www.cheme.cornell.edu - School of Chemical and Biomolecular

A tradition of innovation
bringing chemistry, physics
and biology to bear on research in
biomolecular engineering,
sustainable energy systems,
complex fluids, polymers,
and electronic materials.
www.cheme.cornell.edu
www.cheme.cornell.edu
S
ince its founding in 1938, the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
has provided an outstanding educational base and training for many of the nation’s
leaders in the practical use of chemistry for the benefit of society. Cornell chemical
engineers are currently employed in research, engineering, and management positions
throughout academia, government, and industry.
The School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering occupies 55,000 square
feet of laboratories, classrooms, and offices in Olin Hall which underwent
a $15 million renovation in 2009 of the facilities infrastructure with
“greener” energy-saving technology. Considerable attention is being
paid to Olin Hall as a “green” building on campus.
The extensive laboratory wing of the building houses special facilities
for research in biotechnology, biomolecular engineering, materials
processing and characterization (from electronic materials to
“soft” materials), polymer processing and characterization, and
fluid mechanics studies. A large research computing facility with
significant in-house high-performance equipment supports the
considerable amount of research conducted by faculty groups in
computational modeling, theory, and simulation.
Learn more
about our programs,
faculty, students,
course offerings, facilities,
and alumni by
visiting our web site at:
www.cheme.cornell.edu
The School’s research and educational programs are designed to integrate
phenomena ranging from the molecular level to the continuum scale. This
integration is accomplished by linking chemical engineering fundamentals to
technological applications in biological systems, advanced materials, microchemical/
microfluidic systems, and advances in sustainable energy systems.
Olin Hall
photo: Cornell University Photography
1
Graduate Program in Chemical
and Biomolecular Engineering
Cornell’s College of Engineering
Cornell University
As the land-grant institution of New York State,
Cornell University is a unique combination of public
and private divisions. Ezra Cornell’s dream to
establish an institution where “any
person can find instruction in
any study” is still honored.
Today, Cornell includes
thirteen colleges and
schools. On the
Ithaca campus
are the seven
undergraduate
units—the
College of
Agriculture and
Life Sciences;
the College of
Architecture,
Art, and Planning;
the College of
Arts and Sciences;
the College of
Engineering; the School
of Hotel Administration; the
College
of Human Ecology; and
Solar Panels on Day Hall
Photo: Cornell University Photography
the School of Industrial and Labor Relations—and four
graduate and professional units: the Graduate School,
the Law School, the Johnson Graduate School of
Management, and the College of Veterinary Medicine.
The Medical College and the Graduate School of
Medical Sciences are located in New York City but
are linked to Cornell’s upstate campus through active
collaborations, advanced technological connections
(including high-speed computer connections), and a
convenient “campus-to-campus” bus. This combination
of top ten ranked programs in the agricultural sciences,
the physical sciences, the veterinary college, and the
business school actively support research programs in
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, providing a
richness of scholarly breadth and depth that is unique.
The student population on the Ithaca campus includes
about 4,500 graduate and professional students and
13,500 undergraduates. Our students come from all
fifty states and more than one hundred countries.
Cornell’s prestigious faculty enjoys a worldwide
reputation for excellence. The approximately 1,600
members of the graduate faculty include many Nobel
laureates, Pulitzer Prize recipients, and members of
the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy
of Engineering, and American Academy of Arts
and Sciences. Cornell offers an impressive range of
resources and research facilities for graduate study.
The Cornell University Library, with more than six
million volumes, is one of the largest academic
libraries in the United States. Interdisciplinary study
and research are Cornell hallmarks. This approach
fosters a wide spectrum of interdisciplinary centers
and programs, creating a rich and vigorous research
and educational environment.
range of disciplines. Cornell has nearly one hundred
graduate fields of study and a flexible graduate
system that enables each student to develop an
individual program of study.
