2010 - Chemical & Biomedical Engineering - University of South ...

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Message From The Chair
Dear Alumni, Students, and Friends,
This is my first letter as Chair of the Chemical & Biomedical Engineering Department. I
started in this position in May 2009. As many of you know, I have been a faculty member in
this department for many years, and am glad to be in this present role.
This newsletter is full of information and the positive contributions of our faculty, students,
and staff. I trust as you read it, you will be happy to learn of the many accomplishments
we have had over the past year.
We are in a significant growth phase at this time, especially in our Biomedical Engineering
technical area. We are excited to have the opportunity to develop this field. Over the next
couple of years, we will be hiring additional faculty as well as, admitting increasingly more Biomedical
Engineering graduate students.
We are presently working in collaboration with the College of Behavioral & Community
Sciences. USF is conducting a cluster hire of Audiology/Hearing and Deafness Faculty from the
University of Rochester. Our department is currently speaking with one of these senior faculty
members, Dr. Robert Frisina, Jr., Professor and Associate Chair for Research. His major fields include
Bioengineering, Neuroscience, and Physiology. Dr. Frisina has numerous published articles,
books, reviews, chapters and monographs, as well as patents.
In Fall of 2009, we hired John Kuhn as an Assistant Professor in our department. John
comes to us most recently from his postdoctoral work at the University of California, Berkeley. His research areas here will be focused
on Material Chemistry and heterogeneous catalysis. We welcome John and are glad he has joined us!
We have also been conducting a national search for an Assistant Professor in Biomedical Engineering. We hope to make an
offer in late February and have the new faculty on board for the Fall of 2010.
Dr. Alberto Sagüés has joined us in a joint appointment with our department. He is a Distinguished University Professor with
the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. His expertise areas are many, including Corrosion of Engineering Materials,
Electrochemical Assessment, Concrete, Materials for Infrastructure, and Materials for Energy Systems, Durability Forecasting,
Physical Metallurgy, and Nuclear Waste Disposal. We welcome Alberto to our department.
Other notable achievements by our faculty include Dr. D. Yogi Goswami’s induction into the Pan American Academy of Engineering
for his work in solar energy utilization; Dr. Babu Joseph’s election as a prestigious Fellow of the American Institute of
Chemical Engineers in May 2009; and Dr. Scott Campbell who received an NSF STEP Grant.
In May 2009 the department hosted a workshop and meeting on improving undergraduate education. The workshop was
held on our campus and we had sixteen faculty visitors representing universities across the US attend; of these, seven hold Chair
positions. The discussions at this workshop were regarding on-going improvements in engineering pedagogy.
On February 15th, we hosted a visit from the President, Provost, and Dean. They indicated that they were very interested in
our research areas; and assured us that we are heading in a positive, growth-oriented direction for our department.
We also have experienced many changes with our staff over the past year. Cay Pelaez retired in early December, after spending
ten years with the department. We wish her a very happy retirement.
Sandy Van Etten was a tremendous assistance with the transition between Cay’s departure and Karen Bray’s arrival. Karen is
the Academic Services Administrator. She will support the academic activities related to planning, recruiting, marketing and assessing
the undergraduate and graduate programs.
Ed Van Etten was awarded the Quiet Quality Award this past year. It is with sadness that we see Ed transition to working in
Technical Specialist Services for the College of Engineering at this time. We thank him for all that he has accomplished for our students,
staff, and faculty over the years.
Alyssa Reilly continued on in her second year as a student assistant for us and is responsible for creating this newsletter. We
thank her for her good work! Katie Lunday worked for us in the fall term as an assistant and continues to work this spring term
with CERC. We also welcome Ivory Curry as one of our newest student assistants.
As you can see, we have dynamic growth and change within our department. We are fortunate to have these positive challenges.
We look forward to hearing from you and wish you the very best in your endeavors.
Best regards,
Venkat Bhethanabotla