McKelvey School of Engineering

Ralph J. Cicerone, PhD, president of the National Academy of Sciences and chair of the National Research Council, will present a seminar on climate change at Washington University in St. Louis at 4 p.m. Monday, Jan. 23, in Room 300, Laboratory Sciences Building on the Danforth Campus.

Matthew MacEwan, an MD-PhD student at Washington University in St. Louis, recently started his own nanotechnology company, NanoMed LLC, aimed at revolutionizing the surgical mesh widely used in operating rooms worldwide.

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill will participate in a roundtable discussion with Washington University in St. Louis administrators and energy researchers, and the region’s energy leaders on the nation’s urgent energy needs. The roundtable energy discussion will be held at noon Monday, Jan. 9, at Washington University’s Brauer Hall, Room 3015, followed by a tour of WUSTL’s Ultrafast Laser Facility. 

The following are among the new faculty members at Washington University in St. Louis: Jan Bieschke, PhD; John Cunningham, PhD; Kristen Naegle, PhD; and Kedron Thomas, PhD. Others will be introduced periodically.

Lead pipes once used routinely in municipal water distribution systems are a well-recognized source of dangerous lead contamination, but new research from Washington University in St. Louis suggests that the partial replacement of these pipes can make the problem worse. The research shows that joining old lead pipes with new copper lines using brass fittings spurs galvanic corrosion that can dramatically increase the amount of lead released into drinking water supplies.

Stephen F. & Camilla T. Brauer Hall, a new engineering building at the northeast corner of the Danforth Campus of Washington University in St. Louis, was recently honored with a Project Achievement Award by the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA). But the CMAA award is only the latest of seven honors garnered by Brauer Hall, home to the School of Engineering & Applied Science’s Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering.

Faculty Achievement Award winners Wayne M. Yokoyama, MD, and Erik Trinkaus, PhD, listen before the award ceremony Dec. 3 at Simon Hall. The ceremony also honored Chancellor’s Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship winners Jonathan S. Turner, PhD, and Jerome R. Cox Jr., ScD. The recognition ceremony was followed by the annual Chancellor’s Gala at the Danforth University Center.

Two engineering faculty have been chosen for I-CARES career development awards: John Fortner, PhD, and Brent Williams, PhD, both assistant professors in the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering. I-CARES, the International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability, was established in 2007 to encourage interdisciplinary research on problems in the fields of energy, environment and sustainability.

Yinjie Tang, PhD, the Francis Ahmann Career Development Assistant Professor in energy, environmental & chemical science, has won funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to pursue an innovative global health research project, titled “Using fecal sludge for butanol fermentation.”

The following are among the new faculty members at Washington University in St. Louis: Parag Banerjee, PhD; Danielle Dutton, PhD; Josh Jackson, PhD; Kristina Kleutghen, PhD; Charlie Kurth, PhD; Zhao Ma, PhD; Paulo Natenzon, PhD; Jay Ponder, PhD; Elizabeth Quinn, PhD; and Lucia Strader, PhD. Others will be introduced periodically.