The University is also committed to energy
conservation. Cornell generates 16% of its own
power including a hydroelectric plant and a new
steam/electricity co-generation plant with twice the
output of conventional power plants. It supplies
roughly 80% of its air-conditioning needs through
an innovative and sustainable method using the cold
waters of Cayuga Lake. Cornell was among the
earliest to begin making plans for a carbon-neutral
campus, motivated by requests from the student-led
Kyoto Now group. A multi-million dollar research and
educational initiative called the Cornell Center for a
Sustainable Future was created in 2007. For more
information, please see their web site at:
http://www.sustainablefuture.cornell.edu/
Graduate Program in Chemical
and Biomolecular Engineering
Graduate Field System
The graduate faculty is organized into fields of
study that are independent of traditional college
and department divisions. Fields may draw faculty
from several colleges and departments. For example,
the graduate field of chemical and biomolecular
engineering draws from the Departments of
Biological and Environmental Engineering, Biomedical
Engineering, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering,
Civil and Environmental Engineering, Materials
Science and Engineering, and Mechanical and
Aerospace Engineering. This organization enables
graduate students to interact with faculty from a wide
View of McGraw Tower and Ho Plaza from Olin Hall.
Course of Study
Photo: Ariel Waitz
The Cornell Energy
Institute in the College
of Engineering is
an initiative that
coordinates research
and education
in sustainable
energy systems.
For instance, this
initiative explores
ways to monitor
climate change, reduce
the impacts of existing
energy platforms by carbon
capture and sequestration,
conserve energy by increasing
efficiency (e.g. solid state lighting),
and develop new sustainable energy technologies
such as solar photovoltaics, wind and wave energy,
geothermal energy, bio-derived energy and fuels,
and hybrid transportation. Cornell is also the
national headquarters for Engineers for a Sustainable
World in which both undergraduate and graduate
students participate.
Photo: Cornell University Photography
T
he College of Engineering at Cornell, in which
the School of Chemical and Biomolecular
Engineering resides, is very highly regarded
within the engineering community. It ranks nationally
in the top ten Colleges of Engineering in the U.S.
Cornell’s Engineering College is a national leader
and an international model for nanotechnology
research. A new $100 million nanofabrication facility
dominates the engineering quadrangle. Research
undertaken in the College was recently ranked by
the nanotechnology magazine, Small Times, as being
the best at nanotechnology commercialization in
the country and second in nanotechnology
facilities. It also occupied a top spot
for nanotechnology research and
industrial outreach.
The graduate field of
chemical and biomolecular
engineering offers
advanced degree
programs to prepare its
students for research
and development careers
in industry, academia,
and government. The
program provides a strong
base in the discipline’s
Professor Abe Stroock teaching
fundamentals while
Heat and Mass Transfer.
helping students develop
skills to apply those fundamentals to significant
engineering problems. Graduate students in chemical
and biomolecular engineering may pursue either the
doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.), master of science (M.S.),
or master of engineering chemical (M.Eng.) degrees.
Both the master of science and doctoral degree
programs are relatively flexible to accommodate
the needs and interests of individual students. The
M.S. degree is normally completed in two years, the
Ph.D., in about five years. Eventually, each candidate
must present a satisfactory thesis defense. Normally,
we do not accept students who intend to pursue a
terminal masters degree. A student’s research project
and major courses are chosen from those available
in chemical and biomolecular engineering; minors
Graduate Program in Chemical
and Biomolecular Engineering
are chosen in related fields. Doctoral candidates must
pass a qualifying exam on chemical and biomolecular
engineering fundamentals and practice and an
examination for admission to candidacy, which confirms
the student’s ability to undertake original research.
Why Choose Cornell for Graduate
Study?
There are many reasons why students find graduate
study at Cornell to be such a good match including:
■
■
The truly interdisciplinary structure of the custommade Special Committee. Each student’s program
is guided by a Special Committee, the members of
which are selected from among virtually any of the
1,600 members of the faculty.
Students have considerable flexibility to take
courses outside their major and minor subjects
at no additional charge. They may, for instance,
take courses in business, entrepreneurship,
management, foreign languages, or economics, at
the discretion of their committee.
Requirements for the Doctorate
Graduate students enrolled in the field of chemical
engineering will select chemical and biomolecular
engineering as their major focus. Graduate students
also have to pursue two minors, one internal that
reflects their concentration within the broader
chemical engineering community, and one external
minor (such as materials science, chemistry,
microbiology, etc.) to show their breadth of
knowledge relevant to their thesis topic.
Ithaca and the Finger Lakes
Financial Support for the Ph.D. Program
Application to the Graduate Program
Ithaca and the Finger Lakes
The School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
provides full tuition and stipend support in the form
of teaching assistantships and research assistantships
for up to five years to graduate students who make
satisfactory progress toward the degree.
