Chemical Engineering Department Sweeps Sigma Xi Engineering Awards

Ten College of Engineering undergraduates and nine graduate students took part in Villanova University’s 2019 Sigma Xi Student Research Poster Symposium. The international honor society for research scientists and engineers, Sigma Xi hosts this annual event to foster, recognize and celebrate the next generation of researchers in fields including Astronomy and Astrophysics, Planetary Science and Physics; Computing Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics; Chemistry and Biochemistry; Geography and the Environment; Biology and Engineering.

Judges evaluate the research posters and provide written feedback to the presenters. The day’s events conclude with awards being presented for outstanding posters. This year, students in the Chemical Engineering department swept all four awards in the engineering category.

First Place—Undergraduates: Simon Brooks ’21 with PhD student Anthony Vallace ’16 ChE, ’18 MSChE, “High Temperature CO₂ Adsorption by Mesoporous Lithium Orthosilicate (LOS)”  
Advisors: Drs. Michael Smith and Charles Coe

Second Place—Undergraduates: Stephen Sobota ’19 with Solu Rajan ’19, Charlotte Smith ’19 and Anthony Vallace, “Fabrication of Nano Calcium Oxide Composites through Atomic Layer Deposition Provide Increased Efficiency in Carbon Dioxide Adsorption”
Advisors: Drs. Michael Smith and Charles Coe

First Place—Graduate: Anthony Vallace, “Novel Al-rich Chabazite Compositions Enable Improved Ar PSA” with Grant Kester ‘19 and William Casteel, Garret Lau and Roger Whitley of Air Products and Chemicals
Advisor: Dr. Charles Coe

Second Place—Emily Harris ’20 MSBChE, “Optimization of Non-Viral Gene Delivery in T-Cells for CAR-T Cell Therapy” with PhD student Devon Zimmerman
Advisor: Dr. Jacob Elmer