McKelvey School of Engineering

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.

Richard L. Axelbaum, PhD, professor of energy, environmental & chemical engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, is the new Stifel & Quinette Jens Professor in Environmental Engineering Science. Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton installed him in a ceremony Oct. 31 in Brauer Hall.

Washington University’s Bear Cub Fund is soliciting grant applications from WUSTL researchers who want to move inventions from their laboratories toward commercialization.The application deadline is Nov. 30.

Pratim Biswas, PhD, is the new Lucy & Stanley Lopata Professor at Washington University in St. Louis. Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton installed him in a ceremony Monday, Oct. 10, in Whitaker Hall. Biswas, chair of the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering (EECE), is one of the world’s leading experts in aerosol science.

Jerome R. Cox Jr., ScD, senior professor, and Jonathan S. Turner, PhD, the Barbara J. and Jerome R. Cox, Jr. Professor, both in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, will receive the 2011 Chancellor’s Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship during the Faculty Achievement Awards ceremony at 6 p.m. Dec. 3 in Simon Hall Auditorium.

WUSTL will celebrate Campus Sustainability Week Monday, Oct. 17, through Saturday, Oct. 22, on the Danforth and Medical campuses. WUSTL’s Campus Sustainability Week — along with national Campus Sustainability Day, Thursday, Oct. 20 — is held to bring attention to the achievements and challenges for students, faculty and staff in working to instill sustainability principles in higher education institutions and their surrounding communities.

The Department of Energy has funded a three-university collaboration led by Washington University in St. Louis to approach the problem of algal fuels systematically.In a two-step project, the team will first attempt a comprehensive understanding of the metabolic machinery of selected cyanobacterial strains and then implement that understanding by assembling a novel bacterium with the machinery needed to produce fuel molecules. They will be bringing to bear on the problem of algal fuels the most sophisticated approaches contemporary biology now has to offer: systems biology and synthetic biology.

The White House announced Sept. 27 that Lan Yang, PhD, assistant professor of electrical and systems engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science of Washington University in St. Louis has been named a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers.The early career award is the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.