2017 News Archive

The National Science Foundation has awarded Prof. Geoff Geise with a prestigious CAREER research grant. The five-year, $548,898 grant is titled, Engineering Molecular Interactions to Control Ion Transport in Hydrated Polymers for Membrane Separations. The grant will support research and engineering education that will design and synthesize new molecularly-tailored polymer membranes that create unique electrochemical environments to selectively discriminate ions of similar charge, size, and other properties.

Professor Geise gave a presentation titled Ion specific effects in charged polymer membranes for water purification and energy applications at the 2017 AIChE meeting held in Minneapolis. Prof. Geise also chaired technical sessions on Charged Polymers for Membrane-Based Water and Energy Applications and Membrane-Based Organic Solvent Separations.

Professor Geise gave a presentation titled Structure/property Relationships in Polymer Membranes for Water Purification and Energy Applications at the Don Paul 50 Year Symposium & Celebration hosted by the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.

Professor Geise gave a seminar titled Structure/property Relationships in Polymer Membranes for Water Purification and Energy Applications to the Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines.

Graduate student Hongxi Luo won the Harman Scholarship for his superior performance on the UVA Chemical Engineering qualifying exam. Hongxi presented his work on water and salt transport properties of triptycene-containing sulfonated polysulfone membranes for the written and oral examination. That project is a collaborative effort with Prof. Ruilan Guo at the University of Notre Dame. Congratulations Hongxi on a job well done!

Prof. Geise was interviewed for a Voice of America report by George Putic, titled Desalination Promises Ample Supply of Fresh Water, that discusses the role of desalination technology in providing access to clean water.

Graduate student Yuan Ji earned her M.S. in chemical engineering by defending her dissertation titled, "The role of experimental and co-ion specific factors in membrane permselectivity." Yuan is the third group member to earn a master's degree - congratulations!

UVA ChE Professors Geise, Koenig, and Paolucci won a Research Innovation Award from the School of Engineering and Applied Science at UVA. The joint award will support multidisciplinary research on lithium ion transport in polymers for non-aqueous flow battery systems.

Graduate student Kevin Chang has been invited to participate in the twenty-third annual Center for High Resolution Neutron Scattering "Summer School on Methods and Applications of Neutron Spectroscopy", which is held at the NIST Center for Neutron Research in Gaithersburg, MD. The program, which includes hands-on and lecture content, is made possible by the NIST Center for Neutron Research and the National Science Foundation.

Fourth year undergraduate researcher Andrew Biedermann won the Outstanding Student Award. This award, which is presented by the UVA School of Engineering and Applied Science, recognizes fourth year undergraduate students who have excelled in the areas of academics, leadership, and service. Drew has been an active undergraduate researcher in the group for three years now, and he will be missed next year as he begins graduate school in chemcial engineering at MIT. Congratulations Drew!

Graduate student Yuan Ji presented her research as a finalist for a podium presentation at the UVA School of Engineering and Applied Science’s 13th annual University of Virginia Engineering Research Symposium (UVERS). Her presentation was titled, "Modifying polymer dielectric properties to selectively control water/ion transport in polymeric membrane for clean water and energy generation."

Professor Geise gave a seminar titled Structure/property relationships in polymer membranes for water purification and energy applications to the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at Clemson University.