Yash Barhate, a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate at the Davidson of Chemical Engineering, received the AIChE Pharmaceutical Discovery, Development, and Manufacturing (P2DM) Forum Student Award at the 2024 AIChE Conference in San Diego, California.

This award recognizes graduate students and professionals who have made significant contributions to the field of pharmaceutical discovery, development, and manufacturing, aiming to increase engagement of PhD students with P2DM. This award identifies students who have an interest in working in the pharmaceutical industry and highlights their impact on the field. 

Barhate's research focuses on integrated modeling and experimental design approaches for advancing pharmaceutical crystallization processes. Working with Zoltan Nagy, Arvind Varma Professor of Chemical Engineering, Barhate is passionate about applying chemical engineering knowledge and computational modeling to address real-world challenges in industrial settings. His work has applications in quality control and process optimization in pharmaceutical manufacturing, enhancing process understanding and increasing efficiency across experiments. 

"I am honored to receive this award and deeply grateful to Professor Nagy and my research group, CryPTSys, for their invaluable support and guidance throughout my PhD journey," said Barhate.

Ángel Santiago-Colón, a Ph.D. Candidate at the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering, received the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Catalysis and Reaction Engineering (CRE) Division Travel Award at the 2024 AIChE Conference in San Diego, California.

This award recognizes graduate students who have made an impact on catalysis and reaction engineering and aids recipients.

Santiago-Colón's research focuses on developing and synthesizing heterogenous catalysts with improved stability for the conversion of methane to aromatics and hydrogen gas. This research is key to overcoming current challenges that prevent commercialization of methane conversion technologies that are needed to decrease methan flaring and to produce valuable chemicals from cleaner sources. Conducted under the guidance of Rajamani Gounder, R. Norris and Eleanor Shreve Professor of Chemical Engineering, Santiago-Colón's work has applications in the energy sector, environmental mitigation, and chemical manufacturing.

"Previous mentors and teachers motivated and enlightened me to pursue a career in research, which led me to Purdue's ChE PhD program," said Santiago-Colón. "Since then, Professor Rajamani Gounder has taught me how to use the scientific method to understand nature phenomena and find ways to leverage scientific learnings for the benefit of society. Professor Gounder, my fellow group members, and mentees inspire me to push myself to be my best and are from whom I learn new ways of thinking and living."

Esin Aydemir, a graduate student at the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering, received third place in the research award session, "AIChE Inorganic Materials Graduate Student Award," sponsored by Chevron. Aydemir was invited to present her research at the 2024 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Conference in San Diego, California.

This award recognizes graduate students whose research achievements demonstrate excellence in the area of inorganic materials. Three candidates were awarded after the session based on their nomination packet and conference oral presentation, honoring the impact of their work on the greater chemical engineering community, presentation delivery, and overall research quality.

Aydemir's research, titled "Tailored Solvation Structure Enabled By an Advanced Fluorinated Ether Solvent with a Sulfonimide Salt for Silicon-Based Li-Ion Batter Anodes," investigates the design of an ether-based electrolyte to improve cycling stability of silicon anodes for high energy density lithium-ion batteries. Her work could provide a thorough understanding of how the solvation environment can impact the charge transfer kinetics as well as the structure of the interfacial passivation layer. Conducted with the ViPER group, headed by Professor Vilass Pol, her research has applications across a variety of disciplines, most importantly as a long-term solution to fragility of silicon-based anodes benefiting the high energy density Li-ion battery development. This innovative work, featuring a novel electrolyte solution, is pending for approval for a US patent.

"I extend my gratitude to my PhD advisor, Dr. Vilas G. Pol, and past and current members of ViPER Group for their unwavering guidance and support. Their insights and encouragement have been pivotal in advancing my research," said Aydemir.

Abhimanyu Shekhar, a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Purdue University, has been awarded third place in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Environmental Division Graduate Student Paper Award. He was recognized for this achievement at the 2024 AIChE Annual Meeting in San Diego, California.

This award recognizes Shekhar's paper, "A Hybrid Mechanistic Machine Learning Approach to Model Industrial Network Dynamics for Sustainable Design of Emerging Carbon Capture and Utilization Technologies." In his research, Shekhar integrates mechanistic and machine learning methods to stimulate and optimize industrial network dynamics, with a particular focus on carbon capture and utilization (CCU) in algal biodiesel production. This work provides scalable solutions to minimize carbon footprints, reduce emissions, and enhance resource efficiency, offering valuable insights into sustainable network design.

Shekhar's research is conducted in the Sustainable Industrial-Natural Coupled Systems (SINCS) Lab under the guidance of Shweta Singh, associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering, environmental and ecological engineering, and chemical engineering (by courtesy). His research blends elements of sustainability science, industrial ecology, and process systems engineering to develop innovative methods for accurate carbon accounting.

Abhimanyu aims to outline sustainable practices that industries can adopt to minimize their carbon footprints without sacrificing efficiency or productivity. His goal is to foster a broader understanding of how systems and processes can evolve towards a more sustainable and carbon-neutral future, guiding industries to operate in harmony with the environment.