Most applicants to the Ph.D. Program in chemical
and biomolecular engineering are accepted for fall
admission only, due to funding and core course
requirements. Applications received by January 15
will be considered for financial aid. Applications are
accepted for admission until March 1.
Located at the southern tip of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is
a city of approximately sixty thousand (including the
student population). It is in the heart of the Finger
Lakes region of New York State, surrounded by rolling
hills, punctuated by scenic gorges and waterfalls, and
located at the center of the state’s premier winemaking district. Education is the principal industry:
Ithaca is home to both Cornell University and Ithaca
College, and the student population roughly equals
that of permanent residents. Despite its moderate
size, the city offers an international and surprisingly
cosmopolitan atmosphere.
Applicants are strongly encouraged to take the
Graduate Record Exam (GRE) general aptitude test in
October. If a completed application is received before
January 15, applicants will be considered for Cornell
fellowships offered by the Graduate School. These
fellowships are awarded for the first year of study
and include full tuition and a nine-month stipend.
Applications received after January 15 will
be considered only for aid packages
administered by the department.
Eligible students are
encouraged to apply for
fellowships from outside
agencies. The Graduate
School assists in identifying
and applying to appropriate
agencies such as the
National Science Foundation,
the Department of Defense,
the American Association of
University Women, the National
Institutes of Health, and various
foundations and industries. The
Graduate School also supplements
some outside awards.
Applications to the Master of Engineering (M.Eng.)
Program are accepted on a rolling basis. However,
please submit an application by October 1 for the
spring session and May 1 for the fall session so that
there is time to process the paperwork and issue any
visa documents, if necessary.
To apply to any of our graduate
programs, please complete
the on-line application
available on the Cornell
Graduate School web
site at:
www.gradschool.
cornell.edu
Airline Service
The Tompkins County Airport (airline code ITH),
about four miles from campus, offers flights
to and from several hub cities for major airline
carriers. A limousine/cab service is available at
the airport. Syracuse, Elmira and Binghamton
airports are roughly an hour’s drive away and offer
expanded air travel convenience.
Bus
A luxurious, but inexpensive, “campus-tocampus” bus service operates between the
upstate Ithaca campus and the downstate campus
in New York City, facilitating collaborations
between the University and Cornell’s Weill Medical
Center.
Cornell and the Ithaca area are great places for
families: there is student family accommodation close
to campus, child care facilities, and a comprehensive
medical insurance plan. Ithaca has excellent public
schools and parochial schools and an accepting
generous feel that embraces a diversity of opinions.
Greyhound (607-272-7930) and Short Line (607277-8800), both located in downtown Ithaca,
provide bus service to major cities. Tompkins
County Area Transport (TCAT) (607-277-7433)
buses make frequent trips from the bus station to
the campus (about two miles).
Train
The closest rail connection point is in Syracuse
(sixty miles north of Ithaca) serviced by Amtrak.
A student suits up for a tour of the
microscopy equipment in the CNF.
Photo: Cornell University Photography
Ithaca Commons
Getting Here
Visit Ithaca on the World Wide Web at:
www.visitithaca.com
Photos: Cornell University Photography
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Biomolecular Engineering
Areas of Research
biomolecular engineering;
complex fluids and polymers;
nanoscale electronics,
photonics and materials
processing; and
sustainable energy systems.
Visit our web site to find
A list of current graduate
student research and
thesis titles
■
Faculty profiles, their current research projects, and
recent publications
■
Many visiting faculty, post-doctoral
scientists, and other researchers
enhance our program to make this
a vibrant forum for discussion
and scientific enquiry.
Biomolecular Engineering
Typical Projects
■
Studying the fusion of viruses to cell membranes
to understand and prevent influenza infection, to
develop drug delivery strategies that mimic viral
entry, and as a patterning technique to interface
biological species with inorganic substrates for
sensor development.
■
Employing microfluidic devices for separating
and aggregating membrane-bound species that
will aid in studying transmembrane proteins and
membrane biophysics.
■
Merging cell culture with microfabrication
technologies to create “lab-on-a-chip” analogue
devices that mimic the human body or biomaterials
that exploit microfluidic structure as a vascular
system for applications in tissue engineering and
wound healing.
■
Developing detailed mechanistic mathematical
models of cellular differentiation and proliferation
to unlock the mysteries of stem cell biology as well
as many cancers and cardiovascular disorders.
■
Using the fundamental aspects of quality control
mechanisms that regulate the synthesis and
modification of cellular proteins for the creation
of high-performance protein therapeutics and
vaccines that may be used to treat human disorders
including Alzheimer’s disease and cancer.
■
Reprogramming bacteria to produce and stabilize
new protein therapeutics, vaccines and adjuvants.
■
Designing functional biomaterials to facilitate,
target, and control the delivery of protein- and
nucleic acid-based drugs that may one day help to
treat cancers or infectious diseases.
Applications
Human disease: design and engineering of
therapeutic antibodies and proteins, cell and tissue
engineering, delivery of vaccines and therapeutics,
discovery of cancer targets, treatment of brain tumors.
Fundamental processes of living systems: artificial
trees, bioseparations, cell-cell and virus-cell interactions,
cellular and subcellular organization, protein
biogenesis, regulation and control of networks.
The Role of Chemical Engineers
The advent of molecular biology, genomics, proteomics,
and related technology has spawned a revolution
in biology and offers numerous opportunities for
new commercial developments. Increasingly, the
biotechnology industry is turning to chemical engineers
to bring promising research to market. To bridge
this gap, a subset of chemical engineering known as
biomolecular engineering has emerged that reflects the
interface between biology and chemical engineering.
Biomolecular engineering focuses on the molecular
length scale, and seeks to convert molecular-level
knowledge of biological phenomena into potentially
useful biochemical and chemical products and
processes that are derived from living cells or their
components. Further, biomolecular engineers are adept
at integrating descriptions of molecular-level events into
a systems-level understanding of complex biological
systems and at creating the next generation of tools
necessary for rapid, accurate, and cost-effective analysis
of biomolecules.
Photo: Thomas Hoebbel
Our faculty members specialize
in four areas of research that
reflect the future of chemical
engineering:
Graduate students Lydia Contreras and Didi Waraho discuss new methods to
engineer protein fitness using the machinery of bacterial cells.
Armed with this training, faculty members at Cornell
are transforming the basic insights from an emerging
understanding of biology into useful processes,
diagnostics, therapies, and devices that will be of broad
benefit to human kind. For instance, we are creating
new medicines and systems for their delivery, building
artificial proteins, tissues, organs and whole organisms,
engineering “super-organisms” that produce human
drugs, manufacture biofuels or degrade harmful
or toxic wastes, developing better analytical and
computational tools for understanding and diagnosing
human disease and improving our understanding of
a myriad of important and fundamental biological
processes ranging from the decoration of cellular
proteins with a sugary coat, so-called glycosylation, to
the fusion of viruses to cell membranes as occurs in the
earliest stages of influenza infection.
7
Photo: Thomas Hoebbel
Photo: Thomas Hoebbel
Nanoscale Electronics, Photonics
and Materials Processing
Complex Fluids and Polymers
■
Field-assisted separation of charged molecules and
particles in micro- and nanofluidic arrays.
■
Stability, interactions, and dynamics of arrays of
liquid droplets and their use in field-responsive
adhesives and actuators in MEMS.
Applications
Energy applications: Liquid fuel cells, conducting
lubricants, electrolytes for lithium metal batteries,
nanoparticle fluids for carbon capture, nanomaterials
for biomass conversion
■
Transport processes in living systems: Treatment
of brain tumors, artificial trees, bioseparations
■
The Role of Chemical Engineers
Understanding the structure, rheology, interfacial and
transport behaviors of complex fluids and polymers is
among the foremost challenges of chemical engineering
science. Faculty at Cornell are addressing this challenge
through analytical theory, numerical simulation and
experiments that span length scales from nanometers to
meters.
■
Surface-induced chaotic flows
for enhancing transport and
mixing in microscale fuel cells.
Surface migration of polymeric and nanoparticle
additives in polymer hosts.
Numerical analysis of processing flow behavior of
polymers that undergo phase change.
Fabrication and device integration of nanoscale
building blocks for solar cells and batteries.
■
Synthesis and characterization of transport
properties of novel branched polymers and polymer
particle hybrids. This effort also explores hybrids
as electrolytes for next-generation batteries and as
media for capturing and sequestering carbon.
Organic and inorganic materials for solid-state
lighting, LEDs, and computer displays.
