Inverted Colloidal Crystal Membranes
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| Abstract | An IREE supplement was obtained to the main NSF grant titled Inverted Colloidal Crystal Membranes in order to provide international research experiences to two undergraduate students, one from Clemson University (CU) and one from Colorado State University (CSU). The primary rationale for this IREE supplement was to test run a new collaborative undergraduate program between CU and CSU. I-PRIME (Incubator Program for Research with International Mentors and Educators) ‘primes’ undergraduates for international research. In this program, the undergraduates participated for one year in existing research programs at CU or CSU to ‘PRIME’ them for research abroad. The summer after their primer year of research, they conducted research in Germany. The German host was Prof. Andreas Seidel-Morgenstern, Director and Head of the Physical and Chemical Foundations of Process Engineering Research Group at Max Planck Institute (MPI) of Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems and Chair, Chemical Process Engineering at Otto-von-Guericke- Universität, Magdeburg, Germany. The students, Ruben Kemmerlin and Makenna Nielsen, spent 3 months at the MPI from May – July 2008. In addition, one early career Assistant Professor, Xianghong Qian, spent 3 weeks at MPI. Profs. Husson and Wickramasinghe spent 1 week at the MPI to initiate the student projects and to develop plans for further collaborations. The objectives of the IREE program were to 1) Prepare students for professional employment and graduate education in the global workplace through I-PRIME, 2) Build strong international partnerships that enhance the research and education enterprises of all partners as a result of unique capabilities, 3) Prepare purified human influenza virus using a sequence of pseudo affinity chromatography steps 4) Extend the application potential of ICC membranes by modifying their surfaces with poly(ionic liquids) and measuring adsorption isotherms of carbon dioxide on the membranes, 5) Begin to investigate the conformational structures of modified membrane surfaces and their potential impact on binding and diffusion properties using molecular dynamics simulations. Objective 5 was specific to the work of the early career Assistant Professor, Prof. Qian. All of these objectives were complementary to the objectives of the main program. A manuscript is currently being prepared for submission based on the results of Objective 4. Another outcome of NSF IREE funding will be the submission of a proposal that aims to develop collaborative degrees between Otto-von-Guericke-Universität and Clemson University and Colorado State University. |
| Contributor | Mourad Ouzzani
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| Bio | Scott Husson received the B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University in 1993. He received his Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1998. Prof. Husson has been a faculty member in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Clemson University since 1998. He currently holds the positions of Associate Professor and Undergraduate Coordinator, and he is acting Topic Leader in the Center for Advanced Engineering Fibers and Films. Research interests include surface engineering by self-assembly and surface-initiated polymerization, bioseparation materials synthesis, molecular imprinting, and surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy. Ranil Wickramasinghe received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Melbourne, Australia in 1986 and 1988. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1992. From 1992-1997, Prof. Wickramasinghe worked in the Biotechnology industry for Separacor Inc. and Biogen Inc. both in the Boston area. Prof. Wickramasinghe has been a faculty member in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Colorado State University since 1997. He currently holds the positions of Professor and Associate Department head for Graduate Studies. His research interests include development of new membrane based separation processes especially for bioseparations, biomedical separation and environmental separations. Xianghong Qian is currently an assistant professor in Mechanical Engineering at Colorado State University. She obtained her Ph.D. in theoretical chemistry in 1997 at the George Washington University. She did her postdoctoral research in theoretical condensed matter physics at the Max- Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics from 1997-2000. Her expertise includes first-principles calculations based on density-functional theory, ab initio and force-field based molecular dynamics simulations, metadynamics simulations, combined quantum mechanical and molecular mechanical (QM/MM) methods. Currently she leads an active research group at Colorado State University in computational materials science and engineering. Ruben Kemmerlin is a junior chemical engineering student at Clemson University. He is a member of the Advanced Membranes Creative Inquiry research team advised by Prof. Husson. Mr. Kemmerlin was a Visiting Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems in Magdeburg, Germany from May 2008-July 2008 as part of this IREE grant. Makenna Nielsen is a junior chemical engineering student at Colorado State University. She is a member Prof. Wickramasinghe’s research team. Ms. Nielson was a Visiting Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems in Magdeburg, Germany from May 2008-July 2008 as part of this IREE grant. |
| Sponsored By | NSF Award Number CBET 0651231 and NSF IREE Supplement Award Number 0651231. |
| Cite this work | Researchers should cite this work as follows: Scott Husson, Ranil Wickramasinghe, Xianghong Qian, Ruben Kemmerlin and Makenna Nielsen, "Inverted Colloidal Crystal Membranes", Trip report presented at the NSF IREE 2008 Grantees Conference, May 2008, Washington, D.C. |
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