In the Department, Assistant Professor Dr. Stephen Lam received the prestigious DOE Early Career Award, who plans to use the fund to study “Machine Learning-Enabled Monitoring of Metallic Solutes via X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy in Molten Salt Fusion Blankets”. This is the second DOE Early Career award in the department, after Dr. Fanglin Che received the same Award in the previous year. Dr. Carl Lawton’s project, “Rapid Continuous Production of mRNA Vaccines”, a collaboration with UPenn and industrial partner Sepragen, was recently highlighted by NIIMBL (National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals). Advanced NanoBiomed Research on its cover featured Dr. Camci-Unal’s work on eggshell-based unconventional biomaterials for medical applications, while another recent cover on ChemSusChem highlighted Drs. Wong and Xie’s collaborative work on in-situ product removal using a membrane reactor for improved enzymatic depolymerization of PET. During the winter break, Dr. Che organized and hosted the New England Catalysis Society Meeting here on the UMass Lowell campus, which included two keynote speakers, many invited talks and oral presentations, and a poster competition.

Many of our undergraduate students have been and are currently engaged in the UMass Lowell's vigorous co-op program, either in the Greater Boston area or further away in many other states. Two of our current students shared their co-op experience: Kara Theriault at Bristol Myers Squibb in Devens, MA, and Anthony Angluin at Pfizer in Andover, MA. Anthony even did an intern during his high school, at BAE Systems in Nashua, NH. Our Department also has a co-op option for Master’s students, which is especially attractive for international students who want to obtain extensive industrial and working experience during their study. George Liang, currently a PhD student in Dr. Yoon’s group, was recently awarded a $12,000 Koerner Family Foundation (KFF) Fellowship.

In our future issues, we plan to highlight some of our alums, recent graduates, and new Industrial Advisory Board members.

Yours sincerely,

Zhiyong Gu
Professor and Department Chair

The project entitled "Rapid Continuous Production of mRNA Vaccines", led by Dr. Carl Lawton and funded by NIIMBL under the American Rescue Plan to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus public health threat, is highlighted by the institute. The project is in collaboration with Dr. Drew Weissman of the University of Pennsylvania and Sepragen as an industrial partner. Dr. Lawton also delivered a virtual webinar about this project. 

Two recent papers published by the department faculty are featured as journal covers. First, Dr. Gulden Camci-Unal's discovery on how eggshell-based biomaterials are revolutionizing medical applications is published in Advanced NanoBiomed Research. The study is led by undergraduate student, Maria Gouveia, with undergraduate student Charles Mihans and graduate student Mert Gezek as co-authors. Second, a collaborative work from Drs. Hsi-Wu Wong and Dongming Xie's groups about in-situ product removal using a membrane reactor for improved enzymatic depolymerization of poly(ethylene terephthalate) is featured as a cover for ChemSusChem. 

Dr. Fanglin Che hosted and organized the latest installment of the New England Catalysis Society Meeting on campus. The symposium presented a series of invited and oral talks and a poster competition. The conference also featured two prominent catalysis experts as keynote speakers, Prof. Umit Ozkan from the Ohio State University and Prof. Abhaya Datye from the University of New Mexico. 

Kara Theriault and Anthony Angluin are two bright undergraduate students from the department participating in UMass Lowell's professional co-op program. Kara did her co-op at Bristol Myers Squibb, working in the Operational Excellence and Project Management department and participating in over 10 projects. Anthony did his co-op at Pfizer as an non-mammalian process engineer responsible for plasmids manufacturing utilized in commercial vaccines.