Department News
News from the Otto H. York Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering
It is with great sadness that we inform you of the untimely death of our colleague and friend, Professor Ecevit Bilgili of the NJIT Otto H. York Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering (CME). He passed away in his residence on the evening of 25 November 2024.
Ecevit Atalay Bilgili was born in Istanbul to Mustafa and Mensure Bilgili. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering with high honors at Bogazici University (1996) and the Doctor of Philosophy degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology (2001). For his doctoral dissertation he was awarded the George Klinzing Best PhD Award of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).
Between 2002 and 2004 Professor Bilgili was a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Florida; between 2004 and 2009 he served in R&D positions within Merck Research Laboratories.
Professor Bilgili joined NJIT in 2009 as Assistant Professor. At the time of his death, he was a Full Professor of Chemical Engineering, and Associate CME Chair for Undergraduate Study. He was principal advisor to five (5) doctoral students, and mentored more than fifty (50) students in their thesis and project efforts.
Professor Bilgili’s research was in Particle Science and Engineering – at NJIT he founded and directed PENPAL – the Particle Engineering and Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology Lab. Studies emanating from this lab were published in journals such as Pharmaceutics, International Journal of Pharmaceutics, Chemical Engineering Science, and Powder Technology. He made more than 100 presentations in technical conferences, and was a popular invited speaker in workshops and professional gatherings. Professor Bilgili’s studies were cited frequently in the technical and scientific literature (close to 5000 citations with h-index of 40). Among the recognitions of his original research and excellence as an educator are his election to Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) (2022) and his designation as NJIT Master Teacher (2020). He served as editor of Pharmaceutics and Advanced Powder Technology and as founding editor of the Journal of Pharmaceutical and BioTech Industry.
Colleagues and students of Professor Bilgili will remember him as an original and diligent researcher, active and eloquent participant in professional and technical discussions, generous and dedicated advisor and colleague, efficient and effective academic administrator, and devoted mentor to students at all stages of their study and development.
We send our heartfelt condolences to his wife Melike, his children Melisa Ecem and Kayra Ece, all other members of his family, and his many friends and colleagues at NJIT and the Chemical Engineering professional community.
Professor Bilgili’s funeral will take place in Turkey. We will be hosting a Memorial for Professor Bilgili at NJIT on 27 March 2025.
Journal Science and Engineering Ethics Publication
Dr. Richard T. Cimino and colleagues have recently published the article “Comparing first-year engineering student conceptions of ethical decision making to performance on metrics of ethical reasoning,” in the journal Science and Engineering Ethics. In this work, Dr. Cimino et al. report on a research study in which the ethical reasoning of first-year undergraduate engineering students at several universities was assessed with multiple ethical reasoning tools. In addition to these tools, students were also asked to create personal concept maps of the phrase “ethical decision-making.” The results of this study suggest that the way first-year students conceptualize ethical decision making does not predict the way they behave when performing scenario-based ethical reasoning (perhaps more situated). This disparity indicates a need to more precisely quantify engineering ethical reasoning and decision making.
2023 Early Career Investigator Award Recipient
Kathleen McEnnis, assistant professor, received the 2023 Early Career Award from Metavivor Foundation for her proposal titled “Mesenchymal stem cells as platinum nanoparticle delivery systems for metastatic breast cancer treatment.”
CME Diversity Dialogue Series
The NJIT Otto H York Department recently hosted a panel discussion on "Diversity in Engineering: Navigating Industry & Immigration" which featured top immigration lawyers, Neil Dourbaum and Kathleen Peregoy, Connell Folley and various industry engineering experts, Horane Henry, Disney, Chadakarn Sitassichoke, PhD., BMS and Tayo Femi- Fowode, GE Vernova. Over a light lunch, approximately 40 students were able to interact with the guests and discuss steps to landing a job in US industry in spite of immigration challenges. Understanding that the current demand for higher education degree STEM jobs are typically filled by international students, the department recognizes the importance of acknowledging differences in cultural background and immigration status and is committed to preparing its student body with the necessary tool kit and resources to be successful engineers in spite of these disparities.
