Ronald W. Rousseau
School Chair &
Cecil J. "Pete" Silas Chair
Contact Information
Building: Ford ES&T
Office: 1378
Phone: 404.894.2867
Fax: 404.894.2866
email
Mailing Address
Georgia Institute of Technology
School of Chemical &
Biomolecular Engineering
311 Ferst Drive, N.W.
Atlanta, GA 30332-0100
Links
Message from the Chair
Summer 2009
Alumni and Friends of the School:
The topic that creeps into almost every conversation is the economy and how it is affecting individuals, corporations, governments, research spending, or whatever else is being discussed. I suspect each of you could make the same observation.
Displacements in our activities linked to travel restrictions include postponing the Graduate Student Symposium from spring to summer 2009 and a virtual spring meeting of the ChBE External Advisory Board. We recognize these are minor inconveniences when compared to the challenges some of you face, but they serve to remind us of the direct linkages between the well-being of our programs and a robust economy. It also reminds us to be grateful for the advantages we enjoy, including support from an exceptional base of alumni and friends.
Even with financial uncertainty, it is gratifying to be able to report that my contacts with our students continue to detect optimism, not myopic or Pollyanish, but a real sense that there is promise in the future. And why shouldn’t there be? The university system developed in the United States continues to be preeminent in the global arena, and our students are leaving with truly outstanding preparation. The sophistication with which our students are educated and trained is far beyond what it was in my undergraduate days, and the research challenges stimulating creativity and intellectual growth are numerous.
In addition to my duties as school chair, I’ve been serving as interim director of the Institute of Paper Science and Technology (IPST) at Georgia Tech for almost 10 months. That role has given me an up-close look at a group of America’s most challenged industries: those based on forest products. Newsprint use is falling dramatically, and harvesting raw materials creates a constant tug of war. Those companies with narrow product lines are dismayed by the diverse uses foreseen for their prime feedstock, and pressures from cheaper overseas producers have diminished profit margins. However, the forest products industry remains one of the most important to the state of Georgia. There is growing recognition that forest products have enormous and diverse potential, and the industry is based on a truly renewable feedstock whose processing can make it CO2-neutral at a minimum and CO2-negative at best.
My work with IPST and continued honing of ChBE strategic research thrusts has reinforced my belief that energy is the most important challenge to continued advancement of the global community. Moreover, I’ve become much more aware of the linkage of this issue to resource sustainability. Growth of economies in the developing world, which generally is fed by aspirations for improved living conditions, has strained global resources, especially those involving water, forests, and other aspects of the environment. Expansion of industrial development and changing lifestyles requiring increased energy and resource utilization in Asia, along with expected future growth in South America and Africa, raise challenges that cannot be met with currently available technologies without permanently changing the global environment. It is essential that programs like ChBE at Georgia Tech accelerate research leading to new methodologies for utilizing existing fossil fuels, identifying and developing new or alternative sources of energy, and improving the way natural resources are integrated into the goods and services essential for human development. Displacement of non-renewable resources with those that can be renewed is desired, but the full impact of such a change is not clear. Moreover, many energy sources require expanded availability of water, which itself has become less available for industrial use. In addition to research and development, it is equally important that the global community become educated on wise use of such resources and push for acceptance of policies that are based on sound science and technology.
Having told you some of what’s been on my radar, let me give you some remarkable news: there will be four new colleagues joining the ChBE faculty this fall. Julie Champion and Mark Styczynski, were recruited two years ago and have been continuing development of their skills in postdoctoral activities. Julie completed her PhD at UC Santa Barbara and has been working on protein engineering during her postdoc at Caltech with David Tirrell. Mark completed his PhD at MIT and has been working with Aviv Regev on metabolomics at the Broad Institute. Carsten Sievers obtained his PhD at the Technical University of Munich and has spent two years at Georgia Tech, first as a postdoc with Chris Jones and then as a research engineer. His work is in heterogeneous catalysis utilized in various arenas, including conversion of biomass into useful products. Finally, we welcome Krista Walton, who obtained her PhD at Vanderbilt and presently is an assistant professor at Kansas State University, where she has earned numerous national research awards. We expect her work in adsorption systems to contribute greatly to our strategic thrusts in energy and sustainable technology, and she will augment our teaching in separations and related fields.
Transitions are also noted. We welcome Sue Ann Bidstrup Allen back to the School after three years of serving as the faculty executive assistant to the president of Georgia Tech. Congratulations go to Victor Breedveld, Martha Grover, and Sankar Nair for their promotion from assistant to associate professors with tenure. We also extend best wishes to our colleague Larry Forney, who retires after 30 years of service to Georgia Tech.