!
June 2011: We welcome Ms. Jean Kang and Mr. Kaoru Shibuya (both NanoJapan Fellows) into the group this summer!
May 2011: An article from the Group ("Nanotechnology: A Guide to Nano-objects") is part of the special issue of AIChE's Chemical Engineering Progress on nanotechnology.
May 14, 2011: Professor Wong received the 2011 Graduate Student Association Faculty Teaching/Mentoring Award.
May 2011: We welcome Mr. Brandon Hautt (ChBE) and Mr. Sean Gelwick into the group!
April 2011: The group's work on catalytic nanoparticles was highlighted in the "Mover and Shakers" column of The Catalyst Review (April 2011).
April 2011: Zhun Zhao and Nikolaos Soultanidis were selected to participate in the ACS Summer School on Green Chemistry and Sustainable Energy, to be held at McGill University (Montreal, Canada) in June.
April 15, 2011: Lori Pretzer was recognized with a Best Poster Award for her presentation on "Regulation of the Hydrodechlorination Catalytic Activity of Pd-on-Au Nanoparticles through Au Particle Size" at the 2011 Spring Symposium of the Southwest Catalysis Society. Congratulations!
April 13, 2011: Yulun Fang successfully defended his Chemical Engineering PhD thesis on "Understanding Structure-Property Relationships for Palladium-Gold Nanoparticles as Colloidal Catalysts!"
April 8, 2011: Shyam Benegal Kadali successfully defended his Chemical Engineering PhD thesis on "Engineering the Structural Properties of Self-assembled Polymer/nanoparticle Capsules!"
April 2011: Sravani Gullapalli was selected as a SCS Fellow by the Shell Center for Sustainability (SCS). She is working with Professor Biswal and her graduate student and SCS Fellow, Kung-Po Chao, on hybrid solar cell self-assembly.
March 2011:We welcome Dr. Matthew Blankschien into our group! He was named the 2011-2012 Peter and Ruth Nicholas Postdoctoral Fellow, co-advised by Profs. Wong and Gonzalez.
February 2011: Professor Wong is working with World Gold Council on gold-alloy nanoparticle catalysts to clean up contaminated water.
February 2011: Professor Wong received a 2011 Virginia and L.E. Simmons Family Foundation Collaborative Research Award with Dr. Youli Zu (The Methodist Hospital Research Institute).
February 2011: Hitesh Bagaria's paper on "Shell Thickness Control of Nanoparticle/Polymer Assembled Microcapsules" is a Top 20 Most Downloaded Chemistry of Materials article in the previous month.
February 2011: Our paper on "A nanocomplex that is both tumor cell-selective and cancer gene-specific for anaplastic large cell lymphoma" with Dr. Zu (Methodist Hospital) is in the Top 10 most accessed articles of Journal of Nanobiotechnology in the last 30 days.
January 2011: We welcome Mr. Jason Grider (ChBE, junior) and into the group!
January 2011: Apoorv Bhargava received the McCardell Scholarship and Chevron Scholarship from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. He was also selected by the Department to receive the Texas Society of Professional Engineers' Outstanding Engineering Student Recognition Award. Nicely done!

