Davidson School of Chemical Engineering student-athletes Bryce Hutchinson and Blake Selm were named Academic All-Big Ten for their excellence in the classroom. Although the COVID-19 pandemic led the Big Ten to postpone all fall sports except football to the spring, the conference opted to recognize cross country, soccer, and volleyball student-athletes for their academic excellence. To be eligible for Academic All-Big Ten, student-athletes must be enrolled full-time at their university for a minimum of 12 months and carry a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher.

Dr. Letian Dou, the Charles Davidson Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University, is leading a team of Purdue researchers that has reached the semifinal round in a national solar competition for their research in the area of stable and scalable perovskite solar cells. The competition is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

Davidson School of Chemical Engineering is one of few schools to not only teach a rigorous course in chemical process safety, but also to make it required for all seniors through the efforts of the Purdue Process Safety and Assurance Center, or P2SAC. Dr. Ray Mentzer, Professor of Engineering Practice and Executive Director, shares how P2SAC brings safety to the classroom on p. 22 of the online newsletter.

Davidson School of Chemical Engineering graduate students Ranga Rohit Seemakurthi and Zewei Chen, both CISTAR Graduate Fellows at Purdue, were selected to receive CISTAR fellowships for the 2020-2021 academic year. CISTAR awards two fellowships annually, both funded by Purdue ChE alumni: The Dick Reitz CISTAR Fellowship, funded by Mr. Reitz (class of 1963) and the Bill Murray CISTAR Fellowship funded by Mr. Murray (class of 1961). Fellows are nominated by CISTAR faculty members based on academic performance and research accomplishments. Ranga Rohit Seemakurthi is advised by Dr. Jeff Greeley. Zewei Chen is advised by Dr. Rakesh Agrawal.

LyoHUB, a university-industry center at Purdue University, is advancing the science of lyophilization and providing the necessary capabilities in the fight against COVID-19 and other illnesses around the globe. "We are excited that LyoHUB capabilities are being utilized right now to speed up development of novel COVID-19 diagnostics," said Dr. Alina Alexeenko, Professor of Purdue's School of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering, and co-Director of LyoHUB. "We are ready to offer support for other efforts to improve lyophilization for faster manufacturing of COVID-19 reagents, drugs, and vaccines." Read more about LyoHUB on p. 8 of the ChE newsletter.