June 2007

“Faculty”

• Emeritus professor of Chemical Engineering John C. Chen has been named the 2006-2007 Eminent Speaker by the Chemical College Board of the Institute of Engineers Australia, and has completed a 9-day lecturing tour as a result. “Engineers Australia” is a federation of engineering colleges, technical societies, national committees, and interest groups in Australia. Chen spoke on the future of the chemical engineering profession, particularly in the area of engineering’s role in solving global energy issues. Professor Chen has been at Lehigh for 36 years, during which time he served as professor, department chair, research center director, and dean. Chen first gained renown in 1966 when he developed the “Chen Method” of predicting the rate at which heat must be transferred to liquid to make it boil. The method has become the standard for designing vapor-liquid boiling systems used in the chemical, power, refrigeration, petroleum, nuclear and gas industries, and has been cited hundreds of times in technical articles and textbooks.
• Martin Harmer, the Alcoa Foundation Professor of Materials Science & Engineering and director of Lehigh’s Center for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, has been chosen to receive the 2007 Robert B. Sosman Award from the American Ceramics Society (ACS). The award, the highest given in the field of ceramics, is named for the 20th-century physical chemist who contributed to the development of optical materials and made major discoveries about the phases of silica. The Sosman Award is given annually to the person deemed to have made the most significant contribution to the field of ceramics.

“Programs”

• The Spring 2007 Fazlur Rahman Khan Lecture Series, co-sponsored by the department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, the department of Art & Architecture, and the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science, offered the third of three speakers with a presentation by Dr. Gene Corley on the structural aftermath of the 9-11 attacks. For more than two decades, Dr. Corley has served as a researcher and consultant for building and bridge construction. Corley was Principal Investigator for the ASCE and FEMA on the investigation of the Oklahoma City Bombing and has done investigations of earthquake damage in Central America, South America, Japan, and California.

“Students”

• William Van Geertruyden, who holds three degrees in Materials Science & Engineering from Lehigh and is now an adjunct professor here, has developed a new type of dialysis filter that represents the first major breakthrough in 30 years for dialysis patients. Van Geertruyden, who earned a Ph.D. from Lehigh in 2004 with advisor Professor Wojciech Misiolek of materials science and engineering, has filed a patent application on a ceramic filter that he believes is dramatically superior to the traditional polymer filter used in dialysis. His company, Bethlehem-based EMV Technologies, LLC, has received support grants from the NIH as well as the Pennsylvania Keystone Innovation Zone (KIZ) program and the Ben Franklin Technology Partners.

     

P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science
Lehigh University • Packard Laboratory, 19 Memorial Drive West, Bethlehem, PA 18015 • (610) 758-4025