2010

December 8, 2010: The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering awarded a Best Teaching Assistant Award to Benny Kadali. Congratulations!
Fall 2010: We welcome Mr. Juyan Azhang (ChBE, sophomore) and Nicole Lu (ChBE, sophomore) and into the group!
September 2010: We welcome Ms. Joni Arentz (University of Groningen, The Netherlands) into the group!
July 2010: Apoorv Bhargava received a Louis J. Walsh Scholarship in Engineering from the Brown School of Engineering! Congrats!
June 2010: Dr. Wong gave an invited lecture on "Harnessing the Catalytic Properties of Metallic Nanoparticles to Clean Contaminated Water" at the first Gordon Conference on Noble Metal Nanoparticles.
June 2010: Nikos Soultanidis and Juan Velazquez presented posters at the Gordon Conference on Catalysis.
June 2010: We welcome Mr. Forrest Dukes (HHMI IBB Intern) and re-welcome Mr. Jon Taylor (NSF IGERT Summer Undergraduate Researcher) into our group this summer!
May 2010: Professor Wong will be promoted to full Professor, effective July 1, 2010.
April 2010: Dr. Hitesh Bagaria received the "Favorite Instructor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering" Award from the graduating seniors this year. Wonderful!
April 2010: Sravani Gullapalli was selected to participate in the ACS Summer School on Green Chemistry and Sustainable Energy, to be held at the Colorado School of Mines in July.
March 27, 2010: Dr. Hitesh Bagaria and Professor Wong hosted a show-n-tell at the Children's Museum of Houston (2009 Nickelodeon's Parents' Picks "Best Museum in Houston"!) on microcapsule self-assembly in celebration of NanoDays 2010.
March 2010: Kim Heck's paper on "Deactivation Resistance of Pd/Au Nanoparticle Catalysts for Water-phase Hydrodechlorination" is a Top-10 paper of J. Catal. from Oct. to Dec. 2009.
February 2010: Micromeritics awarded an Instrument Grant (for an AutoChem II Catalyst Characterization System) to the Wong research group through the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department.
January 2010: We welcome Mr. Naoki Nitta (ChBE, junior) and into the group!
January 2010: Professor Wong begins his appointment on the Editorial Advisory Board for Chemistry of Materials.

2009

December 2009: Apoorv Bhargava received a Rodd/Selman Scholarship in Engineering
from the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department. Very nice!
December 2009: Mr. Varun Shenoy Gangoli and Mr. Zhun Zhao join our group as first-year Chemical Engineering PhD candidates. Ms. Hyun Song joins our group as a 3^rd year student majoring in Chemical Physics. Welcome, all!
November 15, 2009: Gautam Kini was awarded an Edgar O'Rear Travel Grant from the Rice IBB.
October 1, 2009: Kim Heck and Dr. Wong (with collaborators Profs. Halas, Scuseria, and Janesko) received the Best Fundamental Paper in 2008 Award from the South Texas Section of AIChE, for their JACS paper on in situ spectroscopy work using Pd-coated gold nanoshells.
September 2009: Monica He joins our group as a Century Scholar. Welcome!
September 2009: We welcome Ms. Shujing Li (Nankai University, China) into the group!
July 15, 2009: Prof. Wong Professor Wong received an IBB Hamill Innovations Award with Prof. Gonzalez (ChBE) and Prof. Silberg (BCB) for their project "Synthesis and characterization of bionanoparticles for light-triggered control of protein function." They also received support from the Faculty Initiatives Fund.
July 2009: We welcome Ms. Margaret Watkins and re-welcome Mr. Luca Pasquali and Mr. Sriram Chandrasekhar to the group!
June 2009: Our nanoparticle-assembled capsules work is featured in a new television episode of "DragonflyTV"!- This Emmy-awarding winning children's science program is shown on PBS stations and on the web. The encapsulation/release of food dyes using safe self-assembly chemistry is demonstrated.
June 2009: We welcome Mr. Apoorv Bhargava, Mr. Carlos D. Rueda (2009 HHMI IBB Intern), Mr. Clay Calloway, and Ms. Isiana Rendon (2009 NSF IGERT Summer Undergraduate Researcher) into our group this summer!
May 4-7, 2009: Gautam, Ramsey, Nikos, and Yu-lun gave presentations at the NSTI Nanotech Meeting in Houston, TX.
May 2009: Nikos Soultanidis received a Gerondelis Foundation Scholarship.- Super!
May 2009: Dr. Jie Yu joins our Group as a post-doctoral research associate! Her advisors are Professors Wong and Mason Tomson (CEVE).
May 2009: Amy Liu and Lori Pretzerwere chosen to receive an Arthur L. Draper Award and a Harry B. Weiser Teaching Award, respectively, from the Chemistry Department. Great!
April 24, 2009: Nikos Soultanidis was recognized with a Best Poster Award for presentation "Relating pentane isomerization activity to surface density and the acidic properties of WOx/ZrO2" at the 2009 Spring Symposium of the SouthwestCatalysis Society. Congratulations!
April13-17, 2009: Benny and Yu-lun gave presentations at the Spring Meeting of MRS in SF, CA.
April 7, 2009: Kimberly Heck successfully defended her Chemical Engineering PhD thesis on "Developing Gold-based Nanostructures to Study Catalytic Reactions in Water"!
April 2009: Yulun Fang was accepted into the Eleventh National School on Neutron and X-ray Scattering, to held in May and June at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory.
April 2009: Barney Cruz was accepted into the NanoJapan Program for this summer!
February 2009: Nikos Soultanidis received a Hellenic Professional Society of Texas Scholarship.- Nice!
January 2009: Dr. Sukit Leekumjorn joins our research group as a post-doctoral research associate.

