Graduate Program: Graduate Student Awards

The Chemical Engineering Department recognizes its students for their outstanding research and service with three departmental awards:

In addition, many entering Chemical Engineering students have been awarded Wu or Upton Fellowships from the School of Engineering and Applied Science; many final-year Chemical Engineering students have been awarded highly-competitive Honorific Fellowships from the Princeton University Graduate School; and several of our students have been recognized as outstanding teaching assistants by the school-wide E-Council.

Of course, this does not begin to count the numerous awards our students have received from outside the University, such as external fellowships (National Science Foundation, National Defense Science and Engineering, American Association of University Women), and research awards from various professional societies (American Institute of Chemical Engineers, American Chemical Society, Society of Plastics Engineers).

Ticona (Hoechst-Celanese): Excellence in Teaching Assistantship Award

The Excellence in Teaching Assistantship Awards were established by Hoechst-Celanese at Princeton in 1990, and have been sponsored by Ticona since 1997. Each award recognizes outstanding performance by a graduate student in his or her role as an Assistant in Instruction (teaching assistant), as voted by the undergraduate chemical engineering students. Two awards can be made per academic year, typically one for the fall semester and one for the spring. Each awardee receives an engraved plaque and a $500 check. The recipients to date, and the courses for which they served as AIs, are listed below:

Charlton Shen (Fall 1990, ChE 345: Thermodynamics II)

Nathan A. Mehl (Spring 1991, ChE 346: Chemical Engineering Laboratory)

Michael L. Luyben (Fall 1991, ChE 245: Introduction to Chemical Engineering Principles)

W. Todd Gilleland (Spring 1992, ChE 346: Chemical Engineering Laboratory)

Udit Batra (Spring 1993, ChE 342: Mass, Momentum, and Energy Transport II)

Chi-Hwa Wang (Spring 1993, ChE 441: Chemical Reactor Engineering)

Stacey L. Elliott (Fall 1994, ChE 341: Mass, Momentum, and Energy Transport I)

Omar K. Matar (Spring 1995, ChE 342: Mass, Momentum, and Energy Transport II)

Claire S. Adjiman (Fall 1995, ChE 442: Economy of Chemical Processes)

Amer W. Akhras (Spring 1996, ChE 441: Chemical Reaction Engineering)

William R. Esposito (Fall 1998, ChE 442: Design, Synthesis, and Optimization of Chemical Processes)

Clifford A. Meyer (Spring 1999, ChE 246: Thermodynamics I)

Nathaniel J. Gleason (Spring 2000, ChE 346: Chemical Engineering Laboratory)

Krishnan Sankaranarayanan (Spring 2000, ChE 441: Chemical Reactor Engineering)

Wanwipa Siriwatwechakul (Fall 2000, ChE 245: Introduction to Chemical Engineering Principles)

Xiaoxia Lin (Fall 2000, ChE 442: Design, Synthesis, and Optimization of Chemical Processes)

M. Scott Shell (Fall 2001, ChE 341: Mass, Momentum, and Energy Transport I)

Katsuyuki Wakabayashi (Fall 2001, ChE 347: Chemical Engineering Laboratory II)

Stacy L. Janak (Fall 2002, ChE 442: Design, Synthesis, and Optimization of Chemical Processes)

Philip J. Lenart (Spring 2003, ChE 246: Thermodynamics I)

Bryan A. Patel (Fall 2003, ChE 345 Thermodynamics II)

Sasha B. Myers (Spring 2004, ChE 250: Separations in Biotechnology and Chemical Process Engineering)

Lea A. Goentoro (Fall 2004, ChE 341: Mass, Momentum, and Energy Transport I)

Swaroop Chatterjee (Spring 2005, ChE 246: Thermodynamics)

Michael J. McAllister (Spring 2005, ChE 346: Chemical Engineering Laboratory)

Peter A. DiMaggio (Fall 2005, ChE 442: Design, Synthesis, and Optimization of Chemical Processes)

Richard R. Lunt (Spring 2006, ChE 346: Chemical Engineering Laboratory)

Yesim Igci (Fall 2006, ChE 341: Mass, Momentum, and Energy Transport)

Gregory T. Reeves (Spring 2007, ChE 441: Chemical Reaction Engineering)

Ticona (Hoechst-Celanese): Excellence in Independent Proposition Award

The Excellence in Independent Proposition Award was established by Hoechst-Celanese at Princeton in 1990, and has been sponsored by Ticona since 1997. A unique feature of the Princeton Ph.D. program is the "Second Proposition", a research proposal written entirely by the student (without assistance from the advisor) on a subject distinct from the student's thesis. This proposal must present original research ideas in a new area so as to persuade a critical reviewer of both the merit of the research and the soundness of the method. One such award can be made per year, recognizing the author of the best Second Proposition approved during the preceding academic year, as judged by a committee of the faculty. The awardee receives an engraved plaque and a $500 check. The recipients to date, and the titles of their Second Propositions, are listed below:

1991: Jackie Y. Ying, "Pillaring of Sol-Gel-Derived Ceramics During Sintering"

1992: Richard A. Venditti, "Synthesis and Characterization of a Thermoplastic Toner Amenable to Current Paper Recycling Technology"

1993: Jean W. Tom, "Degradable Polymers Using Cyclodextrin Inclusion Complexes"

1994: Charlton Shen, "Simulating Dilute Solution Polymer Chain Dynamics in Strong Extensional Flows"

1995: Mark R. Anklam, "Solubilization of Low-Polarity Molecules by Polymer Gel-Surfactant Complexes"

1996: Robert A. Lionberger, "Dynamics of Spherical Mesophases in Block Copolymers"

1998: Omar K. Matar, "Theoretical Study of a Vertically Vibrated Granular Layer"

1999: Surita R. Bhatia, "A 1H and 35Cl NMR Technique for Measuring Lipid-Water Partitioning of Drugs in Vesicle Solutions"

2000: Yueh-Lin Loo, "Towards Understanding the Kinetics of Film Formation: Time-Resolved MSANS Measurements"

2000: Stanislav Y. Shvartsman: "Transport Effects in Autocrine Signaling"

2001: Anuraag R. Kansal: "Information Theory Analysis of Amino Acid Sequences"

2002: Joëlle Fréchette: "Self-Assembly of a Diamond Crystal Structure"

2003: Cécilia A.P. Petit: "A Lattice-Free Approach to Modeling the Growth of Tumors: Combining Monte Carlo-Based Cellular Proliferation with Finite Elements Methods"

2004: M. Scott Shell: "A Statistical-Mechanical Perspective on Biomolecular Recognition"

2005: Walid S. Saad: "Design of Novel Fragrance Formulations"

2006: Gregory T. Reeves: "The Wavefront of Somitogenesis"

2007: Chrysanthos Gounaris: "Acceleration of Convex Hull Algorithms through Smallest Enclosing Circles"

Kristine M. Layn Award for Outstanding Achievement in Research

This award was established in memory of Kristine M. Layn in 1998, to recognize outstanding early achievement in research-specifically, by the third year of enrollment-by a chemical engineering student Ph.D. student. One such award can be made per year. The awardee is chosen by a committee of the faculty, based on the student's tangible research record (publications and presentations) as provided through faculty nominations. The recipients to date are listed below:

1999: Thomas M. Truskett

2000: Krishnan Sankaranarayanan

2001: Benjamin Fischer

2002: Steven Maria

2003: Leonard F. Pease III

2004: Stacy L. Janak

2005: Gregory T. Reeves

2006: Ning Wu

2007: Peter DiMaggio