Month: February 2020

Yomaira Pagán-Torres is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. Dr. Pagán-Torres received her PhD degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2011, under the supervision of Prof. James A. Dumesic. During her PhD studies, Dr. Pagán-Torres conducted a research internship with Dr. Esben Taarning at Haldor Topsøe in Denmark. Before her academic position at UPR, she worked for The Dow Chemical Company as Senior Engineer in the Feedstocks, Olefins, Chemicals & Alternative Technologies Research & Development group in Freeport, Texas. Her research focuses on the design and synthesis of novel heterogeneous catalytic materials with tailored active sites for the transformation of carbon resources, such as biomass, carbon dioxide, and methane to chemicals and fuels.

She will be presenting “Hydrodeoxygenation of Biomass-Derived Alcohols and Acids over  Supported Metal-Metal Oxide Catalysts.” The abstract is as follows:

Lignocellulosic biomass, as an abundant source of renewable carbon, is a promising feedstock for the production of biobased chemicals. However, the highly complex structure and high oxygen content of biomass-derived molecules require the development of active, stable, and selective catalysts to promote selective C-O, C-H, and C-C bond cleavage. In this talk, we present catalytic strategies for deoxydehydration (DODH) and hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of carbohydrate-derived alcohols and acids to platform chemicals. In an example, we demonstrate the selective conversion of tartaric acid to succinic acid in >96% yield over heterogeneous catalyst comprised of a noble metal and an oxophilic metal. Our results suggest that the HDO of tartaric acid proceeds through two reaction pathways. One reaction pathway involves the DODH of tartaric acid to fumaric acid, followed by the hydrogenation of the C=C bond to succinic acid. Whereas, the other reaction pathway proceeds through the HDO of internal –OH groups to produce malic acid as a reaction intermediate. We also discuss the role of the noble metal, metal oxide species, and the catalyst support in the selective C-O bond cleavage of tartaric acid to succinic acid. 

ChBE Undergraduate, Hayden Tharpe, was recently selected as a Clemson University Beckman Scholar to further her research for “Engineering a Highly Sensitive and Modular Reaction Cascade Biosensor.”

The Beckman Scholars program offers an intense and prolonged immersion in research to students under the guidance of one of fifteen faculty mentors in the College of Science and the College of Engineering, Computing, and Applied Science.

Hayden will receive funding from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation for 15 months of laboratory research. In addition to this prestigious award, Hayden is also a Department of Defense SMART Scholar Semifinalist and has been an undergraduate research assistant since summer 2019.

The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering welcomes Dr. Ashlee Ford Versypt, an Assistant Professor in the School of Chemical Engineering at Oklahoma State University. Dr. Versypt’s seminar titled, “Systems Biomedicine and Pharmaceutics: Multiscale Modeling of Tissues, Treatments, & Toxicology”  will be held in 100 Earle Hall on February 6th from 2:00 to 3:00 pm.

The Systems Biomedicine and Pharmaceutics research lab at Oklahoma State University led by Dr. Ford Versypt focuses on developing and utilizing multiscale systems engineering approaches including mathematical and computational modeling to determine and understand the mechanisms governing physiological effects of various chemicals, e.g., pharmaceutical drugs, toxins, metabolites, and hormones, on human and animal tissues. We specialize in modeling the transport processes and chemical interactions related to both natural and engineered biomedical and pharmaceutical systems, particularly those that involve complex interactions between cellular populations and tissue microenvironments that lead to chronic tissue damage. We also develop and refine the computational software elements to support multiscale modeling of such systems. We draw from an interdisciplinary skillset in chemical engineering, pharmaceutics, physiology, applied mathematics, and computational science. In this seminar, vignettes of recently published work from the lab in four different lines of research will be highlighted including (1) the immune system interplay with tuberculosis granulomas, (2) metastatic cancer spread, (3) bumblebee behaviors in response to chronic exposure to pesticides, and (4) glucose-stimulated damage to kidney cells in diabetes and preventative pharmaceutical treatments. The latter area has recently been funded by an NSF CAREER award and exemplifies the integration of teaching, research, and outreach.

Dr. Ashlee N. Ford Versypt holds three degrees in chemical engineering: a B.S. from the University of Oklahoma and an M.S. and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During graduate school, Dr. Ford Versypt was awarded the Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE CSGF) and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. In 2013, Dr. Ford Versypt was recognized as the Frederick A. Howes Scholar in Computational Science, which is awarded annually to a recent alumnus of the DOE CSGF for outstanding leadership, character, and technical achievement. In 2012-2014, Dr. Ford Versypt was a postdoctoral research associate with Richard Braatz in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Currently, Dr. Ford Versypt is an assistant professor in the School of Chemical Engineering at Oklahoma State University (OSU). She is a member of the Harold Hamm Diabetes Center and the Stephenson Cancer Center at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, the Interdisciplinary Toxicology Program at OSU, and the Oklahoma Center for Respiratory Infectious Diseases. She is the Chair-Elect for the American Society for Engineering Education Chemical Engineering Division. Dr. Ford Versypt is active in engaging the public in science through leading more than 60 outreach events for K-12, collegiate, and lay audiences. She has received a number of awards for her research and teaching including the NSF CAREER Award, ASEE Midwest Section Outstanding Service Award, AIChE 35 Under 35 and the OSU College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology Excellent Teacher Award. She has mentored 7 graduate students and 34 undergraduate students at OSU since 2014. Her research is currently funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology.