Zachary Smith, a post-doc in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, gave a seminar to the ChE department on Tuesday. Dr. Smith’s seminar, entitled “Molecular Scale Engineering of New Materials for Energy Efficient Separations”, discussed multiple strategies for improving the separation properties of membranes.
You can find a synopsis of the seminar here and his biography here.
The ChE GSA IM co-rec volleyball team, Pinguinos Voladores, won its first match Tuesday night 3 – 0 in the IM Building. The team consisted of Brosi Bradley, Dan Cetnar, Megan Farell, Jon Harcourt, Dan Marple, Michael Regula, and Julie Weitzman.
The next game for the Pinguinos is Tuesday, February 2 at 8 pm, Gym 4, Court 3. The complete co-rec IM volleyball schedule can be found here.
The Graduate and Professional Student Association (GPSA) is hosting its third “Meet the Delegates” outreach event on Wednesday, January 27, 5:00 pm – 5:50 pm in the Kunkle Lounge of the Hammond Building. Free pizza will be served. Delegates to the GPSA serve as representatives for the whole graduate student body. Come and meet our representatives and what the GPSA has planned for the spring semester.
You can find more information about the Meet the Delegates event on Facebook.
The ChE GSA hosted a happy hour at Bar Bleu yesterday. More than twenty graduate students, faculty members, and staff attended, socializing over appetizers, paid for by the ChE GSA, and drinks.
Thank you to everyone who made it out to the happy hour. Be on the lookout for another one in February!
The co-rec IM volleyball schedule was released today. The ChE GSA team, Pinguinos Voladores, plays on Tuesday nights. The regular season starts on January 26 and ends on February 23, with the playoffs starting on February 24.
The complete schedule can be found here.
The Graduate School is holding a Graduate Exhibition Poster Information Session on Tuesday, January 12 at 5:00 p.m. in 112 Kern Graduate Building. The Graduate School will be sponsoring pizza and soda at the end of the session.
Please register for the Information Session by Monday, January 11th.
The 2016 Graduate Exhibition for research presentations will be held on Sunday, March 20, 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm in Alumni and Heritage Halls at the HUB-Robeson Center.
Scott Fogler, a professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, will be the third ChE GSA-selected seminar speaker. His seminar will take place on March 3, 2016, 11:15 am – 12:30 pm in 102 Chemistry Building. Many chemical engineering graduate students likely know Dr. Fogler as the author of the textbook “Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering”. Dr. Fogler’s and his group have been very successful, graduating over 40 Ph.D. students and publishing over 230 research article. The ChE GSA is looking forward to hosting Dr. Fogler for his seminar in March.
The ChE GSA will host a departmental happy hour on January 21, 5 pm – 7 pm at Bar Bleu. Appetizers will be provided for members of the ChE department by the ChE GSA. Come on out and socialize with the department’s grad students, faculty members, and staff.
The ChE department will be collecting money and items to support both Penn State’s Lion’s Pantry and the Centre County Women’s Resource Center (CCWRC) this holiday season. There are boxes in Fenske (rooms 133 and 158) to drop off your items. Monetary donations can be brought to Lisa Haines in Room 133. Bring in all monetary donations and items by December 18.
Please consider making a donation to one of these great organizations. See the list of suggested items for each organization below.
Penn State’s Lion’s Pantry – Suggested Items List
Centre County Women’s Resource Center – Suggested Items List
The ChE GSA held a general body meeting on Tuesday, December 1 to discuss upcoming potlucks and happy hours, our graduate student selected seminar speaker, and graduate recruiting weekend.
Our meeting led off with an information session and discussion about The Center for Performing Arts (CPA), presented by Jesse Scott, a graduate student in computer engineering who serves on the community relations committee for CPA. Jesse informed us about the many different shows coming to Penn State during the academic year. Some of these shows are free, while many others have discounted tickets for students. Jesse also raffled off two tickets to an upcoming show! For more information about upcoming shows, please see the CPA website.
Following the discussion with Jesse, we discussed the timing of our next potluck and happy hour with the ChE faculty and staff. More information will be provided once dates are finalized, but look for both a potluck and a happy hour to be scheduled for January.
Next, an update was given on the status of our graduate student selected seminar speaker. Invitations have been sent out to our nominees and we are eagerly awaiting responses.
Finally, we discussed the events for graduate recruiting. We reviewed past itineraries and considered events that best highlight our department, our university, and the community. We will be looking for people to host prospective graduate students for graduate recruiting weekend in February.