Caryn Heldt (ChE) and her collaborators Christian Nwamba and Barbara Radecki from Wayne County Community College were awarded second place in the Best Paper Competition at the 2018 ASEE North Central Section Conference at the University of Akron on March 24. This work was based on Heldt’s NSF CAREER Educational Plan.
Heldt’s group presented “Environmental research to engage community college students.”
Extract: In order to better serve the students that desire a four-year degree and to increase their knowledge of job opportunities with different four-year degrees, a research project was created between a university and a community college. The community college students take weekly water samples over the course of a summer project and test the water for biological and chemical components. This is the first time these students have been exposed to an open-ended laboratory without known results.
Kimberly-Clark Communication Award
Mark Mleziva presented the award to Julia Zayan.
This award recognizes the winner of the Award for Excellence in Communication from the Department of Chemical Engineering for the academic year.
Dow Chemical Mariott W. Bredekamp Award
Dr. Julie King presented the award to Johnathan Coroneos, Dylan Johnsonj, Jeanette Kussow, and Magdaline Urben.
This award recognizes outstanding technical skills in the laboratory, outstanding teamwork and professionalism, effective oral and written communication, and strong adherence to process safety practices as recognized by your peers and supported by the faculty of the department. This award is in memory of Dr. Mariott W. Bredekamp.
UOP Davis W. Hubbard Plant Design Team Award
Mr. Chris Cosling presented the award to Caleb Korson, Whitney Niedzielski, Ryan Smith, and Guy Smith.
This award recognizes an outstanding team in Chemical Engineering Plant Design during the academic year. Also, this award recognizes technical ability, consideration of the safety and environmental aspects of process design, outstanding written and oral communication skills, and overall teamwork and professionalism. This is awarded in memory of Dr. David W. Hubbard.
Prevent Accidents with Safety (PAWS) Award
Dr. Julie King presented awards to Mary Kate Mitchell, Whitney Niedzielski, Austin Nyenhuis, Gregory Thelen, and Jason Saliga.
The Upper Peninsula Local Section of the American Chemistry Society invites you to the 2017 Student Research Symposium. This year’s research symposium will be held on Northern Michigan’s campus within the atrium of the New Science Facility on Saturday, March 25. The event starts at 9:30 a.m.
The purpose of the event is to provide a venue for students to present their research in chemistry, chemical engineering and related fields. This symposium is an excellent opportunity for students, faculty and the community at large to learn about the interesting research being conducted in the UP. More details can be found online.
You can also check out our Facebook page for more information.
All are welcome. There is no charge to attend. RSVP here.
By Robert Handler, Chemical Engineering.
The Society of Women Engineers highlighted the teaching and research efforts of Caryn Heldt (ChE) in their Winter 2017 issue of SWE Magazine.
RECOGNIZED FOR TEACHING AND RESEARCH
Caryn L. Heldt, Ph.D., associate professor of chemical engineering at Michigan Technological University, was named the recipient of the James and Lorna Mack Endowed Chair in Bioengineering. Her endowed chair is named for James Mack, a Michigan Tech alumnus and retired president and CEO of Cambex Corp., a developer of specialty chemicals. His company has successfully combined biology with engineering — especially in the rapidly emerging field of tissue engineering and cell therapy and the development of small molecule therapeutics.
Four Michigan Tech undergraduates have received scholarships from the Annexstad Family Foundation. They are Ashley Brown, Michael McGee, Alyssa Smith and Xena Cortez.
McGee is a second-year chemical engineering student whose family has lived in the Upper Peninsula for three generations. “With my degree, I will travel the world, using my knowledge to better companies’ environmental footprint,” he says.
The Annexstad Family Foundation was established in 2000 to help aspiring college students. “We have long believed that young people are our future,” say Cathy and Al Annexstad. “By giving students who are the brightest of the bright the opportunity for a college diploma, we are giving our country a successful future.”
The Presidential Council of Alumnae at Michigan Tech held a panel discussion in Chem Sci 101 on September 22, 2016. Alumnae gave presentations about their careers.
- Christine Cowell: Introduction
- Laurie Dorschner: Identifying and selecting career opportunity
- Heidi Gieger: PIE to power your career: Performance Image Exposure
- Sally Heidke: How to seek out and use a mentor
- Jill Meister: Skills you gain throughout your career, balancing work/family
- Adrienne Minerick: Work hard play Hard, be in the moment
- Karen Wallace: “Oh the places you will go….”
- Tina Schmiedel: The power of understanding the financials – professionally and personally
WATCH THE VIDEO
Closed captioning available.
Suphitsara Yingyuen, whose nickname is Mae, and Sorawit “Pum” Limtasiri are materials engineering undergrad students from Kasetsart University in Bangkok who are at Michigan Tech for a two- month summer internship.
The internships started after Jennifer Donovan, Tech’s director of news and media relations, traveled to Thailand as a Fulbright communications specialist at Kasetsart University.
The interns’ advisor, Timothy Eisele, assistant professor of chemical engineering says, “Overall, I am very happy with both of them. They are conscientious workers who want to have a good understanding of what they are doing, and they work well with my other students.”
The Chemical Engineering Department would like to congratulate undergraduate student, Dylan Turpeinen, on receiving a Portage Health Undergraduate Scholarship. Dylan is a local undergraduate student at Michigan Technological University. He graduated from Houghton High School in 2012 and decided to stay in the Houghton area to pursue a Bachelor’s of Science in Chemical Engineering. In addition to classes, he enjoys performing undergraduate research with Dr. Heldt and Dr. King, and also actively participates on the MTU Men’s Club Soccer Team.
Dylan’s interest in biomedical engineering began when he was recruited to perform undergraduate research with Dr. Heldt in her Bioseparations Laboratory. He worked on fabricating and testing graphene nanoplatelet (GNP)/cellulose biosensors. During the summer semester of 2014, he was able to share his enthusiasm for biosensors with Summer Youth Program (SYP) participants. The SYP project utilized a multi-meter and biosensor to identify proteins using a relation between the surface resistance of the graphene paper, and the concentration of proteins in solution to find the molecular weight for an unknown protein. Starting in the summer of 2016, he will begin graduate research work with Dr. Heldt on biosensors to detect malaria.
Nineteen students from Michigan Tech spent a day in Neenah, Wisconsin touring Kimberly-Clark facilities, meeting with company representatives and alumni, and learning about careers with Kimberly-Clark. The students included members of Michigan Tech’s Society of Women Engineers collegiate section and other professional university organizations. – See more