Development of innovative
molecular simulation methods
for predicting phase behavior
of block copolymers and their
mixtures.
■
Hydrodynamic modeling
of particle-fluid systems for
predicting averaged transport
properties.
Photo: Thomas Hoebbel
Living systems inspire basic transport questions with
their beautiful management of transport processes
over length scales from molecular to macroscopic. We
study transport and fluid physics in these systems in a
variety of physiologically important situations.
■
■
■
■
■
Professor Lynden Archer and graduate students Laura Olenick
and Praveen Agarwal perform zeta potential measurements on
nanoscale organic hybrid materials (NOHMs).
Processing and design of next-generation electronic
materials for logic gates, memory, and interconnects.
■
Advances in synthetic chemistry during the last two
decades allow the architecture of polymers, particles
and hybrid systems to be manipulated almost at
will. This provides great freedom with which to
develop new materials with useful properties. To
take advantage of these developments, fundamental
understanding of phase behavior, hydrodynamics, and
rheology are required. Current
efforts in this area include:
deposition. The success
of these technologies
builds on the chemical
engineer’s integrated
understanding of
fundamental physical
and chemical materials
properties.
Applications
Geoffrey Genesky uses dynamic light scattering to measure the
diffusion coefficient of a polymer in solution.
Morphological and shape evolution of polymeric
and inorganic nanofibrils in strongly stretching flows
produced by electrospinning.
Photo: Cornell University Photography
Inspired by the success of
integrated electronics, scientists
and engineers have initiated an
effort to miniaturize chemical
processes. This scaling down
exaggerates the importance of
interfacial forces and inspires
studies of a rich set of transport
processes including:
Nanoscale Electronics,
Photonics and Materials
Processing
Interactions of “randomly” swimming microorganisms and their ability to produce large-scale
coherent motions.
Micro-engineered systems that mimic transpiration
in green plants and functional vascular arrays in
living tissues.
Targeted delivery of therapeutics to brain tumors
using convection.
Electric field-induced sorting and separation of
proteins and DNA in lipid bilayers and gels.
The Role of Chemical Engineers
Chemical engineers have traditionally adopted an
integrated approach to problem solving, applying their
specialized knowledge in chemistry, kinetics, transport
phenomena, reactor design and thermodynamics
to the study of dynamic systems and processes.
Therefore, it is only natural for chemical engineers to
apply their expertise to develop new processes for the
next generation of electronic materials. For example,
the processing of microelectronic and optoelectronic
devices, traditionally the domain of electrical engineers,
has been enriched by chemical process analyses that
describe the underlying physico-chemical phenomena
at the molecular level. In fact, much of the tremendous
success of modern electronics is based on processing
technologies such as plasma etching and chemical
vapor deposition. Chemical engineers have played
a lead role in this development and continue to push
the frontiers of this field with the introduction of new
technologies such as laser processing and atomic layer
Photo: Cornell University Photography
Complex Fluids and Polymers
The advent of methods
for the controlled
synthesis of electronic
materials at the
nanoscale and their
assembly into functional
Research equipment at the Cornell
device structures opens a
NanoScale Facility in Duffield Hall.
myriad of challenges and
opportunities for chemical engineers. The successful
technological deployment of these materials is
contingent upon having a molecular-level understanding
and control over the nature and structure of the
nanostructured interface. Building on the same tools
and knowledge library that enabled the microelectronics
revolution, chemical engineers are now poised to take
electronic materials processing to the next level.
One important component of our journey towards
unlocking the full technological potential of
nanomaterials in novel optoelectronic and energy
conversion and storage devices is the ability to probe and
control metastable solid states at the molecular level.
For example, rapid (nanosecond) melt- and non-melt
annealing of semiconductors and nanocrystals can create
crystalline materials that control the diffusion of dopants
and defects to produce nanostructures with attributes
unattainable by traditional processing. To achieve these
non-equilibrium states in a controlled fashion requires
an understanding of the phenomena that define these
metastable states: kinetics and thermodynamics, as well
as mass, momentum, and heat transfer.
Typical Projects
Several chemical engineering faculty members and
their students are involved in cross-disciplinary work
in surface science, polymers, and electronic materials.
