Davidson School of Chemical Engineering graduate student Ryan Ellis received a first-place award at the 2019 AIChE Annual Meeting for his presentation in the Electronic and Photonic Materials Graduate Student Awards Session for his presentation, "Synthesis and Ligand Engineering of Impurity Free Cu(In,Ga)S₂ Nanoparticles for Slot-Die Coated Photovoltaics." Ellis was one of six students presenting in this category.

Davidson School of Chemical Engineering graduate students David Harvey and Rexonni Lagare were named as the inaugural recipients of the Arvind and Karen Varma Fellowship. The fellowships were announced by Dr. Sangtae Kim, the Jay and Cynthia Ihlenfeld Head of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University, on October 13 at the Varma Memorial Symposium event held at the Lafayette Country Club.

Dr. Letian Dou, Assistant Professor in the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering, was recently featured as a 2019 Highly Cited Researcher by Web of Science Group. This list recognizes the world's most influential researchers of the past decade, demonstrated by the production of multiple highly-cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in Web of Science.

Purdue Chemical Engineering alumna Deborah Grubbe (BSChE '77) has been named as 2020 President-elect of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). Grubbe is Owner and President of Operations and Safety Solutions, LLC, and is a 1994 Outstanding Chemical Engineer, 2002 Distinguished Engineering Alumna, and was recognized by the College of Engineering with an honorary doctorate in 2010. Grubbe will succeed Monty M. Alger as AIChE President in 2021.

Dr. Letian Dou, Assistant Professor in the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering, is leading a team of Purdue scientists and engineers creating a new crystal structure that will improve the stability and safety of materials used in solar cells. The team recently published two papers detailing their discoveries in new perovskite compositions and applications, which are better for the environment, and can also be safely used for bioelectronics sensors on the body. The research was published on November 11 in Nature Chemistry.