2008

December 16, 2008: Shyam Benegal receives the 2007 Kobayashi Fellowship Award in Chemical Engineering (named in honor of Professor Emeritus Riki Kobayashi), given annually for the best PhD thesis proposal.
December 2008: Juan C. Velazquez, Sravani Gullapalli, and Richard Lucas join our research group as first-year Chemical Engineering PhD candidates.
November 16-21, 2008: Kimberly Heck, Gautam Kini, Hitesh Bagaria, and Nikos Soultanidis gave oral presentations at the AIChE Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, PA. Good work!
November 2008: Lori A. Pretzer joins our research group as a first-year Chemistry PhD candidate.
October 2008: We welcome Mr. Stephen Goldrick (from University College Dublin, Ireland) as a FAS Science Challenge Fellow into our research group!
September 2008: Barney Cruz, Allen Liao, and Christopher Romanczuk join our group as Century Scholars. Welcome!
September 2008: Ms. Xi Liang joins our group as a visiting chemical engineering graduate student from Tianjin University, China. Welcome!
July 2008: Grant Belgard receives a National Institutes of Health Oxford/Cambridge (OXCAM) Scholarship. Congrats!
June 18, 2008: Professor Wong and collaborator Dr. Ching H. Tung (The Methodist Hospital Research Institute) received an IBB Medical Innovations Award.
June 2008: Michael Wong, associate professor in chemical and biomolecular engineering and in chemistry, is interviewed on KRIV-TV.
April 2008: Quang Nguyen receives a Fellowship for the NSF IGERT Training Program in Nanophotonics. His IGERT co-advisor is Professor Naomi Halas. Congrats!
April 2008: Graduating senior Grant Belgard received a 2008 Outstanding Seniors Award from the Office of Student Activities and the Rice Student Association, and a Salsburg Award in Chemistry from the Department of Chemistry. Congrats!
April 16, 2008: Jie Yu successfully defended her Chemical Engineering PhD thesis on near-infrared-active nanoparticle-assembled capsules!
April 4, 2008: Kimberly Heck was recognized for her award-winning poster presentation at the 2008 Spring Symposium of the Southwest Catalysis Society. She was one of four winners, chosen out of 17 posters in the competition. The title of her poster was "In-situ Detection of Surface Reaction Intermediates Using Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS)", which was co-authored with Professors Halas, Scuseria, and Wong and Dr. Janesko. Congratulations!
February 11, 2008: Subashini Asokan successfully defended her Chemistry PhD thesis on CdSe quantum dot/tetrapod production!
January 2008: Quang Nguyen joins our research group as a first-year Electrical and Computer Engineering PhD candidate. Welcome!
January 2008: Our paper on the highly selective CdSe tetrapod synthesis using cationic surfactants is one of the "Most Accessed Articles" of the journal Small in 2007.
January 2008: A picture of CdSe quantum dot suspensions from the group is featured in a textbook (Chemistry, 5^th Edition, McCurry and Fay).
January 2008: Sumedh Warudkar joins our research group as a first-year Chemical Engineering PhD candidate. Mr. Warudkar is co-advised by Prof. George Hirasaki. Welcome!