They form part of the core of over a dozen Cornell
researchers focused on molecular-scale materials
research, as exemplified by the activities of Cornell’s
Laboratory for Organic Electronics (CLOE), the Center
for Materials Research (CCMR), and the Fuel Cell
Institute (CFCI). Our research efforts are distinguished
by a long history of tightly coupled cutting-edge
experimentation and molecular simulation and
theoretical work. Typical projects include:
■
Design of organic semiconductor materials and
optimized processing of large-area flexible displays.
■
Molecular-level structure-function design of
heterojunctions for solar cells.
■
Assembly of nanocrystal building blocks into
well-ordered superlattices and characterization of
emergent electronic and optical properties.
■
Materials platforms for next-generation lithium ion
batteries based on nanostructured interfaces.
■
Atomic layer deposition of novel thin films of
semiconducting materials.
9
Sustainable Energy Systems
Research Facilities at Cornell University
Sustainable Energy Systems
Sustainable Energy Systems, continued...
Applications
Chemical engineering processing for renewable
and conventional energy extraction and carbon
sequestration.
Fabrication of next-generation solar cells and batteries
from nanoscale building blocks.
Production of energetic materials and fuels from
biomass feedstocks.
The Role of Chemical Engineers
Growth in world population and continual
improvements in living standards in many developing
countries will dramatically increase demands for
energy in the next 40 years, posing tremendous
challenges for providing affordable energy.
Together with the economic and geopolitical issues
surrounding energy security, there is a compelling
need to minimize the environmental consequences
that accompany supplying energy globally.
Alternative methods of generating and
converting energy with reduced
greenhouse gas emissions are
required. Although the scope
and urgency of these tasks are
daunting, new technologies
and materials present chemical
engineers and scientists with
exciting opportunities to participate
in discovering and developing
sustainable solutions.
10
Cornell University is
committed to being a
leading institution in
the field of sustainable
development. In
addition to the Cornell
Energy Institute,
several Cornell Centers
coordinate efforts in related research and education
including the Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future
and the Cornell Fuel Cell Institute. The School
of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering is a
key part of these efforts. With a framework that
includes physical, chemical and biological energy
transformations, transport of heat and mass in fluids
and solids, materials for energy capture and storage,
process analysis, design, and simulation, and full life
cycle analysis of energy and mass flows, a chemical
engineering education provides the ideal skill set for
tackling a wide range of energy problems.
Within the School, a number of research
projects address energy-related
technologies. In the field of bio-derived energy, faculty are
exploring the effects of cellulose
microstructures on enzymatic
hydrolysis rates. Our faculty
are reprogramming the spatial
organization of metabolic enzymes
via engineered scaffolds for microbial
production of energetic materials.
Professor Tobias Hanrath in his Olin Hall
lab with Chemical Engineering
student, Rona Banai.
Photo: Cornell University Photography
This collaborative
effort also examines
thermochemical
transformations in
hydrothermal and
supercritical media
when converting lignin
cellulosic and lipid-rich
feedstocks to liquid and gaseous hydrocarbon fuels.
Nanoscale semiconductor materials present exciting
opportunities for efficient and cost-effective
harnessing of solar energy in next-generation
photovoltaics. We are working to understand and
control chemical and photophysical aspects of
interfaces in nanocrystal-based solar cells, and are
combining computational and experimental tools to
explore the assembly of nanoscale semiconductor
building blocks towards metamaterials with tunable
electronic and optical properties for high performance
solar energy capture. Given the inherent
intermittency of solar and wind energy resources,
efficient energy storage technologies will be needed.
Research in this area focuses on nanoscale materials
for high-performance next-generation lithium ion
batteries and novel materials for high capacity
thermal energy storage.
Chemical Engineering faculty in collaboration with
faculty in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences are
working on a range of fundamental engineering
science issues associated with geothermal energy
capture, advanced thermal methods of drilling and
carbon capture and sequestration. We study the
coalescence of aerosol drops relevant to pollutants
forming during combustion to understand mass
transfer in suspensions for clean coal technologies.
Given Cornell’s broad and unique combination of
expertise located on a single campus, its recognized
strength in collaborative research, and its state-ofthe-art research facilities, we are excited about the
possibilities of applying core chemical engineering
principles to profoundly advance our progress towards
a more sustainable energy future.
Typical Projects
■
■
Development of single-step casting
of aluminium and steel processing to
dramatically reduce energy consumption
and CO2 emissions.
