Davidson School of Chemical Engineering graduate student and Center for Innovative and Strategic Transformation of Alkane Resources (CISTAR) Fellow Elizabeth Bickel tied for third place at the virtual poster pitch competition as part of CISTAR's 2020 Biannual Meeting. Students pre-recorded their poster pitches, which were then viewed by industry representatives and faculty. Awards were determined based on voting by a selection panel made up of industry members, faculty, and staff.

A new Purdue center that commemorates an Olympic track and field star and alumnus is up and running with research projects and sports technology initiatives under way. The Ray Ewry Sports Engineering Center (RESEC) was announced during Homecoming 2019 as a collaboration between Purdue’s College of Engineering and Intercollegiate Athletics that features a partnership with the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The center is led by Executive Director Jan-Anders Mansson, a Purdue Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Materials Engineering and co-director of the Indiana Next Generation Manufacturing Competitiveness Center (IN-MaC).

During summer 2020, CISTAR partnered with 2019 REM students and teachers to developed educational and fun outreach activities for the NSBE SEEK kids, increasing their understanding of why they should care about energy and how it affects people, different communities, and our world.

Davidson School of Chemical Engineering undergraduate student Ashley King was recently awarded the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) John Deere Scholarship, awarded to female applicants planning to study full time in engineering, technology, or computing.

A Purdue University research team, including Davidson School of Chemical Engineering Professor John Morgan, has pioneered new methods for increasing production of volatile compounds important for plant defenses and for use in biofuels, pharmaceuticals and other products. While investigating how plants can more efficiently emit those compounds, the team, led by Department of Biochemistry Distinguished Professor Natalia Dudareva, also found an unanticipated factor playing a role in plant cellular functions.