2007

December 2007: Ramsey J. Smith joins our research group as a first-year Chemistry PhD candidate. Welcome!
December 2007: Grant Belgard was selected for a , 2008 Marshall Scholarship, which he will use for his graduate studies at University of Oxford. Congratulations!
December 2007: Dr. Zhiqing Yuan joins our group as a visiting research scientist from the Shanghai Research Institute of Petrochemical Technology, SINOPEC, China. Welcome!
November 4-9, 2007: Kimberly Heck, Yu-lun Fang, Enrique Munoz, Shyam Benegal, and Gautam Kini all gave oral presentations at the AIChE Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah. Good work!
October 2007: Dan Nelson, a freshman at Rice, joins our research lab as a Century Scholar. Welcome!
October 2007: Smithsonian magazine has named Prof. Wong to its list of "America's Young Innovators in the Arts and Sciences: 37 Under 36"
October 2007: Nicholas Nolan and Mark Boylan join our group as FAS Science Challenge Fellows. They are PhD graduate students in the School of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland. Céad míle fáilte!
September 2007: Xuejiao "Jessica" Tang joins our group as a visiting environmental chemistry graduate student from the College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University in Tianjin, China. Welcome!
August 2007: Wen-Yin "Lynn" Ko joins our group as a visiting chemistry graduate student from the Department of Chemistry, National Chung-Hsing University, in Taichung, Taiwan. Welcome!
June 2007: Dr. Hitesh Bagaria (PhD, University of Alabama) joins our group as a postdoctoral research associate. Welcome!
June 17-22, 2007: The 20^th North American Catalysis Society Meeting was held in Houston, TX ,hosted by the Southwest Catalysis Society (SWCS). Kimberly Heck and Yulun Fang received Richard J. Kokes Travel Awards for this meeting.
May 2007: Professor Wong received early promotion to Associate Professor with tenure, effective July 1, 2007.
May 4, 2007: At the Chemistry Department Awards Luncheon this year, Subashini Asokan received the Harry Weiser Research Award (+ money!) for outstanding research by a Chemistry graduate student. Also, Amy Liu received an Engel Fellowship for undergraduate summer research.
March 2007: Mike Nutt's paper on "Improved Pd-on-Au Bimetallic Nanoparticle Catalysts for Aqueous-phase Trichloroethene Hydrodechlorination" is a Top-10 paper of Appl. Catal. B Env from Oct. to Dec. 2006.
March 17, 2007: Jie Yu received a third-place award for her poster presentation ("Synthesis of Near-Infrared-Absorbing Nanoparticle-Assembled Capsules") at the annual graduate student poster symposium of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department.
February 25-27, 2007: Prof. Wong organized and ran the "Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment" (NEWT) Workshop, held in Houston, TX. Over 50 experts from around the world attended this three-day event.
February 2007: Professor Wong was selected to receive a 3M Nontenured Faculty Award.
January 2007: Gautam C. Kini and Nikolaos Soultanidis join our lab as first-year Chemical Engineering PhD candidates. Mr. Kini is co-advised by Prof. Lisa Biswal. Welcome!
January 2007: Nurgul Akcin joins our group as a visiting chemistry graduate student from Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey. Welcome!

2006

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.
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, Zhenoy joins our group as a SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship) esearch 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.
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 93^rd Indian Science Congress held in Hyderabad, India.

2005

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.
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.

2004

October 29, 2004: Subashini Asokan received the 2^nd 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 18^th 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." is 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!

2003

October 13, 2003: Ammar Alkhawaldeh received a 2^nd 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.

2002

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