Controlled assembly of nanocrystals into
robust scaleable device structures for lowcost solar cells.
■
Engineering metabolic enzymes for the
production of energetic materials.
■
Designing chemically reactive tracers
for thermal sizing of geothermal energy
reservoirs.
■
Converting algae-based biomass to fuels in
hydrothermal and supercritical fluid media.
Cornell University is blessed with an extraordinary breadth and depth of
research facilities on campus. The university boasts more than one
hundred interdisciplinary centers, institutes, laboratories, and programs!
These Centers draw researchers from all across the university to pursue
interdisciplinary research, teaching, and outreach.
Additional information on Cornell research can be found at the link:
www.research.cornell.edu
and on Cornell research centers at www.cornell.edu/academics/
centers.cfm
Graduate students and faculty of the School of Chemical and
Biomolecular Engineering benefit from this wealth of research centers
and their associated facilities. In particular, our graduate students
regularly use centers specializing in:
■ nanoscale phenomena and advanced materials characterization
■ biomolecular engineering and the life sciences
■ sustainable energy systems and
■ computing and applied math
Research equipment at the
Cornell NanoScale Facility in Duffield Hall.
Photo: Cornell University Photography
These Centers make Cornell an unparalleled resource for research in these vitally important areas of
scholarship.
Nanoscale phenomena and advanced materials characterization
Nanotechnology is the ability to understand and control matter with ultimate precision. It is the most
powerful and enabling technology humankind has ever developed, creating materials, devices and systems
with fundamentally new properties and functions.
Cornell Center for Materials Research (CCMR) is one of the oldest, largest, and best-funded
materials research centers supported under the National Science Foundation’s Materials Research Science
and Engineering Center (MRSEC) Program. More than 60 faculty members and over 100 graduate
students focus on four interdisciplinary research groups (IRGs): controlling electrons at interfaces,
photonic building blocks from multiscale materials, dynamics of growth of complex materials, and
atomic membranes as molecular interfaces. CCMR features extensive shared facilities that provide
instrumentation and expertise in analysis and characterization, including Integrated Advanced Microscopy,
Soft Matter, Materials Research Support, X-ray Diffraction, Surface Imaging and Research Computing.
See web site at: www.ccmr.cornell.edu
11
Research Facilities at Cornell University
Center for Nanoscale Systems (CNS)
was established at Cornell in 2001 by the National
Science Foundation as one of just six interdisciplinary
Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers
nationwide. Its primary focus is to understand
nanoscale phenomena and to develop nanoscale
devices for applications in ultra-high-performance
information systems. CNS supports research in
nanoelectronics, nanophotonics, and nanomagnetics,
as well as the development of innovative
nanotechnology tools and techniques.
See web site at: www.cnf.cornell.edu
See web site at: www.cns.cornell.edu
Cornell High Energy
Synchrotron Source
(CHESS) is a high-intensity
X-ray source supported by the
National Science Foundation. It
is the only such facility located
on the campus of any U.S.
university. CHESS provides the
most up-to-date synchrotron
radiation facilities for research
in materials science, biology,
physics, chemistry, and
environmental projects. CHESS
is a unique facility serving over 500 users every
year from Cornell (including several ChE faculty)
and other universities, national laboratories,
and industry. Significant staff efforts focus on
developing synchrotron radiation experimental
facilities and methods that use the high-intensity
photon flux provided by the Cornell Electron
Storage Ring.
See web site at: www.chess.cornell.edu
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Biomolecular
Engineering and the
Life Sciences
Life Sciences is a large
and dynamic endeavor at
Cornell. Roughly one-third
of faculty at Cornell identify
themselves as having
research interests in the Life
Sciences. Cornell has spent
more than $600 million in
Duffield Hall
the past decade to make
Photo: Frederick Wolcott
Life Sciences research a
leader in the nation. You can learn more at www.
cornell.edu/lifesciences/
Cornell has a top-ranked Veterinary College on the
Ithaca campus, a center for vertebrate genomics,
and a new $165 million building, Weill Hall, that
houses Cornell’s new Institute for Molecular and Cell
Biology, Biomedical Engineering, and Computational
Biology and Statistics. Weill Cornell Medical College
in Manhattan is among the best clinical and medical
research centers in the country. The two campuses are
joined by fast inter-campus transport and even faster
virtual links between campuses.