Hosts: Dr. Kerri-lee Chintersingh and Dr. Richard Cimino, Chair, CME DEI Committee
Joint NSF-DFG Collaboration
Gennady Gor, associate professor, of the Otto H. York Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, collaborated with Prof. Patrick Huber from Hamburg University of Technology for almost a decade. They wrote several papers together, organized sessions at Interpore, and last year their collaboration further strengthened when they received a joint NSF-DFG grant on electrolytes in nanopores.
Prof. Gor was the host for Patrick's group when they came to NJIT for the APS Meeting. Three Ph.D. students Juan Sanchez, Laura Gallardo, Guido Dittrich, visited his group during their visit. During their visit they spent the entire day at NJIT talking about fluids in nanopores, and the cherry on the cake was the weather, 19C (66F) in mid November!
Upper row (left to right): Guido Dittrich, Juan Sanchez, Laura Gallardo, Gennady Gor, Ashoka Karunarathne, Geordy Jomon, Andrei Kolesnikov,
Lower row: Santiago Alberto Flores Roman, Egor Demidov, Ella Ivanova, Liza Basharova, Gunel Nabiyeva
Some papers Prof. Gor wrote together with Patrick:
Elastic response of mesoporous silicon to capillary pressures in the pores https://lnkd.in/ehnegvtr
Adsorption-induced deformation of nanoporous materials - A review https://lnkd.in/eTnShkRX
Elastocapillarity in nanopores: sorption strain from the actions of surface tension and surface stress https://lnkd.in/e5Ks-BzE
Adsorption from binary liquid solutions into mesoporous silica: a capacitance isotherm on 5CB nematogen/cyclohexane mixtures https://lnkd.in/ehPiBuRu
Presenter at the 2023 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference
Dr. Cimino has recently published and presented a conference paper entitled "Work-in-Progress: A Study of Chemical Engineering Student Biases Regarding Teamwork and DEI Issues across the Curriculum" at the 2023 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE) in College Station, TX on October 21st. In this work, he outlines his efforts towards integrating critical and reflective instruction regarding DEI in the context of teamwork in the Chemical Engineering Department, and describes the longitudinal plan for studying the effects of this instruction on student attitudes over the 2023-2026 academic years. This paper will be the first in a series, cataloging the results of this longitudinal study. The permalink to the paper is forthcoming.
Excellence In Teaching Award Recipient
For the the 2021/2022 academic year, Kathleen McEnnis was awarded the Excellence in Teaching Award in the category of Upper Division Undergraduate Instruction by Tenured/Tenure Track Faculty. She also received the 2023 Newark College of Engineering Excellence in Teaching Award, which recognizes an NCE full-time tenured/tenure-track faculty member or university lecturer who has demonstrated excellence in teaching as recognized by faculty, students and alumni and has served as a full time member for at least three years.
For other news, a research publication from my group authored by my PhD student Guangliang Liu, undergrad student Roberto Martinez, high school student Anika Bhatnagar, and myself, entitled "Influence of Surfactant on Glass Transition Temperature of Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) Nanoparticles", was recently accepted to the Emerging Investigators Series in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Soft Matter. This themed series showcases work being conducted by Emerging Investigators. This collection gathers the very best work from soft matter scientists in the early stages of their independent careers in recognition of their potential to influence future directions in the field. Liu, G.; Martinez, R.; Bhatnager, A. McEnnis, K. Soft Matter, 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D3SM00082F
Additionally, I received notification from Wiley that my group's research article "Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis of Polymer Nanoparticles in Blood Plasma" was a top cited article among work published in an issue in the journal Particle & Particle Systems Characterization during 2021-2022.