See: www.sustainablefuture.
cornell.edu and www.geo.cornell.
edu/eas/energy/ for details of the
Engineering College’s extensive
research and educational initiatives
in sustainable energy systems.
Learn more at: www.med.cornell.edu (Weill
Cornell) and www.vet.cornell.edu (College of
Veterinary Medicine)
Cornell Core Laboratories Center (CLC)
provides state-of-the-art genomics, proteomics,
imaging, IT and informatics shared research resources
and services. The Center includes fee-for-service
research, technology testing and development, and
educational components to promote research in the
life sciences with advanced technologies in a shared
resource environment. The CLC is one of NYSTAR’s
Centers for Advanced Technology in Life Sciences.
See web site at: http://cores.lifesciences.cornell.
edu/brcinfo
Nanobiotechnology Center (NBTC) is a
National Science Foundation Science and Technology
Center founded in 2000. This Center essentially
defined the term ‘nanobiotechnology,’ bringing
together the latest advances in engineering and life
sciences through collaborative research. NBTC has
four focus areas: Biomolecular Devices and Analysis,
Cellular Microdynamics, Cell-surface interactions, and
Nanoscale Cell Biology. NBTC users have access to an
extensive range of tools for microfabrication, chemical
processing, and biological processing.
See web site at: www.nbtc.cornell.edu
Photo: Cornell University Photography
Cornell NanoScale Science and
Technology Facility (CNF) has been at the
forefront of nanotechnology for over 30 years,
serving over 700 researchers each year. CNF is housed
in a $100 million building on campus, Duffield Hall,
with a new remote office at Cornell’s Weill Medical
School in Manhattan to facilitate life science research.
CNF facilities offer unparalleled opportunities for
graduate and undergraduate students to train with
professional, full-time staff and offers one of the best
facilities for nanofabrication in the country.
Weill Hall
Sustainable Energy Systems
The College of Engineering has a new Energy Institute
led by Professor Jefferson Tester in which many of
our faculty participate. The Institute’s focus areas are:
(1) photovoltaics, solar cells and batteries, (2) bioderived energy sources, (3) geothermal energy and
carbon sequestration and (4) infrastructure: power,
transportation and building systems. We have a
graduate concentration in Energy Economics and
Engineering offering a unique education in these topics.
Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future
(CCSF) is an ‘umbrella’ organization which promotes
and advances collaborations across Cornell and, with
its international partners, leverages Cornell’s resources
to help build a sustainable future for the world. The
Center has three focus areas: Energy, Environment
and Economic Development. The Energy activities of
the Center have their center of gravity in the College
of Engineering.
KAUST-CU is a new well-funded
Cornell Center for Energy and
Sustainability funded by the King
Abdullah University for Science and
Engineering (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia.
KAUST-CU involves researchers
from Cornell and seven partner
universities – Cambridge University
(UK), Columbia, ETH Lausanne,
Houston, Princeton, UCLA, and
Yale. The Center is built around the exploitation of
nanoparticle ionic materials (NIMS), a new class of
materials recently discovered at Cornell, which offer
exciting opportunities for applications in the area of
energy and sustainability as tunable platforms for
CO2 capture and sequestration, photovoltaics, water
desalination and enhanced oil and gas production.
analysis, network theory, optimization, mathematical
finance, signal processing, mathematical physics and
game theory.
See web site at: www.cam.cornell.edu
Center for Advanced Computing (CAC)
provides Cornell researchers, collaborators, and
supporters with high-performance computing
solutions and leverages Cornell’s great strength
in interdisciplinary research to advance High
Performance Computing science (HPC). They provide
IT services and resources to reduce “time-to-insight,”
developing better products faster, or deploying
cyberinfrastructure to deliver the data that will drive
discovery for decades to come.
See web site at: www.cac.cornell.edu
See web site at: www.research.cornell.edu/VPR/
KAUST-Cornell/
Computing and Applied Mathematics
Center for Applied Mathematics (CAM)
promotes research and advanced study in applied
mathematics, provides support for visiting faculty
and sponsors workshops, conferences, and seminars.
It was ranked #1 in applied math by the Faculty
Scholarly Productivity Index (2007). The Center’s
80 faculty members work in mathematical biology,
probability theory, nonlinear dynamics, numerical
Students on the steps of Olin Hall
Photo: Cornell University Photography
13
www.cheme.cornell.edu
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