Bannon, M. S., López Ruiz, A., Corrotea Reyes, K., Marquez, M., Wallizadeh, Z., Savarmand, M., LaPres, C. A., Lahann, J., McEnnis, K., Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis of Polymer Nanoparticles in Blood Plasma. Part. Part. Syst. Charact. 2021, 2100016. DOI: 10.1002/ppsc.202100016
2023 Excellence in Catalysis Award Recipient
Xianqin Wang, professor of chemical and materials engineering, won the 2023 award for Excellence in Catalysis. The award, sponsored by ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company, consists of a plaque and a $1,500 gift. It is granted to an individual or a research team from North America to recognize outstanding contributions in either applied or basic research in either homogeneous or heterogeneous catalysis.
The award ceremony will be held in Fall 2023.
Preparing the Space Workforce for the Future
Researches from NJIT (Boris Khusid), Creare LLC (Thomas Conboy), and RPI (Joel Plawsky, Corey Woodcock) focus on preparing the space workforce for space thermal and cryogenic technologies. Space thermal management systems utilize various components for energy transport, acquisition, rejection, storage, reclamation, and for temperature control in life support systems and various mission environments. Applications of cryogenics in space include scientific instrumentation, telecommunications, cryo-electronics, superconducting magnets, and propellant storage and utilization. The educational activity will be on multiphase flow, heat, and mass transfer in thermal and cryogenic systems under reduced and microgravity environments where the gravitational body force is absent. Since the conventional gravitational mechanisms driving these phenomena are not present in these environments, the design, fabrication and safe operation of these systems requires unique skills and expertise. Educational events will be organized to reach out and engage communities that are underrepresented in the space workforce.
EPA Grant Recipient
Mengqiang (Mark) Zhao, assistant professor in the chemical and materials department was awarded a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the amount of $25,000 for his proposal on 2D TMD-based FET sensors for lead ion. With the increasing concerns on the lead contamination in drinking water systems, there is a pressing demand to develop highly cost-effective and portable detection sensors of lead ions (Pb2+) in drinking water. This project aims to develop scalable two-dimensional (2D) semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) based field-effect transistor (FET) sensors for rapid in-situ lead detection in drinking water. Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) films will be used to stabilize TMDs as well as facilitate the functionalization of TMDs with Pb2+ probe molecules. This invention will gain new insights and lay foundation for developing novel lead sensors.
CME Faculty Embrace Artificial Intelligence as a Learning Opportunity
Joshua Young, assistant professor of chemical and materials engineering, embraces artificial intelligence by having his students compare their own work to the automated code, and then look for strengths and weaknesses. Students know that code itself is only a small part of data science, compared to context such as deciding what to measure and determining the input parameters. ChatGPT doesn't know that. Read more
2023 First Year Design Showcase Winners
This year the Otto H. York Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering (CME) entered the annual 2023 NJIT Newark College of Engineering (NCE) First Year Design Showcase, where over 36 teams of freshmen engineering students across various disciplines (mechanical, electrical, biomedical, chemical and materials engineering) pitched their designs and showed their lab scale prototypes completed in fulfillment of the 13-week long course, Fundamentals of Engineering Design. Led by instructors, Dr. Irina Molodetsky and Dr. Kerri-lee Chintersingh, our CME students were introduced to and applied theoretical concepts of physics, fluid flow, material synthesis and characterization, adsorption and absorption principles to design and construct their lab scale prototypes to capture carbon dioxide from air, addressing one of the grand challenges- Global Warming. Other design considerations included cost, product quality control, maintenance and design verification through predicting and measuring pressure drops and overall design efficiency. Throughout the course, students also learnt the importance of teamwork and how to communicate their ideas through technical reports, memos and oral presentations. This year we selected 4 top teams to represent our department with their designs and the NCE Showcase judges awarded the top 3 best design prizes to them.
We are confident that they will be successful engineers because they are critical thinkers, they work hard and they take responsibility for a better tomorrow!
Congratulations to all the participants!
1st place: Melanio Nistal, Yomna Hammouda, Brian Rupram, Ethan Wanko
2nd place: Kenneth Acevedo Roque, Pia Piazza, Melissa Mello
3rd place: Adriana Macris, Sofia Besada
Team 4: Edward Gasca, Julia Sikorski, Alejandro Vargas